Photo: a truly protected bike lane on Centennial Olympic Park Drive in Downtown Atlanta! It's a beautiful sight, but lanes like this are too scarce on major roads in the city. The results of a new study demonstrate how crucial is it for cities to build physically-separated bike lanes if they want to encourage more cycling and reduce car trips. When asked which factors deter cyclists from riding, three of the top four reasons were directly related to being squished by cars. The low number of genuinely-safe bike lanes, which contain physical protection from cars, is a major barrier to our goals for sustainability -- and also to our goals for equity, since lower quality bike lanes don't serve the needs of riders of all ages and abilities.



















