Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety and Must Be Replaced Now

By JEFF SPECK, City Lab


States and counties believe that wider lanes are safer. And in this belief, they are dead wrong.
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When lanes are built too wide, pedestrians are forced to walk further across streets on which cars are moving too fast and bikes don't fit.
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"Yeah, you've got your studies that say that 10-foot lanes are safer than 12-foot lanes. But I've got a pile of studies this high," he insisted, waving at his hip, "that say the opposite."

"Wonderful," I said. "May I see them?"

"No. They're from the early days. I threw them out."
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<a href="http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/">http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/</a>;