New York City has beat out Chicago in building a physically-separated bike lane.

The physically-separated bike lane is touted to be the the road device that will attract new cyclists to the streets and is part of both Chicago’s 2015 Bike Plan and PlaNYC 2030.

The first video of the new lane on 9th Avenue appeared on StreetsBlog. At the beginning of construction, only flexible bollards and lane striping will be present. Eventually, a concrete and landscaped median will fill up the empty, striped space between the bike lane (which abuts the sidewalk on the left side of the street) and the lane for parked cars.

bike lane
From jschumacer.

This shows how bikers are kept away from moving cars. Cyclists are still at risk of left-turning cars, but better road striping and street signs will alert drivers of the changes in this roadway.

The bike lane is also very wide and basically allows the cyclist to temporarily stop having to pay so much attention to road hazards, AKA cars.

Chicago is investigating several physical-separation methods and is planning to implement all kinds for experimentation. I can’t wait.

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