MyWHaT

Roundabout Resource Page

_

The Roundie Love Continues

Graphic by USA Today introducing the modern roundabout and what is and what it isn't.

__

It’s amazing how much attention a simple traffic device can garner! The modern roundabout continues to be a story, not only locally, but nationally. The U.S.A. today is the most recent high profile publication to cover it with this story by Mike Chalmers titled, ‘States embrace roundabouts for intersections‘

It’s a fairly standard story; it gives the talking points about safety and mentions that they tend to be unpopular where proposed, and loved after installed. The reader comments are also predictable, ranging from the “I hate them” to the “Why is this a story? They work. Learn how to drive people.”

The article quotes a 2007 study by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program of the National Academies that confirmed previous studies on the increased safety of roundabouts. Stating:

“Converting a traditional intersection to a roundabout led on average to a 35% drop in crashes and a 76% drop in fatal or serious injury crashes.“

The NCHRP study (pdf) had a particular focus on modern roundabouts in the United States in order to highlight national cultural and context specifics.

Roundabouts are still on the table in Traverse City and will be for the foreseeable future. Division Street is being modeled this summer and the city will know more details for that corridor by August.

The MyWHaT roundabout resource page continues to be populated with links to further information, including a map of where the roundabouts can be found in Michigan. If you’re on a road trip downstate, swing through a roundabout.

Please peruse the resources and leave a comment if you have a question or something to add.

The goal: informed consent.

Bike Portrait #3

This one comes a la photographer extraordinaire Brian Confer, who kindly allowed usage of these images shot for the story ‘Rain, snow, sleet, sweat: These smart commuters bike all year round‘ published online at Northwest Michigan’s Second Wave.

The story includes a profile of Johanna Schmidt who races for team Hagerty, and also self-propels around Traverse City to run everyday errands, go to work and or drop the kids off to school. The Schmidt family has been highlighted before in local press for their choice to keep it simple.

“Most of it is it’s just easy to do. We just hop on our bikes and go. Living in town, it’s just easy,” she says in the Rain, sleet, sweat article.

At work for Munson Medical Center and suited up for Team Hagerty.

__

Do you have some images of yourself and your bike?

MyWHaT is looking for your submissions to feature here, send me a message. Still holding out for someone with kick-ass walking shoes as well.

Climate Action Planning Survey

Please take a moment to complete this Climate Action Survey.

Base numbers for CO2 emission sources

One of the other hats I wear in town is serving on the board of directors for SEEDS. SEEDS has a robust docket of activities that stretches from farming to engineering. We tie it all together with education, community resilience and energy & environmental analysis.

As part of the latter activity, SEEDS is working with area governmental bodies and agencies to develop a climate action plan for northern Michigan.The plan can’t be made in a vacuum and is seeking your input.

Please take a moment to complete the Climate Action Survey.

The data from the survey will be used to guide area utilities, elected officials and community members in setting future priorities. Thank you for your contribution.

If you’re interested in more information about the climate protection project, including responding to 12 proposed actions and your likely level of participation/acceptance, please email Mike at mike@ecoseeds.org. (A list of actions and links to their individual feedback forms is also included below.)

FYI, interesting article in the Record Eagle about Traverse City Light & Power’s return to the drawing board regarding local power generation. The setting of priorities, and finding acceptable paths to get to those solutions, are the critical decisions we face.

___

Each action is also a link to a feedback form corresponding to that action.  Once you have submitted one form you will need to close the window return to the links and open the next form.  At the bottom under the title “Your Proposed Actions” there is a form for you to create your own proposed actions.

Residential/Commercial/Industrial Actions

• Leverage Existing Tax Incentives and Rebates to Encourage Energy Efficiency
• Encourage realtors to educate customers on benefits of energy performance
• Promote Commercial Facility Energy Efficiency Improvements
• Promote Energy Conservation Landscaping and Heat Island Reduction
• Create a Municipal Energy Office and Officer

Transportation & Land Use Actions

• Educate the Community on Low Carbon Transportation Options
• Promote Facilitate and Incentivize Active Transportation
• Implement Best Workplaces for Commuters program at Municipalities, School Districts, and Hospital as a model

Waste & Wastewater Actions

• Promote Water Conservation Measures
• Promote Recycling & Waste Reduction

Energy Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Actions

• Feed-In-Tariffs
• Promote Community Support of Renewable Energy
• Establish Local Renewable Energy Certificates

Agriculture & Forestry Actions

• Provide Education on the Impacts of Food Consumer Choices

Your Proposed Actions

___

Monday’s Quote

Owning a car brings joy only twice in an owner’s life–when it is bought and when it is sold.  In between there is only torture”

~Russian Folk Wisdom, via chapter 8 of “Divorce your car“

___

Good news for Michigan Complete Streets! By unanimous vote, two complete street bills passed out of the house transportation committee yesterday. Now, they are first going back to the house floor and if all goes as expected, then goes on to the senate transportation committee.

MI Complete Streets explains the process and includes a useful link to the Michigan Citizens Guide to State Government (PDF). There will be need for future citizen action, so keep those letters dusted off. In the meantime, a thank you letter to Rep. Wayne Schmidt is deserved.

___

Weekly Chatter

• A coop-loop recap from one of the coop hosts. The date is reserved for 2011 as the 3rd Saturday in June.

• What’s the deal with radio talk show hosts saying stupid things about people on bikes? One reader comments, “Owning a two-ton hunk of rolling metal and glass does not give you the right to threaten and kill anyone who chooses to get around by other means.” It wouldn’t be so troubling if events like this didn’t take place: lot’s of tolerance for hunting cyclists.

• Black Hawk, CO is still drawing attention with it’s bike ban. They claimed safety concerns, but the numbers just don’t add up.

• What’s it like to travel across the country by Amtrak? “The scenically mundane mixed in with the magnificent.“

• The growing  pains of a dense city turning to the bike. Vancouver is learning what it takes to move more commuters to two wheels. As this Good infographic suggests, if you build it, they will use it.  (click through for interactive)

  

• The inferior, ever present traffic signal comes complete with a strong lobby. The author suggests,”Think about this for a moment: If computers, cars or coffeemakers worked as poorly as America’s traffic signals, their makers would promptly be laughed off the market.”

• Urban Pedagogy: How do we get effective public participation when we only train consumers and workers? One effort is to train citizens by teaching the language of planning. For those of us out of school, MSU’s citizen planner program may be worthwhile.

• As the G-20 meets, talk of climate change and energy policy remains vague. There’s a pile of cash sitting there for national coffers that, if redirected, would also help the planet. From the International Energy Agency, “global fossil fuel subsidies are currently worth more than $550bn (£382bn) a year.“

To wrap, It’s a car ad, but not until the very end. Up to that point, it’s just a great idea. In this case, using a public transit station to create moment of fun in an ordinary day. I was at the top of the Park Place last night; we envisioned a zip line down to the bay. A slide seems more doable, but where?

Have a weekend!

A local “Hands Across the Sand” event is  planned for tomorrow (June 26). The group is asking for people to join them in creating a human line extending from the mouth of the Boardman River west past the volleyball courts.

“Hands Across the Sand” is a national demonstration to bring attention to the dangers of offshore drilling and call on leaders to end our oil dependence and move America into a clean energy future.

Those who wish to participate are asked to arrive between 11 & 11:45 for a noontime demonstration. For more information, call June Thaden, 947-1800 947-8476.

There are other Michigan events planned as well.

This video from an event in Florida reminds me of a human oil spill boom. Which appears to be the goal, to create ‘a solid wall of opposition to offshore drilling in Florida‘.

With permission, we’re re-running an excerpt from the following article originally published in 2009 by MyWHaT partner Michigan Complete Streets Coalition. Thank you to the author, John Lindenmayer, for providing some of the history of ‘good roads‘ and how bicyclists were at the forefront of the movement. Today, as the full article describes, the coalition for complete streets is broader than just bicyclists. It includes advocates for transit, pedestrians, disability networks, public spaces as well as advocates for the environment, sensible driving and small businesses.

__

How Michigan bicyclists paved the first road in America

By John Lindenmayer, Associate Director – League of Michigan Bicyclists

The Good Roads Movement, led by the “Father of Good Roads,” Michigan’s own Horatio Earle, demanded better road conditions for the growing community of cyclists across the country.

The boom of the bicycle as an object of pleasure and a symbol of progress resulted in a natural desire by bicyclists for smooth, safe roads to ride upon.  This led to organized efforts to clear the roads of mud, horse droppings, and hazards like crumbling cobblestones and an unpredictable crisscross of streetcar tracks.

Horatio Sawyer Earle (1855–1935)

The Good Roads Movement banded millions of American bicyclists together at demonstrations, rallies and other political actions.  With a motto of, “Where there is a wheel, there is a way,” cyclists took their campaign for better streets to the streets, quickly gaining the ears of politicians across the nation.  In fact, many of those cycling advocates successfully ran for elected office themselves on platforms focused on better road conditions.

Introducing: Horatio Earle

Horatio Earle, who came to Michigan in 1889, quickly became entrenched in politics, giving the Good Roads Movement a fervent supporter in our great state.  Having gained a seat in the Michigan Senate, Earle pushed through legislation to create the State Highway Department, now known as the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

The Good Roads Movement also successfully lobbied the Michigan Legislature to pass the County Road Act of 1893, which permitted each county, by a vote of the people, to establish its own county road commission and levy a road tax.  All but one of Michigan’s 83 counties eventually created road commissions.  The state’s 82 separate road commissions unintentionally produced a perplexing system of road management, which many Michigan citizens find confusing and difficult to participate in to this day.

Horatio Earle also gave Michigan bragging rights for the world’s first mile of concrete highway.  Built in 1909, Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads in Detroit attracted builders far and near to witness how concrete stood up under the heavy traffic loads of the period.  Woodward Avenue proved a success, helping to spawn our modern highway system.

“I often hear now-a-days, the automobile instigated good roads; that the automobile is the parent of good roads. Well, the truth is, the bicycle is the father of the good roads movement in this country.“– Horatio “Good Roads” Earle

Automobile Industry Rises

Also unintentionally, the historic fight for better bicycling set the stage for the rise of the automobile industry.  Bicyclists successfully gained better surfaces to ride on, but they soon realized it that they now had to share the road with more than just other bicyclists, horses and trolleys.

The internal combustion engine created congestion and, ultimately, the first “Share the Road” campaigns.  However, the political clout of cyclists waned as the automobile took the nation by storm.  Membership in the League of American Wheelman slipped heavily by the turn of the 20th century as national bicycle sales dropped from 1.2 million in 1899 to 160,000 in 1909.

In the 100-plus years since our “high-wheeling” ancestors spurred our modern network of paved roads, the automobile has taken over our culture and never looked back.  As people became able to live farther from work, suburbs upon suburbs sprawled farther and farther from the urban cores.  City centers, once filled with life and vitality, became blighte as people moved to the “’burbs” to claim a piece of the “American Dream.”

For many Americans, the norm has  become hour-long commutes along three-lane superhighways lined with strip malls and congested with single-occupancy SUVs filled with obese, road-rage-prone drivers distracted by fast food, cell phones and iPods.

Moving People to the Fringe

Somewhere along the line, engineers, planners and politicians — following the general public — dismissed bicyclists as a fringe group.  Our roads were no longer built to move people, but solely to move motor vehicles.  By the end of WWII, society had redefined the bicycle as a “toy,” forgetting or even ignoring its lineage as a legitimate and efficient form of transportation.

We certainly will have to deal with a lot of problems as a society before cycling will once again be recognized as a legitimate form of transportation. Since the 1990s, however, as road cycling’s popularity has strongly rebounded, so too has bicycle advocacy.  One could argue that the Good Roads Movement has been reborn in the modern-day effort to “complete the streets.”

So, who will fill the shoes of Horatio Earle and pioneer a 21st Century gilded age of cycling?  Unfortunately, we don’t yet see many politicians running on bicycling platforms.  There is, however, plenty of exciting cycling advocacy underway that does require your attention and action.  It remains to be seen whether Complete Streets will become the new Good Roads Movement.  But, with its diverse supporters, the Complete Streets Movement has at least as much potential to create Good Roads in America once more — for cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

To read the article in its entirety as well as to read a comment by Earle’s Great Grandson, visit: How Michigan bicyclists paved the first road in America

__

ANNOUNCEMENT

Sorry for the late notice, but tonight the Planning Commission is taking a bus tour with the City Commission & staff to review proposed 2011 street projects. It’s a public meeting and neighbors are welcome to participate.

Meet in front of the Governmental Center at 6:30 pm tonight to join the tour. The tour leaves immediately.

I haven’t evaluated the 2011 street projects too extensively. The one street that pops out is Elmwood St. which gets a lot of attention as a preferred cut-through street to & from the hospital. Cut-through is not necessarily a problem as it relieves the overall network issues, however high speeds through neighborhoods is certainly a problem.

Elmwood used to be the old trucking route and remains 36′ wide. That’s wider than Union and Cass St! Wider streets may encourage higher than posted speeds and is a city-wide issue, but nowhere more apparent than here.

Why not take this opportunity to narrow it? My off-the-cuff recommendation is to narrow it down to 26′ with parking allowed only on one side. Certainly, other recommendations can be considered and why tonight’s meeting is useful.
It’s beneficial that the city is seeking public input early in the process. If your available, get on the bus. If not, let’s organize our own citizen audit of the 2011 projects. The proposed scope of work for Elmwood, Kelly, Barlow and Randolph are described below.

Interested in a bike tour audit next week? Let me know.

The Riding Mower via fixedgearswitzerland

This would be great at the Open Space.

There remains local research into a pedal powered leaf shredder, something like the one below. If you have expertise to push it forward, send myself or ISLAND a message.

Bike Portrait #2

Last week and yesterday a MyWHaT call for bike portraits was put out. As is to be expected, John Robert Williams is first in line with this image of the ultimate family ride.

You wanted a bike photo….here’s a snap shot of Lucy, our quad Long Bikes in Chicago…Lucy is a rolling party. She originally had two child conversion cranks so that the boys could pedal as young as 4 years old….they’ve grown out of that need.  Lucy has four chains now, down from 6. That’s l’il ‘ol me, Terrie Taylor (my wife), and sons Evan and Colin. This is how a family can get around without a car…I have a BOB trailer we tow behind, for supplies, as well. Lucy is over 10 years old now and has traveled to Key West, Washington DC and many other places.

This thing is awesome! Thank you for sharing JRW.

Send your bike portrait (also taking walking shoe, long board, wheel chair, goat cart,…portraits) to Gary.