Madison tries a European idea to improve bike safety
Under a bright blue sky at the intersection of Williamson and Wilson streets on Tuesday, Madison city engineers began installing European-styled red pavement markers intended to minimize conflicts between motorists and bicyclists at busy intersections.
The design, formed with a thermoplastic material affixed to the pavement with a blowtorch, includes glass beads reflective to headlights.
The bike boxes are the first project from a European fact-finding tour of bicycle-friendly cities in Germany and the Netherlands that Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and 19 other civic and business made last month.
Assistant City Traffic Engineer Dan McCormick said the city plans to roll out between 10 and 20 similar boxes at other busy intersections this year, but the only one that’s red is the box at Williamson and Wilson streets where they intersect with Blair Street and John Nolen Drive.
The design provides an advanced stop line that allows bicyclists to move in front of motor vehicles that are stopped at the traffic lights. Once the lights turn green, the bikes move out ahead of the motor vehicles.
Bicyclist Bob Arseneau, one of the first to use the new design installed Tuesday, agreed that it added safety for bike riders. “This way, it allows bikes to get in front of the cars,” he said.
Other similar boxes in Madison are outlined in white paint, but the box installed Tuesday uses red because it is the exclusive color used in the Netherlands and Amsterdam, traffic engineers said.
(via State Journal)
