Picking Streets for a Low-Stress Bike Map
Here’s the framework we’ve developed over the last eight years to choose the streets that go on a Low-Stress Bike Map. It ties closely to “Level of Traffic Stress,” where infrastructure is sorted into four tiers. LTS 1 is suitable for children; LTS 4 is only for “strong and fearless” cyclists.
On Bike Streets maps, suggested routes show up in pink. Based on the underlying OpenStreetMap data, including facility type, speed limit, etc., we attempt to calculate the Level of Traffic Stress. When you select a given Suggestion, we add a border to the pink line showing the LTS on each part of the suggested route. The total length of those segments is shown in the panel on the left.
We try to only include LTS 1-2 infrastructure on a Low-Stress Bike Map — the dark blue map lines and light blue route. For riders who are more confident, we have our “More Traffic” map — the dashed grey map lines and light grey route.
Step 1. Start the Low-Stress Map with trails. These are the major bike arteries.
Step 2. Add protected bike lanes. These often provide critical, high-comfort ways to get through dense urban areas.
Step 3. Add bike boulevards. (Also known as “greenways” and “neighborhood bikeways.”) As with trails and protected bike lanes, this is still formal bike infrastructure.
Take a step back and identify the gaps in the map, illustrated here with the Low-Stress Buffalo Bike Map.
Step 4. Fill the gaps with the quiet residential streets that create connectivity through neighborhoods and provide the closest access to signalized crossings at arterial streets.
Step 5. Include occasional sidewalk sections, some of which are walk-your-bike, that make it possible to connect short, but challenging gaps at arterial streets.
This is where we draw the line on routes that go on a Low-Stress Bike Map.
Streets that Generally Don’t Make the Cut for a Low-Stress Map
We don’t include buffered bike lanes on collectors and arterials because the Level of Traffic Stress is too high.
Same with painted bike lanes on high volume, high speed streets. Though this is the most conventional form factor of bike infrastructure, it doesn’t have an adequately low Level of Traffic Stress for riders of all ages and abilities.
Nor do we include old school vehicular cycling routes where people on bikes ride in traffic on collectors and arterials.
For more confident cyclists, “More Traffic” routing on Bike Streets includes these higher Level of Traffic Stress facilities — in addition to the five types of infrastructure we look for in the creation of a Low-Stress Bike Map.
General Heuristics for Unsignalled Intersections
An inevitable challenge in creating a Low-Stress Bike Map is in the crossing of significant boundaries: rivers, highways, and arterial streets in particular. This is generally how we think about intersections that don’t have traffic signals.
Allow
Residential street crossings. (highway=residential in OpenStreetMap.)
2-lane collector crossings. (highway=tertiary, highway=secondary)
1-way arterial crossing when there is a signal upstream that creates gaps for crossing. (highway=primary)
2-way arterial crossings if there is a pedestrian refuge island. (highway=primary)
Avoid
Collector and arterial crossings with more than two lanes and a painted center line. (highway=tertiary, highway=secondary, highway=primary)
2-way arterial crossings without a substantial pedestrian refuge island. (highway=secondary, highway=primary)