"Almost every California community has a state highway that doubles as a local street. These are often the most dangerous roads, because the California Department: of Transportation / Caltrans has historically prioritized moving cars quickly over the safety of people #biking and #walking.
How would you make this street better for biking & walking? Capt Bertie’s Way is a short 20 MPH street with residences and an entrance to a major town parking lot at the end. There’s a planned shared use path to connect a new housing development (highlighted parcel). Thoughts? #BikeTooter#UrbanPlanning#SafeStreets#sidewalk#bikelane#UrbanDesign#streets#CompleteStreets
Portland in the news for a crappy design of what was supposed to be a #CompleteStreets project but shoulda been a popup road diet to one-way for cars or advisory bike lanes, like it was on the first day of construction, $26M ago. (ht
urbanists.social/@benfulton/110956047664977933) https://www.autoblog.com/2023/08/23/speed-limits-dont-matter/
"This is the standard method that the Netherlands uses to prevent people from driving through a neighborhood, and they make the streets safer and more enjoyable for everyone who lives there."
After my last 2 videos, I've seen an increase in comments (especially on reddit 🙄) that my "tone" is driving people away, and that I'd be much more successful if I was nicer.
Coincidentally, I've also seen a huge bump in Patreon supporters this month.
I've had an increase in the absolute number of Patreon supporters, but I've also had many people increase their contribution amount, even though I provide no benefits to anyone who does that. 🤔
@notjustbikes@cshentrup I suspect that these tone-policing "cycling advocates" (who are afraid of facts offending ...drivers, or is it planners?) are part of the #CompleteStreets industrial complex where they plan to eventually pave the entire city with 100ft street cross-sections, when we come up with $4B or so "for safety", but not raise the gas tax, or ever make a driver go around the block to access their driveway. Meanwhile no sidewalks or bike lanes, just plans & talking, and more deaths
#Portland#pdx has been breaking-in a fresh new #pdxTraffic commissioner (with no bureau director for 6 months...), and Mingus Mapps seems to still be focused on the stack of boondoggle carway projects #PBOT has put in front of him. Seems to think that the members of the Bike + Pedestrian Advisory Committees are here to lobby for more funding for the bureau of traffic to continue the status quo of maintaining the whole transportation system for #cars1stAlwaysOnly. Drivers feeling the $30M cut?
We need to get out of the mindset that #safeStreets are expensive (or that they look like #CompleteStreets) and the dangerous ones are a force of nature that we have to keep spending all the money on. When you count the cars per day on the street and always allocate at least as many lanes as your manual says they need, and every mile driven costs you money... of course your budget is a disaster. #transportation#ClimateDenial#trafficEngineers#InducedDemand#DefundDOTs
Florida's #CompleteStreets guidance tells road designers how to translate context into target speeds, including transitions through rural town centers.
It also tells local governments what their built environment should look like.
holding my breath for #CompleteStreets but it's looking like we'll need $30M per mile and a really big pipe to pave 1/4 of the land area in SW #Portland 😲 Or we could divert some of the cut-through car traffic back to freeways and arterials, remove yellow centerlines from most streets (especially those without sidewalks #SWTFpdx) and stripe wide edge lane roads with choke points for cars to share a center lane every block or so. Vote for me on your Oregon Transportation Commission ballot. 😉
This is who #trafficEngineers are trying to placate with #CompleteStreets and preserving all of the extra car lanes. Creating #InducedDemand for privileged white idiots to think they own the roads. Cars don't even pay for basic maintenance, why prioritize them?
I can't get over how much calmer and quieter it is to drive on Columbus Av now that the center running bus lanes are in. My roommate who hates to drive in Boston takes it and feels very chill
My main complaint is that we didn't make #CompleteStreets and that I saw people on bikes forced to ride on the sidewalk. But such a huge step forward!
"Legislative advocacy to address environmental and urban design factors that impact pedestrian safety. Pediatricians can work with local, state, or federal lawmakers to do the following..." (1/)
"a. Encourage support for #CompleteStreets policies and #VisionZero.
b. Support legislation to reduce speed limits in urban areas, including areawide #20mph zones, and to permit photo #SpeedLimit enforcement in critical areas, including school zones.
c. Develop legislation to encourage or require adoption of safety technology, such as pedestrian detection systems and automatic braking in new vehicles." #AAP (2/)
I got your "$4B #transportation backlog" right here #Portland. Put your #trafficEngineers' #CompleteStreets fever dream planning documents in a barrel and burn them for heat. You're never going to build an entire #BikeWayNetwork at $30M/mile, and look at them sit on their hands on E 82nd transfer (as bloated as Barbur, sans train.) "Fixing Our Streets" is a cars project, free #Parking is theft, and #ClimateDenial is foundational to #PBOT's entire budget. #StrongTowns
In other news, my students routinely give me so much hope for the future of our profession. My attempt to capture some of their unfiltered comments in the wrap-up session of Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets last week:
Never forget, multimodal streets (aka “complete streets”) are simply more efficient, because they move, hold & serve more people within the same space. Whether you think streets are just for moving people, or are for a LOT more, they’re just better.