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

Want Cyclists To Feel Protected? Then <I>Protect</I> Them!

Photo: Seattle Department of Transportation.

There's good reason bicyclists feel safer inside bike lanes.

A new study by the University of Minnesota finds that drivers are less likely to pass cyclists at a dangerously close distance if there's a bike lane — particularly if the bike lane is physical separated from traffic.

The findings are rather intuitive, but it's still helpful to have hard data backing up the case for first-class on-street bike infrastructure.

A team of researchers used a bike-mounted radar and GoPro cameras to measure passing distance for 3,000 bike-car interactions on five types of streets: those with a buffered bike lane, a bollard-protected bike lane, no bike lane, just a shoulder, a standard bike lane and one configured as a bike boulevard.

Regardless of street design, very few drivers passed closer than three feet — but a majority of those close passes, 64 percent in fact, occurred on roads without bike lanes. And there were zero unsafe passings on roads with bollard-protected bike lanes or buffered bike lanes.

"[It's] evidence that investments in these types of bike facilities may reduce potentially risky interactions between vehicles and cyclists,” said Greg Lindsey, the University of Minnesota professor who co-authored the study.

Make that male cyclists. The study also found that drivers behaved more dangerously around female riders, passing, on average, three inches closer to female cyclists. Of all the unsafe passes in the study, 73 percent occurred against female cyclists. Studies show that women favor protected bike infrastructure because they tend to feel safer. Here's more evidence why.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

L.A. City Approves Measure HLA Ordinance

Both City Council and Mayor approved the city HLA ordinance, which goes into effect on August 18.

July 17, 2025

Supes Move to Restore Measure J

Supes look to fix an oopsie that lead to accidentally repealing criminal justice reforms.

July 16, 2025

City Breaks Ground on Mid-City Greenways Bike/Walk Improvements

The 4+mile Mid-City Greenways project is focused on three streets: Rosewood Avenue, Formosa Avenue, and Orange Drive

July 15, 2025

SGV Connect 138 – Reclaimers Resisting Eviction

Benito Flores, one of the Reclaimers, is resisting eviction to draw attention to inequities with how housing laws are being applied to people experiencing homelessness

See all posts