Bike boxes in Madison

Since Tuesday, Madison has been all abuzz about painted bike boxes that are being installed at a major downtown intersection.

What are bike boxes? The Bike Fed's lead planner, Kevin Luecke, explains them this way:

"A bike box is a street marking at an intersection with a traffic signal that requires motorists to stop a short distance before the crosswalk and encourages cyclists to stop in the area between the cars and the crosswalk. The boxes allow cyclists to use the full lane when waiting at a light rather than lining up in the bike lane, which can create issues with traffic turning right. Bike boxes encourage cyclists to wait for the signal in a highly visible position and also gives them priority when the light turns green. After moving through the intersection, cyclists can then merge back into the bike lane."

You can find the City of Madison news release explaining the bike box project here. Wisconsin State Journal reporter Patricia Simms filed this article and video and Chris Murphy of The Capital Times had this commentary.

Thanks to Jenn Jackson at Downtown Madison Inc. for the photo. Additional pics of the construction process are on our Flickr page.