Any suggestions for integrating bike lanes and transit?

[munsonmunson]

I'm working on a project where we are introducing bike lanes and sidewalks onto a suburban arterial with existing bus service. I'm coming up against an issue where the bus almost always has to cross or impede upon to bike lane to get to the bus stops. I've seen a few designs with things like bus stop islands where pedestrians cross the bike lane to a raised platform where they meet the bus (http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/M...aneSection.pdf), but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions.

[Polis]

There are a few options, depending on what space you have available along the arterial ROW. For instance, if parking or ample ROW adjacent to the street is available you could have the bus enter a pull off, crossing the bike lane. Whether this is more or less dangerous than having a bus pull into the bike lane to board/alight I cannot say. If there is a bus lane available on the arterial road the easy solution is to put the bike lane between the bus lane and the car lane; however ample spacing is necessary to increase the feeling of safety for the bicyclist.

If you have ITS components available, you could attempt to move all bus stops to far side of the signals and put in a light for bicycles only. That way bicycles can go first, pass the stop, and then the bus can pull over to the stop. The traffic engineers may have a fit depending on the peak traffic volumes but it's an option. This really only works if the block spacing and intersections make sense for bus stops.

Alternatively, you could approach the transit operator and work on a training program to make the drivers more aware of bicyclists and bicyclists more aware of the restrictions of buses, mainly the blind spots. Some retrofits to buses are additional convex mirror installations on the side of the bus with bike lanes.

I work in transit and we have yet to figure out a safe way to coexist with bike lanes. I really like the bus bump with the bike lane continuing through the pedestrian flow onto the bump, but that is a fairly pricey endeavor for each bus stop. If your budget is large enough you can go all out, but if not mitigation and training might be an easier answer.

[nkobel]

I took a trip to Copenhagen in 2011 and snapped a picture of their bike lane, pedestrian way, and road. From left to right: sidewalk, bike lane, parked cars, roadway, median, roadway, parked cars, bike lane, sidewalk. The bus stop could be in the median.

[nkobel]

I took a trip to Copenhagen in 2011 and snapped a picture of their bike lane, pedestrian way, and road. From left to right: sidewalk, bike lane, parked cars, roadway, median, roadway, parked cars, bike lane, sidewalk. The bus stop could be in the median.

Whoah, I made a terrible assumption that doors would open on the left instead of the right...

[Bookworm]

Bicyclinginfo.org refers to bike/bus lanes in Madison:

Chicago has bus stops that kind of merge with cycle tracks.

Not sure theses are the best solutions, but options.

[Vancity]

There are some streets in Vancouver which have bikelanes separated from the street completely by a barrier:



No bus solution shown here, and this is a one-way.... but you could figure it out haha. Pretty expensive endeavor