FWHA endorses new guide for bicycle design on city streets

Trailnet's Ann Mack recently wrote about a major decision by the Federal Highway Administration to endorse a relatively new guide for the development of bicycle facilities on city streets.  The guide, put together by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) documents best practices in implementing some of the most forward-looking bicycle facilities that American cities have implemented in the last decade or so.

Ann writes:

For all but the bravest or most experienced road cyclist, bicycle infrastructure is necessary when it comes to improving our comfort level and overall feeling of safety on the road.

For many, protected bike lanes or paths provide an experience far superior to cycling on a road with fast moving cars and little or no safe shoulder. However, they have been slow to be adopted, despite mounting evidence that they improve safety.

All of that, I hope, is poised to change. In a recent memo from the FWHA (Federal Highway Administration), transportation engineers were told that the FHWA supports a “flexible approach” to bike/ped facility design. It urges transportation engineers to use, as their primary resources, two guides as they plan, design, operate, and maintain bicycle and pedestrian facilities. They are the Urban Bikeway Design Guide issued by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NAACTO) and Designing Urban Walkable Thoroughfares from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE).

NACTO, an association of 15 major U.S. cities formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues, features in its guide protected bicycle lanes and other innovative best practices routinely seen in Europe but not so much here.

And related good news from MoDOT: MoDOT Nonmotorized Transportation Engineer Ron Effland has already included a link to the FWHA memo endorsing the NACTO Guide in MoDOT's list of resources for designing bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Creating a world-class bicycle and pedestrian system in Missouri is one of the top goals of our Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.  Your membership and support helps turn our vision into reality!