Bike Advocacy 101

A guide to some commonly used terms

June 6, 2012
Anchorage, Alaska's Coastal Trail runs 10 miles from downtown to Kincaid Park. (Roy Neese)

Bike boulevard: a road that’s optimized for bicycle travel, with low speed limits and traffic-calming devices

Bike corral: a cluster of bike racks protected by barricades, frequently in a converted car-parking space

Bike lane: a designated travel lane on the roadway for bicycles

Bike path: a paved trail or pathway completely separated from car traffic

Bike-share system: A program that offers bikes at various locations throughout a city for short-term, public use. Riders can pay as they go or purchase a membership.

Bike station: a community center for bicycle commuters that typically provides showers, lockers, and bike storage

Bikeway: a designated cycling route that may consist of a combination of bicycle paths, lanes, and boulevards

Buffered bike lane: a bike lane with an additional, denoted space separating cars from bicycles

Ciclovia: a festival that temporarily converts city roadways to public spaces for bicyclists and pedestrians

Complete Streets: a policy that requires transportation planners to consider all types of road users—drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians—when building and resurfacing roadways

Cycle track: Also known as a separated bike lane, an on-street bike route that’s physically separated from car traffic by barricades or pylons

Cycling mode share: the percentage of road users in a given city who travel by bike

Greenway: a long, linear park that functions as a transportation corridor  for bicyclists and pedestrians

Road diet: decreasing car travel lanes and parking spaces to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian facilities

Safe Routes to School: a national program that helps communities provide kids with safe bicycle access to schools

Sharrow: A combination of “shared lane” and “arrow,” a road marking that reminds drivers to share the lane and guides cyclists away from the curb

Wayfinding signs: bicycle-specific road signs that denote the time and distance to various city landmarks