Valley Road Advisory Lanes

Our Valley Road configuration was installed in 2014. Hanover's advisory lane treatment is featured in the Federal Highway Administration Small Town and Rural Multimodal Networks and the Small Town and Rural Design Guide: Facilities for Walking and Biking.

Nearly all the street users interviewed on April 29, 2016 strongly supported the Advisory Lanes, felt more comfortable walking, and judged the pilot condition was equally or more safe than before, according to a follow up report by Peter Kulbacki (Director Hanover Department of Public Works), Erica Wygonik (transportation consultant), Carolyn Radisch (transportation consultant), and Bill Young (Hanover Bike Walk chair). Observers noted children navigating this street safely, as well as the street transforming into a more welcoming place to walk and bike - and this shows up in the numbers! Traffic is down and walking and biking is up. During the pandemic, this was an hot spot of activity for people walking, biking and using mobility assist scooters as there was plenty of space to physically distance due as active transportation is now expected along this stretch.

There is a growing body of research supporting this configuration here in the United States including on rural higher speed roads - https://www.advisorybikelanes.com/, with a 34% reduction in crash rate in the United States. Maine has started using these edge lanes on low volume rural bridges to carve out more space for people walking and biking. (This is similar to how most small bridges function anyway, and the advisory lane striping serves to raise consciousness about and provide more space for people walking and biking.) This configuration is particularly useful when you have a constrained right of way, and is often within a 20 ft roadway in a 5 ft, 10 ft, 5 ft configuration. This is an economical way to increase safety for people walking and biking, and as it turns out, for drivers too, and to build a culture of active mobility.

People walking, biking or driving on the streets and the traffic counters raised the following safety concerns.   Two novice preadolescent bicyclists made poor stops as they entered from a side street.   They did stop before crossing the advisory lane dashed line but it was close.  Two alert drivers slowed down significantly.   It is possible the advisory lanes helped both the drivers and cyclists.  Second, a lawn care truck was parked for 2 hours in the North advisory lane.  All walkers and bikers needed to swing out in to the traffic lane.  Third, two regular street pedestrians judged that many cars traveling in the central travel lane pass walkers in the advisory lane with less clearance.  In the past cars moved further to the opposite side.   No one interviewed reported a close call or accident.