2024 Albuquerque Bikeway and Trail Facilities Plan

Buffered bike lanes are bikeways with striped, horizontal space between the bike lane and the adjacent vehicle travel lane, which provides additional separation between bicyclists and moving vehicle traffic.

Appropriate Contexts Buffers are appropriate for all bike lanes as space permits. Buffers are particularly critical for increasing user comfort levels as driver speeds and traffic volumes increase. Per the FHWA Bikeway Selection Guide, buffered bike lanes are best suited for streets with traffic volumes under 6,500 vehicles per day (the same threshold recommended for standard bike lanes).

Posted Speeds: 35 mph or lower (DPM), 30 mph or lower (FHWA Bikeway Selection Guide)

Design Considerations Per the DPM, buffers may range from 1–3 feet, depending on the available roadway space, with wider buffers preferred. Buffers that are 1.5 feet or less may be comprised of parallel striped lines. Wider buffers should feature cross hatching. Buffered bike lanes specifically refer to separation from moving vehicle traffic, though additional buffers may be applied on the inside of a bike lane to create separation from parked vehicles or to improve sight lines where walls or barriers are present on the roadway edge.

Separated bike lanes, also known as protected bike lanes, are a form of buffered bike lane that features some form of vertical separation from people driving and are located at street level.

Appropriate Contexts Vertical separation may be considered for all buffered bike lanes, depending on the roadway conditions, and is desirable for ensuring user comfort on roads with traffic volumes over 6,500 vehicles per day, per the FHWA Bikeway Selection Guide.

Posted Speeds: 30 mph or higher. Vertical separation is critical for ensuring user comfort level on roads with operating speeds of 35 mph or greater, per the FHWA Bikeway Selection Guide.

Design Considerations Vertical elements may include tubular markers (flex posts), raised curbs, or vehicle parking. Per the DPM, separated bike lanes should be a minimum width of 6.5 feet with a 3-foot buffer for the vertical element.

Bike boulevards are low-stress corridors with slow speeds and low vehicle volumes. They feature traffic calming elements and enhanced crossing treatments to reduce through-vehicle traffic and manage driver speeds.

Though people biking share space with drivers, the low-stress conditions ensure these bikeways appeal to people biking of all ages and abilities.

Appropriate Contexts Primarily residential streets that run parallel to major roads and have posted speeds of 25 mph or lower before implementation. Per the DPM, the target daily vehicle volume is 1,000 or below after implementation; 1,000– 2,000 vehicles per day is acceptable. Narrower streets (under 40 feet wide) are preferable for bike boulevards because wider streets require additional treatments to encourage slower driver speeds.

Posted Speeds: 20 mph or lower after implementation

Design Considerations Per the DPM and the Bike Boulevard Toolkit, typical features include branded signage and pavement markings, design elements to narrow the roadway (e.g. diverters or striped on-street parking) and reduce traffic (e.g. closed medians at major intersections), and enhanced street crossings to remove barriers to longer-distance travel.

See the City of Albuquerque Bike Boulevard Toolkit for detailed design considerations and the City of Albuquerque Bicycle and Trail Crossing Guide for appropriate crossing facilities at major intersections.

Enhanced bike routes are shared streets that utilize signage and pavement markings (i.e. sharrows) to indicate that bicyclists may be present and to help bicyclists connect to other facilities and local destinations.  

Today, bike routes are a common form of bikeway throughout Albuquerque and are typically designated through basic signage along local streets with low volumes of vehicle traffic, though conditions vary in terms of treatments and traffic volumes and speeds. Many existing bike routes are proposed as bike boulevards or enhanced bike routes in the 2024 Plan.

Appropriate Contexts Low-volume (generally under 2,000 vehicles per day) and low-speed streets, including residential streets.

Enhanced bike route proposed in the 2024 plan are intended to provide short connections to local destinations or link other facilities to one another. Unlike proposed bike boulevards, they do not involve crossing treatments at intersections with major streets.

Posted Speeds: 25 mph or lower

Design Considerations Enhanced bike routes share many of the characteristics of bike boulevards, including frequent pavement markings and traffic calming features to reduce vehicle speeds and increase bicyclist user comfort. Per the DPM, bike route designations may be used selectively on higher-volume roads where a bikeway connection is desired but right-of-way is constrained and bike lanes that meet the minimum design standards are not feasible.

Paved multi-use trails are off-street facilities in their own right-of-way that are shared with people walking.

Appropriate Contexts Multi-use trails are typically located in natural settings or along drainage channels or arroyos.

Posted Speeds: Off-Street, No Posted Speeds

Design Considerations DPM guidance calls for a minimum width of 10 feet, with 12 feet recommended and 14 feet desired for high-use areas and long-distance routes. Additional space is needed for shoulders and frontages against private property. Consult the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities for detailed design guidance.

Also referred to as HAWK signals, PHBs are a traffic control device that brings traffic to a complete stop at a midblock crossing or an uncontrolled intersection when activated by a pedestrian or bicyclist.

Applications & Constraints

• Driver yield rates are shown to be 90-100%.
• Should feature raised medians to allow for two-stage crossing, if needed.
• Higher cost than RRFBs.
• Require electrical connections and additional right-of-way for implementation.

RRFBs are traffic control devices that increase driver awareness of pedestrians and bicyclists crossing roadways at marked midblock crossings or uncontrolled intersections.

The beacons consist of rectangular-shaped amber lights that flash when activated and reinforce the need for drivers to stop at the crosswalk.

Applications & Constraints

• Appropriate on streets with moderate speeds and traffic volumes.
• Safety benefits decrease as road width, traffic volumes, and driver speeds increase.
• Should feature raised medians to allow for two-stage crossing, if needed.
• Driver yield rates are lower than PHBs.

The table below contains the criteria used in the City of Albuquerque Bikeway Evaluation Process; the pie chart to the right indicates the share of points by category. The process was applied to all projects proposed in the 2024 Plan.

The safety category prioritizes:

• Projects along, parallel to, or that intersect with High Fatal and Injury Network (HFIN)
• Projects along corridors with bicyclist-involved crashes

Data Sources: New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) Traffic Safety Division crash data (2018-2022). MRCOG created crash data inventory; City of Albuquerque simplified HFIN

The equity category prioritizes:

• Projects in areas with high a share of vulnerable communities (based on economic, demographic, housing, and transportation considerations)

Data Sources: Vulnerability Index, MRCOG

The access category prioritizes projects that connect to:

• Comprehensive Plan Centers
• Key destinations, including schools, parks, community centers, libraries, transit facilities and high-frequency transit stops

Data Sources: City of Albuquerque Comprehensive Plan; destinations inventory (dataset provided by the City of Albuquerque)

The network improvements category prioritizes projects that:

• Support longer-distance travel by bicycle (i.e., network spines)
• Improve user comfort and reduce LTS
• Meet FHWA facility type guidance

Data Sources: Bicycle LTS analysis, FHWA Bikeway Selection Guide

The level of use category prioritizes:

• Projects that create opportunities for more trips to be taken by bicycle, based on an analysis of the share of trips that are less than 2 miles in the project area.

Data Sources: Replica - commercially available data that synthesizes Census data and observed travel behavior to model a range of trip types and distances.