Foto Friday: Interim Intersection Treatments

The most ideal treatment for an intersection is the Dutch standard. But is there an interim step that can be implemented sooner? We see a paint based solution that can be implemented on some intersections in the city and the region. Below is a photo of how paint is used to guide riders across intersections in Copenhagen – one of the top bike friendly cities in the world. Much thanks to Michael who sent the photo below:

 

In San Diego, bike lanes often get dropped at intersections which is the one place all road users need direction on how to navigate across. Long Beach began using green paint to highlight specific areas where roads users needed to be especially cautious and we see this as a very low cost solution to implement while working on actually redesigning the intersections to be more in tune with the Dutch standard.

The NACTO Urban Bikeway Guide states this about how intersections should be treated:

Designs for intersections with bicycle facilities should reduce conflict between bicyclists (and other vulnerable road users) and vehicles by heightening the level of visibility, denoting a clear right-of-way, and facilitating eye contact and awareness with competing modes. Intersection treatments can resolve both queuing and merging maneuvers for bicyclists, and are often coordinated with timed or specialized signals.
The configuration of a safe intersection for bicyclists may include elements such as color, signage, medians, signal detection, and pavement markings. Intersection design should take into consideration existing and anticipated bicyclist, pedestrian and motorist movements. In all cases, the degree of mixing or separation between bicyclists and other modes is intended to reduce the risk of crashes and increase bicyclist comfort. The level of treatment required for bicyclists at an intersection will depend on the bicycle facility type used, whether bicycle facilities are intersecting, the adjacent street function and land use

 

Where do you think would be ideal places to implement this sort of treatment?