--- title: "Bicycle Boulevard / Neighborhood Greenway" url: "https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/local-streets/bicycle-boulevard/" id: "LOC-BBG-12" description: "A Local street where traffic calming and diversion discourage through car traffic while prioritizing bicycle through-movement in the shared roadway." updated: "2026-09-26" --- # Bicycle Boulevard / Neighborhood Greenway `LOC-BBG-12` Recommended Local Bicycle Boulevard / Neighborhood Greenway A Local street where traffic calming and diversion discourage through car traffic while prioritizing bicycle through-movement in the shared roadway. Typical at: Compact Urban Core Suburban is an edge case, thinning for the same reason as [Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/continuous-sidewalk.md): a disconnected, cul-de-sac-heavy grid gives it fewer parallel, low-traffic routes to use. Undeveloped and Rural are unlikely pairings. ## Illustration **Type:** Paired. **Format:** Segment / cross-section (~2.8:1). Typical condition An ordinary Local street cross-section: unrestricted through car traffic, a cyclist taking the lane alongside car volumes, no diverters, no wayfinding. Commonway recommendation A modal diverter or traffic circle blocks car through-movement while a bicycle-width gap passes through; wayfinding signage marks the route; a calmed, low-volume, low-speed shared roadway. Callouts 1. (Physical) Modal diverter / traffic circle blocking through car movement; a bicycle-width gap allows continuous bicycle passage. 2. (Physical) Wayfinding signage marking the route as a through bicycle connection. 3. (Control-timing) At crossings of higher-volume streets, a signalized or protected crossing reduces bicyclist delay.[1] No supplemental illustration needed. ## 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 ### [The Dutch Solution for Safer Sidewalks - Continuous Sidewalks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfBpQgLXUc) Not Just Bikes Shows the same sidewalk-continuity concept behind Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction in practice: the roadway rises to meet the sidewalk at a crossing, rather than the sidewalk dropping to meet the road, so geometry itself signals the priority shift. Aligned ### [More Lanes Are (Still) A Bad Thing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZwOAIect4) Not Just Bikes Lays out induced demand, Braess's Paradox, and traffic evaporation with real case studies (LA 405, Houston Katy Freeway, Cheonggyecheon), then shows the Dutch one-lane-plus-transit cross-section as the actual fix. ## Speed and modal hierarchy Design speed & speed limit \[SPEED LIMIT 20\] Follows the Local default: 20 mph hard maximum, no exceptions. A separate 85th/95th-percentile operating-speed threshold of 25 mph is used as a trigger for additional traffic calming, not as a substitute design speed. See [Design Speed & Speed Limits](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/design-speed.md). Modal hierarchy Bicycle > Pedestrian > Transit > Vehicle > Freight An override justified because shared-street bicycle priority is this Typology's entire reason for existing. ## Design notes Traffic calming and diverters discourage through car traffic while retaining local access, the reverse of a Collector-scale Bike Highway / Greenway's full physical separation. NACTO's guidance sets the design threshold where the treatment works: daily motor vehicle volume at or below 3,000 and a 95th-percentile speed at or below 25 mph, with heavier calming needed above those figures.[1] A comparison of Berkeley's bicycle boulevards to their parallel arterials found bicyclist collision rates two to eight times lower on the boulevards.[2] ## Related patterns [Bike Highway / Greenway](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/collectors/bike-highway-greenway.md) (COL-BHG-04) — the Collector-scale pattern this one is explicitly distinguished from on that page: physical separation there, a shared, calmed roadway here. [Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/continuous-sidewalk.md) (INT-CSJ-06) — the Local-to-Collector intersection default, explicitly named alongside this pattern on that page as thinning in Suburban for the same grid-connectivity reason. [Modal Filter / Point Closure](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/elements/modal-filter-point-closure.md) (ELM-MFP-44) — the Element pattern most frequently paired with this one to build the diversion shown above. ## Getting there: Retrofit path options [Parking-lane reallocation](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/corridor/parking-lane-reallocation.md) (RFT-CDR-05), [Modal filtering / Low Traffic Neighborhood retrofit](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/network/modal-filtering-low-traffic-neighborhood-retrofit.md) (RFT-NET-01, applies _within_ this pattern rather than transforming it into something else) ## References 1. Precedent-based [National Association of City Transportation Officials, _Urban Bikeway Design Guide_, 3rd ed. (2025), "Bike Boulevards," in _Designing Bikeways for All Ages and Abilities_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/designing-bikeways-for-all-ages-and-abilities/bikeways-on-low-speed-low-volume-streets/bike-boulevards/) 2. Evidence-based [Minikel, E., "Cyclist Safety on Bicycle Boulevards and Parallel Arterial Routes in Berkeley, California," _Accident Analysis & Prevention_ 45 (2012): 241–247.](https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/Minikel-2011.pdf)