A Summary of Design, Policies and Operational Characteristics for Shared Bicycle/Bus Lanes Contract No. BDK85 977-32 Final Report 07/2012 i Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA; Credit: John S. Allen A Summary of Design, Policies and Operational Characteristics for Shared Bicycle/Bus Lanes Project No. BDK85 977-32 Prepared By Edward L. Hillsman, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Transportation Demand Management Sara J. Hendricks, AICP, Senior Research Associate, Transportation Demand Management JoAnne K. Fiebe, MUCD, LEED AP, Research Assistant Center for Urban Transportation Research University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Avenue, CUT100 Tampa, FL 33620-5375 Joel Volinski, National Center for Transit Research Program Director Philip L. Winters, Transportation Demand Management Program Director Prepared For The Florida Department of Transportation Research Center 605 Suwannee Street, MS 30 Tallahassee, FL 32399 Project Manager: David C. O’Hagan, P.E. Co-Project Manager: Mary Anne Koos July 2012 Final Report ii Disclaimer The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program and the Florida Department of Transportation, in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government and the Florida Department of Transportation assume no liability for the contents or use thereof. iii Metric Conversion SI* Modern Metric Conversion Factors as provided by the Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/aaa/metricp.htm Length SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL in inches 25.4 millimeters mm ft feet 0.305 meters m yd yards 0.914 meters m mi miles 1.61 kilometers km Area SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL in2 square inches 645.2 square millimeters mm2 ft2 square feet 0.093 square meters m2 yd2 square yard 0.836 square meters m2 ac acres 0.405 hectares ha mi2 square miles 2.59 square kilometers km2 Length SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL mm millimeters 0.039 inches in m meters 3.28 feet ft m meters 1.09 yards yd km kilometers 0.621 miles mi Area SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL mm2 square millimeters 0.0016 square inches in2 m2 square meters 10.764 square feet ft2 m2 square meters 1.195 square yards yd2 ha hectares 2.47 acres ac km2 square kilometers 0.386 square miles mi2 *SI is the symbol for the International System of Units. Appropriate rounding should be made to comply with Section 4 of ASTM E380. iv Technical Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date A Summary of Design, Policies and Operational Characteristics for July 2012 Shared Bicycle/Bus Lanes 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Edward L Hillsman, Sara J Hendricks, AICP, JoAnne Fiebe NCTR 77937/BDK85 977-32 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) National Center for Transit Research Center for Urban Transportation Research 11. Contract or Grant No. University of South Florida FDOT BDK85 977-32 4202 E Fowler Avenue, CUT 100, Tampa, FL 33620-5375 U.S. DOT DTRS98-G-0032 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Research and Innovative Technology Administration Final Report U.S. Department of Transportation, Mail Code RDT-30 02/17/11-04/31/12 1200 New Jersey Ave, SE, Room E33, Washington, DC 20590-0001 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Florida Department of Transportation Research Center 605 Suwannee Street, MS 30, Tallahassee, FL 32399 15. Supplementary Notes 16. Abstract This report contains the results of an investigation of the design and operation of shared bicycle/bus lanes in municipalities in the United States and other countries. These lanes are designated for use by public transit buses, bicycles, and usually also for right-turning vehicles. Some municipalities may also allow use of these lanes by taxis and delivery vehicles. The purpose of such lanes is to provide a time advantage to public transit service by taking the buses out of the general traffic flow and into a designated lane. Where constrained right-of-way prevents provision of a separate bicycle lane, the intent is to allow bicycles to use the designated bus lane. This is to provide a more direct route for bicyclists, provide greater level of service to bicyclists and provide some degree of space separation between general traffic and bicyclists for their greater safety and comfort. However, this combined use raises many issues of compatibility of bicycles and buses sharing the same road space. The limited available research on the subject of shared bicycle/bus lanes includes informative investigations from the Minneapolis Public Works Department, Minnesota; the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Pennsylvania; the City of Ottawa, Canada, the Department for Transport of the United Kingdom and from Austroads, Sydney, Australia. Investigators compiled a list of shared bicycle/bus lanes in cities in the United States and Canada, including facility attributes that are presented in an appendix. Researchers found very few examples of state-level guidance on shared bicycle/bus lanes but more examples at the local and regional levels. These are provided in the report. Through surveys and interviews, the shared bicycle/bus lanes from four cities in the United States were selected for in-depth examination and were developed into case studies: Ocean City, Maryland; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C. As a result of this investigation, an identification and discussion of the contextual factors, design variables, and tools for planning and implementing shared bicycle/bus lanes is presented. The report provides recommendations for further needed research. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Bicycle, Bus, Congestion, Public transportation, Shared bicycle/bus lanes, Bicycle safety, Preferential lanes 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 167 v Acknowledgements This report was prepared by the National Center for Transit Research at the Center for Urban Trans- portation Research, College of Engineering, University of South Florida, through the sponsorship of the Florida Department of Transportation. FDOT Project Manager David C. O’Hagan, P.E., State Roadway Design Engineer FDOT Co-Project Manager Mary Anne Koos, Special Projects Coordinator, Roadway Design Office Contributors and Reviewers Study authors would like to thank several transportation professionals from the U.K. for their kind assistance, including Iain Macbeth, Alex Sully, Richard Armitage, John Lee, Adrian Lord, Derek Lawlor, and Tony Russell. At the beginning of the study, John Ciccarelli provided the research team with a spreadsheet that listed shared bicycle/bus lanes, which the research team checked, augmented, and expanded into the inventory that appears as Appendix A. Tony Garcia of the Street Plans Collaborative and Transit Miami blog in Miami also provided helpful comments and suggestions at the beginning of the study. Diane Quigley and Amy Datz from FDOT also conducted a detailed review of the report. Finally, the study authors interviewed and surveyed numerous persons in cities where there are shared bicycle/bus lanes. The authors greatly appreciate the time and information made available by these persons, who are identified in footnotes throughout the report. Joel Volinski, Program Director for the National Center for Transit Research at CUTR, Jay Goodwill, Senior Research Associate at CUTR, and Philip L. Winters, Director of CUTR’s Transportation Demand Management Program, reviewed a draft of this report and provided useful advice for improving it. Nevine Georggi provided helpful assistance in report formatting. vi Executive Summary A shared bicycle/bus lane (SBBL) is a traffic lane dedicated for exclusive use by buses, bicyclists, and, usually, right-turning vehicles. SBBLs have been implemented in municipalities where there are street right-of-way constraints and where municipalities seek ways to accommodate buses and bicycles for better multimodal service. There were three objectives of this study, conducted for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT): • Identify and describe the state of the art and practice in the design, implementation, operation, and use of shared bicycle/bus lanes (SBBL) • Evaluate the benefits and barriers to implementing SBBLs • Develop recommendations for Florida to consider the use of SBBLs on the State Highway System. Through the literature review, surveys of chief contacts within municipalities that have SBBLs, and follow-up telephone interviews, information was collected about SBBL design, operation, and functional effectiveness. For four municipalities with SBBLs, there was sufficient information to develop and present case study narratives. These were Ocean City, Maryland; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C. For the other host municipalities, additional comparative data about SBBLs were collected, where available. The main report summarizes findings of relevant previous research, available SBBL planning and design guidelines of localities, states, and other nations, identification of those background conditions that remain