Next question is from @meganL about national cycling advocacy organizations:
Q3. What advocacy item would you like the League of American Bicyclists (or whatever your national/local cycle advocacy group is) to add to their lobbying agenda?
A3 #BikeNite it seems like every politician and even most drivers "support bicycling" but what's lacking is the connected low-stress infrastructure to get people of all ages and abilities from all points A to all points B by bike. DOTs' bike plans are being built on like a 200-year timeline and #CompleteStreets are never going to happen before the climate extincts us unless we do #TacticalUrbanism and network-level reprogramming of space that's effectively reserved for cars
The idea that you can get #CompleteStreets by giving money to the highway department is a complete failure. It's 2024 and ODOT is rebuilding #stroads with curb-tight sidewalks and painted bike lanes that run between a right turn lane and thru traffic, posted speed: 45mph. The focus needs to be on scrapping-together and then incrementally improving a connected low-stress bikeway network throughout the metro region, not repaving and updating disjoint segments to 1990's designs.
This week in Complete Streets -- the dessert portion of the course -- we're learning how to (and not to) apply safe street design principles from other cultures to the US transportation context.
First up, the brilliant Carlos Pardo will be zooming in to talk about how to learn from temporary infrastructure and get more people involved in street design, and to spark some ideas for reconfiguring one of our own (disastrous) streets (1/3).
Finally, we'll wrap the course with a group discussion on the future of #CompleteStreets. What concepts can we take away from the course and apply right away? Which ones need seismic cultural shifts to be successful? How will we work to make sure those shifts happen...and to make sure they work for everyone?
We're at the point in my #CompleteStreets course where students' small area plans start really taking shape. It's my favorite part of the course, seeing how they've integrated everything they've learned and are applying it to solve actual problems through better street design in a real world situation.
In #CompleteStreets this week, we're talking about the pandemic's impacts on #pedestrian and #bicycle#planning and gearing up for a perennial favorite among students: Stakeholder Speed Dating!
I invite a dozen or so local experts to come provide feedback on students' recommendations for safety and accessibility improvements in a small area. Students get 10 minutes with each set of experts before rotating on to the next set. It's chaos! It's awesome! It's #CarolinaPlanning!
I'm somcak, a #librarian currently in #Ohio. I have 2 mini #dachshunds and 2 #cats. I enjoy all sorts of music, yes, even death metal on occasion!
I've been on Mastodon since October 2022, and this is my 5th server.
I use content warnings for all sorts of stuff, just trying to be considerate! I always make sure there's #AltText and #CamelCase for my own posts as well as those I boost. #Accessibility matters.
I enjoy learning about #history and #archeology, particularly the #neolithic. I'm also interested in #UrbanPlanning and how we can make communities greener. I have an #ebike and care about #CompleteStreets.
This week in #CompleteStreets we've got TWO amazing guest experts!
First up, Dr. Missy Cummings joins us to talk about the potential implications of driver assistance & driving automation for road safety, what the sitch is with AV regulations, and why simulations are misleading.
Then it's our own Dr. Wesley Kumfer talking about how engineering & planning work together to help or hinder safety efforts, and how to bring safe systems into traffic engineering practices. Rad.
This week in Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets: Matching walking and biking infrastructure to environment, traffic, and population contexts.
Lesson 1: Grading the appropriateness of infrastructure based on SEVDEA principles: Separation, Elevation, Visibility, Dedication, Accommodation, and Escapability
via @gerrymcgovern
“The results show that making streets friendlier for #bikes — and sidewalks friendlier for #pedestrians — is actually good for #business. The rise of #completestreets and #roaddiets, as urban planners call them, has been a huge boon to businesses in #cities”
“survey after survey has shown that business owners overestimate how many of their customers drive to their stores, versus #walking or #biking”
This week in Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets, we're talking about how to measure travel demand...in the most literal sense of the word: "I demand to be able to get to work, school, the park, wherever, safely, via my chosen travel mode."
We'll cover common approaches to evaluating demand, pitfalls of those approaches, and techniques you can use now to better understand your community's mobility needs.
New Complete Streets policy under discussion in Columbus
The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) is planning a Complete Streets policy to set a vision and requirements for all new road projects and repairs.
This writer graded the policy 43 out of 100, which sounds bad unless you know that the Ohio average is 36.
@benfulton I think #CompleteStreets policies need to focus first on the lack of complete low-stress networks for people biking, walking, access to transit, and transit priority. When viewed as a cross-section, we're not seeing the gaps left all around a project segment, not actually enabling new trips. Also, in a healthy network, not all streets need car lanes, certainly not multiple thru lanes for cars.
The Michigan Department of Transportation is asking the public how it could improve infrastructure and safety for walking, public transportation and bicycling.
California Bicycle Coalition / #CalBike 2024 Summit Advance Session "Success Stories from San Diego" included a presentation by Bike SD's ED Anar Salayev. He referred to importance of recognizing needs of small businesses while advocating for changes that make streets safer for people who bike & walk.
“The predominant history tells us that the status quo with #CarDependency is because that’s what ‘Americans’ — as if that’s a thing — have always wanted,” he said. “And what makes my jaw drop when I look back at the historical record is that that was never true … There was never a moment when lots of Americans weren’t fighting #CarDomination.”