---
title: "Conventional Bike Lane"
url: "https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/conventional-bike-lane/"
id: "ELM-CBL-34"
description: "A striped, dedicated on-street lane for bicycle travel, separated from the adjacent vehicle travel lane by paint markings alone, with no physical buffer or barrier."
updated: "2026-09-26"
---

# Conventional Bike Lane

`ELM-CBL-34`

Situational / Discouraged Element

Conventional Bike Lane

A striped, dedicated on-street lane for bicycle travel, separated from the adjacent vehicle travel lane by paint markings alone, with no physical buffer or barrier.

## Related Media

The items below come from outside the Commonway System, external videos, podcasts, and articles related to this page's topic, not part of the guidebook itself.

Aligned

### [Dutch-style intersection design: bike-friendly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzi1Q4xCTA)

BicycleDutch

Shows the protected-intersection design vocabulary, continuous cycle tracks, corner refuge islands, separated signal phasing, that underpins CS's Protected Intersection pattern and the Corridor retrofit paths built around it.

## Why this pattern exists

A conventional bike lane provides a clearly delineated, expected space for cyclists that a shared travel lane does not, improving predictability for both cyclists and drivers at a lower cost and space requirement than a buffered or protected facility. This pattern exists to document where this baseline level of separation is adequate versus where a stronger treatment is warranted.[1]

## Key considerations

-   Adequacy depends heavily on adjacent vehicle speed and volume; paint-only separation becomes less appropriate as speed and volume increase[2]
-   Lane width should accommodate safe passing distance from parked cars where relevant, to avoid the door-zone conflict
-   Should be considered a baseline treatment rather than the ceiling; upgrading to a buffered or protected facility should be the default aspiration on higher-stress corridors

## Related patterns

[Buffered Bike Lane](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/buffered-bike-lane.md) (ELM-BBL-35), [Protected Bike Lane/Cycle Track](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/protected-bike-lane-cycle-track.md) (ELM-PBL-37) (stronger-separation alternatives); [Sharrow](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/sharrow.md) (ELM-SHR-39) (a lesser treatment for contexts where even this pattern is not feasible)

## References

1.  Legal / regulatory [AASHTO, _Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities_. Adopted by most state DOTs as the foundational lane-width and design standard.](https://store.transportation.org/item/publicationdetail/5371)
2.  Precedent-based [NACTO, _Urban Bikeway Design Guide_, 3rd Ed. (2025), "Design User, Design Speed, and Design Year." Protected lanes become the only all-ages-and-abilities-permissible option above 25 mph or 6,000 vehicles per day.](https://nacto.org/latest/urban-bikeway-design-guide-design-user-design-speed-and-design-year/)