Challenge

Prior to the formation of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), transportation planning and design guidance for urban environments was limited, particularly for walking and bicycling. In recognition that cities needed to do more to improve safety and comfort for people on bikes, one of NACTO’s first initiatives was Cities for Cycling, which sought to bring together the experience of the best bicycling cities in the world in a comprehensive guide.

Solution

Kittelson was part of the team that developed the first Urban Bikeway Design Guide. Our contributions included researching bike facilities and intersection treatments, offering engineering insight into the appropriateness and applicability of each of treatment, and aligning the recommendations with other engineering guidance.

As NACTO has released new editions of the guide, we’ve been honored to contribute. We provided a technical review and contributed guidance and exhibits on roundabouts and signal timing for bicyclists for the third edition, which provides more specific design guidance to help cities get more and better bicycling facilities on the ground.