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America's Rivers Under Threat

Planetizen - 1 hour 16 min ago
Hillary Rosner speaks with Bob Irvin, president of American Rivers, on their newly released list of the most endangered rivers in the country.

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Categories: US National

New Urbanists Duke it Out With Mayor Over Expressway Conversion

Planetizen - 2 hours 16 min ago

"We should not let the lame be the enemy of the perfectly adequate," says one critic of the New Haven mayor's proposal.

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Categories: US National

South Brunswick High School Students Seek Sidewalk

Streetblog Top Picks - 2 hours 41 min ago
At this month’s New Jersey Department of Transportation complete streets workshop in Mercer County, South Brunswick High School (SBHS) Student Council President Ian Moritz and Recording Secretary Dan Gorzynski might have seemed a bit younger than the rest of the crowd, but they came for the same reason as everyone else: they were interested in making streets [...]
Categories: US National

Onward, Singapore: Setting the New Standard for Urban Innovation

Planetizen - 3 hours 16 min ago
Boyd Cohen takes us through a brief tour of the Lion City's many progressive and wildly successful programs, from affordable housing to traffic management and beyond.

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Categories: US National

Linklist: May 17, 2012

Transportationist - 3 hours 40 min ago
Karl Smith @ Modeled Behavior: More on Self-Driving Cars : "When I said that by 2035 we could have 3 times as many cars as human beings, obviously that was a prediction about the predominance of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). I... David Levinson http://nexus.umn.edu
Categories: Twin Cities

The Housing Market Revolution

Planetizen - 4 hours 16 min ago

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.

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Categories: US National

Detroit Reborn

Planetizen - 5 hours 16 min ago
In the first edition of a new series, Richard Florida introduces us to the inspiring stories of entrepreneurs and artists, designers and musicians invested in the bottom-up effort to revive Detroit.

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Categories: US National

Love Your People. We are all Traffic.

Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition BLOG - 10 hours 56 min ago

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.

Categories: Twin Cities

Collision on SW Madison leaves woman with life threatening injuries - UPDATED

BikePortland - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 11:35pm

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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Categories: US National

Car-sharing and the RAND corporation.

Streetblog Top Picks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 8:05pm
Today, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post highlighted a RAND Corporation report claiming that car-sharing cuts back very little on energy consumption. One major flaw in the analysis: The conclusion is based on the principle that most car-share users are non-car-owners who already drive infrequently--fair enough. It then poses the hypothetical about 20% of the country switching to car-shares, and still claims that the energy savings are a drop in the bucket. The flaw, of course, is that if 20% of the population were to switch to car-sharing, you'd see significant number of car owners using car-sharing services. But why would a car-owner use a car sharing service, other than perhaps to rent a vehicle type they don't have in the garage (say, a SUV to haul lots of stuff)? Well, they just might if they got rid of their car. This is the key potential win for car-sharing services: it permits people to reduce the number of cars they own. Many people live in relatively transit-rich areas, and aren't opposed to biking or walking--but still have cars and use them for most trips. Why? Ignoring cultural reasons, many either don't trust the availability of the transit system, or have need to make trips (such as hauling lots of stuff) that can't be made easily without a personal vehicle. And so they buy cars. And once they have a car in the garage, it is often more economical to go ahead and use it for everything. The whole point of car-sharing services, from an environmental point of view, is that it enables people to sell their cars. Once you no longer have one parked in the garage, driving is expensive. But if you already own a car, you're already paying most of the costs for it (depreciation being the biggest expense) regardless of whether you use it or not; at that point the marginal cost of driving is small.
Categories: US National

Driverless cars don’t change geometry

Streetblog Top Picks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 7:50pm
Via the Streetsblog Network, I came across this Salon piece from Michael Lind praising our future driverless car overlords.  Angie Schmidt at Streetsblog did a nice job to take down some of Lind’s loaded language, particularly the bits about “rigging markets” (which rings just as hollow as the cries about “social engineering”). Those issues aside, the biggest thing that Lind misses isn’t about technology at all – but rather about geometry, land use, and the relationship between transportation and the built environment. Lind writes: As the white windmills fade from the picture of the future, so do the bullet trains speeding past them.  Even before the end of President Obama’s first four years, unrealistic fantasies about high-speed passenger rail had collapsed.  Federal funding for high-speed rail demonstration projects has been minuscule and symbolic.  State and local governments continue to conclude that the costs of high-speed passenger rail outweigh the alleged benefits. In the longer run, robocars may be fatal for fixed-rail transportation, at least for passengers rather than freight.  Google has been test driving self-driving cars in California and Nevada has become the first state to legalize driverless vehicles.  No doubt it will take several decades for safety issues and legal arrangements to be worked out.  But high-speed trains might find competition in high-speed convoys of robot cars on smart highways, allowed higher speeds once human error has been eliminated.  And the price advantage of subway tickets over taxi fares in cities may vanish, when the taxis drive themselves.  Point-to-point travel, within cities or between them, is inherently more convenient than train or subway journeys which require changing modes of transit in the course of a journey.  Thanks to robocars, much cheaper point-to-point travel everywhere may eventually be cheap enough to relegate light rail and inter-city rail to the museum, along with the horse-drawn omnibus and the trans-atlantic blimp. Paraphrasing Jarrett Walker (aside: his recently published book is an excellent read), technology does not change geometry.  A driverless car is still a car, the geometry that governs the car is the same regardless of who (or what) is at the controls.  Despite predictions about how this technology could change everything (see a whole series of GGW posts), I find the possibility for change to be marginal.  Driverless Johnny Cabs, Total Recall-style might decrease the cost of providing taxi service, but that won’t fundamentally change the inherent capacity limitations of taxis compared against a subway system. The choice of the taxi as a demonstration for the technology is interesting. Most taxis operate in big cities, and big cities tend to be dense.  Density helps support high levels of transit service and ensures that lots of potential trip destinations are easily reached by foot or by transit, thereby diminishing the market for these automated taxis.  Cars, regardless of who’s driving, don’t have an advantage in point to point travel over pedestrians, transit, or other modes in cities. The other point Lind makes is in investment priorities for government-funded infrastructure (hence the earlier comment about “rigging markets”).  Lind seems to view the built environment as static, rather than an evolving system that changes in concordance with the changes to the transportation infrastructure.  New York’s subways fueled its dense development, and that density in turn provides the market for high capacity rapid transit.  Given growing populations and constantly changing cityscapes, these infrastructure investments in transit are step along the process of letting out cities continue to grow. (semi-related sidebar on growth patterns: check out this article in Scientific American on the patterns of growth among subway networks around the world.  The authors concluded “ that the geometries of large subway networks are guided by simple, universal rules.” – reminiscent of Geoffrey West et al)
Categories: US National

Bicycle Curb Cuts & the Devil in the Details

Twin Cities Sidewalks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 5:39pm
[An at-grade curb cut on the Phalen Boulevard bike path in St Paul.]Talk is cheap. Concrete is expensive. If cities really want to encourage bicycling, and seduce  people into riding bicycles or walking around to get places, it’s not the thought that counts. It’s not enough to simply mark a street with some bicycle symbols, or stripe a path, or put up a sign, or start an education campaign over youtube. The devil is in the details, how precisely bike rou8tes and paths are built and maintained over time.This is particularly true at intersections or places where there's a transition between one type of path and another. Cities can spend lots of money and energy on a nice bicycle route, but if it's punctured by a terrible encounter with a wide busy road (e.g. Hiawatha Avenue without the Sabo Bridge), the appeal of bicycling evaporates.For example take curb cuts. Every time a driveway or a parking lot or a street intersects with a bike path, there’s a choice to be made. Do you prioritize the automobile traffic and force bicycle riders to go awkwardly up and down the often-crumbling curbs? Or, do you prioritize bicycles and pedestrians and force cars to go up and down a ramp.This is the question before engineers each time they design a bike path, particularly an off-street one. And in the USA, 99.95994% of the time the answer is to prioritize cars.Well, that seems like the wrong choice to me for a few reasons. First, these bike path intersections can serve as speed bumps, slowing down car traffic at precisely the intersections where they most need to be cautious. Second, the grade separation signals a point of difference for car drivers. The elevation change physically marks a difference between the parking lot or street, an encounter with pedestrians or cyclists who may be zipping past.Third, and more subtly, having an at-grade curb cut really makes a difference for people riding bicycles or in wheel chairs. Each time you have to slow down and cautiously bump your way up and down another curb cut, it destroys a little bit of your joy. It’s the bicycling equivalent of dog owners picking up poop. Imagine the increase in canine misery if humiliating ordeal happened every 125 yards!In my bike trips experiences in Europe, I’ve seen off-street bike paths that prioritize cyclists, forming  a nice level path for people doing active transportation. This is pretty rare around here, though. Almost the only example I can think of is the new Phalen Boulevard bike path, where the cur cuts are designed to keep bikes on the level. I say it all too rarely, but good job St Paul![A great curb cut on the Phalen Boulevard bike path in St Paul.]
Categories: Twin Cities

PBOT unveils plans for NE Multnomah road diet project

BikePortland - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 4:12pm
Lindsay Walker of the Lloyd TMA looks over the project maps with PBOT Traffic Engineer Rob Burchfield and City Bike Coordinator Roger Geller.(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

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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Categories: US National

Hennepin County District 2 Candidate Questionnaires

Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition BLOG - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 4:01pm

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…

Categories: Twin Cities

Twin Cities Bike Picture of the Day: 5.16.12

Cycle Twin Cities - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 4:00pm
Click through for the Twin Cities Bike Picture of the Day for Wednesday May 16, 2012. Continue reading →

Toward a Universal Subway Typology

Planetizen - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 4:00pm
Brandon Keim explores the fascinating findings detailed in a new paper, which shows that the world’s major subway systems appear to be organically converging on an ideal form.

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Categories: US National

South Brunswick High School Students Seek Sidewalk

Streetblog Top Picks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 3:21pm
The stretch of Stouts Lane with no sidewalk fosters an unsafe walking environment for the area’s high school students | Photo courtesy of Ian Moritz At this month’s New Jersey Department of Transportation complete streets workshop in Mercer County, South Brunswick High School (SBHS) Student Council President Ian Moritz and Recording Secretary Dan Gorzynski might have seemed a bit younger than the rest of the crowd, but they came for the same reason as everyone else: they were interested in making streets safe for pedestrians. The Problem Since the beginning of the current school year, Moritz and Gorzynski, along with the rest of the SBHS Student Council, have been working tirelessly to complete a .2 mile stretch of sidewalk on a dangerous section of Stouts Lane by their school. SBHS is located down the road from a busy Route 1 strip mall, where students work and socialize after school, says Moritz. But a winding stretch connecting the school and the mall on Stouts Lane is perilous for pedestrians. “Because of blind curves, this .2 mile distance is one of the most dangerous routes to walk in our entire town,” Moritz explained. “Walking from the school to the mall is an exercise that puts every student who makes the journey in serious jeopardy,” he continued. While no one has been seriously injured yet, Moritz thinks that it’s only a matter of time. Fixing It According to Moritz and his colleagues, the solution is simple. Fill in the gap in the sidewalk. Getting it done, however, has been a challenge. Moritz and his pedestrian safety allies have gained support for action among the school’s administration, students, parents, and several local businesses. In November, Moritz and the student council presented the issue to the South Brunswick Town Council, and while local officials expressed concern about safety along Stouts Lane, no commitment to building the sidewalk was made. In fact, South Brunswick Mayor, Frank Gambatese, asserted that completing the sidewalk along this stretch could be complicated. “We need to cross [a] stream, so a design needs to be created and sent to the [Department of Environmental Protection],” he said. “Funding for this could be an expensive proposition.” The township has informally estimated that the cost for the sidewalk would be roughly $500,000, though it might not have to foot the bill. The municipality’s first choice for funding the project could come from a Pennsylvania-based developer that is looking to build a Shop Rite market at Stouts Lane and Route 522. However, a lawsuit filed by Stop & Shop has held up the project. A ruling is expected in mid-June. Moritz followed up with South Brunswick a few months after the students’ presentation, inquiring as to whether or not the council had identified grants that might cover some of the project’s costs. Unfortunately, none have yet been found, and the federally funded Safe Routes to School program only covers K-8 institutions, so SBHS cannot look to this program for help. In the meantime, South Brunswick Township has placed two “students walking” signs on the dangerous portion of Stouts Lane. But according to Moritz, cars continue to drive quickly around the two blind curves.
Categories: US National

Should the Bay Area Have Four Million More Residents?

Planetizen - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 3:00pm
Noting the Bay Area's relatively slow growth rate over the past two decades, Timothy B. Lee argues that the area's "bad housing policies" are harming business growth and investment opportunities in Silicon Valley.

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Categories: US National

Remember when a few people opposed bikeshare?

Streetblog Top Picks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 2:28pm
by David Alpert It's been fascinating to watch some of the coverage and debates over bike sharing in New York. In so many ways, it mirrors what happened in DC. At first, many people didn't understand it or opposed it. Once it opened, fears faded away. Photo by DDOTDC on Flickr.DC saw some contentious public meetings about whether stations belonged in certain neighborhoods. That's all long gone. Now, when an ANC takes up bike sharing, it's usually either to push for more stations or debate whether a station belongs in one spot or across the street. New York started with the "don't understand it" phase. Some, like Gothamist and Reuters' Felix Salmon, first jumped on the fact that it will cost $77 in overtime fees to keep a "Citibike" for 4 hours. That is steeper than it needs to be, but it's also looking at the wrong thing. Very few people will keep a bike that long. The purpose of bike sharing is for short point to point trips, not long rentals. But a lot of folks initially placed the system into their mental box of "bike rentals," and evaluated it accordingly. That'll pass, if it hasn't already, once people actually get to try using it. Last night, at a public meeting in Brooklyn Heights, a few residents argued against bikeshare stations on their streets. Mike Epstein tweeted some of the objections from the meeting: Mike Epstein @mikepstein"This is a terrific idea" but "not compatible with residential streets" Mike Epstein @mikepsteinThis guy is afraid of a bikeshare station turning into a place for people to hang out, but says he likes the program and will join. #bikenyc Has a single station in DC turned into a "place for people to hang out"? Not that I'm aware. But some people worried about that here, too. A BID employee from Montague Street, in Brooklyn Heights, wanted to keep 5 parking spaces instead of add 39 bikeshare docks, while a MetroTech BID representative was pleased there aren't stations in their area. DC residents know what will happen: Bryant Turnage @turnagebThey'll eat those words once it's live. RT @mikepstein "I love bike share, but I don't want it on my block." #bikenyc meets classic NIMBYism Kriston Capps @kristoncapps@turnageb @mikepstein It's going to be so annoying when everyone comes around on #bikenyc and NYers are all so proud they invented bikeshare The system will open, and residents will realize that bike sharing is nothing like their worst fears. Neighbors will clamor for stations. Actually, many already are. Residents in Park Slope, which isn't getting Citibike yet, are eager for expansion. Meanwhile, pass the popcorn.2 commentsRelated posts:Capital Bikeshare introduces new 5-day pass (Mar 14, 2011)Mickey on the Bikeshare (May 6, 2011)Could bikeshare directions come to Google? (Jun 16, 2011)Tell DDOT where you want a Capital Bikeshare location (Jun 17, 2010)Capital Bikeshare, launching today, will change everything (Sep 20, 2010)
Categories: US National

Tomorrow: Using Elections to Advance Smart Transportation Policy

Streetblog Top Picks - Wed, 05/16/2012 - 2:26pm
Transportation for America, a broad national coalition focused on improving the country’s transportation policy (Tri-State is a member), kicks off its Transportation Vote 2012 webinar series tomorrow at 2pm EDT. The series aims to help individuals and non-profit groups understand how to use elections to effectively advocate for smart transportation policy that emphasizes maintenance of our existing road and bridge infrastructure, enhances transit service, and promotes biking and walking. Tomorrow’s introductory session, “Engaging in Elections for Non-Profit Organizations,” will cover different educational activities that 501c3 non-profit groups can pursue to make transportation an issue in elections. The webinar will also feature Abby Levine, Legal Director of Advocacy Programs at Alliance for Justice, who will provide an overview of the legal aspects of electoral advocacy. The webinars are free and open to all. To register, click here.
Categories: US National