Complete Streets
Complete Streets
Re-engineering Traffic
All on One: a complete street providing facilities for light rail, driving, cycling and walking (Photo: AshtonPal on flickr)
Note this section deals with issues in traffic engineering whose approach -as well as the resulting transportation and urban planning policies and traffic laws- vary between countries, provinces, states and other jurisdictions. These pages merely serve to illustrate different approaches that can be taken for any given traffic scenario as it affects cyclists.
Research has shown the more people that cycle on roads the safer cycling becomes as motorists use more caution. It has also been shown on separate occasions that cities with higher levels of bicycle infrastructure (lanes and paths) also saw higher levels of bicycle commuting.[1]
A complete street is one that takes into account its use by motorists, pedestrians *and* cyclists. Car share lanes also known as High Occupancy Vehicle or HOV lanes have been shown to waste road capacity.[2] so it makes more sense to engineer roads to better handle motorized and non-motorized traffic, namely, bicycles.
A cycle friendly government including local politicians, urban planners and budget committees will adopt the approach that when major road work is to be undertaken (for example, the re-surfacing of a road segment) that a bike lane will be added along that section.
En Route: motorists and cyclists travel more comfortably on separate traffic lanes (Photo: Eric Fredericks on flickr)
![[top]](../images/top.gif)
References
1. http://web.pdx.edu/~jdill/research.php
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1579612/US-style-car-lanes-create-more-congestion.html
Keywords
complete streets, living streets, street connectivity, good roads, urban planning, urban design, accessible environment, self-reading street, bicycle facilities, designing for negotiation,
