Coordinate with Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee

• Consult your regional member(s) of  WSDOT's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) to determine whether your project is along a rural bicycle touring route or accommodates regularly scheduled bicycle touring events.  Ask if the route is developing into a bicycle route.

• Work  with the regional BPAC members to evaluate the impacts of rumble strips, balancing numbers of bicycle riders with run-off-the-road crash experience.  Try to determine numbers of riders using the segment and what their peak volume and duration is.  Compare crash experience against the average for similar routes.

• If you select a rumble strip solution, work together with regional member(s) of the BPAC to determine which pattern is appropriate for your project.  Standard Plan H-4a provides guidance for rumble strip patterns appropriate for use on undivided highways.  Consider all of the following in your selection of a pattern:

1. Routes with minimal bicycle usage afford opportunities to use a 16" wide rumble strip where plenty of shoulder width is available.  As remaining shoulder width becomes marginal, give more consideration of the narrower patterns.
   

2. For routes with moderate to heavy bicycle usage restrict your selection to a 12" wide pattern.
   

3. Where moderate to heavy bicycle usage occurs in locations where shoulders are known to collect considerable amounts of debris, consider a pattern with the more frequently spaced gaps in the pattern.
   
4. Routes with higher run-off-the-road accident rates should consider the wider patterns with longer spaces between gaps, if those decisions are consistent with guidance on bicycle usage.
   
5. For those locations where run-off-the-road accident rates are high, bicycle usage is high, and shoulder widths are narrow, discuss options such as profiled edge stripes.  Although much more costly than milled-in ruble strips, they may present an appropriate solution for a specific site.

• If a rumble strip solution is chosen, discuss the riding conditions on the shoulder.  While no guarantees can be offered, identify maintenance personnel who may discuss the potential for sweeping.  Budget limitations require that any such activity be strategic with respect to both location and timing.  This discussion should focus on making wise decisions about where to spend our sweeping dollars.  Who benefits (and how many users), when will they be there, and what specific locations have the greatest need, should all be part of the discussion with maintenance staff.

• Consult your regional member(s) of WSDOT's BPAC for all conditions where shoulder rumble strips are being considered for locations that do not comply with the criteria previously outlined.  In general, the use of rumble strips that do not comply with the criteria is discouraged.  However, as exceptions are considered they must involve the BPAC.

Contact Information

Dave Olson, Design Policy, Standards, and Research Manager
Design Policy & Standards @wsdot.wa.gov
360-705-7952  FAX: 360-705-6815
Washington State Department of Transportation Design Office
PO Box 47329
Olympia, WA 98504-7329

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