New Bicycle Markings on Trade Street

 

You may have noticed the new shared lane markings for bicycles on Trade Street.  We reached out to Matthew Burczyk, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, City of Winston-Salem Department of Transportation, and he shared the following regarding of the new lane markings:

"We use shared lane markings where we want to call attention to bicycle traffic on a street, but we do not have the roadway width for a dedicated bike lane. Trade Street is about 36’-38’ wide with 7’ parking lanes on both sides, so the travel lanes are about 11’-12’ wide…not enough room to have a dedicated bike lane. The shared lane markings serve two purposes. The first is to remind drivers that cyclists will be on the road and that they can use the full width of the lane if necessary. The second is to assist cyclists with lane positioning, which is particularly important for corridors like Trade Street where there is high turnover in on-street parking. In this type of street, we want cyclists to ride outside of the “door zone” to avoid crashes as drivers open their doors. This project is one of ten bike marking projects currently underway that include a combination of bike lane markings and shared lane markings."

Link to the Bike Master Plan for some context of how this project fits into the larger community bicycling plan.   https://www.cityofws.org/832/Bike-Plan.