Milwaukee Raises Lane

Photo Credit-Dave Schlabowske

Raised Bike lanes are a fairly new concept in the U.S.  Oregon has pioneered the idea, and many cities have started plans to upgrade or introduce them into their own cycling infrastructure.  Off the top of my head, there are plans and projects in New York, Chicago, to name a few of the large cities, and enumerable smaller ones have designs to use them.  Amsterdam has the top award for cyclists, both in numbers, and in integration into city traffic. Bikes there outnumber cars, so lane designs take a front seat in transit planning.



Now Milwaukee has one lane, or rather one section of one lane, near completion.  It  is part of the Wisconsin DOT's Bay View to Downtown Bike Route.  The raised lane section is to run between Potter and Lenox streets.

Raised Lane Plan Schematic

It may not be a city wide upgrade, but it is a start of a gradual change as road projects are addressed to include improved cycling routes.  That is a far better strategy than to leap into the projects on the bike lanes merit alone.  Not that the lanes are not important, but to keep budgets in perspective, and it keeps community opinion to the better of a cycling culture.  The costs of building these lanes into existing roads is high, but adding them to new projects greatly reduces the cost.  In some case it is just a matter of a painted line.

Raised bike lanes offer a unique variation to bike lane protection, and traffic integration.  A curved, or soft curb separates the lane from the traffic lane.  It allows for cars to mount the curb to cross the bike lane to street side parking, but the radius of the curb is such that it slows the crossing cars down to a safer more manageable speed for cyclists to navigate.  There is no perfect solution that eliminates all hazards or will end all accidents, but the raised lanes come close.

Milwaukee has plans to expand their bike lane network city wide, and to improve on existing paths and routes as projects roll out.  With all of the road construction that has been going on it is nice that they are thinking ahead of the curve and including these plans as they go rather than make them afterthoughts.
 

Another Bike Lane project design

Chicago has plans to use raised, and protected lanes in upcoming projects.  Unfortunately a number of the projects are bike lane improvement only and may draw negative impressions about the improvements as being a waste "just for cyclists".  That is a key factor in managing the future projects for bike lanes.  Not to just secretly include them under dark of night to other stuff, but to get them included into roadway projects so costs, and inconvenience are not negative factors.  Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has pledged over 25 miles of bike lanes per year.  If the planning is incorporated and well planned it may be good.  

Updating dense city roadways usually means narrowing car lanes or congesting otherwise busy areas to make room for bike lanes.  Protected lanes are being added when the option of removing street side parking, or narrowed traffic lanes are used.  Much of Milwaukee's plan, and Chicago's have protected lanes included.  Generally a larger white line, or some flexible pylon tubes act as the barrier between.  Eliminating parking means doing studies on parking use, adding parking structures, or expanding parking in another nearby area.  Planning is important for the businesses that depend on that traffic and parking access for its customers, so just eliminating it is not a sensible option.  It does happen though.  That is where both Milwaukee and Chicago need to keep perspective in the three dimensions of safety, commerce, transit, as to not dilute one for the other.  These are going to be interesting cases to watch how well they are implemented and how public reaction follows.  Our best hope is that it all works well and cycling can receive a boost  in acceptance from well thought out projects.  With acceptance more people may chance to actually ride a bike on these lanes if they are viewed as safe.  Solutions to incorporate cycling culture can be positive when well managed.   At least until I perfect my hover bike.

Amsterdam