Bike advocates fight back against AASHTO's recomendations

Quickly,

The other day I talked about how AASHTO (the American Association of Highway Transportation Officials) is looking to relax rules that require bicycle and pedestrian consideration in all roadway projects that receive federal funding. Well bicycle and pedestrian groups aren't taking this lying down. America Bikes, a coalition of bicycle, pedestrian and trail advocacy groups, recently wrote this letter to the US DOT in support of keeping the current bike/ped considerations in roadway projects.  I highly suggest that you take a look at that letter!

I know many cyclists often lament wanting to join addition groups, aren't interesting in advocacy and often just don't care.  Well, if these national groups weren't out there fighting for your rights to the road and for the road to be built to better consider your needs, its clear to me that your ride would be much less enjoyable, possibly even illegal.  As such, give a thought to joining one or more of the following organization who are all members of the America Bikes coalition:

Adventure Cycling Association
Alliance for Biking and Walking
America Walks
Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals
Bikes Belong
International Mountain Bicycling Association
League of American Bicyclists
National Center for Bicycling and Walking
National Complete Streets Coalition
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Safe Routes to School National Partnership

Closer to home here in Jersey think about these groups:

The New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition
The East Coast Greenway Alliance
Jersey Off-Road Bicycle Association

AASHTO seeks to weaken considerations for bikes & peds

This news has hit the bike/ped universe rather hard today.   Fortunately, us bike/ped folks are hitting back equally hard.  In a letter to the Federal Highway Administration the American Association of Highway Transportation Officials asked for a "change" in FHWA bicycle and pedestrian policy. The part of interest is below.  Emphasis mine, I quote:

FHWA Guidance for Bicycle and Pedestrian Provisions of Federal Transportation Legislation, updated on April 4, 2007, states the following:  

"Due consideration" of bicycle and pedestrian needs should include, at a minimum, a presumption that bicyclists and pedestrians will be accommodated in the design of new and improved transportation facilities. In the planning, design, and operation of transportation facilities, bicyclists and pedestrians should be included as a matter of routine, and the decision to not accommodate them should be the exception rather than the rule. There must be exceptional circumstances for denying bicycle and pedestrian access either by prohibition or by designing highways that are incompatible with safe, convenient walking and bicycling.

The law clearly states that bicycle and pedestrian facilities shall be considered where appropriate. However, FHWA guidance has embellished the law from “consider where appropriate” to a must include condition unless not doing so can be justified. Furthermore, it states that “there must be exceptional circumstances” for not providing such facilities. This regulation presents an undue burden on states to justify exceptional circumstances when not including provisions for bicyclists and pedestrians in a project. Recommendation: FHWA should rescind their guidance on the meaning of “due consideration.”

WalkBikeJersey contributor and Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia Advocacy Director, John Boyle asks:

What does this mean? The FHWA improved its due consideration language to reflect the values of a good complete streets policy. AASHTO is not happy with that language and wishes to exclude any suggestion that they must justify not accommodating bicycles and pedestrians in transportation projects. Justification for exclusion is perhaps the most important element of a complete streets policy-that you just can't say no because the project manager says so. Note that the Federal language says "should" not "shall"

So basically AASHTO is attempting to further weaken a flimsy federal policy for accommodating bicycles and pedestrians. That doesn't sound supportive and bicycle and pedestrian advocates deserve an explanation.

I couldn't agree more.  This is such a shame and a surprise since from where I stand, it seemed that AASHTO was coming around to the side of of bicyclists and pedestrians.  However, Executive Director of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals Kit Keller, had this to say today :

AASHTO officials seem to be oblivious to blossoming interest and innovation of local governments across the land that want walkable, bicycle-friendly communities. AASHTO's recent pronouncement contributes to a growing sense of the irrelevance and irrationality of applying state mandates to local road conditions and needs. Hence the development of new tools like the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide.

Whoa!  You tell 'em Kit!  I knew there was a reason why I liked you.

For more analysis on this, see this great post from Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

Star-Ledger covers cycling at Rutgers Newark

Thanks to Streetsblog's Headlines I was made aware of this great story from The Star-Ledger covering bicycling at the Rutgers, Newark campus.  It's great to hear that the University is trying to take a more proactive role it getting its students, faculty and staff to think of the bike, with the use of transit, as a viable means of getting to and from campus.

As a two time alumni of Rutgers, New Brunswick, it would be great to see the Department of Parking and Transportation get more proactive in promoting cycling in and around the five campuses in New Brunswick.  I personally think that while the bus system is fantastic between the campuses, there is really no reason why many of the trips currently taken by bus, couldn't be done by bike.  And reducing bus demand would obviously reduce costs to students in an era of out of control student fees. I think to do this Rutgers should look to hire a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator (hint, hint - I know some one who would be perfect for the job - wink, wink).  And it would be really, really special to see Rutgers try to become a League of American Bicyclists, Bicycle Friendly University.

Come on Jack!  I know your up to it!

Sightline Daily asks, "Who Bikes?" using Pucher, Buehler data

 

Eric De Place, of Sightline Daily put together a few very informative charts in his post that goes a long way to help visualize the numerical reality of who is bicycling in America.  Most notable is the pie chart above that goes far to disprove the false notion that most cyclists are "rich, yuppie elitists."  In fact, that is far from the truth with the poorest making up the largest portion of cyclists but with people of all economic fortunes almost equally represtend.

The data for Da Place's article comes from a new report from our very own John Pucher of Rutgers University and his protegee Ralph Beuhler who is now at Virgina Tech.  The report title "Analysis of Bicycling Trends and Policies in Large North American Cities," take a look at trends in number of large American cities and takes special focus on New York City highlighting its achievements as well as its failures.

I highly advise that you take a look at both De Place's short blog post and Pucher and Beuhler's report.

This Sunday - Branchbrook Park Cherry Blossom Bike Tour!

Sorry that WalkBikeJersey has been quite for a while.  I was living the dream that is walking and bicycling in Germany for the past two weeks while visiting my great family over there.  I thought I would blog a little.  I even brought my laptop.  But it was a futile effort.  The bike riding I did in Southern Germany was otherworldly (glass smooth streets with no motor traffic, beautiful small farm villages dotted between picturesque forests and fields of green, all with the snow covered Alps as a backdrop and all with perfect weather to boot!).  I swear there were several times that I literally smacked myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.  And when I wasn't walking or biking through the German countryside, I was either partying or staying up late talking with my family which is, hands down, much better than tapping at a keyboard particularly when it will be at least another 2 years before I get to break bread with them once again.

So anyway, The Brick City Bike Collective is having their Cherry Blossom Bike Tour once again.  It looks like the timing for the Cherry Blossoms will be right on schedule as the weather has been cool and the event is a little earlier this year.  Last years event was one of the best fun bike rides I attended in all of 2010.

I was hoping that this years event could also be turned into New Jersey's "Tweed Ride" for those that voluntarily wish to play dress-up but my suggestioned was turned down for this year.  Well too bad!  I'm going to turn this into my own personal Tweed Ride.  To find me on Sunday, just look for the the sharply dressed lad on the 3-speed. 

Check out BCBC post for more details about the event and directions on how to get there.  And for a taste of the event, check out this video short from the good folks at StreetFilms that attended last years event.

FHWA clarifies status of on-road bicycle treatments

This just came in from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals listserve from Bill Schultheiss at the Toole Design Group. I've just copied most of his message here since it does as good a job as any in summarizing the FHWA fact sheet:

Federal Highway has just developed a very helpful resource page that summarizes which bicycle facility traffic control devices (Bike Signals, bike boxes, etc) are permitted in the MUTCD. For those devices which are not in the MUTCD, they have listed which devices are currently being researched and are considered experimental devices requiring approval for use.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/mutcd_bike.htm

The Bicycle Technical Committee (BTC) of the National Committee for Uniform Traffic Control Devices is presently developing proposals for the use of color, bicycle boxes, bicycle signals, priority shared lane markings, door zone markings. For further information on the BTC please see the following link:

http://members.cox.net/ncutcdbtc/

Op-Ed: Shouldn’t bicycle planning and facility design experts at least ride bikes?

When I go around New Jersey talking about the importance of advocating for better bicycle amenities I’m often told by other bicyclists that they are frustrated, fed up and don’t bother even trying anymore. These bicyclists often complain that when they have petitioned for facilities in the past, if something was built, it was entirely unsuited to their needs. The typical complaint I hear is, “Why bother?!?! If something actually does get built, it will just get designed by someone who has obviously never even ridden a bike!” (I’ve honestly heard close to this exact complaint from several cyclists.)

While I can say with confidence that things are indeed changing for the better here in New Jersey, the unfortunate reality is that these bicyclists’ frustrations are well founded and their misgivings are all too often manifested in the concrete, asphalt, paint and steel of many of the facilities designed for bicycle use around the State. And while the professionals that plan and design these facilities may be very well intentioned and completely sold on the idea and wisdom of accommodating bicyclists, the reality remains that if the expert is not an experienced bicyclist themselves, they may continue to be blind to the potential hazards unintentionally incorporated into their designs and plans.

So I propose a theoretical test for anyone in charge of planning and/or designing bicycle facilities. This test would even be helpful for those in charge of awarding grant funds for bicycle facilities, as they would be more capable of critically evaluating the merits of a project and its usefulness for cyclists. I admittedly set the bar pretty high but that’s the point. If a candidate could pass this test then I would have unquestioning confidence with their professional opinions relative to proposed bicycle facilities. So beyond the candidate’s relative professional and academic achievements (degrees / experience in engineering, planning, etc.) the candidate would need to pass the following requirements to be a qualified bicycle planning and facility design expert. Those are:

Mandatory competences –

1. Theoretical and practical mastery of Smart Cycling as taught by the League of American Cyclists