If you’ve been out and about lately, you’ve probably noticed some changes to several city streets with the incorporation of new bike facilities. The Office of Transportation Planning has been working on a “complete street retrofit” project which reallocates street space to better accommodate the full range of road users.
Retrofitting can improve streets for everyone. For example, a four lane street can be retrofitted to provide dedicated, safer spaces for turning vehicles and bicyclists while also improving flow and safety for vehicles in the two thru lanes. The number of rear-end collisions are reduced by moving turning vehicles out of the travel lane and the number of bicyclists increases with dedicated, striped facilities.