Maryland Bikeways Program grant will fund additional 4.5 miles of routes
4 things U.S. college towns could teach planners about biking
by Michael Andersen, Bike Portland
Here’s a secret you won’t hear often: The United States has many cities where biking is far more popular than in Portland.
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Davis, Calif. – 19.1% of workers commute by bike
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Universities breed 20-minute neighborhoods.
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Universities create car-free spaces.
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Universities use public spaces to enable density.
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Universities charge for auto parking.
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https://bikeportland.org/2013/11/20/4-things-college-towns-could-teach-portland-about-biking-97418
NYC DOT Shares Its Five Principles for Designing Safer Streets
by Ben Fried, Streets Blog
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- Make the street easy to use by accommodating desire lines and minimizing the complexity of driving, walking, and biking, thus reducing crash risk by providing a direct, simple way to move through the street network.
- Create safety in numbers, which makes vulnerable street users such as pedestrians and cyclists more visible. The same design principle, applied to arterial streets when traffic is light, reduces the opportunity for excessive speeds.
- Make the invisible visible by putting users where they can see each other.
- Choose quality over quantity so that roadway and intersection geometries serve the first three design principles.
- Look beyond the (immediate) problem by expanding the focus area if solutions at a particular location can’t be addressed in isolation.
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Activists Take Brooklyn Speed Limit Into Own Hands, Install 20mph Signs in Park Slope
By KATE HINDS, WNYC
Calling it "a gift to the city," a group of activists changed the speed limit in Park Slope this weekend by hanging rogue 20 mph speed limit signs along Prospect Park West.
Safe streets activists with the group Right of Way installed the signs on Saturday night around 10pm. Organizer Keegan Stephan says the group was motivated by recent pedestrian deaths — and statistics showing a lower speed limit save lives.
"A pedestrian hit by a car going 20 mph has a 95% chance of survival," he said, who added that a WNYC map showed the city could lower the speed limit to 20 miles per hour across two-thirds of city under current state law. "We don’t understand why they’re not, (so) we took it upon ourselves."
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https://www.wnyc.org/story/d-i-y-20mph-speed-limit-signs-line-brooklyn-streets/?utm_source=sharedUrl&utm_media=metatag&utm_campaign=sharedUrl
Could Baltimore Benefit from a Frequent Transit Grid?
By Marc Szarkowski, Envision Baltimore
As a follow-up to the recent post on frequency mapping, I thought it’d be worthwhile to discuss the concept of a frequent transit grid. The MTA is currently soliciting ideas for the Bus Network Improvement Project, and the most common suggestions seem to be (1) improving schedule adherence by reducing bus stops, boarding times, traffic delays, and bus bunching, (2) improving service frequency, and (3) reducing overcrowding.
Not only could a frequent transit grid address many of these issues, but I think it’d serve as a sorely-needed update to the current “radial” transit network.
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https://envisionbaltimore.blogspot.com/2013/11/frequent-transit-grid-baltimore.html
Support the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act!
By the league of American Bicyclists
The United States should have a national goal to reduce the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed on our roadways.
Please ask your Senators and Representative to co-sponsor HR 3494/S 1708 to institute a nonmotorized safety performance measure.
It seems like a common sense request, but US DOT and the Federal Highway Administration has refused to set a performance measure to reduce bicycle and pedestrian deaths. We are now asking Congress to require such a measure.
Here’s why:
- MAP-21, the new federal transportation law, requires USDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to establish safety performance measures for states to meet – but, no performance measure related to the safety of people who bike and walk is currently being considered by FHWA.
- The number of bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities has risen for the past two years (2010 and 2011) while overall traffic deaths have gone down quite dramatically — that means the percentage of fatalities that are bike/ped has risen from 12% to nearly 16%.
- MAP-21 almost doubled the amount of funding available for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), a program run by state Departments of Transportation. Unfortunately, that program has woefully small investments in bike/ped safety projects: Only seven states have spent any of these funds on bike/ped projects, and combined they’ve spent less than 0.5% of the funds annually.
Without a specific performance measure to focus on nonmotorized safety, bicyclists and pedestrians will remain firmly in the blindspot of traffic safety.
Please ask Congress to co-sponsor HR 3494/S 1708 to set a national goal to reduce the number of bicyclists and pedestrians injured and killed on our roads.
To take action https://cqrcengage.com/lab/app/write-a-letter
Attaching bicycle-pedestrian structure to Blanchette Bridge considered
[B’ Spokes: This came up in my news feed and I really wish this was happening in Maryland, too many of our bridges here that are uncomfortable to bike across, challenging to bike across or flat out banning bikes from crossing. It would be nice if there were at least some discussions on this topic.]
The Bypass of Commerce
By NATHANIEL M. HOOD, Strong Towns
We have a cultural misunderstanding about the economic benefits of mobility.
There is no better example than the State of Minnesota’s new $300 million “Corridors of Commerce” program designed to foster “economic growth with transportation investments.” This is a noble goal and it’s worked well in the past, so why not keep it up?
First, we built highways that connected places that were never before directly connected. This was an enormous benefit to rural populations and opened up to more marketplaces. Towns that were once a 5 hour journey apart turned into an easy 1 hour trip. There is no question that this created an economic benefit.
But, we’ve continued building and expanding this roadway system to much diminishing return. The Corridors of Commerce project is just another example of this misapplication of limited transportation dollars.
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https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2013/11/20/the-bypass-of-commerce.html
MTA Administrator Smith Launches Bus Network Improvement Project
MTA Administrator Robert Smith introduces the Bus Network Improvement Project. He is committed to improving service quality, transit access to and from jobs and major destinations, and increasing network efficiency and effectiveness while involving riders and members of the community in the decision making process.
Pilot program: Speed sensors trigger red light on Philly road
B’ Sokes: I love this idea! I can’t wait to hear if it really makes a difference.
https://articles.philly.com/2013-11-19/news/44246715_1_kelly-drive-speed-limit-sensors