Month: August 2010

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Western Baltimore County Draft Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan

From the Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan website:

The technical advisory committee and the Office of Planning have developed a preliminary draft for public comment. The draft is also being circulated among county and state agencies for additional input on the plan.

The citizen input from the workshops helped create the implementation recommendations of the plan. Office of Planning staff compiled and analyzed the discussion notes and surveys from each of the workshops, along with the more than 270 surveys that were submitted online.

In the fall, a public meeting will be scheduled to receive additional public comment. A revised draft plan will be submitted to the Planning Board and ultimately to the Baltimore County Council for approval as an amendment to the County Master Plan.

View the full document (23 MB) (PDF)

View the plan in sections:

Table of Contents (1 MB) (PDF)
Introduction and Shared Use Paths (pp. 1-14) (3.5 MB) (PDF)
Walking 1 (pp. 15-26) (5.5 MB) (PDF)
Walking 2 (pp. 27-32) (4.5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 1 (pp. 33-41) (1.5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 2 (pp. 42-49) (5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 3 (pp. 50-58) (6 MB) (PDF)
Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation and Appendices (pp. 59 to end) (2 MB) (PDF)

View full size color maps:

Proposed Pedestrian Improvements (5.5 MB) (PDF)
Proposed Shared Use Path and Bicycle Improvements (5.5 MB) (PDF)

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Pedestrian safety issue hits close to home

from Welcome to the Fast Lane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation by Ray LaHood

Early Wednesday afternoon, a Department employee was struck by a dump truck while crossing the street near DOT Headquarters and taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries.

She was in the crosswalk.

Sadly, she was not the first pedestrian coming to or from our building to be hit by a car. In late April, Amy Polk, a DOT contractor and mother of two young children, was killed.
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And I am really, really worried about our employees’ safety.

So I met this morning with DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier, DC Transportation Director Gabe Klein, and staff from the Metropolitan Police Department and the DC DOT to see if we could brainstorm some ways to prevent future pedestrian injuries.

We agreed to work on a plan that attempts to solve this problem from a variety of angles. Some ideas under consideration include:

* Extended crossing-guard hours
* Stepped-up pedestrian and vehicle enforcement
* Pedestrian training and education
* Speed trailers (the roadside digital signs that display a driver’s speed)
* Prohibiting "right turn on red" in the Southeast Federal Center area
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[B’ Spokes: Say what? No targeting just j-walking pedestrains or billboards showing distracted pedestrains getting hit by cars? Come on let Balamore show you how it’s done without these practical and might actually work type solutions. (And we wounder why DC’s ped fatality rate is lower then the whole State of Maryland.)]

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Frederick – Study plans for more traffic by car, foot, bike

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In 2013, the task force study envisions three road improvements: turn lanes for Shookstown Road at Bowers Road; and Shookstown Road at Kemp Lane; and a signal at Shookstown Road at Opossumtown Pike.

The total cost for those three is roughly estimated at $550,000, with the city’s share being about $198,030, Hahn said. [B’ Spokes note the lower then 50% match, I wounder why, do car only improvements get a better break then bike/ped?]

The task force took into consideration right of way, lane width, median, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, grass buffer and landscaping and speed.

The task force recommended for two-lane road corridors having in each direction a 5-foot-wide pedestrian path, a 5-foot strip to separate pedestrians from a 4-foot bicycle path; a 12-foot automobile lane; and an 18-foot median. In areas with four lanes of traffic, the bicycle path is removed.

Hahn said the next step will be a resolution adopting the study’s recommendations. They will then serve as guides for the corridor improvements.
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Harford Health Department and Upper Chesapeake Partner for Community Health Day in Edgewood

From the Harford County Health Department:

The Harford County Health Department in partnership with Upper Chesapeake HealthLink is rolling out the second in a series of three scheduled Community Health Days on Friday, August 20th from 1:00 until 5:00pm in the Edgewood Plaza Shopping Center located at the corner of Edgewood and Hanson Roads in Edgewood, Maryland in the Food Lion Shopping Center.
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Youth will once again be fitted for bicycle helmets and will be able to receive a free bicycle helmet.
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Lawlessness due to lack of infrastructure and Sharrows work

Washcycle has a couple of good points:

  • The DCist article has a comment with an excellent point I’ve not heard raised before “It’s the absence of infrastructure that creates the perception of
    lawlessness. The problem is, unlike yourself, the overwhelming majority
    of people do not perceive the roads to be safe for cyclists, due to the
    lack of infrastructure, causing males between the ages of 17 and 23 to
    be disproportionately and overwhelmingly represented. If there is one
    universality the world over is that 17 to 23 year old males are reckless
    and lawless road users, be they using skateboards, bicycles or cars.
    When you install infrastructure that increases the perception of road
    safety, people between the ages of 7 to 70 use bicycles as transport,
    and actually respect the road laws, creating a safer environment for
    everybody.”
  • CommuterPageBlog has a post about sharrows “research by the U.S. Department of
    Transportation revealed that sharrows significantly increase the passing space between
    motor vehicles and bicyclists and reduce improper bicycle behavior, such as
    riding on the sidewalk or riding the wrong way on a street.

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KDOT Transportation Enhancement Program

[B’ Spokes: to contrast Maryland; 16 projects for the next *six* years at a cost of $20 million (at an average of 5 projects and $3 million a year.) Also note that Maryland requires a 50% local match "to make the money go farther" like that’s working real well. And as noted previously we have enough Transportation Enhancement money in the bank to do all 16 projects *this year* with NO local match.]
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The Kansas Department of Transportation has chosen 18 projects for its transportation enhancement program through fiscal year 2012, at a cost of $14.8 million.
KDOT received 55 applications from local governments. For the 18 selected projects, a minimum of 20% of their cost must come from the applicant.
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Twin Cities ahead of curve in managing congestion

[B’ Spokes: You would have thought that people’s choice in transportation goes by what is well accommodated.]
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But the Minnesota approach is drawing praise from the national experts at the Texas Transportation Institute, which has tracked congestion across the country since 1982. Along with Seattle, the institute’s Tim Lomax told USA Today last month, the Twin Cities "are at the forefront of what’s going on … They are not only thought leaders, but action leaders."

For example:

* Twin Cities freeways have nearly 300 miles of bus-only shoulder lanes, more than the rest of the nation combined. This "transit advantage," initiated in 1992, allows buses to bypass stalled traffic, making them more attractive than driving for many commuters and reducing the number of vehicles clogging the road.
* Another transit advantage being introduced on a few routes in Minneapolis and St. Paul is traffic signal controls for bus drivers running behind schedule. Metro Transit says this tool has produced a 15 percent time savings for transit riders.
* Metro freeways pioneered entrance ramp meters, which showed their utility when gridlock followed an experimental meter shutdown dictated by conservative legislators.
* Interstate Hwy. 394 was among the first in the nation to establish a High Occupancy Toll (HOT) system, which allows solo motorists, for a price collected electronically, to use express lanes formerly restricted to car pools, transit and motorcycles. The 5-year-old project has sped up traffic in both the tolled and free lanes, winning support from drivers in all income classes. Now the HOT system has been extended to I-35W with similar strong results – 10 to 15 minutes off average trips, free flow in the priced lanes 99 percent of the time — and the Minnesota Department of Transportation is looking for ways to bring it to other crowded corridors.
* Last year, Metro Transit, the city of Minneapolis and federal funders collaborated on a project to concentrate all 78 express bus routes on dedicated two-lane portions of Marquette and 2nd Avenues S. downtown. This allows buses to pass each other in what Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons calls "a ballet of buses weaving in and out." It has increased express bus speeds in the downtown zone by 60 percent, he said.
* The latest improvements, launched last month, are advisory speed limits and other information on 170 electronic signs over 35W from Burnsville to I-494. The first-in-the-nation "Smart Lanes" system manages access to toll lanes, directs traffic away from crashes and responds to weather and road conditions by recommending slower travel. The advisory limits don’t carry the force of law, but "in a peak period you only need a small percentage of cars to comply with it," said MnDOT’s Nick Thompson. "Then the whole system starts to operate at that speed (as little as 30 miles per hour)." The signs are similar to those in operation for years at the Lowry Hill tunnel on I-94. More Smart Lanes will open into downtown Minneapolis this fall and along I-94 in Minneapolis and St. Paul next year.
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Things I want for Christmas (in a new transportation bill)

by Mark R. Brown

Let me bore you with a federal transportation policy post!

Why your transit system sucks (from U.S. PIRG “A Better Way To Go” report)

SAFETEA-LU, the funding and authorization bill that guides federal transportation spending, expired last year and a new bill is in the works. With each subsequent iteration, federal transportation bills have made more provisions for alternate modes, but highway spending still dominates. $40 million in the highway account is allowed to be used by states as flex funds for alternate modes, but the ultimate decision of how this money is used is up to state DOTs.  Though I’m no expert in federal transportation policy, here are the things I think should be included in the next bill:

Gas tax alternatives – a vehicle miles tax (VMT) is an equitable way to tax people in proportion to how much they use our roads. The bank account will also take less of a hit as more fuel efficient vehicles fill the streets. It makes sense to charge people in proportion to the amount they use a service or good.  Fuel consumption will soon be an outdated proxy for road usage. 

Mandated multimodal funding – SAFETEA-LU marketeers made a big deal about flexible spending for alternate modes.  Big deal. These spending decisions were mostly left up to state DOTs.  This is fine if you’re in a progressive part of the country, but many state agencies still think highways are the bee’s knees (I love 1920′s slang).  This is like giving a blank check to a crack addict. Just as there are dedicated funds for highways, there should be a mandated percentage of funds going to walking/biking/transit. Or give more power to MPOs and cities to decide how to spend the money.

Increase federal match for transit – say you want to build a highway. No problem. The feds will give you 90% of the cost. A new transit line? You’re lucky if you get a 60% match. [Note that this is a 40% local match for transit while Maryland requires a 50% local match for bike/ped projects.] This is partly due to the huge demand of the New Starts program and the dearth of funding available for such projects. Oh yea, and highways don’t pay for themselves, and transit shouldn’t be held to a more stringent standard which requires unrealistic “cost effectiveness” goals. Show me one cost effective highway.

Incentives for more domestic light rail/commuter rail car manufacturers. All this know-how is in Europe and Japan. We need to bring it here and base our manufacturing sector on sustainability instead of waste.  Lately, when I walk by cars stuck in traffic, I see a racket.  Huge subsidies given to car manufacturers, who in turn spew out millions of cars on asphalt roads which employ millions of contractors and engineers so even more people can have their own steel box which shuttles them around in the most wasteful, environmentally and physically harmful way possible. Why not put these subsidies into a product which has a future and is actually good for people?

Transportation for America has a transportation bill petition with some interesting comments.

Download full  “A Better Way to Go – Meeting America’s 21st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit” U.S. PIRG report.

Continue reading “Things I want for Christmas (in a new transportation bill)”