Description
Application
Advantages
Disadvantages
Design Considerations
Implementation Challenges
Example Cities

Chicago, IL	New York, NY	Nijmegen, Netherlands

Description
Color applied to bicycle facilities helps alert roadway users to the presence of bicyclists and clearly assigns right-of-way to cyclists. Motorists are expected to yield to cyclists in these areas.

Application
* Note: Some cities apply color selectively to highlight potential conflict zones (Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA); others use it to mark all non-shared bicycle facilities in high volume traffic situations (New York, NY). Generally, colorization can be useful for the following situations:

• Heavy auto traffic streets with bike facilities.
• At transition points where cyclists, motorists and/or pedestrians must weave with one another.
• Conflict area or intersection with a record of crashes.
• To emphasize bicycle space in unfamiliar or unique design treatments.

Advantages

• Increases awareness and safe behaviors by cyclists, motorists and pedestrians.
• Provides for safer merging of bicycles with motor vehicle traffic.
• Mitigates high conflict areas.
• Provides a continuous facility for cyclists.
  

Disadvantages

• High maintenance requirements.

Design/Maintenance Considerations

• Provide appropriate signs to accompany color.
• Use color and markings consistently.
• Consider the material carefully to avoid creating hazards; paint is often more slippery than thermoplastic.

Implementation Obstacles

• Not part of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Example Cities

• Austin, TX
• Cambridge, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Columbia, MO
• Minneapolis, MN
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• Salt Lake City, UT
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• St Petersburg, FL
• Multiple cities in Canada and Europe

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