"Bike Boxes" look like green squares placed at what seems like random points in an intersection, but officials explain those squares are actually saving lives.
"If you're driving and you happen to see a bicyclist using a bike box, they're going to be in front of you, when the light turns green, that's when we all can get our turn to go through the intersection to proceed through the roadway," explained Heidi Goedhart with the Utah Department of Transportation.
She said the two-stage turn box exposes cyclists less to oncoming vehicles and allows them to stay with the flow of traffic as they make their way through intersections.First, the cyclist will stop at the intersection. When the light straight in front of them turns green, the cyclist then proceeds to the bike box, which is where they'll wait until the light changes again and they can proceed to the left with the flow of traffic.
An educational video by UDOT depicts how to travel through the intersection on Redwood Road at Pioneer Crossing and 2100 North. In 2022, Utah roads were historically dangerous for bikers, with a record 15 cyclists killed and nearly 50 seriously injured on the roads."The highest concentration of bike boxes are actually within Salt Lake City on several key bike routes, and roadways that have bike lanes on them," Goedhart explained."So 300 South has a number of them. But you're starting to see them more on UDOT facilities.
DaniRuberti Well, at least they tell bikes to act like a pedestrian for a left turn instead of putting them in the middle of speeding traffic. But the left turn requiring a bike to stop on the dime in a small box with traffic coming on 3 sides doesn't seem too safe.
DaniRuberti Seems like a terribly uncivilized intersection to begin with -- for cars, for bikes, for people, for civilization. And pretty bad land use around it, too. I generally think of Utah DOT as pretty good for surface street cycling.
DaniRuberti UDOT has car culture tunnel vision. People on bicycles, pedestrians , children, wildlife, pets and a pleasant lifestyle are not given enough consideration by this organization and the results are evident by the number of deaths and injuries.
DaniRuberti We really need a true state-wide safe systems culture and policy. Design matters so much, and we can’t keep painting things on the pavement and assuming it is safe. Context also matters when deciding bike facility types and crossings.
DaniRuberti 1. It’s not “new”. 2. It’s not safe. 3. There are better more effective options that UDOT refuses to utilize because it doesn’t matter how many people die as long as so and so makes it to his appointment early…
DaniRuberti Need walk over and over passes for pedestrians and bicyclists-elevate the cause and don’t string them along the sides of errant and callous drivers
DaniRuberti So... putting cyclists MORE in the center of cars traveling from multiple directions in a way that is extremely confusing for drivers. Safer?! Hard pass. How about protected bike lanes and dedicated paths for major transit routes, UtahDOT?
DaniRuberti Yeah as someone who was almost run over whilst jogging today I can relate.
DaniRuberti If people would simply stop being dumb af when riding motorcycles, then we wouldn't need this. I drive all day long for work, and MANY TIMES I'll be driving at normal speed, and suddenly a motorcycle would appear out of nowhere and speed up 20+mph more than what Im doing.
DaniRuberti lol just like we have crosswalks and people still get killed in them. Try starting with the police enforcing yielding to pedestrians, running red lights and stop signs, and actually looking before pulling out.
DaniRuberti Cars are the killers
DaniRuberti Barf
DaniRuberti