The city’s transportation staff presented an update to the City Council Tuesday on several projects, including the resurfacing and restriping of major east-west roadways.

Now that the new striping is nearly complete, we have gotten some questions about what some of the new markings mean. Generally speaking, all the same rules of the road still apply when it comes to solid lines, double lines, dashed lines and other markings. 

• For example, green paint doesn’t change the rules for a bike lane. 
• If you need to turn right and there’s a dashed line or dashed green paint, you should check for bicyclists and then, when safe, move to the far right of the lane before turning right. 

Buffers

When roads are restriped, there is often an opportunity to create a buffer between cars and bikes. Treat these buffers as if they were physical barriers.

Some of the new markings are there to remind road users to watch for pedestrians or be alert for potential conflict zones. For example, in the graphic below you see a dashed line with markings next to a bike lane. This is there to alert bicyclists to watch out for people opening doors in parked cars. 

You can watch this animation to see how it works.

Please use extra caution around construction. You can check the weekly construction map to see when roadwork is expected next week.