Instead of classifying road space for specific vehicles, what if you classify it by size and speed?
Recently in the NSW subforum someone asked about ideas to take to their local council. I thought then that the issue with active transport is that it is really wide ranging. Kids on BMX and someone trundling along with the shopping and commuters on e-skateboards... they are not going to happily co-exist on a 3 foot bike lane.The two urbanists came up with pretty simple way to sort out how to allocate space, creating a few categories designating a few different vehicles based on three different speed ranges and wide, mid-width, and narrow lanes. It’s a way of rethinking how planners in the U.S. especially have allowed different modes to share the road when they don’t really fit together.
“We were working out what kinds of modes should be mixing and how much space you’ll need,” she says. “If you’re a faster vehicle, like a car or a faster cyclist, you need more wiggle room. But a slower lane with scooters, more mellow-paced cyclists, skateboarders, and even joggers could share a whole auto lane.”