Portland Bike Boxes

Yet another entry about bicycle commuting & city streets that are safe & usable for cyclists. We like to ride our bikes to work, can you tell?

Recently, we've noticed that bike boxes have been popping up on both coasts. What is a bike box?
The City of Portland Office of Transportation says that:
A bike box is an intersection safety design to prevent bicycle/car collisions, especially those between drivers turning right and bicyclists going straight. It is a green box on the road with a white bicycle symbol inside. It includes green bicycle lanes approaching and leading from the box.

How do you use a bike box?

I know that New York, Portland, San Francisco, & Copenhagen have installed several bike boxes, but are there any other cities that have them as well? (As a side note: Portland is stalling on the installation of several bike boxes that it had previously promised to install. The reasons given for the hold up on the installations vary & you can read the whole story at OregonLive).

But, even though they may be dragging their feet on installing more bike boxes, Portland seems to be on the right track with respect to making the streets & city more accessible & safe for city cyclists.
This diagonal intersection looks lovely!