The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is coming to a close, and we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the impacts our center has had. See below for some of the outcomes of NITC research on creating safer streest for active transportation.

• First, read about Lessons From The Green Lanes, the first comprehensive evaluation of protected bicycle lanes in North America.
• Next, see how NITC funding has contributed to Rethinking Streets, furthering the Complete Streets movement.
• Finally, read about how NITC research has changed bus stops in Utah for the better.

Lessons from the Green Lanes

Protected bike lanes, sometimes called cycle tracks, are on-street lanes separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts to help organize the street and make riding a bike appealing for people of all ages and abilities. NITC research led by Christopher Monsere, Jennifer Dill, Kelly Clifton and Nathan McNeil of Portland State University evaluated the risks and rewards of cities' investment in putting these facilities on the ground.

The researchers found that bicycle ridership increased on all the studied streets, with an average increase of 72 percent. Some people said they cycled more in general because of the new lanes. Some said they would have taken another mode of transportation, such as driving or transit, or used another route if the protected lane hadn’t been there.

"For some people, it’s completely changed their whole commute," Liz Cornish, executive director of the Baltimore City cycling advocacy organization Bikemore, told CityLab in 2016. 

The study also revealed that protected lanes don't only feel safer – they are safer. In the 144 hours of video analyzed for safety, with nearly 12,900 bicycles through the intersections, no collisions or near collisions were observed. This included both intersections with turn lanes and those with bicycle-specific traffic signals.

Overall, large majorities of all road users supported adding more protected lanes. Of people living near protected bike lanes, 76 percent support adding the lanes in additional locations, whether they use them or not. Drivers thought traffic became more predictable and that fewer bicycles were mixed with motor-vehicle traffic. Most drivers said congestion and drive time didn’t change; among those who did, more people thought it got worse than better. 

"The timing is great," said Martha Roskowski, vice president of People for Bikes. "The surge of interest in protected bike lanes in cities and towns across the country is being matched by agency work to better understand, refine and standardize the designs."

Rethinking Streets

The predominant approach toward street function on major roads in the United States has been to emphasize mobility and throughput of vehicles. The "Complete Streets" movement challenges some of this paradigm, emphasizing that streets should accommodate multiple modes of travel and should often be considered destinations themselves.

Marc Schlossberg of the University of Oregon led the NITC-funded production of a series of books, Rethinking Streets, which offer case studies and photographic examples of streets that were redesigned to better accommodate people. The books do not show hypothetical street re-designs, but actual examples from typical communities to show how they did what they did and see what resulted from the change.

Planners and engineers all over the country have used the books to inform public input processes, communicate potential results of Complete Streets strategies, and help make decisions about practice.

The first book in the series, published in 2014, was Rethinking Streets: An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Complete Street Transformations. This book's aim was to document a variety of existing and implemented examples of Complete Street improvements from around the country, visually document their design and context, and compare actual outcomes in order to create an evidence-based design guide for transportation planners, traffic engineers, policymakers, and communities across the country. The book makes it easier for communities to use the evidence from other communities to help make decisions about retrofitting their streets to better support multimodal options and the creation of placemaking with their streets. 

The next installment, Rethinking Streets for People on Bikes, came out in 2019. Rethinking Streets for Bikes highlights high-quality street retrofit projects that prioritize bicycle transportation. Each case study includes information for key stakeholders, including transportation engineers, planners, policy makers, and community members. The case studies are diverse; there are seven different project types in cities across the United States and Canada.

Finally, in response to the 2020 pandemic, the third book was published: Rethinking Streets During COVID-19. COVID-era needs accelerated the process  that many communities use to make street transitions such as better accommodations for walking, biking, and outdoor dining. Many communities quickly understood that the street is a public good that can serve broader public needs more urgent than the free flow or the storage of private vehicles. This book captures some quick changes to city streets that occurred in response to societal needs during COVID, with two open questions: 1) what changes will endure post-COVID?; and 2) will communities be more open to street reconfigurations, including quick and inexpensive trials, going forward?

The Role of Bus Stop Features in Facilitating Accessibility

A bus stop can be anything from a simple signpost stuck in the grass, to a comfortable shelter with seating and paved access to the sidewalk. How much do these features impact bus ridership?

A NITC research project led by Keith Bartholomew of the University of Utah and Arlie Adkins of the University of Arizona evaluated the impacts on ridership of improved facilities at bus stops along the number 41 bus line in Salt Lake City. The results had significant implications for transit agencies.

The study, co-funded by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), found a 5.9% increase in boardings after improvements were made to the series of bus stops in Salt Lake City - compared to only a 1.7% overall increase in boarding at stops in a control group that were not improved.

The bus stop improvements – which include adding shelters and seating as well as stronger compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – also correlated with a decrease in ADA paratransit demand in the area. These two results—increased boardings on scheduled-service buses and reductions in paratransit use—suggest that perhaps some ADA paratransit riders were switching to scheduled-bus service for at least some of their trips. To test this possibility, the team assessed how often buses were deploying their wheelchair ramps. They found that increased ramp deployments were, in fact, significantly associated with bus stops that had been improved.

The changes in ADA paratransit demand, however, were much smaller in magnitude than the overall change in bus stop boardings: In other words, the data demonstrate that improved stops are appealing to riders of all abilities, not just those who qualify for ADA paratransit.

These implications informed UTA's approach to bus stop improvements, and offer evidence that can support the need for increased accessibility features for other transit agencies as well.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. We pursue our theme — improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities — through research, education and technology transfer.