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America's Rivers Under Threat
New Urbanists Duke it Out With Mayor Over Expressway Conversion
"We should not let the lame be the enemy of the perfectly adequate," says one critic of the New Haven mayor's proposal.
South Brunswick High School Students Seek Sidewalk
Onward, Singapore: Setting the New Standard for Urban Innovation
Linklist: May 17, 2012
The Housing Market Revolution
Haya El Nasser describes the housing market's fundamental structural changes as the housing industry rethinks what type of housing to build and where to build it.
Detroit Reborn
Love Your People. We are all Traffic.
Click here to view the embedded video.
A friend of mine alerted me to this video which I think has so many relevant and relatable things to say. You see what happens to a culture (specifically in Brussels, Belgium), not only on a transportation level, but as a whole in its mentality when cars are prioritized. The “Bicycle” Mayor of Copenhagen (2006-2010 ) Klaus Bondam is in this film and I found what he said spot on: “Of course you have to love your cyclists, of course you have to love your pedestrians, of course you have to love the people who use public transport because they are contributing to the well being on tons of levels in the city…We really appreciate that you come here.”
It is a crime in my viewpoint that a country that hosts one of the greatest cycling events in the world, suffers from such problems. I love my lycra, but I also like riding in normal clothes to do normal things on my bicycle. Bicycling is about more than putting on your bike shorts once a week, it is about doing something that makes sense. Bicycling takes care of you (mentally and physically), and when you are taking care of you, you are taking care of your society.
Mr. Bondam references Stockholm and how a city can change (ca. minute 15), I can say from seeing it firsthand – it’s a wonderful place to ride a bicycle.
Take a few minutes out of your day and watch this. What do you think? How can you relate?
PS ~ Want to know what it is like to experience the opposite of this? Come spend the day with us on June 10th at Open Streets, an Initiative of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition.
Collision on SW Madison leaves woman with life threatening injuries - UPDATED
UPDATE, 5/17 at 9:21 am: The Portland Police Bureau has confirmed that the woman involved in this collision died last night from her injuries.
This is where the collision happened.(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)The Portland Police Bureau have just released information about a very serious collision that happened downtown less than one hour ago.
It occurred at the intersection of SW 3rd and Madison. Police say it appears that the woman was riding her bike eastbound on Madison and the truck was attempting to make a right-hand turn from Madison onto SW 3rd. There is a green colored bike box and a bike lane at this location (as seen in the photo at right). It might also be worth noting that this intersection is just one block from City Hall and Madison is on a slight decline at this location.
The police say the woman's injuries "may be life threatening."
Kristin Tufte was walking south on 3rd and came upon the collision right as it happened. She told me via phone a minutes ago that the truck was a large delivery truck and that it was, "half-way through its turn" when the collision occurred. The woman's body, said Tufte, came to rest between the cab and the rear of the truck. She also added that, "The truck driver was totally distraught."
I will keep you posted with developments as they come in. I'm sure all the local TV news stations will also have more details and live reports at 11:00 pm. Let's hope for the best.
UPDATE: I just got this eyewitness account from a reader via email:
"I was riding my bike home from a meeting when I came upon the accident just after it had happened. I came down S.W. Madison and saw the truck stopped part way through a right turn. When I got closer I saw the wrecked bike and then saw that the rider was down. The rear tires of the semi's cab were pinning one of her legs. Another cyclist stopped around the same time, and indicated he was a paramedic. We had the driver move the truck slowly back, and I got the young woman's leg out from under the truck tire. But there is no doubt she was severely injured. The bike frame was crushed, seemingly indicating the truck had rolled over it, and she was still on the bike.
The accident occurred right next to the Justice Center, but it seemed like an eternity before emergency services arrived. I'm sure it was only a couple of minutes, but for a few moments it wasn't clear if the victim was still alive.
As the news has reported, the truck driver was extremely distraught. For all the people at OLive [OregonLive] crowing about who "wins" when a truck hits a bicyclist, the obvious answer is 'no one.'"
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Car-sharing and the RAND corporation.
Driverless cars don’t change geometry
Bicycle Curb Cuts & the Devil in the Details
PBOT unveils plans for NE Multnomah road diet project
Last night the City of Portland and representatives from the Lloyd Transportation Management Association hosted an open house for their NE Multnomah Street Transportation Pilot Project. It was the first time the public was shown the proposals for this project.
If you recall, back in October a citizen committee ended a 10 month public process with a 12-1 vote in favor of moving forward in making NE Holladay the main east-west spine for safe and convenient bicycling through the Lloyd District. That lone dissenting vote was held by the most powerful man in the room (or perhaps just the most feared) — Wade Lange of commercial real estate firm Ashforth Pacific. Lange — who was also representing a San Diego real estate firm that had just purchased $92 million worth of Ashforth property (the majority of which is on Multnomah Street) — never made it clear exactly why he opposed the project on Holladay; but despite being outvoted 12-1, he convinced the City of Portland to turn their attention away from Holladay and toward Multnomah instead.
By March, Lange found himself on a 25 person task force charged with putting Multnomah on a road diet. The task force was made up of PBOT staff, TriMet, the Portland Development Commission, property owners, and other stakeholders. Since then, they've met three times to come up with a plan to make significant changes to the street.
At the open house last night, the poster boards explaining the genesis of this project made no mention of Holladay. Instead, this is how the project was introduced:
"NE Multnomah Street was suggested as the prime east-west retail corridor as part of the N/NE Quadrant project. In its existing form NE Multnomah leaves little space for on-street parking, and active transportation that would invite shoppers, visitors, pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders to one of Portland's premier districts."
In order to turn the "outdated" street into one that will "energize the Lloyd District and create a vibrant east-west retail spine" on NE Multnomah, the first phase of the project will:
- add around 70 new on-street car parking spaces between NE 1st Avenue and NE 16th (19 of which are being added in one stretch along Holladay Park);
- add a wider, seven-foot bike lane in both directions (more details below);
- add green coloring at several of the intersections where TriMet buses have to pull over and access corner stops;
- reconfigure the number of standard vehicle lanes from five to three.
The lead graphic on one of the posters created by PBOT showed elements of the project — like on-street bike parking and a "parklet" — that are not yet funded or planned for in the first phase. Instead, PBOT says they've "set aside space" for what they are calling "future streetscape enhancements" (also important to note is that the cars in this scenario would be moving, not parked):
For reference, below are the proposed cross sections (Note: Currently the street has standard, four-foot bike lanes and five standard vehicle lanes):
The proposed designs for the bikeways alternate between three types of facilities.
On a few of the block faces, bikes will be directed onto a curbside bike lane physically separated from other traffic by a large (eight foot wide) buffer that will alternate between striped pavement markings and large concrete planters. The drawings aren't online yet, but I snapped a few photos to give you an idea of what it would look like.
Here's the drawing for the section just east of SE Grand Ave:
And PBOT was showing this image from Vancouver, BC as an example of the planted buffer:
On many other block faces, where curbside, on-street parking has been added, bikes will travel in a seven-foot bike lane with a one-foot, painted buffer in the door zone. You can see how the curbside bike lane with planted buffer transitions into the more traditional bike lane in the image below (which is the section just east of NE 9th Ave):
And here's how it appoaches MLK JR Blvd...
Here's another section (not sure where, sorry):
And here's what they've proposed between MLK and Grand:
In just one of the block faces, the bike facility will be similar to the cycle track on SW Broadway, where the car parking is "floating" in the road and it acts as a buffer between bikes and cars. Why is only one section a parking-protected bike lane (which provides more separation and is considered a higher-quality bikeway) while all the other new car parking is directly at the curb? PBOT traffic analyst Wendy Cawley explained that business owners requested the curbside parking. Here's how it looks outside the 700 Lloyd building east of NE 7th (and it's worth noting that there's a massive, 780 unit, $250 million housing and retail project coming to the parking lot just east of that building):
Much like we observed with the opposition to parking removal by the Portland Development Commission and other stakeholders on the Holladay project, parking rules in the Lloyd District. PBOT Director Tom Miller helped explain this for us back in December when he said, "on-street parking is crucial to the success of major, at-grade retail... Retailers need those [parking] stalls. Whether people like it or not, we're not going to put retail out of business. It's just not what we do."
Not to mention that real estate professionals and property owners fight for the spots because it makes their buildings much more valuable when it comes time to sell.
Interestingly, despite proposing to add around 70 new on-street car parking spaces (there are none currently), there are no plans to add new bike parking. Instead of being included in the initial plans, bike corrals are being considered as part of "future streetscape improvements" that "will be encouraged" in the parking zone. Business owners would have to request them before they are installed.
The lanes for cars are direct and straight the entire length of the street; but the bike-only lanes weave between three different types of facilities — moving from curbside, protected zones, then out into a more traditional bike lanes (with no protection from moving cars) and then mixing with buses at intersections. There are even a few intersections where PBOT says they might add a right turn lane.
When I shared my concerns with PBOT traffic engineer Rob Burchfield, he said they've set aside space in this initial proposal for future uses such as the corrals, parklets, and maybe even a bike share station. It was also made clear last night that the buffered bike lanes could be converted to more robust, physically separated facilities as part of a longer term "Phase two" of the project.
PBOT says the project will cost about $175,000, with about $90,000 of that to be paid by the Lloyd TMA. It will be considered a one-year pilot project and it could be completed by late summer/early fall of this year. They are accepting comments online from the public and I'll update this post when I get the link.
Overall, this project as proposed left me very disappointed. Once again, people that choose to bike seem to have taken a back seat to powerful business interests and the need to accomodate automobiles. What do you think?
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Hennepin County District 2 Candidate Questionnaires
Notes: This is a guest post from Coalition volunteer and Hennepin County District 2 resident Jim Skoog, who coordinated collection of candidate questionnaires. Retiring Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein will be replaced this fall. Hennepin County District 2 currently includes most of north and northeast Minneapolis in addition to several nearby suburbs (see map). We encourage District 2 residents to be informed voters and arranged for candidate questionnaires to provide information on the bicycling perspectives of prospective candidates. The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition is a non-partisan non-profit organization and has made the questionnaire available to all declared candidates regardless of party, and will reach out to any future declared candidates and make their responses available as they come in.
HENNEPIN COUNTY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 2 ELECTION INFORMATION
CANDIDATES Announced candidates as of May 16, 2012: Jill Davis www.jilldavis.org Linda Higgins www.higginsforhennepin.com Tonia Johnson www.johnson4d2.com Paula Pentel www.paulapentel.com Don Samuels www.samuels4county.com Blong Yang www.yangforcommissioner.com
DISTRICT MAP Map of new Hennepin County Commissioner Districts approved April 24, 2012
DATES May 20, 2012 Hennepin County DFL Endorsing Convention at Edison High School (12:00 p.m.) *Republican, Independence, Green, and other local party units have not announced endorsing conventions as of 5/16/2012 May 22, 2012 Candidate filing period begins June 5, 2012 Candidate filing period ends August 14, 2012 Primary Election November 6, 2012 General Election
SURVEY RESPONSES To educate the public about Hennepin County Commissioner Candidates and bicycle-related issues, the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition facilitated a candidate survey. Questions for the survey were developed by the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition. All candidates were invited to submit responses to the questionnaire. The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition will share candidates’ responses with members and the general public. The responses from candidates are below…
- All responses (as of 5-16-12)
- Jill Davis
- Linda Higgins
- Tonia Johnson
- Paula Pentel
- Don Samuels
- Blong Yang–response forthcoming

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