cat's vision for better bicycling in the lehigh valley...cat would welcome the opportunity to...

LVCAT.org 1935 West Broad Street Bethlehem, PA 18018 610.954.5744 Bicycling Education • Bicyclist/Motorist Diplomacy • Safe/Enjoyable Pedestrian Access • Trails • Transit • Environment • Community

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Coalition for Appropriate Transportation (CAT)

CAT'svisionforbetterbicyclingintheLehighValley

By: John Schubert, CAT board member & Cycling Savvy Instructor Scott Slingerland, P.E., CAT executive director & Cycling Savvy Instructor

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) Serving Pennsylvania's Northampton and Lehigh counties and surrounding areas

1935 W. Broad St. • Bethlehem, PA 18018 610.954.5744 • LVCAT.org • https://www.facebook.com/LVCAT/ Copyright 2019 by John Schubert and Scott Slingerland Unless otherwise stated, graphics in this document came from public domain Internet sources. February 2019

LVCAT.org 1935 West Broad Street Bethlehem, PA 18018 610.954.5744

Bicycling Education • Bicyclist/Motorist Diplomacy • Safe/Enjoyable Pedestrian Access • Trails • Transit • Environment • Community

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ContentsIntroduction PartOne:Bicyclistbehaviorimprovementswesupport PartTwo:AdditionalInformationaboutbicyclistbehaviorPartThree:Facilitiesweenthusiasticallysupport PartFour:TheEuropeanvisionandtheAmericancounterpart PartFive:"Separated"&"Protected"bikelanes PartSix:Themythofbikelanespromotingbicycling PartSeven:Bikelaneconflictsandproblems PartEight:Thebuiltenvironment,fastcars,&institutionalinertia PartNine:Goodstudies&articles AboutCAT Abouttheauthors



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Introduction This document reflects the views of its authors and has been only provisionally approved by CAT, pending further discussion. • We have a positive vision, backed by the world's best research and expertise. We want to make bicycling in the Lehigh Valley safer, lower stress, and rewarded with higher social status. We want to enhance the dignity of human powered transportation. We have a vision that "drivers of human powered vehicles are expected and respected as a normal part of traffic," which is the vision statement of I Am Traffic1.

• We are mindful that cultural changes are initiated by changes in individual behavior. A bicyclist should drive both according to the vehicle code and in a manner that uses communication to foster understanding with motorists and convey his/her needs in a friendly manner.

• We stress that competency for riding on the road can be gained by even a casually dressed beginner bicyclist who has grasped bike handling basics, who understands the rules of movement for vehicles and pedestrians, and who knows how to communicate positively. That's what we teach. That's what we practice. Riding in traffic is for all cyclists, including the slowest among us. • We are for educational outreach to bicyclists who ride for all purposes, including youth and adults, riding out of necessity or by choice, for transportation, health, or recreation. We are for educational outreach to every motor vehicle driver, including professional truck, bus, and fleet car drivers. • We promote a strong array of Lehigh Valley community partners to educate on best practices and exercise of care when bicycling, walking, and operating motor vehicles.

• Our vision includes a strong component of education and enforcement, along with design guidelines that make the built environment encourage safe behaviors. As everyone should agree with, we lament unsafe and aggressive driving, unsafe bicycling and unsafe walking. • We encourage dropping unclear and misleading nomenclature such as the use of the words "separated" and "protected" with respect to bike lanes. We are against needless deaths, personal injury and wasteful spending that accompany projects that don’t offer safety improvements.

• We are for quality control. We are for being informed by past tragedies. We often note that the excellent safety record of aviation has come about because the aviation community learns from failure analysis and causation of past tragedies, rather than making excuses for them -- and we want that same learning to inform bicycle and pedestrian safety. We are for bicyclists and pedestrians being expected and welcomed as full users of our road system. • There is a key element that we could not include in this document at this time, due to time constraints. That is our recommendations for better walking in the Lehigh Valley. Robust recommendations will be forthcoming.

1 i am traffic, is a program of the American Bicycling Education Association. http://iamtraffic.org/



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PartOne:Bicyclistbehaviorimprovementswesupport

Most people just assume that the safest -- maybe the only acceptable -- way for a cyclist to ride is to hug the curb. Or, where there are parked cars, ride close to the parked cars. That's called "edge riding." In our discussion later in this document, we will document the hazards that make edge riding dangerous. In this section, we focus on the behaviors that make bicyclists safe. CAT has long taught a simple mantra about bicycling safely: Visible + predictable = safe. Curb hugging makes the bicyclist less visible, which leads to bicyclist and motorist behaviors that are not safe. Our positive alternative to edge riding: Here's our positive alternative: Bicyclists, as "expected and respected normal part(s) of traffic," are best off if they know they have the right to fully control a travel lane. Moving to the right to allow faster traffic to overtake is an option, but it should never be done when it would set the bicyclist up for danger (such as squeeze passes, car door collisions, right hooks, or intersection collisions resulting from poor sight distances, see Parts 2 and 4 below). The Pennsylvania state vehicle code fully supports full lane use. What full lane use looks like in practice is a pleasant experience for the bicyclist, since edge hazards are non-issues, and overtaking motorists give more passing clearance. As an overtaking motorist, you see a bicyclist in the lane ahead of you. You change lanes to pass when the lane is clear. It's a non-event. Communicating, for a change: There is one more step that can truly humanize the experience between bicyclist and motorist. An alert and communicative bicyclist will actively encourage an overtaking motorist to pass when it is prudent -- and discourage the motorist from passing when it would be risky. The American Bicycling Education Association's CyclingSavvy program calls this “Control and Release”. This strategy is especially important on two-lane roads (one lane in each direction), where the bicyclist can transform from legal high-horse of full lane use to facilitator of give-and-take. If a bicyclist is “taking the full lane”, it can be very helpful to support motorists realizing there are relevant safety reasons for doing so. The hard part is getting bicyclists to believe how well this works. Most bicyclists are invested in curb hugging, such that they believe lane control is wrong. But when they try control and release, they learn that the difference between edge-riding and full-lane use with “Control and Release” is like night and day for a bicyclist’s level of comfort.



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All available evidence, and all human factors analysis, supports the notion that lane control is the best way to mitigate the cyclist's risk from collisions. A lane control cyclist is seen far sooner than an edge rider, and when overtaking motorists see the lane control cyclist, they know they must change lanes to pass. This was studied in southern California, with repeated trials at various distances from the lane edge.2 When the bicyclist hugged the curb, s/he experienced close passes. When the bicyclist controlled the lane, s/he got full lane change overtaking behavior with exceptional passing clearance. A cyclist crosses the Hill-to-Hill Bridge (SR378) in Bethlehem, signaling to exit for Main Street. (Photo by Justin McMurtry):

Adult Bicyclists - Reaching and Teaching Earnest Learners & Know-It-Alls

CAT has an excellent solution for the institutional inertia behind curb hugging. We are certified CyclingSavvy and League of American Bicyclists instructors, and well experienced cyclists. CyclingSavvy is a program that was first taught in 2009 in Florida, and it was designed to combine information about safest practices and a guided discussion format to be persuasive, so that bicyclists would emotionally accept the notion that a small behavior change would benefit them. As one of CyclingSavvy's authors said, "I was surprised at how much smarter the motorists all got when I changed my behavior."

2 Pioneering studies of lane position and its effect on motorist overtaking behavior were conducted by Dan Gutierrez and Brian DeSousa. Video tapes and measurements documented the changes in motorist behavior. The resulting information has been widely shared on the Internet and incorporated into the CyclingSavvy classroom presentation.



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CAT would welcome the opportunity to teach safe cycling principles to the relevant decision makers in the Lehigh Valley. It will inform your decisions about what policies you want to support. Instead of seeing a facility through the prism of popular opinion and a press release, CAT will teach you how to see the facility through the prism of how it will affect user behavior, safety and enjoyment. Here is a CyclingSavvy class in Bethlehem, PA (Photo by CAT):

Partnering with Community Organizations CAT understands that it takes a wide range of communications styles and strategies to reach as many road users as possible. Continued outreach is needed with a simple message for everyone to understand bicycle driving laws coupled with a duty to exercise care - whether their hands are on a steering wheel or handlebars, or they are moving with a wheelchair, walker, or their feet. Strong partners, include:

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Governments on county and municipal levels Pennsylvania State Police & Local police departments Bethlehem Health Bureaus (administering highway safety for Northampton County) Highway Traffic Safety Network (administering programs for Lehigh County) LANta Bus Over 12 full-service bicycle shops serving Lehigh and Northampton Counties Elementary, middle and high schools Colleges/universities Other non-profit organizations

Community Bike Works Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Wildlands Conservancy RenewLV/Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley



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Youth Education - Fantastic and Enthusiastic Children are enthusiastic bicyclists. Beginning around ages 2-3, we see the explosion of their motor skills, via strider bikes and up. Parents often ask when is a reasonable age that their kids are ready to ride on the street. Our answer is that it depends on the child, and the child's level of physical/mental development and coordination. By riding with children in a parking lot, park or alley, we can observe: can they ride in a straight line? Can they stop quickly and manage speed on a moderate downhill without dragging their feet? Can they scan behind them while riding a reasonably straight line? Can they follow directions of an adult? If the answer is "yes" to these questions, then we can go for a ride on a low-volume, low-speed neighborhood street, with the adult as the wing-man/woman, riding behind and further into the lane than the child, coaching the child and allowing for wiggle room. We can then observe, is the child aware of other drivers/vehicles and their likely paths of travel? At a stop sign, can the child judge speed and distance of approaching vehicles to know when to wait or when to go? Many say, that these skills come together around age 10 as a rule of thumb, but we see this stretching from ages 7-12, and there are even adults who have limited perception. Here is a 2015 photo of a youth bike day event in Easton. (Photo by CAT)

For a young child or adult who is not physically/mentally capable of riding safely on high-volume roads, we strongly encourage neighborhood connectors (read below) and the local &



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regional trail network (also below). Bike lanes do not remedy limitations of situational awareness and leave both child and limited adult vulnerable at intersections. Regardless of roadway type, or presence/lack of a bike lane, education and training for youth is critical to invest in our future for bicycling. If children are trained well from an early age, they will have healthy respect for the traffic system and their role as bicycle drivers, or as future motor vehicle drivers. What About Motor Vehicle Drivers? Why in Pennsylvania is a hair stylist or used car salesperson required to undergo continuing education every two years, and yet a licensed motorist can drive for 60 years or more without a single educational update or skills retest? While continuing education for motorists would need to be instituted on a state level, we can encourage PennDOT to have renewing motorists watch a short 5-10 minute video covering best practices for driving with bicyclists on the road. We have the technology, and it can reach all socio-economic groups. On this note, for new drivers, the PA Driver’s Manual has dedicated a section on page 903, stating:

When there is only one travel lane, bicyclists may use anyportionofthelanetoavoidhazardsontheroadway, includingkeepingasafedistancefromstoppedandparkedcars.Bicyclists are considered to be vehicle operators and areexpected to obey all traffic laws; however, they may travel atless than the posted minimum speed and may not be cited forimpedingtraffic.Bicyclistsmayoperateonashoulderorbermbutarenotrequiredtodoso.

This is promising verbiage. We hope that prospective drivers read to page 90 and recall this valuable information when encountering bicyclists driving on the road. Enforcement for Behavior Changes For a motor vehicle driver, police enforcement of speed limits, DUI, aggressive driving, and distracted driving can benefit not only bicyclists and pedestrians, but also the lives of the motorists themselves. Each of these three causes is implicated in ~30% of roadway fatalities. Alcohol/drugs on the part of bicyclists and pedestrians is also a contributing factor in a high percentage of fatalities and should be enforced. Improving budgets for local police departments’ traffic units should be an initiative to save lives on our roadways. We hope the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission partners with local governments and law enforcement to institute a comprehensive plan to combat excess speed, aggressiveness, distracted driving, and a failure to give non-motorized road users sufficient space.

3https://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/dvspubsforms/bdl/bdl%20manuals/manuals/pa%20drivers%20manual%20by%20chapter/english/pub%2095.pdf#page=94



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Professional Training for Professional Drivers We can greatly improve the relationships between drivers of bicycles and drivers of large trucks & buses by including educational content about expecting to encounter bicyclists on the road, and by offering best practices for how to pass a bicyclist safely. Drivers can also be trained to understand what type of bicycling behavior is legal and reasonable, and what will raise a warning sign to watch out for. The group of professional drivers that can be trained is vast and includes opportunities with LANta and school bus drivers, UPS, FedEx, plus fleet drivers of cars, such as Uber/Lyft, Domino’s Pizza, municipal & college employees, and other similarly high-volume, high-mileage drivers. The Need to Study Bicycle Crash Causation in the Lehigh Valley The nationwide Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and PennDOT 2017 Strategic Highway Safety Plan set goals for reductions of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries. This is respectable and a positive step towards safety on the streets that we all share. However, few resources are being dedicated to address causal factors of crashes in which bicyclists and pedestrians are involved. Understanding crash causation can greatly inform efforts for education and community outreach. According to PennDOT’s Pennsylvania Crash Analysis Tool (PCIT), for the years 2013 to 2017, in Lehigh and Northampton Counties, there were 2,610 pedestrian and 670 bicycle-related crashes. In the same time period, there were 113 pedestrian-related and 8 bicycle-related crashes with fatalities or serious injury (KSI crashes). Out of a total of 500 fatality/serious injury crashes in this time period, 23% were pedestrian-related crashes, 1.6% were bicycle-related; yet there is little understanding of what contributed to these crashes. It is important that these crashes be understood, out of respect for the injured/killed and to close the loop for causation → information → prevention => improved safety. The study should employ the NHTSA’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center’s “Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool” (PBCAT) software (currently being updated, as of February 2019), as this software allows for crash-typing and analyzing of data to recommend positive countermeasures.



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PartTwo:AdditionalInformationaboutbicyclistbehavior At CAT, we practice task analysis. We look at a bicyclist's operating characteristics and limitations. Good laws and good physical facilities are built on a foundation of these.

BicycleOperatingCharacteristics

Operating space for a bicycle is defined by AASHTO as 5ft (preferred) or 4ft wide (minimum). Design operating height is 8’4” high.

Source: 2012 AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities Travelspeed for a bicyclist has a wide range of 8-20mph range on flat terrain. On uphill terrain, low speeds of 5mph may be expected. On downhill terrain, high speeds of 30+mph are not uncommon. Electric-assist (e-bikes) are regulated in Pennsylvania to achieve 28mph on flat terrain while the rider is pedaling. Education Note: As a cyclist’s speed increases, more time & distance is needed to (1) recognize, (2) decide and (3) negotiate maneuvers such as changing lanes, merging, or avoiding a hazard.



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BicyclistOperatingBehaviormay be considered as having three types. (A) Pedestrian, (B) Edge Rider, or (C) Driver. Throughout a trip, a bicyclist may change among any of these operating types based on the roadway, the bicyclist’s speed, destination, or comfort level. (A) Pedestrian behavior - A bicyclist may ride on the sidewalk (though PA vehicle code prohibits it in business districts). Due to limited access to some roadways, in certain areas a cyclist has no option except to ride on the sidewalk as a means of getting from point A to point B. One example of this is traveling south on the Hill to Hill Bridge (PA State Route 378) in Bethlehem, where the road is off limits to cyclists and a rider has no option except to share the pedestrian sidewalk.) Risk of collisions increases at speeds greater 5mph, and with increased frequency of intersections, driveways, and people walking with dogs and children. Sidewalks often have obstructions that can block sightlines. PA vehicle code is unclear as to whether a bicyclist may legally ride across a crosswalk. An additional difficulty of sidewalk riding is this: Bicycles have a minimum speed, below which the rider is going to wobble and have difficulty maintaining control. A reasonable estimate is that for many riders, this minimum speed is 7 mph. But 7 mph (or faster) is too fast to mix courteously or safely with pedestrians. (B) Edge Rider behavior – A bicyclist may drive on the roadway, but close to edge. This includes riding on the shoulder, when present, or along the edge of the travel lane. Edge rider risk factors include:

• Vulnerability to surface hazards (debris, glass, gravel, storm grates, standing water, ice/snow), since the shoulder is not swept clear by motor vehicles

• Riding at the edge of the lane inviting close passes by motorists at full speed • Out of motorists’ field of view or consideration when making turns or pulling out • Usable shoulder width reduces or disappears without warning signage

(C) Driverbehavior - A bicyclist may legally drive in the travel lane on all roads that are not limited-access highways. While road types vary greatly: rural farm roads, urban/suburban neighborhood streets, and multi-lane arterial collector roads, the use by a bicyclist offers predictability to enable motorists to make clear decisions about passing and turning. Operating with driver behavior (C) mitigates risk factors in pedestrian (A) & edge rider behavior (B), however a bicyclist can feel intimidated to “take the lane” when fearing motorists behind them are frustrated or distracted. Fear can be allayed by active & positive communication with drivers upon their approach and releasing control of the lane at prudent opportunities, Facilitating the motorist to pass is achieved by moving to the right and indicating with arm signals when it is a good time to pass. Judgment as to when it is safe to pass a cyclist remains with the driver of the passing vehicle,



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PartThree:Facilitiesweenthusiasticallysupport There are many on-road and support facilities that improve bicyclist comfort and safety. We are supportive of facilities that return high value for the money spent. Secure Bicycle Parking A facility that is sorely needed by every utility cyclist, but seldom provided, is high-quality secure parking. Encouraging or requiring major trip generators in the Lehigh Valley to provide quality secure parking for cyclists is a straight forward, visible and relatively inexpensive way to encourage cycling. "Secure" means that the rack is in a highly visible location, so that a would-be thief does not have privacy to cut a lock or steal a wheel. It also means that it must be easy (and self-evident) to lock the bike securely. The rack should not be of the old-fashioned style that stresses, and sometimes damages, the bicycle's wheel. Another advantage of useful parking is that it is very visible. When you see a bicycle parking area, you see that the community is supportive of bicycling. This also makes individuals realize that their bicycling to work or shop is expected and invited. We can further classify bicycle parking by usage type – short-term (less than 4 hours) or long-term (more than 4 hours). The needs of short-term parking (at stores and restaurants) are different from the needs of long-term parking (at home and places of employment). Short-term bicycle parking should be very convenient, located within 50 feet of the entrance to high-demand locations used by the public (libraries, supermarkets, city government buildings).

Bike hitches (inverted U-racks) are useful for short-term parking locations that may be along sidewalks or in parking lots. If bicycle racks are installed on sidewalks, they should be oriented so that bicycles are parallel to the direction of pedestrian traffic and do not obstruct sidewalk flow or ADA access requirements. Long-term bicycle parking is intended for employees or residents who need additional protection from weather and theft, as a function of their bikes being unattended for longer durations. We’ve all seen bikes that are locked in racks and are covered in rust and/or missing components. Theft, vandalism and parts theft are more likely to happen after dark, and a bike can become inoperably rusty after days of sitting in the rain. Proper long-term bicycle parking keeps bikes dry in bad weather, keeps bicycles safe from theft or vandalism, and protects components and accessories (such as headlights and tool bags) from being stolen. Secure parking traditionally means individual bike lockers or a supervised/access-controlled storage area/room located at ground level (no stairs, please!). Today's theft deterrent technology allows us to envision secure parking that would be cheaper and more flexible than the traditional configurations. A parking area covered by an awning, continually scanned by security cameras, and surrounded by a decorative fence might be all it takes. A parking awning next to a



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coffee stand could provide dual-use: the coffee stand proprietor performs the security function (in combination with cameras) and the bicyclists bring business to the coffee stand. We would like to see a dual-use system like this at the Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton Transportation Centers and other similar places. Some imagination could create a system that benefits everyone. Businesses that offer secure employee parking should, whenever possible, also offer locker room with shower facilities for bicyclists. Here is an illustration of useful indoor (long-term) bike parking in an access-controlled room, i.e. a college dorm, apartment building, or office building. Note that twelve bicycles can be parked in the space of a single car!

The Lehigh Valley's Local/Regional Trail Network

We are proud of, and appreciative of, the Lehigh Valley's trail network. More can be done to improve and expand its usability.

Many of our trails are unpaved and should stay that way for historic and ecological reasons. But we would like to see maintenance proposals to make them more usable more days of the year. While there is a local tradition of cross-country skiing on some trails after large snowstorms, there are weeks when the trail is not usable for skiing, but also very poor for bicycling. We would like to see trails maintained for bicycle use during those days.



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Some much-needed expansions of the trail network are under way. In Hellertown, the connection between the Saucon Rail Trail and the South Bethlehem Greenway will create a long trail connection, from Bethlehem all the way south to Coopersburg, at the southern tip of Lehigh County. From there, the trail connects with a trail in Bucks County which will expand trail connectivity to the borough of Quakertown.

There are future trail connections we would like to see prioritized. The Delaware and Lehigh trail through Allentown would be enormously beneficial, reaching thousands of Allentown residents. It is our understanding that land ownership is the sticking point there, because the land for the trail exists, and is not being used for anything else.

The Bushkill Creek trail between Palmer Township and Tatamy would be greatly improved if it added spur connections to major destinations, including the warehouses (major employers) outside of Tatamy.

Trail Wayfinding Signage

The Lehigh Valley is in major need of wayfinding signs for bicyclists. Our trails now have a few wayfinding signs, but we are in need of navigational signage at every intersection along a multi-use trail, effectively saying “turn left to Allentown, turn right to Easton” Wayfinding signs and kiosks help trail users in three ways:

1. Signs help them stay on the trail. This is relevant in areas like the one where the Delaware and Lehigh trail crosses the confusing Route 33/Hope Road boat ramp near Easton.

2. Signs on streets help users find the trail.

3. Signs/kiosks on trails alert trail users to nearby services and attractions off the trail. Creative ideas include a sign board where trails emerge at towns, indicating direction and distance of hotels, restaurants, mini-markets, and bicycle shops. This should include street name signs at every trail/road intersection.

Lehigh Valley streets have no bicycle-specific wayfinding. The BicyclePA route system is one established network of wayfinding signs that could be expanded for use in the Lehigh Valley. Trail Etiquette We support a code of conduct on trails that facilitates smooth experiences for all users.

• Bicyclists communicate when passing (using voice “on your left” or bell) and walkers acknowledge bicyclists with a wave when they hear/know a bicyclist would like to pass

• Directing bicyclists to slow when passing walkers on narrow trails • Directing electric-assist (e-bike) bicycle riders to mind their speed in proximity to

walkers, families, dogs, and when passing other cyclists. • Advising all trail users to be alert and avoid headphones that block outside noises • Leave no trace and bury dog excrement or carry it out • Respect trails with natural surfaces and minimize erosion by limiting usage during/after

rainfall and spring thaw. • Try leaving the car at home and ride to the trail



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Traffic laws do not apply on trails, so it is up to all of us to create a culture of respect.

Below, a trail along the Delaware River in downtown Easton (Photo by CAT)

In some cases, we support traffic calming on arterial streets. Often, this would benefit all road users, not just bicyclists. Motorists need to learn that high car speed doesn't necessarily create shorter trip times, but it does create an environment hostile to non-motorized traffic. We would like to see the planning commission look for opportunities to install designated bicycle boulevards. A bicycle boulevard is a street that is open to all traffic but designed to discourage fast and/or through motor traffic. This creates a more pleasant route for bicyclists, with less motor traffic. But it does not prohibit people from reaching destinations by any travel means. A bicycle boulevard can be created when there are two parallel streets. To prioritize bicycling traffic on one of the streets, travel speeds can be reduced to 15 mph by employing traffic calming design features. Examples are: road diet (narrowing travel lanes to no more than 10 feet), diverters that require motor vehicles to turn while allowing bicycles to pass through the diverters, and street trees. Connectivity Among Neighborhoods, Retail Shopping Areas, and Other Trip Generators We need better connectivity among neighborhoods. Like much of the U.S., the Lehigh Valley has seen decades of development wherein a "broccoli subdivision" or a shopping center has a single connection to an arterial street. Thus, for a person to go from a destination in one broccoli



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subdivision to a destination in the next subdivision requires a long circuitous path, involving traveling on the arterial street. A bicyclist cut-through from one subdivision to the next, or from a subdivision to a neighboring shopping center, can facilitate low-stress bicycle transportation with minimal construction costs. There are several good examples of such in the Lehigh Valley already. We'd like to see the practice become more regular for new neighborhoods, as well as updating existing ones. On-Road Signage Because driver behavior is the backbone of safe bicycling, we applaud facilities that support and reinforce safe driver behavior. The big two such facilities are properly-placed shared lane markings and Bicycles May Use Full Lane (BMUFL) signs. Here are examples of each:

We wholeheartedly endorse the Bicycles May Use Full Lane (BMUFL) sign. Its message is unambiguous, and it explicitly endorses safe bicycle driver behavior. There are no restrictions on where it can be placed. A properly located shared lane marking ("sharrow") also endorses safe drive behavior. Both the sharrow and the BMUFL sign indicate lane positioning that make the bicyclist more visible, avoiding numerous crash types (right hook, pull out, left cross and more). For sharrows, the installation guidance in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is misleading and inadequate. CAT has developed what we believe are far better placement standards: • Shared lane markings should be placed in the middle of the travel lane. This means a bare minimum of 13 feet from the curb, in locations where parallel parking is allowed. • Shared lane markings should generally not be placed just before an intersection. Traffic is dynamic, and the bicyclist's positioning within the travel lane will depend on circumstances. Shared lane marking installation is often done incorrectly. With inadequate guidance, maintenance crews often mistakenly place the markings in the door zone, where the markings instruct the cyclist to endanger him/her self. In 2017, the PennDOT installation contractor made this mistake on Hamilton Street. CAT was pleased that Allentown got the mistake corrected when



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they were made aware of it. (CAT has been working with the borough of Coopersburg to ensure that their plan for shared lane markings will be done correctly the first time.) Here is the Allentown done-twice version:

Personal Safety on Trails and Roads Personal safety from crime is too seldom addressed. Many cyclists do not feel free to ride anywhere, any time. If we are to empower all cyclists for unlimited travel, we absolutely need to partner with law enforcement to address this issue. We also believe that multi-use trails become safer with more people using them, i.e. most people look out for each other.



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PartFour:TheEuropeanvisionandtheAmericancounterpart

At CAT, we struggle with the question, "Wouldn't it be cool to be like Copenhagen or Amsterdam?"

The answer is yes. But we aren't, and we can't be without understanding all of the ingredients (described below). Most attempts to bridge that gap copy the very worst things about European bicycling environment and ignore the best things.

We recently conducted a thought experiment: Is it safer and more pleasant to ride a bike in the Lehigh Valley or in Copenhagen or Amsterdam? The answer is Copenhagen and Amsterdam. But the reasons why are not intuitive. To wit:

• Both those cities do have massive facility-caused collisions and deaths. Amsterdam had four right hook fatalities in 2006. Copenhagen had seven in 2013. We have copies of painstaking studies of crash typing in Copenhagen, Berlin, Helsinki and Amsterdam, and the studies show -- as we would predict -- that manufactured conflicts such as right hooks generate collisions.

Here are some crash rate findings from the Danish study, Road safety and perceived risk of cycle facilities in Copenhagen. As you can see, a few crash categories show lower rates from their facility designs, but most of the crashes are up substantially. You can see that one of them is up 1,762 percent!



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And yet, the overall crash rate in these countries is low. If the low crash rate isn't because of the facilities, why is it low? Here are some answers: • Strict motorist licensing qualifications: These European communities have virtually no drunk drivers and darn few incompetent drivers. Danish and Dutch standards for driver testing are legendarily fierce. We personally know a Danish driver who flunked her driving test the first five times. The relative leniency with which we license drivers and (do not) punish drunk drivers, stands in sharp contrast. In the U.S., news accounts of bike/car crashes are rife with examples of fundamental driver incompetence. • Motorists are also bicyclists: Virtually every adult in these high-bicycling cities rides a bike, has ridden a bike throughout childhood and adulthood, and doesn't see bicycling as something that other people do. That changes the interactions between bicyclists and motorists. • Youth bicycle education is taken seriously: These European countries make a serious commitment to bicycle safety education. In the Lehigh Valley, we think it's a big deal to talk about helmets at a school assembly for 20 minutes. Compare that with the following photograph from Denmark: A dedicated playground for students to learn, practice, and practice again traffic skills, including destination positioning at intersections:

• For people who are concerned with increasing the bicyclist's mode share, we note that the economics and geography are different. Northern Europe has much warmer winters and cooler summers than almost all of the U.S., including the Lehigh Valley. Trip distances are shorter in Europe. Northern Europe has always had many adult bicyclists, so social acceptability is better.



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And the costs are far different. In a recent visit to Denmark, we saw gasoline selling for $8 per gallon, and a Honda Jazz (called the Fit in the U.S.) was $30,000 -- twice what it costs in the U.S. Worth noting is a comment by safety expert Paul Schimek, PhD, who has spent decades studying bike crashes worldwide: "The safety record of Dutch cycling depends entirely on low traffic speeds and extensive motorways and underreporting of non-fatal bicyclist injuries." Our conclusion: we want to copy the good parts of Northern Europe, not the bad parts. Among the good parts we want to copy: safer driver behavior, safer bicyclist behavior, better training so everyone makes fewer mistakes, better road maintenance and a social environment that respects the dignity of human powered travel. With this comes land use that encourages residential, retail, schools, and jobs in close proximity to walk (1 mile) or bike (1-5 miles) and is served by public transit.



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PartFive:"Separated"&"Protected"bikelanes So-called "separated" and "protected" bike lanes are neither truly separated nor protected. They have problems that are almost never solvable. We don’t see a role for them as they are traditionally understood in the Lehigh Valley. While some among our members are not opposed to a municipality’s installing a bike lane fully separated from traffic to the extent of having its own signaling system that omits any conflict between cyclists and motorists, we appreciate that the cost of designing, installing and maintaining such infrastructure is substantial and we do not see such bikeways as a practical facility for widespread use. Let's start with the basics: bicycle/motor vehicle collisions overwhelmingly take place at intersections. So any road design needs to make intersections safe. When you "separate" a bike lane, you complicate the intersection, leading to manufactured conflicts. There are numerous different configurations of manufactured conflicts, but the most common and most troubling one is the "right hook," which looks like this illustration from the Georgia Institute of Technology:

This design is colloquially called the coffin corner. It started producing a rash of "right hook" fatalities across the U.S. more than a decade ago. All fatal right hooks with which we are familiar involve turning trucks. The bicyclist is knocked over by the side of the truck, and then crushed under the wheels. CAT has always been pleased that there are no "coffin corner" designs in the Lehigh Valley. We have done our best to inform our colleagues in the rest of the country of the dangers of the coffin corner. But our best hasn't been good enough. On the next page is a chart from a brief talk about the coffin corner in "protected" bike lanes that Schubert gave at a statewide advisory meeting in 2014.



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In the years since that meeting, coffin corners have been introduced in Pennsylvania, with sadly predictable results. Philadelphia has had two right hook fatalities (and one collision with horrific injuries) in the last 18 months as they have introduced more so-called "separated" bike lanes. Boston and Portland have each had at least a half dozen such fatalities. This crash type was very rare two decades ago. Now it is a leading cause of urban fatalities. This crash type has some sobering components:

• The bicyclist was not knowingly endangering them self and did not know they were headed for a collision. • The motorist did not see the bicyclist before the collision. Typically, the bicyclist would be in a blind spot, not visible from the motorist's mirror. Because of this, motorists in these collisions are typically not charged by police. • Typically, the bicyclists involved in these collisions are of an unusual demographic strata: graduate students, engineers, doctors, lawyers, young highly educated professionals. They are smart people, but they don't understand turning trucks. They don't realize that the bike lane design was luring them to a dangerous situation.



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The obvious cure is, do not design a road that encourages a bicyclist to enter the intersection to the right of right-turning traffic. Sadly, for political reasons, this cure is often not followed. Instead, it has become popular to offer non-solutions and claim -- or hope -- that they will work. For example, the Greater Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition advocates installing flex posts directly on the lane line between a bike lane and the adjacent lane (without providing a buffer). The flex posts don't change the turning movement. They don't make the bicyclist visible to the turning motorist. In fact, the flex posts make things worse because they prohibit the motorist from properly merging to the right to set up for a right turn and prohibit the bicyclist from merging to the straight-through lane on approach to an intersection. Some bike lane designs utilize “mixing zones” which permit a bicyclist to move from a right-side bike lane to turn left and allow a motorist to merge into the bike lane to turn right. But no national design guide specifies a mixing zone length that gives either driver enough time to have good visibility of the other, and then to negotiate the lane change. Traffic is dynamic and always changing. What would a proper mixing zone length be? If 10 seconds is enough decision time, 250 feet would be enough distance. But who is to say those numbers will always be right for every traffic situation? Even worse than flex posts are parked cars, because parked cars erase any possibility of a turning motorist seeing a bicyclist (and vice versa). In 2018, a ringing example of this invisibility occurred on Washington DC's M Street. A bicyclist was crushed and killed by a turning truck driver at the intersection in this photo:



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It's impossible for a motorist to see the bike lane in the photo above. It's "protected" behind the parked cars on the right. There is no chance for negotiating a turning maneuver when a motorist and a bicyclist are not aware of each other’s presence. Other bike lane designs (left side, counterflow, etc.) create other manufactured conflicts. In addition to the "right hook," we see fatalities from the "left cross" in national news reports. Two-way bike lanes on one side of the street lead to remarkably complex intersections. And at night, they place the bicyclist where motorist’s headlight beams (which are aimed up on the right, even at the low beam setting) shine directly into the bicyclist’s eyes. We won't put diagrams of every manufactured conflict in this document. But a good traffic concept is that if a design introduces a new way for paths to cross, it is probably dangerous. A truly separated bike lane? There are occasional counter examples, i.e. places where a truly separated bike lane is physically possible. This would be where there are no intersections or driveways. For example, some California freeways have separated bike lanes. But even then, much care must be taken at the freeway exits. We recently read of a serious collision in the western U.S. wherein a bicycle facility crossed a high-speed exit ramp. The crossing was poorly designed. We already have good separated facilities The Lehigh Valley already has a grid of excellent separated facilities: our trail network. The D&L trail, the Lehigh River towpath, the Saucon Rail Trail, the Ironton trail and others . . . all are excellent, truly separated facilities. We would like to see proposals to make them more useful to more people more of the time. Those proposals might include lighting, secure parking, wayfinding signs, and stepped-up maintenance during bad weather.



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PartSix:Themythofbikelanespromotingbicycling Often you will hear that bike lanes cause massive increases in bicycle usage, or that bike lanes have created safer cycling. Both claims don't match up with the facts. Data show -- repeatedly -- that in cities with high bicycle use, the bicycle use came first and the bike lanes came later. The number one mecca for high bicycle usage is Davis, California, and you will often hear the claim that Davis's bike lanes are what created the high usage. However, bicycle usage in Davis was already huge before the bike lanes, in 1966, when the famous photographer Ansel Adams took this photo:

Interestingly, the discussion we are having today, about crash causes and how to prevent them, is like the discussion that occurred in Davis in 1963. Local advocates asked for bike lanes to reduce crashes. But "The city engineer assured them that since most bicycle accidents occurred at intersections, lanes wouldn’t solve safety problems."4 In recent years, bicycle usage in Davis has actually declined. The late UC Davis sociology professor John Finley Scott, perhaps the keenest observer of the bicycling scene in Davis, opined that this was due to demographics and customs. He said more of the students who now attend UC Davis are, for cultural reasons, more inclined to ride the bus than to ride a bike.

4 Fifty Years of Bicycle Policy in Davis CA by Ted Buehler & Susan Handy, U.C. Davis



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Here you see how bicycle use in Davis has declined:

The city of Davis also unwittingly pioneered experiments with unsafe bike lanes. They tried to separate bicyclists from motorists and found -- as we stated earlier -- that this caused increased crashes at intersections. In the early 1970s, the research team of Lott, Tardiff and Lott painstakingly catalogued the crashes, and did a fine job of organizing them into crash types, giving researchers the beginnings of a vocabulary with which to understand bicycle crashes. They published their results in a series of studies. As a result of their work, a number of bicycle facilities in Davis were deemed unsafe and ripped out of the pavement. Here are photos of facilities that were part of that, uh, learning process:



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There are more data points than just Davis. And newer data points. Here's one: Orlando, Florida had no bike lanes 30 years ago. Today, it has more than 500 miles of bike lanes and 150 miles of shared use paths. The bicycle mode share percentage remains unchanged at 0.5 percent. And Orlando crash data analysis that bike lanes do not make bicyclists safer.



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PartSeven:Bikelaneconflictsandproblems Let's start with the mistaken premise. There is an unchallenged assumption that you are doing good by adding a bike lane. Step back from that assumption: Instead of saying, "I want a bike lane on Main Street," instead say, "I want rider X to have a better, safer, lower stress experience on Main Street. What should I change?" Sometimes you'd change Main Street. Sometimes you'd change the drivers on Main Street. Sometimes you'd change the bicyclist, or her equipment. The unchallenged assumption that Main Street, or any street, is better with a bike lane falls apart most of the time. Just because a bike lane is visible doesn't mean it's going to generate a better user experience. We have already discussed the "coffin corner" intersection design. Interestingly, we find that this problem does not exist in isolation. A bike lane leading to the coffin corner will skim right by parked cars, leading to collisions with opening car doors. These generate thousands of crashes nationally. When a bicyclist rides that close to the road edge, s/he is less likely to be seen by drivers at intersections and driveways ahead. The edge of the road collects debris and trash, leading to unsafe conditions. A rider in this edge position is frequently passed with very little lateral clearance, with no recovery space if something goes wrong. A problem we see in other cities is that bicyclists feel rage when a delivery vehicle pulls to the curb so the driver can make the delivery. We have frequently seen calls for delivery vehicles to stop, sometimes blocking the only lane motor vehicles may use, leaving the bike lane clear, and crossing the bike lane with their deliveries. As this practice becomes more common, we predict there will be a high collision rate between delivery personnel (with their hand trucks) and bicyclists. And, irony of ironies: Copenhagen has found that its success with bicycle transportation, which has spawned a lively business in bikes optimized for cargo and carrying children, has a new problem: the bike lanes are too narrow for many of these very useful bikes. We see bike lanes best used in situations where they really are warranted, after considering the specific street and the operating characteristics and limitations of all vehicle operators. One example where we have recommended a bike lane is College Avenue in Easton. College Avenue climbs a steep hill, so the speed differential between bicyclists and motorists is higher than on flat streets. Accordingly, a climbing lane should be considered, and in this case the climbing lane is for bicyclists. Note that on this stretch of College Avenue there is one intersection off to the left and no intersections to the right, so the intersection conflicts we criticize don't exist. We are well aware that bike lanes provide what bicycle advocate Charles Gandy calls "an affirmative invitation to bicyclists." That's their appeal. But that should not come at the expense of operational safety.



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ConventionalBikeLane designs paint a bike lane directly adjacent to parallel-parked cars or next to the curb where parking is not permitted. Well-intended designers try to squeeze these bike lanes onto streets where existing lane width has little to spare and car parking won’t be sacrificed. Below, a conventional bike lane with the conflicts described beneath:

Manufactured conflicts in conventional bike lanes include:

Doorzone - A typical car door when opened, extends 2-3’, rendering it a consistent instant hazard in this type of bike lane.

Debris&snow/ice build-up, since the lane is not swept by motor vehicles.

Parallelparkingmotorists pull into the bike lane from travel lane and then reverse in the bike lane to enter on-street parking spaces. Drivers also nose into the bike lane to pull out into the travel lane.

Double-parking - Motorists create sporadic blockages, by parking in the bike lane to access homes/businesses. This includes conflicts with bus stops.

Intersection conflicts – When a conventional bike lane is striped all the way to an intersection, it creates confusion and conflict about how motorists should turn right, and how bicyclists should go straight or turn left. (mitigated partly with long mixing zones, as discussed on Page 23)

On roads with diverge/off-ramps or other large turning radius exits that encourage motorists to cut across the bike lane at high-speeds.

Downhillgrades steeper than 5%, where bicyclists may exceed 25mph. (mitigated by using shared lane markings on downgrades)



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PartEight: Thebuiltenvironment,fastcars,&institutionalinertia A huge problem in the Lehigh Valley (and most places in the U.S.) is that road designers work to give car drivers a freeway-like experience while driving on ordinary city streets. This creates a go-fast mentality that creates hazards for bicyclists, pedestrians, and the disabled. Here are three quick examples: • In the City of Bethlehem, where the north end of the New Street (Fahy) bridge T-intersects Lehigh Street and Center Street, there was a freeway-like high speed merging right turn onto Center Street. This was perilous for the many pedestrians at that intersection. The good news is that this design was recently replaced with a full-stop intersection. • On Cedar Crest Boulevard, on the edge of Salisbury Township, a right turn only lane was made from what had been a road shoulder, beneath the I-78 overpass. Because of the narrowness of that overpass, this eliminated the only place a person could walk (the former shoulder). • On 8th Avenue in the City of Bethlehem, the recently constructed shopping center that includes the Lowes store has high speed slip ramp entrance and exit. Again, this design is a known peril for pedestrians. This area has many pedestrian trip generators, including a nearby middle school, residential neighborhoods, medical offices, and the shopping center itself. The bias in road design is to make roads safer and more convenient for motorists who are speeding, with wide lanes, large radius turns, and features like the aforementioned slip ramps. In other words, fast roads. Fast roads beget fast driving, making the road unpleasant and less safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. In 2015, Strongtowns.org published the following graphic to underscore that point:



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Sadly, much of the Lehigh Valley's residential development resembles the fast street. Here's an example of a residential street north of Bethlehem:

This dovetails with the fact that cars are simply faster now. For example, a base model Kia Forte, an economy car, accelerates from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds. Not long ago, this would have been the acceleration of a brawny muscle car. People drive faster because pushing the gas pedal a quarter inch gets them up to speed right away.

We observe that traffic engineers are very thoughtful, conscientious people -- but too often, they view the car driver as their only customer. They don't prioritize a safe, pleasant experience for the non-motorized road user.

The solution to these problems is to get all parties involved in the design process to appreciate and act like the bicyclist and the pedestrian are as much your customer as is the motorist. Their experience must be safe and pleasant, and this may require slower driving speeds.



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PartNine:Goodstudies&articles

This is a very short and incomplete list. These are just a few examples of the good documents that have influenced our thinking.

Orlando Area Bicyclist Crash Study: A Role-Based Approach to Crash Countermeasures Mighk Wilson Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator METROPLAN ORLANDO

A study of bicycle/motor vehicle accidents: Identification of problem types and countermeasure approaches Kenneth D Cross & Gary Fisher Anacapa Sciences September 1977

When Bike Lane Design Collides with Savvy Cycling Paul Schimek August 2018 https://cyclingsavvy.org/2018/08/bike-lanes-dooring/

The Real Door Zone Tragedy John Schubert May 2018 https://cyclingsavvy.org/2018/05/the-real-door-zone-tragedy/

Characteristics of Emerging Road and Trail Users and Their Safety Landis, Petrisch & Huang January 2014 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/1878-16

Bicycling in traffic is a dance you must lead Keri Caffrey September 2008 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/09/15/you-lead-the-dance/

FAQ: Why do you ride like that? https://cyclingsavvy.org/road-cycling/

Fifty Years of Bicycle Policy in Davis, CA Ted Buehler & Susan Handy http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/handy/Davis_bike_history.pdf

Road safety and perceived risk of cycle facilities in Copenhagen By Søren Underlien Jensen, Trafitec, [email protected] Claus Rosenkilde, Road & Park, City of Copenhagen, [email protected] Niels Jensen, Road & Park, City of Copenhagen, [email protected]

Two Photos Reveal Why the Key to Slowing Traffic is Street Design, not Speed Limits January 2019 https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/1/8/new-20-mph-street Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Types of the Early 1990s Hunter, Stutts, Pein & Cox June 1996 UNC Highway Safety Research Center



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AboutCATOur Mission Statement

CAT improves mobility, celebrates our community and the environment, through education about safe pedestrian access, bicycling, public transportation, and local trail systems.

CAT works to improve mobility for everyone. Improved walking, bicycling and transit mean a stronger economy, and a higher quality of life. More transportation choices mean less congestion, reduced pollution, and fewer automobile crash deaths and life changing injuries. Curbing our use of the automobile fights suburban sprawl, obesity and increasingly high medical costs. CAT helps us enjoy our car-free options through the following initiatives:

Love your local trail Walk in your community Bike somewhere today Enjoy LANTA bus

These alternatives offer a more active life, greater vitality, and a healthier population. CAT’s programs encourage these appropriate transportation choices for a more sustainable, pleasant lifestyle. CAT is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Abouttheauthors Scott Slingerland is a licensed professional engineer who spent 10 years designing combustion systems for power plants. As executive director of CAT, he is a certified Cycling Savvy Instructor, and has taught bicycle education to youth and adults for more than 12 years. He is a 24-hour mountain bike racer (NORBA Expert Class), Category 5 road racer, and short-time rally car co-pilot. For three weeks a year, he is a bicycling instructor with Road Scholar/Elderhostel, leading multi-day on/off-road cycling tours with participants in the 40-93 age span. John Schubert has practiced forensic bicycle crash reconstruction since 1981, in approximately three dozen states, and has worked on dozens of cases for the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office. He is the author of two bicycling books, founding editor in chief of Bicycle Guide magazine, and was technical columnist of Adventure Cyclist magazine for 23 years. In the distant past, he was a Category IV road racer. He founded the BicyclePA network of 2,000 miles of signed long-distance touring routes. He holds a private pilot's license.

cat's vision for better bicycling in the lehigh valley...cat would welcome the opportunity to...

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