Advisory bike lanes

On Wednesday we went on our second tour of bike facilities in Delft and observed underpasses and bridges designed for bicycles and pedestrians, bike lanes and advisory bike lanes. In this post I will be discussing advisory bike lanes and where they could be implemented in Portland.

What is an advisory bike lane?

An advisory bike lane is different from a bike lane in that it can also be used temporarily by vehicles. The bike lane stripe on the travel lane side is dashed for vehicles to be able to drive into them. Advisory bike lanes are used on roadways that do not have enough width to install a standard bike lane. No centerline is striped on the roadway and vehicles are guided to drive in the center of the road and use the advisory bike lane to pass oncoming cars. In the Netherlands, many are painted red just like a bike lane.

According to Dr. Furth, the Level of Traffic Stress is the same for cyclists in advisory bike lanes as it is for bike lanes showing that cyclists feel just as comfortable and safe in advisory bike lanes. I felt just as comfortable in them and mostly because cars respect cyclists. Vehicles didn’t drive too close to me and I even saw people riding side by side in the advisory bike lane. When oncoming cars needed to pass each other they moved into the advisory bike lanes with no problems. 

The following table is from the PortlandBicycle Plan for 2030 Appendix D: Bikeway Best Practices and shows the design standards as designated by various guidance manuals (CROW – Netherlands, FGSV – Germany, London example). 

One of the roadways that we measured on the outing only had a two way travel lane of 11 feet they are using a much smaller width than the German guidance manual.  Right now, advisory bike lanes are not in the MUTCD but Minneapolis is testing them.

Advisory bike lanes in Portland

I chose Chautauqua Boulevard because it would create a better and more direct northsouth route for cyclists as well as connect the popular Willamette Boulevard bike lane to the separated shared use path along N Columbia Boulevard. The other north-south routes are not as direct and have less safe crossings on Lombard. Existing conditions include centerline striping only and parking on both sides of the street. There are no striped bike lanes.

According to portlandmaps.com the ADT on Chautauqua near Winchell has an ADT of about 4100. The cross-section is 40 feet along Chautauqua with a posted speed limit of 30mph. 

My proposed cross-section would include two 7.5’ parking lanes, two 5’ bike lanes and a 15’ two way travel lane.

What do you think? How would you feel riding in an advisory bike lane? Should the advisory bike lane be green?