Road designs of bicycle boulevards can be found in the United States, Canada (
Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg), the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain and New Zealand
United States Bicycle boulevards can be found in a growing number of
United States cities, including: • Arizona:
Tucson • California:
Palo Alto,
Berkeley,
Emeryville,
San Jose,
San Luis Obispo,
Long Beach • Florida:
Gainesville • Kansas:
Manhattan • Michigan:
Kalamazoo • Minnesota:
Minneapolis, Saint Paul • Missouri:
Columbia • New Mexico:
Albuquerque • North Carolina:
Wilmington • Oregon:
Portland,
Eugene, and
Bend •
Oklahoma:
Tulsa • Washington:
Seattle • Wisconsin:
Madison Palo Alto established the first bicycle boulevard in the United States. It was named for Ellen Fletcher, a
Holocaust survivor and one of America's first bike activists. It was an overall success minus a few complaints from local residents that were clarified through city council meetings and test pilots. In
Berkeley, boulevards are mostly residential streets, but some sections pass through commercial areas. Generally, there are few cars on these streets, in large part because of the pre-existing traffic calming devices that slow and/or divert traffic. Bicycle boulevards may or may not have
bicycle lanes. In
Minneapolis, a grant from the federal government within the Non-Motorized Pilot Program helped to build a bike boulevard on Bryant Avenue and the planning of others. Similarly in
Columbia, the Non-Motorized Pilot Program project helped fund the first bike boulevard in Missouri along Ash and Windsor Streets. At least one other was planned. In
Wilmington, help from a Fit Community 2009 grant through the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund enabled the City of Wilmington to construct North Carolina's first bicycle boulevard. The Ann Street Bicycle Boulevard runs from South Water Street to South 15th Street and serves as part of the much longer River to the Sea Bikeway, which connects downtown Wilmington to
Wrightsville Beach. In
Portland, a $600 million 20-year plan (2010–2030) has the goal of making 25 percent of trips in the city be by bicycle through the establishment of of new
bikeways; one of the projects within the plan is to combine the work on street features that reduce
stormwater runoff with the construction of
curb extensions and other components of bicycle boulevards. In
Albuquerque, a city with more than of on-street bicycle facilities and multi-use trails, the grand opening of the first bicycle boulevard in New Mexico was held on April 14, 2009. The bicycle boulevard runs from San Mateo Blvd SE, west along Silver Ave SE/SW to 14th St SW. It then continues north on 14th St to Mountain Rd NW. The last leg continues west on Mountain Rd NW to the Paseo del Bosque Recreation Trail which parallels the
Rio Grande. In
Madison, the first full bicycle boulevard spans East Mifflin Street in Madisons Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood, a second spans the entire length of Kendall Avenue in University Heights and the Regent Neighborhood. In
Seattle, the city is implementing a city-wide network of "Neighborhood Greenways".
US naming conventions The City of
Berkeley, California, is credited with coining the phrase
bicycle boulevard in the late 1980s, but not every jurisdiction has adopted this term. In November 2011, the City of
Boston began to use the term
neighborways instead of bicycle boulevards. This added to a growing list of terms for bicycle boulevards since
Portland has been calling them
neighborhood greenways;
Seattle has followed the same convention. and the Northeastern University webpage.) In
Amsterdam for example, by 2005 about 40% of journeys were by bicycle and transport planners at the (Infrastructure Traffic and Transport Directorate) have adopted a bicycle policy that blends many different
bike-friendly street designs such as
segregated bicycle lanes, on-road bicycle lanes and
fietsstraten. The general concept is that cyclists can integrate relatively safely with vehicular traffic that is travelling at, or below, but that segregated bike lanes should be installed along roads with a higher speed limit. With these, and many other, bike-friendly policies in place,
Amsterdam has the highest rate of cycling of any capital city in the world. Cycle streets are also on the rise in other cities within the country, including Utrecht.
Germany In
Germany a comparable road design is called '''' ('bicycle road'), introduced into the Highway Code in 1997. Any other vehicles are prohibited unless marked with an additional sign.
Belgium In
Belgium, the ''
(in Dutch/Flemish) or (in French), was introduced into the Highway Code with effect from 13 February 2012. One had earlier been introduced in the Visserij'' in
Ghent (Gent) in the summer of 2011. The first one in Brussels appeared in 2013 on a service road alongside
Avenue Louise. The
OpenStreetMap wiki and also the several locations on this subject may be of interest to reader.
Denmark In
Denmark, the first '''' ('cycle street') was opened in 2011 in
Aarhus. Since then cycle streets have been implemented in several cities across the country. Almost all Danish cycle streets allow motorized vehicles to drive on them, although some might be one way only. The speed limit is 50 km/h although the law states that drivers should limit their speed to that of cyclists, normally under 30 km/h
France In
France, the equivalent road design is called ('bike street') or ('cycle street'). The cities of
Strasbourg (2017),
Bordeaux (2018),
Dijon (2019), Rennes (2023), Paris (2023), Lille (2023) and Lyon (2024) are among the first to test it out.
Spain In
Spain, cycle streets are known as .
Sweden In
Sweden cycle streets are known as
Cykelgata and was introduced in december 2020.
New Zealand In
New Zealand, bicycle boulevards are generally designated as 'neighbourhood greenways', although
Auckland refers to them as local paths to avoid confusion with its off-road greenways network.
Christchurch was the first city to implement a number of neighbourhood greenway sections as part of its Major Cycle Routes programme, including the Rapanui–Shag Rock Stage 1 through Linwood.
United Kingdom British cycle-infrastructure design regulations (LTN 1/20) do not yet define an equivalent facility, although there are similar provisions, called
Home Zone and
Quiet Lane, where motor traffic is deprioritised. “England's first Cycle Street” is being planned in Adams Road, Cambridge for spring 2026. ==See also==