Protected lanes lead to almost twice as manny bikers

EcoWatch - New research led by a professor at University of New Mexico (UNM)’s School of Engineering has found that protected bike lanes lead to almost twice as many bicycle commuters as standard bike lanes. “Cities that seek to boost bicycle commute mode shifts should focus on implementing low-stress bicycle facilities if they want to best facilitate the sizable population of less-confident potential riders,” said lead author of the study Nick Ferenchak, an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at UNM and director of the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety, in a press release from the university.

Wesley Marshall, a University of Colorado at Denver professor of civil engineering, co-authored the paper.  The pair of researchers said roughly 1.8 times as many bikers were found to use protected bike lanes than standard bike lanes. That number jumped to 4.3 times as many when compared with blocks that had no bike lanes at all.

The researchers examined 14,011 blocks in 28 cities throughout the United States across six years of data to come up with their resu