Protected bike lanes increase mid-block safety but concentrate crashes at intersections where 60% of bike-car collisions occur

Cities install protected bike lanes — separated from traffic by physical barriers like bollards, planters, or parked cars — and celebrate them as the gold standard of cycling safety. But the protection ends exactly where it matters most: at intersections. When a cyclist riding in a protected lane reaches a cross street, the physical barrier disappears, and they enter an unprotected conflict zone where right-turning vehicles cross their path. This is called the "right hook," and it accounts for 60% of all bicycle-motor vehicle crashes at intersections. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that cyclists in protected bike lanes collide with vehicles most often at intersections or junctions with driveways and alleys. Urban intersections account for one-third of all crashes between bicyclists and motor vehicles and 43% of bicyclist fatalities in the United States. A 2025 study on intersection treatments found that only 30.7% of drivers yield to cyclists at lateral-shift intersection designs, meaning nearly 70% of drivers do not yield when they are supposed to. This is not a marginal risk — it is the primary way cyclists in protected lanes get killed. The problem persists because intersection treatments are expensive, space-constrained, and politically contentious. A fully protected intersection — with corner refuge islands, setback crossings, and separate signal phases — requires 15-20 feet of additional right-of-way at each corner, which usually means removing parking, narrowing vehicle lanes, or acquiring private land. Most cities lack the budget, political will, or engineering staff to redesign every intersection along a protected corridor. So they build the easy mid-block protection and leave the intersections unprotected, creating a false sense of security that may actually increase risk by encouraging cyclists to ride faster into conflict zones they assume are safe.