Most people won’t ride bikes if they have to share streets with high-speed traffic, as ground-breaking surveys show. They are interested in riding, but too concerned about traffic to give it a try. We need bikeway designs that protect people on bikes from traffic, but, too often, engineers and planners add bike lane stripes and a bicycle symbol to busy streets and consider their work done.

CalBike is a leader in pushing for pushing progressive bikeway designs. In 2014, we legalized protected bike lanes — lanes that are protected from car traffic by a physical barrier, such as a row of parked cars or planters. In 2015, we pushed Caltrans to include protected intersections, which extend the comfort and safety of protected bike lanes into intersections, in their design guidance for protected bike lanes.

We also got the California State Transportation Agency to endorse progressive standards for designing great bikeways, making it a lot easier for local agencies to build excellent bike lanes and bike paths.

We educate city employees and planners across the state about the new design guidelines, so that they’ll have the information they need to plan and build protected bike lanes, protected intersections, and other great design elements that get more people riding.

We educate people around the state about how to actually build great bikeways. We travel around the state training local policymakers and planners about two things: how important it is to build protected bike lanes and connected bikeways; and how to get the money they need to make them a reality. We help communities compete for transportation money to make sure that more of that money goes to bicycling projects like protected bike lanes.

If you’re a mayor or local planning department employee who wants to learn more about how to design great bikeways, contact Dave Snyder.