KITCHENER— The bike box has come to Kitchener.

The city installed the new street markings a few weeks ago. The bright green square designates a space for cyclists to wait in front of the cars at a red light, so that cyclists are more visible and are the first to go when the light changes.

"The cyclists congregate in the bike box and are given the right of way, so they get to go first," said Peter Dedes, chair of Kitchener's cycling advisory committee.

Letting cyclists go first should reduce the dangers of turning left, he said. As well, he said, it should reduce "right hooks," where a cyclist who is headed straight is struck by a vehicle turning right.

Cyclist Marta Generoux said she was thrilled to see them go in on Water Street, at the intersections with King Street West and Joseph Street.

"I think it's a great way of letting motorists know that cycling is a means of transportation in our area," Generoux said. "It sends the message that cyclists aren't going to go away, and more and more infrastructure is being created for us."

Still, it appears not every cyclist or motorist understands how the new boxes work. On a sunny afternoon this week, the few cyclists who rode up to the boxes hugged the curb rather than taking the whole lane as they're entitled to. While most motorists did stop behind the box at red lights, slightly less than half the drivers observed stopped on top of the box.

Generoux said she has seen cyclists use them correctly. "It just takes time with anything new," she said. "Just like roundabouts."

A year-long study by Portland State University in 2010 seems to bear out her optimism. It found that 77 per cent of cyclists felt safer at intersections with bike boxes. It also found drivers and cyclists adjusted quickly to the boxes.

But to encourage that learning, members of the cycling advisory committee will be handing out pamphlets this Saturday, at the Kitchener Market from 10 to noon, explaining to both cyclists and drivers how the boxes work.

The boxes are the first in Kitchener, but not the first in the region. There's been one in Waterloo at Davenport and Lexington roads since 2011, and the city has plans to install two more this fall at the intersections of Lexington with Bridge Street and University Avenue.

Kitchener joins several other cities that already have the boxes, including Toronto, Edmonton, New York, Minneapolis and several cities in Europe.

Unlike the box in Waterloo, which has white markings like any street markings, Kitchener opted to go for bright green boxes to increase visibility. "These bike boxes are great," Generoux said. "They're very visible. You'd have to be blind to miss them."

The city paid about $5,000 to install the boxes along Water, said Josh Joseph, Kitchener's transportation demand management co-ordinator. The boxes are not painted on, but made of plastic, so should last at least five to seven years, he said.

The Water Street locations were chosen because the street was being rebuilt, and it was a good opportunity to beef up the cycling infrastructure, Joseph said.

The city intends to add more boxes as opportunities arise, he said.

"We're committed to improving conditions for cyclists and promoting cycling as a mode of transportation and for recreation," Joseph added. "There's less traffic congestion, improved air quality. It's becoming more and more apparent that cycling is good for cities."

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For more information, see www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitchener/Bikeway_Types.asp.

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