Bicycles have the upper hand on cars in that they’re safer for the environment, healthier for the user, and generally have an easier time getting around in dense urban settings. One area where bikes will always lose to cars, however, is weight.
Bikes aren’t heavy enough to trigger the underground sensors that change traffic lights, so at many intersections, a cyclist has to either wait for a car to come, push the pedestrian crossing button, or blow through the red light.
The City of Rochester is looking to change that by installing cameras that detect when a bicycle is stopped at an intersection and trigger the process to change the light. The plan is to use the cameras on bike boulevards, a series of connected streets that help cyclists avoid main roads.
Rochester has been proactive in terms of fostering a bike culture and has implemented many innovations to make life easier and safer for the local cycling community. The cameras are the latest example.
Two cameras have been installed so far: one at the intersection of Monroe Avenue and Canterbury Road, and the other at Harvard Street and Culver Road. Canterbury and Harvard are part of Rochester’s first bike boulevard, and speed humps, bike markings, and bike wayfinding signs have been installed on these streets, too.
Erik Frisch, the city’s transportation specialist, says that more detection cameras will go up as more boulevard miles are created. The city plans a total of 53 miles, he says.
In addition to bike boulevards, Frisch says, cameras could be used at intersections with bike boxes. The boxes are spaces at the front of intersections where cyclists can pull ahead of cars and wait for the light to change.
“It gives bikes a little head start and a little more visibility if they’re in the intersection,” Frisch says.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2016.
Awesome! I’m wondering how many miles of boulevard have been established so far; and is there a timeline somewhere showing when all 53 miles would be completed?
Brian, the first one is only two miles. The city says it will do four or five miles this year in coordination with its annual street maintenance program. They don’t have a timeline for the whole 53 miles.
Lots of good stuff here: cityofrochester.gov/bikerochester/
This is great. I’ve been at intersections where the light, literally, never changes for a bicycl!. It gets old.
Great news! I’ve been at intersections where the light, literally, never changes for a person riding a bicycle. It gets old.
It’s not triggered by weight. The vehicle detector is an induction loop that senses ferrous metal.
Fun trick: steel-framed bikes can trigger the sensor by laying them down flat on the ground over an edge of the loop.
East and Oxford would be a good one for this!
Speaking as a cyclist/pedestrian/bus patron who doesn’t drive, I could do without the speed bumps on Canterbury. They slow down emergency vehicles, and don’t reduce accidents.
I think it’s great that our infrastructure is becoming more bicycle friendly. However, there aren’t enough bicycle commuters to justify such expenditures. I wonder what’s being done, from an anti-poverty perspective, to help the able-bodied jobless.
We need some kind of affirmative action that would give priority to someone able to bike to work. What good are bike lanes that are rarely used?
sounds like a waste of money. More and better bike lanes along with more places for cyclists to lock their bikes would be money better spent. I am avid city cyclist and have no problem navigating across a street, i do however have problems with busy roads with no shoulder. My suggestion for the city would be to create more park and ride locations that are bike lane accessable. This would invite recreational riders along with commuters from the burbs more enjoyable access to city biking. It really is easy and fun to bike through the city!
markopolo- The challenge with increasing bike lanes and lane widths in general is that this costs far more money, planning, time and the agreement of other road users then the traffic signal cyclist sensing cameras do. Far more. I agree that when streets are redone any extra lane width should be considered. But expect strong resistance from land owners.
To get new riders to consider using their bike as transportation (and not just recreation) often requires a lot of “activation energy” in the sense of making these less comfortable in traffic riders be at ease and have a sense of safety. These cameras are a low cost step in that direction. But by no means the last step. Andy.
To Mike bruton and others who suggest that bike infrastructure improvement expenditures are not justified by bicycle traffic volume: This is usually the case in regions both within North America and worldwide which are beginning to establish multimodal transportation support. The volume of pioneers does not justify the investment, but invariably the pioneers PLUS the investment in infrastructure results in a rapid and self-reinforcint increase of bike and pedestrian traffic. This not only reduces congestion, it also makes affected neighborhoods more livable and desirable for business. The economic, not to mention the social, benefit to the streets which have bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can be shown to greatly exceed the expenditure.