Will Protected Intersection Become the Future Design of City Intersections?
On the study of the New York State Department of Transportation, 89 percent of serious injuries crashes, or road fatalities happen at intersections in NYC. To meet the goal of zero deaths and severe injuries, how to redesign unsafe intersections have been a heated debate. According to the report published by National Association of City Transportation Officials, reducing cars’ turning speed, making cyclists visible, and giving bikes more priority than turning vehicles are the three most important philosophy. Adding protected intersections, based on Dutch bikeway design, maybe a feasible solution that could achieve the goals and create safer biking environments.
Protected intersections can be applied to enhance biking quality and comfort and usually include bikeway setbacks, corner islands, pedestrian islands, bike queue areas and so on. Bikeway setbacks can not only provide drivers and bicyclists better visibility but also give vehicles space to wait and yield. Corner islands can separate bikes from cars, make queuing area for cyclists waiting for traffic signals, and more importantly slow down the cars’ speed when turning. Pedestrian islands can support large amount of people walking through the intersections with clear visibility. Both corner islands and bike queue areas can reduce the crossing distance, which helps lower the risks of traffic injuries. To provide bikes more priority, further strategies such as leading bike interval, which gives bikes priority positions in the right lane of roads comparing to cars, might be applied.
Based on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s report, a protected intersection built in San Francisco by the end of 2016 has already helped slow 98 percent of the vehicles’ turning speed down to speed limit and make 96 percent of motorists yield. Nevertheless, how to fit in the model correctly on different types of intersections with huge traffic volumes could be challenging. Unique features might be implemented to better support complex urban context.
Reference:
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/21/transportation-leaders-demand-safer-crossings/
