This section provides an overview of CSS. What it is and how it can help to shape transportation projects around the country. Feel free to browse through the topics below or search for a particular page by entering a keyword in the search box below or clicking on "Advanced Search."
Making streets more bikeable is often a goal of CSS projects. The integration of bicycles onto streets and roads can be done in a number of ways, depending on the context, space available, and demand for bicycling.
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Cross-Section Elements: Bicycles "Bicycles are...a viable mode of transportation..., both for commuting and recreation." Bicycles can use a shared lane, a wide outside lane, a regular designated bicycle lane, a shoulder or a multi-use path according to the specific context and design requirements. Overall there are six main factors influencing the way bicycles are incorporated in a specific road configuration. The six factors are: traffic volume, average motorvehicle speed, traffic mix or balance, on-street parking, sight distance, number of intersections.
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Flexibility in Highway Design
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Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities: Flexibility in the AASHTO Guidelines There is significant flexibility in the AASHTO guidelines regarding the provision for and/or design of pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Designers in some instances may choose not to provide separate facilities, or to do so in only one direction of travel or on one side of the roadway. Bicycle lanes or paths may be integral with the highway or on separate alignment, and may be combined with or separated from pedestrian facilities. more...
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A Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design
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Accommodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel
"The call for more walkable, livable, and accessible communities, has seen bicycling and walking emerge as an 'indicator species' for the health and well-being of a community. People want to live and work in places where they can safely and conveniently walk and/or bicycle and not always have to deal with worsening traffic congestion, road rage and the fight for a parking space...
...The challenge for transportation planners, highway engineers and bicycle and pedestrian user groups, therefore, is to balance their competing interest in a limited amount of right-of-way, and to develop a transportation infrastructure that provides access for all, a real choice of modes, and safety in equal measure for each mode of travel."
Improving Conditions for Bicycling and Walking
"Encouraging more people to walk and bicycle, and to do so safely involves actions at federal, state, and local levels. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) provided broad eligibility to use federal funds for these projects."
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Association of Bicycle and Pedestrian Professionals
Rails to Trails Conservancy
Case Study
Bicycle Facilities in Olympia, WA Olympia, WA
Bicycle lane on a four-lane road with a diverter and a mid-block crosswalk. Olympia has a number of bicycle lanes, traffic calming sensitive adaptations, bridges, and trails.
Case Study
Bicycle Facilities: Bellevue, WA Bellevue, WA
Bicycle lanes on a four-lane road with a diverter near transit stops. Bellevue has numerous bike lanes on many or most principal roads and many wetland and other trails.
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Bicycle Facilities Ft Lauderdale, FL Ft Lauderdale, FL
Bicycles share the road in Ft. Lauderdale, which has an extensive network of bicycle lanes on local and state routes.
Case Study
Bicycle Facilities: Mesa, AZ Mesa, AZ
A bicycle lane next to a parking lane on a four-lane road with a raised median. Mesa has several significant new boulevard bicycle lanes.
Case Study
Bicycle Facilities Davis, CA Davis, CA
Two-way bicycle lane on a commercial street separated by a planted buffer from both the road and the sidewalk. Davis, CA and its university campus are considered by many to be among the "bicycle champions" because of their extensive bike lanes, trails, bridges, tunnels, parking, signals and more.
Case Study
Bicycle Lane in St Petersburg, FL St Petersburg, FL
Bicycle lane next to parking lane on a one-way street in St Petersburg, FL. The street has three traffic lanes, one bike lane and curbside parallel parking lanes on each side. The city is working on a major trail linking from Pinellas Trail to Gandy Bridge to Tampa, and many miles of bike lanes.
Case Study
Added Capacity and Noise Walls - SR-527 Mill Creek, WA
This project was developed to address congestion on a section of SR-527 between 164th Street SE and 132nd Street SE. SR 527 highway passes through downtown Mill Creek.
Case Study
Odense Town Center, Denmark Odense,
"In connection with Odense's 1000th years' anniversary in 1988 a number of new developments were inaugurated in the town centre: pedestrian streets, a bus street, and a bicycle route network. This has given the already lively town centre a significant lift, has stimulated the activity in the area, and has markedly improved the visual environment."
Case Study
Missoula, MT Missoula, MT
This bridge treatment provides safe sidewalks separated from the bike lanes by a guard-rail, with four traffic lanes and a raised median.
Case Study
Danville-Riverside Bridge and Approach - Pennsylvania Danville-Riverside, PA
The project involved replacement of an existing two-lane Parker Through Truss bridge built in 1904 spanning the Susquehanna River, with a new 1,440 foot-long bridge with weathered steel haunched girders. The approach to the old bridge from Danville was on Mill Street, the center of the town's downtown commercial area. The final alignment for the new bridge on this side of the river directs traffic under two blocks of the West Market Street Historic District one block west of Mill Street, creating a 320 foot-long cut and cover structure before transitioning onto the four-lane Continental Boulevard which links to other major traffic routes. The lessons learned in this project process have helped shape PENNDOT's evolving pro-active effort to involve stakeholders earlier and more meaningfully in project planning, design and development.
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Shopping Street in Assens Assens,
"As part of the 'More Beautiful Streets' project in which the Road Directorate in cooperation with local authorities carry out traffic calming projects with a particular emphasis on the visual environment, the main street in Assens has been converted to a 20 km/h street."
