Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
DC Streetsblog

Bike Signals Get the Green Light From Engineering Establishment

Think of it as a Christmas gift: On December 24, the gatekeepers who determine which street treatments should become standard tools for American engineers decided to add bike signals to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, sometimes called "the bible of traffic engineering."

Cities will no longer have to undergo expensive additional engineering studies to install bike signals. Image: ##http://bikeportland.org/2011/12/27/on-january-1-bike-traffic-signals-get-the-green-light-in-oregon-64283## Bike Portland##
Cities will no longer have to perform expensive engineering studies to install bike signals. Image: ##http://bikeportland.org/2011/12/27/on-january-1-bike-traffic-signals-get-the-green-light-in-oregon-64283##Bike Portland##
false

The decision should lead to more widespread use of bike signals, which can be used to reduce conflicts between people on bikes and turning drivers, give cyclists a head start at intersections, or create a separate phase entirely for bicycle traffic. They are often used in tandem with protected bike lanes.

Prior to the Christmas Eve vote by the committee that updates the MUTCD, bike signals were considered "experimental." Communities seeking to install them first had to fund expensive engineering studies.

But no longer. In a memo regarding the approval, Federal Highway Administration officials noted that bike signals have been shown to improve safety outcomes as well as compliance with traffic rules by cyclists. Crash rates involving cyclists have been reduced as much as 45 percent following the installation of bike signals, FHWA reports.

Michael Andersen at People for Bikes' Green Lane Project notes that bike signals reduce the risk to cyclists at intersections, which are where most collisions occur.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Friday Briefs: Metro Ridership, CicLAvia, and More

New tools for visualizing Metro transit ridership trends, and CicLAvia will turn 15 next week

October 3, 2025

Metro L.A. River Path Project: Delays and Rising Costs

It will likely take leadership from L.A. City and L.A. County elected officials to get Metro's L.A. River path project out of the limbo it has been trapped in for the last half-decade

October 1, 2025

Last Chance for Input on La Puente’s Housing Element Update

Take the survey: building rule changes allow for faster home development, including on church grounds, commercially zoned land, and to replace lost affordable housing

September 30, 2025
See all posts