As we wrap up National Bike Safety Month, it’s a timely reminder to reflect on the importance of safe cycling infrastructure and the design decisions that can help reduce injuries and save lives. As more communities work to become bike-friendly, it’s critical to highlight multimodal projects that prioritize safety, connectivity, and user comfort, including Michigan State University’s Bogue Street pilot project and the Indiana Newfields Multi-Use (MU) Path in Indianapolis.
Bogue Street Pilot: Reimagining a Campus Artery
At Michigan State University, the Bogue Street corridor is one of the campus’s most traveled roads, connecting dorms, academic buildings, and community resources. It also presents major safety challenges for cyclists and pedestrians sharing space with high-speed vehicle traffic.
A few years ago, in response to these challenges, MSU initiated a pilot project to rethink the corridor with safety and comfort in mind. The Clark Dietz team for this project—many of who are MSU alumni familiar with the corridor by car, bike, and on foot—developed design for temporary installation to study protected bike lane options and better understand the needs of non-motorized users.
The project explored a variety of safety features, including buffered bike lanes, transitions between cycle tracks and sidewalks, sidewalks, signage, new pavement markings, and barrier options to reduce conflict points between users. Transportation Engineer Alex Oosterhoff, who worked closely on the design, emphasized the need to elevate the treatment of non-motorized users.
“As a road designer, it can sometimes feel like pedestrians and bicyclists are treated as secondary users,” Alex said. “But the goal should really be to design spaces where they’re considered alongside motorists from the start.”
The pilot also aimed to change how users felt in the space, not just what was legally compliant.
“One of the big things I focus on is making sure cyclists feel safe, not just that the design is technically compliant,” Alex said. “Comfort plays a huge role in how people behave on the road.”
The project incorporated features like painted buffers and flexible bollards to create separation between cyclists and vehicles, something Alex sees as essential.
“Personally, I’m a big fan of non-motorized paths. There needs to be a clear separation between cyclists and vehicles,” Alex said. “Although there are some safety concerns with pedestrians and bicyclists, the safety itself isn’t nearly as detrimental as a motorist versus a pedestrian or a motorist versus a bicyclist.”
Despite the design’s promise, the Bogue Street pilot was ultimately tabled due to funding constraints. Still, Alex remains hopeful.
“We’d still love to see a permanent installation, but it can’t move forward until dedicated funding is available,” Alex said.
Indiana’s Newfields MU Path: Connecting Culture and Community
While the Bogue Street project awaits its next steps, another example of impactful infrastructure came to life in Indianapolis. The Indiana Newfields Multi-Use (MU) Path filled a dangerous sidewalk gap along two busy roads near Newfields — a 152-acre campus of gardens and art, formerly known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Previously, sidewalks along the north side of 38th Street and the west side of Michigan Road stopped just short of connecting, leaving a half-mile stretch of inaccessible space that forced pedestrians and cyclists into the roadway—putting them in direct conflict with vehicle traffic. Through a fast-tracked sidewalk improvement project, the City of Indianapolis partnered with Newfields and Clark Dietz to close this gap.
With a seven-month deadline set by the opening of the popular Newfields Winterlights festival, the project team had to act quickly. Clark Dietz provided topographic surveying, final design plans, specifications, and assisted in bidding. The team coordinated closely with Newfields stakeholders and remained flexible throughout design to accommodate requested scope changes, including the use of durable concrete paths and the need to avoid relocating existing utilities.
By extending the existing sidewalks to create a continuous route, the result was a safer, more accessible link for cyclists and pedestrians that also enhances the community’s connection to arts and green space.
Why Bike Infrastructure Matters
The stakes are high when it comes to safe biking infrastructure. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of preventable deaths from bicycle transportation incidents rose by 1% in 2023, reaching 1,377 fatalities, a 53% increase over the past decade. Though nonfatal injuries have decreased by 29% since 2014, they still number over 341,000 annually. These figures underscore the importance of infrastructure designed with cyclists in mind.
As Alex points out, the goal of bike infrastructure isn’t just to meet technical guidelines; it’s to make roads safer and more intuitive for everyone. That requires a shift in thinking.
“Designers have a responsibility to think about all users, especially the most vulnerable ones. If we do that from the start, we’ll end up with better, safer systems for everyone.”
That sentiment is echoed by Brian Smith, PE, whose professional and personal experience shapes his engineering philosophy.
“As an engineer who’s logged thousands of miles on Michigan roads by bike, I know firsthand that simply striping a narrow shoulder doesn’t make a route safe for cyclists,” Brian said. “You need to design with intention—considering where cyclists enter and exit, how motorists behave, and what real safety feels like from the seat. That kind of insight only comes from experience. It’s also helped me better connect with communities during public meetings. I understand the concerns of cyclists and other road users because I’ve been in their shoes—and that empathy helps me serve as an advocate for safer, more inclusive roadway design.”
Projects like the Bogue Street redesign and the Newfields MU Path are just a few examples of the work our team at Clark Dietz does to integrate all users safely into multimodal environments. Through bike-focused planning, community engagement, and safety-first design, we aim to reduce risks and make cycling—and all forms of transportation—a safer, more viable option.
More information on multimodal integration can be found here.
Other relevant projects include the Fruit Ridge Avenue Bridge Redesign, the Richmond Complete Streets Loop Phase II project, and a Multimodal Corridor Enhancement (MCORE) in Champaign, IL.
