Engineering
We envision a community where...
infrastructure is designed to empower people of all ages and abilities to feel safe bicycling on a connected and well-maintained Better Bike Network.
engineering:
three main goals
1. Build a better connected bike network.
Intuitive, visible, and interconnected routes enable and make it easier for people to bike from where they live to the everyday destinations where they work, study, shop, and play.
2. Make it safe and comfortable for everyone to ride.
Reducing exposure to high vehicle speeds and traffic volume improves the actual and perceived safety of potential bicycle riders, including children, seniors, women, and people with disabilities.
3. Ensure the bike network is well-maintained.
Debris and potholes can cause people bicycling to swerve wildly, crash, or avoid certain routes altogether, negating the safety and connectivity gains from a well-designed bicycle network.
current bike infrastructure
Our bike network falls short due to its disconnected bike routes and lack of dedicated bike lanes, which detract from safe and comfortable bicycling.
disconnected routes
Existing bicycle infrastructure in and around Ithaca is poorly networked and fails to provide safe routes between neighborhoods and connections to everyday destinations such as grocery stores, schools, and commercial districts.
Current Bike Network Deficiencies
Dedicated bike trails are our community’s most desirable bike infrastructure but are limited to the outskirts of our urban area and end where the city streets begin.
Existing painted bike lanes average less than a mile (0.6 mi) in length and are disconnected from each other.
Existing bike lanes and bike boulevard features often cease where traffic and parking pressures are highest, increasing risk in areas where people most need protection from moving vehicles.
There’s little to no adequate bike infrastructure around major everyday destinations such as grocery stores, shopping areas, public transit hubs, and other essential services.
Thanks to anonymized location data captured by Ithaca’s smart bikeshare system and analyzed in our 2020 Lime Trip Data Report, we can see that people prefer to bike on streets with bike infrastructure compared to parallel streets with no bike infrastructure. However, we can also see that people bike most often to grocery stores, transit hubs, and commercial districts even when there is no bike infrastructure available. We believe more people of all ages and abilities who currently aren’t biking to these everyday destinations would choose to do so when bike infrastructure is implemented to ensure their safety and comfort.
Map of existing bike infrastructure in Ithaca’s flats labeled by the way they meet Better Bike Network guidelines. The Better Bike Network is the proposed action to address Engineering goals.
people feel unsafe biking
Local research has shown that people feel uncomfortable and unsafe bicycling next to moving vehicles, especially if vehicular traffic is fast or heavy. The 2020 Ithaca Bike Use and Attitudes Survey revealed that a majority of local residents (57%) and students (68%) felt unsafe bicycling next to moving vehicles, and they considered it one of the major barriers to bicycling locally. Other surveys also show that road safety is top of mind among people that currently bike or want to start bicycling in and around Ithaca. This is a barrier that must be addressed with adequate bike infrastructure.
In our 2018 survey, we asked Ithacans what bike infrastructure they felt most comfortable using. Most people responded that they felt comfortable using bike paths or trails, protected bike lanes, and low-speed & low-traffic streets. Painted bike lanes were still rated “comfortable” by a majority of respondents, but women felt disproportionately unsafe using them. Most people (66%) found streets without bike infrastructure unsafe. If we are to build bike infrastructure that truly works for everyone, we must take these inequities into account by focusing our efforts on methods that separate bikes from moving vehicles when possible, and shared with vehicles only when traffic is low and slow.
Tompkins County Resident Testimonials
“I want to see more bike lanes! I’m a brand new bicyclist thanks to Bike Walk Tompkins’ learn-to-rides, but now I need to feel safe when biking on the street to get to the places I need to go!”
— Laurie K.
“I take my kids to the grocery store with me and it’s mostly fine, but there are some streets where I wish there was a bike lane. I definitely don’t travel on those streets at night if I can avoid it.”
— Amanda K.
![“I’m not very comfortable on city streets. It is a pleasure to take a ride every once in a while when it’s not too crowded like [on a Sunday], but I’m not comfortable otherwise.”— Patty D.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5eb0440c5352ab4476a41536/1604607980381-QNAONESOROIF7LS50K70/Patty+posing+with+her+bike)
“I’m not very comfortable on city streets. It is a pleasure to take a ride every once in a while when it’s not too crowded like [on a Sunday], but I’m not comfortable otherwise.”
— Patty D.
Recommended Next Steps
Let’s build a Better Bike Network that gives everyone in and around Ithaca the opportunity to bike safely to the places they need to go.
introducing the better bike network
While Tompkins County’s ever-expanding trail network is connects outlying communities to Ithaca and existing quiet streets make it easy to navigate inside a neighborhood, there is a lack of “main roads” for people to travel safely and comfortably across urban area on bikes. We need to start building this “missing middle” and build it so that everyone has the opportunity to start bicycling safely and comfortably regardless of age or ability. We call these essential main routes the Better Bike Network (BBN), which will provide a higher standard of connectivity, safety, and maintenance to people currently and future bicyclists.
Connectivity
Our bike network needs to be built for people’s daily life, connecting everyday destinations and neighborhoods to each other.
Safety
Infrastructure must be designed to prioritize the comfort and safety of all kinds of people bicycling.
Maintenance
Road hazards can make otherwise suitable bicycle infrastructure dangerous to ride on, particularly for new riders.
how we’ll get there
The Better Bike Network is ambitious, but we can build it together in cooperation with municipalities and relevant stakeholders route-by-route, step-by-step.
better bike network routes and projects
We developed a concept map for the Better Bike Network with the help of municipal stakeholders using survey and bikeshare data and following the Better Bike Network guidelines. Six Better Bike Routes will make it safe and comfortable for everyone to navigate the streets of Ithaca’s Flats on a bike and bring our neighborhoods closer together. For each bike route, we developed a list of needed projects and highlighted key projects that we should start implementing immediately.
