BeyondDC takes a closer look at how to make bike lanes even safer. [going green?]

Cycle tracks provide bikers with a high degree of separation from both automobiles and pedestrians. They are, by and large, very safe pieces of infrastructure. The one weakness of cycle tracks is at intersections, where car drivers turning out of the main roadway lanes parallel to the cycle track and onto cross streets may not always remember to watch for cyclists.

One addition to the cycle track that would surely be welcomed by cyclists would be green zebra striping. Zebra striped pedestrian crossings are extremely common all over DC, and the city has recently experimented with green bike lanes. It seems like common sense to combine two successful ideas in order to improve the safety of our facilities.

Here is a quick rendering of what this idea might look like: