By Charles Pekow – Protected bike lanes will encourage people to ride to work more than any other type of facility. A study examining 28 U.S. cities found that “installed protected bicycle lanes experienced bicycle commuter increases 1.8 times larger than standard bicycle lane block groups, 1.6 times larger than shared-lane marking block groups, and 4.3 times larger than block groups that did not install bicycle facilities.”
The study, published in Nature Cities, found that both protected and buffered bike lanes (those separated from traffic by space but not barriers) helped. The study recommends that “cities that seek to boost bicycle commute mode shifts should focus on implementing low-stress bicycle facilities if they want to best facilitate the sizable population of less-confident potential riders.”
The researchers suggest that future studies could examine issues such as the amount of separation, types of barriers, and the impact of isolated versus connected protected lanes.
Read “The Link Between Low-Stress Bicycle Facilities and Bicycle Commuting” at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00255-5
