MyWHaT

High-speed rail in the United States?

The week’s chatter:

• Teen drivers? declining numbers particularly when given options
• U.S. Mobility declines, NYTimes asks why (community building increases?)
  
• In defence of cul-de-sacs, with a redesign
• Still, Suburbs have transit challenges
• MI Senate ixnays texting-while-driving but limit it to a secondary offense=dumb
• Record Eagle compare’s it to seat-belt law

• No, gas tax hasn’t risen & isn’t high
• New Jersey gets tough at crosswalks
• I want a transportation manifesto!
• I also wanted a bus-pass-dang. BATA Survey winners announced

• China re-learning: 車不如自行! (The car is no match for the bike!–chē bùrú zìxíng)
• Philly BLOG discusses boost to business for bikability & gardens
• And look! This Sunday in Traverse City, Community Garden guru to speak
  
• Parking garages continue to rise (annualized cost–$2,300 per space)

But really, it’s the week of public transportation.

• Hey US Senators!!! Public Transport = Jobs (send a message)
• The Big-O understands that equation as ‘game changer’ announced & VP Biden’s smile gets even bigger
  

Grants announced for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act High-Speed and Inter-city Passenger Rail (PDF) stimulus and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood calls it “an absolute game-changer for American transportation. We will make passenger rail more efficient, providing better service in travel markets across the country.“

Image courtesy of DOT, via The Infrastructurist

_

What else?

Well, at least that’s the current & future impression ….

Less than a year after passing a new infrastructure policy strategy (PDF) that includes using a complete street approach, the planned 2010 Eighth Street Reconstruction, running from Barlow to Garfield, includes no design elements for bicycle use or improved pedestrian access/crossings.

Ouch! That’s embarrassing. And, unfortunate.

Myself and others have asked city staff and commissioners about potential last-minute options as ground will be broke in the spring. I’ve yet to hear back from anyone with any positive developments. As new information is available, I’ll let readers know.

I have a feeling that the city may need some encouragement & support from residents to help them satisfy their own policy. It would be a shame for a small section of Eighth Street to stay an incomplete street for the next 20-30 years, which is about the cycle of major reconstructions.

Stay tuned…

__

There is no arguing who this city was built for in this photo–People everywhere!

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1917. "Looking up Woodward Avenue."

_

Detroit’s streetcar past is also on the mind of Michigan in Pictures, which ran the above image a couple of day’s ago in a post titled “Detroit’s Golden Age“.

The above image is from the archive of the Detroit Publishing Company and is actually for purchase at Shorpy’s (a treasure chest of archived images from all over the place…wow!).

Public Transport = Jobs

My friend Sally sent me an email with a link to PR for a PBS special titled “Beyond the Motor City“. She included the message:

“More cool stuff happening in Deeeetroit– our biggest and soon to be best city .” Enthusiasm is so undervalued!

Screen Grab from PBS's Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City

The film debuts nationally on PBS on February 8 at 10 pm but there is a 2 minute preview at the Blue Print for America.  The film layouts the potential repeat of history where Detroit was once the envy of cities for its extensive streetcar system. Did not know that.

While Michigan dreams, those in Washington are taking their time debating the advantage of spending on public transportation, despite data that finds that recent stimulus spending on public transport was more effective than money spent on highways (Smart Growth America).

Maybe they just need a little nudge, contact your senators today. They are currently debating a jobs bill and need reminding that Public Transport = Jobs

__

Do you share Sally’s excitement for Detroit? For Michigan?

If you haven’t played with Hans Rosling’s Gapminder World, do so when you have plenty of free-time. Rosling has a particular skill of using facts to show the world issues in a new & fascinating light.

This graph compares the impact of the pump price of gas to CO2 emissions per person in giving countries. With a few exceptions, the results are clear: The cheaper gasoline is at the pump, the higher per capita rates of CO2 emissions.

The interactive graph allows for visualizing the facts over time. For the United States, as gas prices rose from 2000-2006, there is a noticeable decline of CO2. In Saudi Arabia on the other hand, as prices dropped during that period, their emissions per person rose in conjunction.

These countries were quickly chosen in hopes of finding a good spread. Certainly, other factors are involved.  For a country like the United States, that enjoys globally inexpensive prices, raising the true cost of a gallon of gas could go along way in reducing energy needs and emissions.

Despite common belief, the U.S. hasn’t had a federal gas-tax increase since 1993. Why isn’t this on the table?

If gas prices reflected more of the true cost, perhaps more people would follow the lead Mr. Lively.

__

If you have time, take a look at this Gapminder visualization and let us know what you discover.

__

BATA's Empire Connector hitting the city limits. The route serves a growing number of city workers choosing to ride instead of drive. (photo: Gary L Howe)

Since starting this BLOG, I’ve talked to several people who have gone car-less or as a household have gone down to owning one car. It’s possible. They all discover so many options even without a car-share company in town.

Still, most of those people live in or near Traverse City.

Michigan Land Use Institute‘s staffer Jim Lively and his family are proving that people living in the outlying areas can do it as well. He parked his personal car , left it behind and got on the bus.

He now takes the BATA Empire Village Connector for his daily commute to MLUI’s downtown offices. As he explains in a recent BLOG post:

I live 22 miles from my office in Traverse City, where I need to be most every day. I have two girls still at home—both several years from driving age—who are very involved in a variety of after-school activities. And my wife works a couple of part-time jobs in Traverse City. That’s pretty much the profile of a two-car family.

But it’s working just fine. In fact, now that I’ve been successfully commuting for nine months without a car, I’m starting to brag about it.

Brag away Jim.  You can read the entire piece, including the hidden benefits, at: I’m Out of the Car-Commuter Game

Makes me wonder:

Could the city capture some-form of a city income-tax to fund a BATA boom?

Could this alleviate the perceived need for another $10 million parking deck?

As always. Just asking. Waiting for answers.

__

A summary of the results of the recently completed BATA Survey are viewable at www.batasurvey.com

_

Life as a performance. A story. A swell of creativity.

And, excelling beyond expectations.

Girl Meets Bike: Jacquie Phelan (link to her BLOG, get “Inside the Mind of the Wombat“)

Every hour on the bike, is one hour spent in perfect balance”

- Off-road champion, Jacquie Phelan

_

The study “Walking the Walk” set out to find the hidden “premium” to buying or renting a house in more walkable communities. In brief, the study suggests a 12% average increase in the more than 90,000 home sales studied when located in more convenient locations with more transportation choices.

That’s information useful to both home buyers and real estate agents.

It needs to also be recognized by regional planners & developers.

The public sector needs to shift its priorities as walkability is often undervalued by planning and engineering departments. A recent report by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute titled “Economic Value of Walkability” suggests why:

• Walkability is difficult to measure
• Less prestige associated with walkability
• Walkability’s low costs = fewer dedicated stakeholders
• Planning models fail to look at livability & associated  benefits
• It is widely accepted that walkability will “take care of itself”

However, if communities make walkability the priority, these reports support that it will have a substantially positive impact on:

• personal wealth
• the local tax base
• infrastructure savings (construction & maintenance.)

The nation’s urban leaders should pay close attention to walkability as a key measure of urban vitality and as impetus for public policy that will increase overall property values – a key source of individual wealth and of revenues for cash-strapped governments in a tough economy.

– Economist Joe Cortright, “Walking the Walk“

Increasing ease and convenience of public transport is just as important to "walk-values" as building mixed-use developments. (photo: Gary L Howe)

Local Application

Traverse City has begun to discuss the issue of walkability and transportation choices. Encouraging. It needs to be supported as the risk remains that staff will use dated approaches that treat active modes of transportation as “extras” and purely “quality of life” issues.

Walkability goes beyond having a nice place to live. This is about broader issues that drive economic growth, diversity & resilience.

A walkable, livable city is typically a strong economic hub with increased property values, increased consumer interactions and a sustainable tax base.

The Grand Vision & recent neighborhood meetings voiced priorities for city residents that repeatedly call for traffic calming, increased transportation choices (walking, biking, bus..) and improving parkland. Traverse City attracts people willing to pay higher prices and taxes for precisely these reasons. Now that increased numbers are wanting to move into the region, the city needs to actively plan for a future that not only maintains the progressed made, but greatly improves each neighborhood’s livability.

Livability/walkability, what ever we call it, can lead to amazing things.

___

Is walkability being treated as equally important to car traffic in your community?

Should it be prioritized before car traffic?

Part 1: Advantages of walkable cities? Show me the money!

What sacrifices are we ready to make to carry out the walkable/bikable values expressed in the Grand Vision?

A popular quote by bicycle & pedestrian expert Michael Ronkin is worth considering:

We need to become bolder in our thinking and stop believing there’s a level playing field out there. The cities that have high rates of walking and bicycling also have conditions where driving is difficult, expensive, even painful. We cannot continue to think we can add or create walking and bicycling infrastructure while maintaining mobility for drivers and hope to see anything more than a minuscule modal shift. (via Walk Boston)

He finishes with two possibly lines in the sand to draw :

We should be advocating for new traffic engineering rules such as “Never have more than two lanes of traffic in each direction.” “Never require a person to cross more than three travel lanes at once.

It might be added, inconveniences are often just perceived inconveniences by a public basing their judgment on an old model that raised motorized vehicles to the highest priority. Given time, drivers adjust. Prioritizing a design for walking and biking, although slowing speeds will often improve the overall traffic experience by all users.

Outreach and educational components are crucial parts of the process.

I maintain, we can do a lot by boldly changing priorities.

As described in an earlier post, the ranking system at Walk Score measures walkability an address by using the number of conveniences located within a mile of an address, and creating a score ranging from 0 (car deserts) to 100 (walking heavens) on that address.

Reader response was mixed. An interesting idea, but what’s the point?

Here’s one: use it to measure increased home values

Economist Joe Cortright used Walk Score results to study the impact walkability has on home values in a paper titled “Walking the Walk“(PDF) commissioned by CEOs for Cities. The findings suggest that after correcting for other variables, homes in above-average walkability locations were worth thousands more when compared to homes with addresses rated as average.

Seems intuitive, doesn’t it?

Many home buyers looking within a city do so precisely because of a location’s convenience. They accept the higher “premium” to be in town. However, most people don’t consciously put a dollar value on that criteria. How would they? How much is it worth to live in a walkable neighborhood? Is it worth an extra 12%?

The findings in “Walking the Walk” strongly suggest those numbers.

The study finds that with each additional point scored on Walk Score it is worth anywhere from $700-$5000 in increased home value. In some cases higher walk-values translated into a $30-$40 increase in home value.

Consumers are obviously placing a tangible convenience-value on walkable neighborhoods.  So, what is the use of Walk Score? It isn’t a perfect ratings system, but it can give consumers a tool to understand the value of one neighborhood over another.

For real estate agents, the scores can offer a niche market resource and a specialized advantage. For example, a real estate agent in Portland, OR has actually taken this type of market research one degree further.  Kirsten Kaufman is now known as the Bike Realtor and she specializes in helping those who want to drive less find the most walkable & bikable neighborhood.

People want choices and they are willing to pay for it.

The most convenient neighborhoods to live in are often the ones that have transportation choices built into them through mixed-use development and infrastructure priorities that actively create walkability.

Tomorrow, Part 2: Advantages of walkable cities? Here’s your growth! will look at how the findings in “Walking the Walk” matter to the public sector.

Have you recently bought or sold a home?

How did you consider the value of walkability?