Paint is not Protection
"Paint is not protection" is the message from the
Red Cup Project. Some city transportation departments act like plastic wands are the only alternative. B
ut I've seen lots of physical barriers that seem to work and a major traffic barrier company makes a one foot wide one that appears to be
cheap and designed to fit in bikeway buffers.
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| Yodock 2001SL 1' wide pedestrian channelizer deployed along a bike lane in Oregon |
Spaced Barriers
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| These spaced barriers in Bogotá, Colombia make this cicloruta safe and useful |
Advantages of spaced barriers over continuous:
- Cheaper and easier to deploy and move if needed
- Reduce accumulation of debris in bike lane
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Allow pullover space for emergency vehicles to pass
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Allow bikes to pass obstacles or exit for left turn
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Won’t serve as a drunk guide, enabling impaired driving as continuous barriers do.
Bike Barriers around the world - Italy
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| Contraflow bikeway protected with spaced staple racks, Padova, Italy |
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| Serious spaced protection, Padova, Italy |
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| Great spaced contraflow protection, not thrilled about road surface, Padova, Italy |
Barriers Around the World - United States
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| Nice protection in Baltimore, Maryland c. 2004, but designed to protect horse-drawn carriages |
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| Strategically spaced boulders in Washington state dis-incentivize veering out of lane. |
Barriers around the World - China
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| For this high-speed freeway in Yunnan, China, a continuous barrier makes sense. |
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| Metal barrier in Guangzhou, China |
