Walking
US DOT Lahood's statement
Worth the read - from US DOT Secretary Lahood's blog (!):
To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:
Read more >
- Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
- Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
- Go beyond minimum design standards.
- Collect data on walking and biking trips.
- Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
- Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
- Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.
US DOT asks State DOTs to embrace bicycling & walking
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced a new federal policy that puts bicycling and pedestrian projects and planning on an equal footing with highways and transit in the use of federal funding. Read more >
New precedent: walking and biking schools
A new elementary school in Canada requires its students to walk, bike, skate or scoot to school. The program addresses issues ranging from child obesity to traffic congestion.
Egalitarian Streets: Market Street 1905
This short film, shot from a streetcar on Market Street in San Francisco in 1905, shows a street screen in sharp contrast to what we experience today in most cities and towns across the United States. This scene may seem chaotic, but it seems to work well because all of the various road users are moving at roughly the same speed and all of the users must yield to each other.
Fast forward to 2010 and we find ourselves having traded this more egalitarian, shared space, street design for one that favors the speedy movement of one single mode of transportation (the private automobile). One might describe our contemporary street design as undemocratic (by giving priority to a single class of road users) in contrast to the scene on Market Street in 1905.
Closer to home, a similar street scene could be experienced on the streets of downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul during the early 1900s. Would we be better off with a similar scene today (without the horse drawn carriages, of course)? Are we currently living with undemocratic streets in Minneapolis Saint Paul and the rest of our cities across the United States?
Bicycle Boulevards - an introduction by Mia Birk and Streetfilms
Nice new video via Streetfilms
Gordon Price on walking and density
Gordon Price talk excerpt from Livable Boulevards Conference, West Hollywood, California, October 6, 2006.
Changing Streets
From MPR:
About a month ago, Hennepin and First Avenues were converted from one-way, to two-way streets. The city made the switch on a weekend morning in order to minimize problems. City officials say so far the conversion has gone well, with a few exceptions.
"At first the cars were all parked, basically in the bike lanes," said Sophie St. Jacques on her bicycle as she prepared to continue north down First Avenue.
Have these changes made things better for cars, pedestrians, and cyclists? You can listen or read the story here. Read more >
Politics and Planning
Great post over at SF Streetsblog about politics in the planning process from the planning directors of major cities.
City planners have been on the hook for some of the last century's greatest metropolitan mishaps: urban freeways and "slum clearance," arbitrary minimum parking requirements, and land use laws that have left little room for the mingling of uses. Understandably, today's planners are a bit humbled. But when planning directors from some of North America's most progressive cities spoke at City Hall this week about the political challenges that face urban planners, several of them said the field needs to move beyond worrying about past mistakes.
Minneapolis planning chief Barbara Sporlein echoed that concern. "So much of planning is making up for past mistakes," she said. "It just feels like every time something happens, [we say,] 'That can't happen again.'"
Do You Feel Safe as a Pedestrian?
Yesterday a report from Transportation for America ranked the nation’s most dangerous metropolitan areas for walking. The report (link after the break) makes the case that incomplete streets are a major culprit in the deaths of thousands of Americans every year.
In response to the report, Minnesota Public Radio's question of the day is "Do you feel safe as a pedestrian in the Twin Cities?"
So, head on over to MPR and join the discussion. Let people know we need complete streets in Minnesota.
How Free Is Your Parking?
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as free parking. Providing parking requires land, and land requires revenue to pay for its rent. Basic economic theory would have developers providing parking up to the point where revenue raised by last the car park equals the value of the next best land use alternative.
Minimum Parking Requirements (MPRs), by definition, force developers to provide parking above this economically efficient level, which raises development costs, subsidizes private automobile transport over other modes such as walking, cycling and public transport, and provides incentives to develop at low densities, encouraging sprawl.
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