The Background

Broad Street is being resurfaced by NCDOT this summer. The Transportation Department, in collaboration with Alta Planning + Design, is taking this opportunity to re-stripe the street to improve safety for all users. Broad Street is a key link in the bicycle network in Durham, connecting important destinations like Duke’s East Campus, the North Carolina School of Science and Math and commercial districts along the street. It would also connect to bike lanes further north on Broad Street, and to ones on Main Street and Club Boulevard. The project is moving very quickly and you should know about a critical issue with designs proposed by staff.

Bike Durham has followed this design process closely from the beginning. Two of the three initial designs included some variation of current best practice— protected bike lanes. Protected bike lanes have been shown to increase cycling rates and reduce crash rates. Bike Durham and the larger bicycle community supported those two designs, one of which included parking-protected bike lanes— a common design for streets with retail businesses like those along Broad Street.

The Problem: No Physical Protection

At the latest public meeting, Bike Durham and others in the bicycle community were surprised to see that neither of the preferred designs were chosen. Instead, the City advanced the only design that offered no physical protection for cyclists. While the new design does include bike lanes, they are not protected from the regular travel lanes.