The city of Tempe is launching an experiment to paint bike lanes red at intersections to caution motorists to look out for bicycles.
Portland has chosen the color green and will be repainting all of its blue bike lanes to the new color on the maintenance schedule. Seattle plans to paint bike lanes at four intersections green this spring as an experiment to see if that will prevent right hook collisions.
Meanwhile, Portland has begun installing green bike boxes at 14 intersections to intensify its efforts to prevent right hook collisions.
Tempe
The university town near Phoenix is painting its bike lanes red at two intersections — University Drive and Ash Avenue and at Apache Boulevard and College Avenue. The East Valley Tribune explains that it's actually an epoxy stone treatment, not paint, that's being used.
The city chose red, although the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has voted that green be the accepted color for painted bicycle facilities in the US.
Portland
That's why Portland has chosen to repaint all of its blue-colored bike lanes to green when they come up on future maintenance schedules.
The city's bike boxes that are going in at 14 intersections are also painted green. The bike boxes allow cyclists to pull in front of stopped traffic when waiting for signals to change. It's the city's latest attempt to prevent the “right hook” collisions that have plagued those locations over the years.
BikePortland has reported the recent history of the installation of bike boxes, and the Portland Department of Transportation tells how they work. Other North American cities with bike boxes include New York City, and Victoria and Vancouver, BC.
Seattle
Seattle will conduct an experiment come this spring when bike lanes at four busy intersections are painted green.
Peter Lagerway, bicycling expert with Seattle's transportation department, said that the four intersections are:
Southbound Dexter at Denny Way
Both ends of the Fremont Bridge
North 145th Street where Shoreline's Interurban Trail meets the city limits.
The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board supports the use of bike boxes (.pdf file), but that option doesn't appear to be in the near future.
The solution?
Regardless of color, there's debate over whether these colored bicycle lanes can reduce collisions. John S. Allen examines the issues at “Blue lane: Really a Lane or a Diagonal Crosswalk?”
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