New Bikesafe Guide from USDOT

The U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently created a new guide on how to make streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians for state transportation departments and local governments called The Bicycle Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System or Bikesafe. The guide contains 46 countermeasures that include various types of engineering, educational, and enforcement elements. The countermeasures that were included in the guide have been in place for a long period of time and/or they have proven effective in providing safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. The measures include shared roadway infrastructures, on-road bike facilities such as bike lanes, intersection treatments, traffic calming measures such as speed humps, shared use paths, and different types of signals. A selection tool is available for governments to decide on the right measure that is specific for whatever issue the area is facing. In addition, examples and case studies of each measure is included. We can look at places all over the US and see how different measures have proven successful for the safety.

Overall, the guide shows that it is important to have complete streets to ensure safety for all cyclists and pedestrians. The emphasis is on both education and infrastructure changes to make streets safe for all, which is what we need here in the White Flint sector.