The Florida Department of Transportation, District 5, gathered transit leaders from FDOT, local cities and counties, Lynx, SunRail, MetroPlan Orlando, Bike/Walk Central Florida, and many more to learn the do’s and don’ts of bus facility placement and design.
Cyclist and pedestrian safety are considered in the new Accessing Transit: Design Handbook for Florida Bus Passenger Facilities. Take mid-block bus stop placement for instance, pg 117 of the handbook states, “Because of safety concerns…mid-block crossings should be well-lit and well-marked. Some analyses have shown that 50 percent of all urban pedestrian crashes involved dashes into the street at mid-block locations or intersections.”
According to the FDOT presentation, “Every bus stop is a pedestrian crossing, whether it is designed that way or not.” The time is now to adjust mid-block bus stops from this:
to look more like this.
BWCF was glad to here that research is being conducted in Ft. Lauderdale on adding more space for bikes along bus service routes. Currently, Lynx/Lymmo buses can carry up to 2 bikes in the front of the bus. Adding additional bike rack space can increase the necessary turning radius of the bus 1.5 feet. This has caused problems with implementation in the past, but Ft. Lauderdale seems to have perfected the 3-bike rack, and is now testing a 4-bike rack. We look forward to possibility of Lynx adopting the 3-bike rack in the future.
Although somewhat dated, this Commute Orlando article gives a great synopsis of riding Lynx with a bike in tow.
