First Zipper® system installations in Bentonville. One innovative configuration.

Last summer, the City of Bentonville installed Zipper^® system modules for the first time. The configuration chosen by the city for NW 3rd street was a very innovative one. For the first time, they chose a double line of Zipper^® system modules on a B2AB configuration, one in front of the other. We internally call this “turtle” configuration because of its turtle shell shape.

Need and project objectives.

In 2021 the Bike & Pedestrian Master Plan, adopted by the City of Bentonville, identified the NW 3rd and SW 8th street as High Priority routes by this document.

Both streets were 100% dedicated to motorized vehicles. Until June 2022, NW 3rd street had one traffic lane in each direction, one shared with the bikes, and a central turning way. And SW 8th street had two lanes in each order; one shared with the bikes and a center turning way.

An excessive number of travel lanes resulted in high-speed traffic, which directly affected roadway safety and discouraged bike use.

The proposed solution.

Bentonville city redesigned roads and reduced traffic lanes into one for each direction and a two-way contra-flow protected bike lane.

In NW 3rd street, the city decided to use a double-line B2AB configuration of the Zipper^® system, one in front of the other to separate the bike lane from traffic, and in SW 8th street, a single-line B2AB configuration.

The B2AB configuration.

This configuration consists of two AA modules of the Zipper^® system located in the center and a B module at each end. The distance between each B2AB set can be shortened, or another block of B2AB can be added in front of it to make the cycle lane more difficult to invade, increasing safety in areas with heavy traffic or close to an intersection.

According to city data, since implementing the protected bike lanes in these routes, bike use has increased by a 20%.