From Alliance for Biking and Walking
Since early 2010, the Alliance, League of American Bicyclists and Adventure Cycling Association have been working with the Federal Highway Administration regarding concerns about rumble strip applications.
In May 2011, the FHWA quietly distributed a new Technical Advisory (guidance) to district offices and state departments of transportation (DOT’s) on the installation of rumble strips. Unfortunately this guidance doesn’t meet the standards needed to ensure the safety of cyclists, and we did not get a chance to review it before its release as we had asked.
The new FHWA guidance on the installation of both shoulder and centerline rumble strips is significantly worse for bicyclists than the 2001 guidance. Not surprisingly, they did not notify us of the new guidance before sending it out to their district offices, even though we’d continually asked them to do so. When we learned about the new guidance in mid-June, we immediately contacted FHWA and set up a meeting.
Last month, the Alliance, League and Adventure Cycling returned to FHWA, where we met with a dozen FHWA and USDOT staff to express our concerns with the process and the lack of accommodation for bicycling in the new guidance. As a result of our meeting with FHWA, we are submitting written detail of the specific points the bicycling community wants to see addressed in the new guidance.
We made it clear that we are holding back on raising the alarm with bicyclists across the country, but we are asking for a complete revision of the Technical Advisory and will track this process very closely in the coming weeks. If we don’t succeed, we will let you all know and mobilize as needed. For now, please wait to take any action.