Description
Application
Advantages
Disadvantages
Design Considerations
Implementation Challenges
Example Cities

Brooklyn, NY	Seattle, WA	Portland, OR

Description
Bicycle lane with a spatial buffer to increase the distance between the bicycle travel lane and the automobile travel lane or the parking zone.

Application

• Bike lanes with high automobile traffic speeds and volumes.
  
• Bikeways with bike lanes adjacent to high turnover on-street parking.
  
• Bike lanes with high volume of truck/oversized vehicle traffic.
  

Advantages

• Provides cushion of space to mitigate bicyclist friction with motor vehicles, enhancing safety, comfort and mobility.
• Provides space for cyclists to pass without encroaching into the car travel lane.
• Mitigates for obstacles in the bike lane, e.g. drainage inlets, debris, manholes.
• Parking side buffer: provide cyclists with space to avoid the “door zone” of parked cars.
• Provides motorist (particularly drivers of large vehicles) greater shy distance from cyclists in the bike lane.

Disadvantages

• Additional space requirements.
• Added maintenance required for the buffer striping.

Design/Maintenance Considerations

• Determine which side of the bike lane the buffer is most needed, either adjacent to parking or the travel lane.
• Frequency of parking turnover.
• Ensure adequate buffer width for cyclists to avoid door zone of parked cars.
• Major intersection approaches.
• Frequency of motor vehicle right turns.
• Well-designed “weaving zones” may be necessary at intersection approaches.

Implementation Obstacles
May require reallocating space from parking or driving lane.

Example Cities

• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Brussels & Bruges, Belgium
• London, UK

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