Designing Safe Micro-Mobility Lanes: Using Data for Infrastructure Planning

Learn how cities use data to design safer, more accessible micro-mobility lanes.

As bicycles and e-scooters become popular ways to get around cities, planners are under pressure to build safer spaces for them. Painted bike lanes aren’t cutting it anymore — many riders want physical protection from cars. But building protected bike or scooter lanes can be expensive and takes up valuable street space. So how can cities decide when and where to invest? The answer is data. With access to GPS trip logs, crash reports, and even near-miss information, cities can design better lanes that make travel safer, more fair, and more accessible.

In this blog, we’ll explore how U.S. cities are using traffic data — such as vehicle, e-scooter and bike data — to guide smarter decisions, ease community concerns, and how Urban SDK’s tools can help turn that data into real planning solutions.

The Rise of Micro-Mobility and the Power of Data

In recent years, shared e-scooters and bike programs have surged in U.S. cities — alongside a steady increase in personal bike use. These small vehicles offer a cheap, quick way to get around, but they often share space with cars or crowd sidewalks. This creates safety issues. Studies show that adding protected bike lanes can cut cycling injuries by 75% at intersections, and even make streets safer for walkers and drivers.

When New York City built a parking-protected bike lane on Columbus Avenue, bike use increased by 56%, and crashes fell by a third. But deciding where to add these lanes — and how to justify the cost — isn’t easy. Thankfully, cities now have access to detailed mobility data. This lets planners spot popular routes, dangerous intersections, and areas that lack safe access.

Every scooter ride leaves a digital trail: where it started, where it ended, and the path taken. When thousands of trips are combined (with privacy protections), cities can see clear patterns. As Bird once said, these trips show "the story of human-sized urban mobility." The data reveals which streets are popular and which ones lack proper infrastructure.

When cities listen to this data, they can make smarter choices. For example, if a street sees thousands of scooter rides but has no bike lane, that’s a great spot to build one. Or if an intersection has many scooter crashes, planners know it needs a safer design. Thanks to new tools, cities can now plan upgrades based on real travel behavior — not just assumptions.

Key Data Sources for Planning Safe Lanes Here are the main types of data that help cities design safer bike and scooter lanes:

1. GPS Trip Data from Shared Services

Companies like Bird and Lime often share anonymized ride data with cities. This shows where people are riding, when, and how often. By layering these trips on a map, planners can see which routes are busiest — even if there are no existing bike lanes. For example, Santa Monica used millions of scooter trips to help plan 19 miles of protected bike/scooter lanes where people were already riding.

2. Manual Counts and Sensors

Cities also count how many bikes pass by certain spots — either manually or with sensors. This helps confirm the patterns seen in GPS data and shows how many people are biking before and after a new lane is built.One study found that a new protected bike lane typically boosts bike traffic by 75% in its first year.

3. Crash and Injury Reports

City or state traffic databases show where crashes happen involving bikes or scooters. Even if usage is low in a certain area, a high number of injuries means it's a risky spot that needs fixing.New York City found that protected bike lanes not only cut cyclist injuries but also lowered pedestrian injuries and total crashes by 40 - 50%.

4. Near-Miss and Conflict Data

Some cities are now collecting “near-miss” data — close calls that don’t show up in crash stats. These can come from AI cameras at intersections or mobile apps where users report close calls. For example, Bellingham, WA installed bike lanes and then used video analysis to spot conflict points where cars almost hit bikes. They later adjusted the design based on these insights.

5. Community Feedback and Surveys

Sometimes the best data comes from residents. Online maps or community surveys help highlight streets people feel unsafe using. During a pop-up protected lane demo in Atlanta, surveys showed 87% of cyclists and 83% of scooter users felt safer — and usage rose 58% during the trial. That feedback helped justify making the lane permanent.

6. Equity and Demographics

It’s also important to look at who is (and isn’t) using the lanes. Low-income and minority neighborhoods often have fewer safe options to bike or scoot. If certain areas show low scooter usage, it may be due to unsafe streets or lack of access.

By combining demographic data with ride data, planners can make sure new lanes help underserved communities. New York and Portland are already working on this by expanding infrastructure in historically overlooked areas.

Smarter Design for Safer, Fairer Streets Once cities have all this data, they can design bike and scooter lanes to meet three big goals: safety, accessibility, and equity.

Safety First

The top reason to build protected lanes is to reduce injuries. Data helps tailor the safety features to each location. If crashes happen when cars turn across bike lanes, the city can add protected intersections or bike-specific signals. If speeding is a problem, they can narrow lanes or install flexible posts to slow drivers.

Protected lanes also stop wrong-way or sidewalk riding by giving riders a safe place to go. Smart tech can boost safety too — some cities are testing intersections that detect bikes and give them green lights first.

Accessibility and Connectivity

Safe lanes should connect important places — homes, schools, parks, and job centers — in a way that’s easy and direct. Trip data shows where people are going, and planners can create direct routes along those paths.

Lanes should work for everyone — including people using trikes or adaptive bikes. That means smooth surfaces, ramps at curbs, and wide enough lanes. Equity also matters: outer neighborhoods shouldn’t be left out just because they’re farther from downtown. Some cities use equity “scorecards” to make sure investments reach areas that need it most.

Building Demand and Reducing Car Use

Once safety and access are in place, cities usually see ridership grow fast. Protected lanes encourage more people to try biking or scooting, and many of those trips replace car rides.

Examples:

• Seville, Spain saw bike trips grow 4x after adding protected lanes.
• In Santa Monica, half of scooter riders said their last trip replaced a car ride.

Using data, planners can track how many car trips are being replaced by micromobility. Urban SDK’s mobility data tools can even estimate how many car miles are saved and how much traffic is reduced.

How Urban SDK Helps Cities Plan Better Lanes Designing a safe micromobility network takes a lot of data — and the right tools to make sense of it. Urban SDK’s platform helps cities by bringing all this information together in one easy-to-use place.

How Cities Use Urban SDK for Smart Planning

1. Centralized Data Source

Urban SDK combines traffic and roadway data on an interactive map. Planners can zoom in to see usage by street, time of day, or even animate movement patterns. No need to juggle spreadsheets — everything is visual and in one spot.

2. Crash Analysis and Safety Scoring

With Urban SDK’s Collision Index, cities can instantly see where crashes happen most often and where roads score poorly for safety. Overlaying these maps with bike lane locations makes it easy to spot dangerous gaps.

3. Visual Communication Tools

Urban SDK helps cities tell a clear story with maps, charts, and dashboards. Instead of vague promises, planners can show exactly how a street is used and what impact a lane might have.

4. Monitoring Results Over Time

The platform keeps tracking data after a project is complete, so cities can measure success. If a protected lane cuts crashes in half, the numbers will show it — making it easier to justify future improvements.

Urban SDK acts as a digital control center for modern mobility planning — combining data, AI tools, and map-based insights to make smarter, faster decisions.

Conclusion

Micromobility is here to stay — and with the right infrastructure, it can make cities healthier, cleaner, and more connected. But building those bike and scooter lanes shouldn’t be based on guesswork. With clear data on how people move, where they’re at risk, and who lacks access, cities can plan smarter and spend wiser.

Urban SDK helps cities turn data into action. Whether it’s spotting where to build the next lane or measuring the success of a recent project, our platform gives planners everything they need.

Ready to design your next protected lane based on real-world travel data? Contact Urban SDK for a demo and see how we can help you build safer, more inclusive streets for the future of mobility.

‍