Q. We are at the beginning stages of creating some bicycle lanes in our community.. Can you suggest some resources we can look at and share with our community leaders?

Michael McKinny
Olney, IL

Michael,

The links below will take you to specific information about design of bicycle lanes, which was the primary issue we discussed during our phone conversation. The first two refer to the AASHTO Guide, which is essentially the “blue book” of design guidance in the United States. Many community engineers and planners won’t make a move if the design guidance isn’t included in the AASHTO Guide. (“AASHTO” by the way is the acronym for American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials.)

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/engineering/facilities-bikelanes.cfm
This link will take you to the bicyclinginfo.org site discussion of bike lanes. This site has a lot of excellent information on other pages that you will find useful.

http://www.bikelib.org/roads/aashto.htm
This page refers to a lot of the same information, again taken from the AASHTO Guide. But I wanted to send it along because it also has other information in addition to recommended bicycle lane widths. And, more importantly, it is published by an Illinois group that you may want to contact for further local and regional information and suggestions: The League of Illinois Bicyclists.

http://www.activelivingresources.org
In addition to diagrams and technical data, you may find some information about the process of gaining community approval useful. The Active Living Resource Center web site addresses many of these issues. Also on this site, you’ll find some specific information about bike lane
design at:
http://www.activelivingresources.org/bikingandwalking4.php 

At the bottom of this page, you’ll find links to the excellent Chicago Bicycle Lane Design
(pretty close to home!) and the Oregon Bicycle Lane Design Guide.

That should get you started.

Regards,
Gary