Two-Stage Turn Queue Box
ELM-TSQ-43 Two-Stage Turn Queue Box
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.
Are Streets Too Complicated Now?
Asks whether today's proliferation of lines, signals, and lane types on streets is overcomplication or a needed response to modern demands, a question that runs directly through CS's Element-scale catalog and the density-tiered Corridor retrofit paths this video is tagged to.
Dutch-style intersection design: bike-friendly
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 vehicle-style left turn asks a cyclist to merge across one or more lanes of traffic to reach a turn position, a maneuver that becomes increasingly stressful and dangerous as traffic volume, speed, or lane count increases; a two-stage turn queue box removes that merge entirely by breaking the turn into two straight crossings. This pattern exists to document this specific, well-established alternative to the conventional turning movement.1
Key considerations
- Box placement and orientation must align with the cyclist’s path in the second stage of the crossing, so the movement reads as intuitive rather than requiring guesswork
- Most valuable at intersections with multi-lane approaches or higher traffic volume, where a conventional merge-and-turn movement would be most stressful
- Signal timing at the intersection needs to accommodate the two-stage movement, since a cyclist queued in the box is waiting for the second phase of the crossing, not simply out of the way
Related patterns
Protected Bike Lane/Cycle Track (ELM-PBL-37), Bike Box (ELM-BKB-42) (related bike-specific intersection treatments); Roundabout (INT-RAB-01) (a different intersection default this pattern complements at signalized locations specifically)