MyWHaT

A discussion about parking

As promised, here is the audio recording of the discussion I recently had with Traverse City’s city planner, Russ Soyring (left) and Rob Bacigalupi, deputy director of the Downtown Development Authority. It runs about 40 minutes and I offered it as a way for them to tell their side of the development story after I ran a few posts rants while the opening of the Old Town Parking Deck was being celebrated.

We met in the conference room of Rob’s DDA office, located inside of the Larry C. Hardy Parking Deck on State St. Originally, I was to meet with Bacigalupi, but he invited Soyring along to broaden the discussion. The two are teaming up to present to the Michigan Association of Planning on the topic of ‘parking as an economic development and urban design tool.’

They used me as their guinea pig… wheeek…wheeek.

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Play: Parking in the City

A discussion with Russ Soyring and Rob Bacigalupi. (download the .mp3)

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A Selective Recap: Tied to Parking

In the discussion, the two planners introduce how the planning process is tightly tied to economic development (focused on growth) which, at least for the DDA, appears to be the primary concern. They rightly acknowledge the success over the past 15 years of developing the downtown and how the DDA’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) & Development Plan includes walkability as one of its missions.

The mission, Enhance the pedestrian experience calls for street furniture, pedestrian bridges over the Boardman, a tunnel under Grandview, eliminating the ‘experience of walking by parking lots’ and other enhancements. The other three missions are: Protect downtown’s small town character, Make better use of the land, and Maintain historic buildings. This is largely accomplished by capturing tax dollars generated through new development before the money goes to the city’s general fund. TIF money.

Stacking the Cars

Part of the plan calls for replacing surface lots with parking decks. They both discussed successes they’ve had in turning parking lots into development and where they’ve had difficulties. It’s been particularly difficult to free up some earlier parking into more ‘public space’, which I infer as public space, not private retail and office space, which the DDA has increased.

For the most part the DDA, which runs the city’s parking system, provides inexpensive and abundant parking. Attempts to try to limit parking meet with a varied, but strong-willed opposition.  The main constraint, something both of them repeatedly acknowledged, to progressive parking policy is the financial and real estate system that requires parking, as well as the cultural reality of a public that demands abundant, free or inexpensive parking.

Soyring, as city planner, has real questions about a system that requires parking when it’s obvious that most businesses would put it in regardless. In fact, he describes how developers already put in more parking than required or even needed. He offered that a parking lot might just be seen as away to avoid landscaping.

As he explained the question, “There’s a great demand for parking, so I often wonder why we even have parking requirements. Why does government even have parking?“

At its best, a city uses parking regulation to counter the large impact single occupant vehicles have on a city. For example, downtown Traverse City actually doesn’t allow new developments to have private parking, unless it’s in a structure or is residential. As Soyring pointed out, it is simply a more efficient land-use model to have cars share space. Another example is maximum parking requirements, set below peak needs, implemented in other cities.

Bacigalupi echoed the systematic pressures when talking about new developments.

“Unfortunately, the first question that comes up when a project is proposed is, ‘where’s the parking?’,” he said.

As a result, he sees one of the best choices for the downtown is building parking decks to remove surface lots and, “free up land for more development.”

He commented, “A lot of surface parking spaces have gone away and have been organized into this parking structure (Hardy Parking Deck) and that freed up land for Radio Center 1 & Radio Center 2, which include office and retail development.”

It's likely the 3rd downtown parking deck in a decade will happen in Traverse City soon. How does it fit into development of the entire city?

Parking drives development

Since 1997, 800,000 additional square feet of office and retail space was created within the DDA district. Bacigalupi explained how this, and more development to come, will lead to a more walkable community.

“It’s part of an economic strategy to add more activity, whether it’s jobs, places to shop or places to live. That, actually, ultimately, promotes different modes of transportation. Transit doesn’t work in low density and the more density you have the more successful transit can be,” he said, while pointing out that he personally serves on BATA’s board of directors. “That is the long-term goal,” he added.

Soyring used Portland, OR as a model to describe the relationship between parking availability and wider transit use, as well as increased numbers of active transportation users. Portland invested heavily in transit, even making it free or almost free, yet people who could easily take transit still drove. It came down to availability of parking at very inexpensive rates. They reduced parking and raised rates, and multi-modal use rose.

The same principle will apply to Traverse City. “If we have the best small town transit authority in the country we will still have just a few people getting on that bus,” Soyring said.  He added that until we make parking “a little more difficult, a little more expensive” improvements to our transit system will have limited impact.

In addition, what needs to happen simultaneously, are community values from studies like the Grand Vision to move forward into tangible zoning and planning tools that allow for land uses that favor more modes of travel.

Cars Over People

We didn’t address at length the impact centralized development – that now accommodates abundant car parking – has on the greater network throughout the city. Our density has so far been contained within the DDA district, which is great for our downtown, but not so great if you happen to live near one of the arterials that act like car-cannons into the city. The reality is that it’s easier to develop a dense, walkable downtown than it is to carry out bold strategies for the city’s periphery. The TIF system really assists that process. It’s clear that both Soyring and Bacigalupi recognize the lack of over-all strategy, but didn’t offer much, in this session, to solve the issue.

Soyring, in particular, recognizes the disconnect and, in his role as the city planner, often comes up against it.

“We have more care about how we’re going to store our cars than about how some of our people are going to live,” he said. He continued, “It just shows you how important it is in people’s minds that we have to have a place to store our automobile and if you don’t have a place, then ‘how can we be successful with anything in life?‘ ”

“It’s really perverted, actually,“ he added.

I walked away with a better understanding of the challenges they both face. I also have a better understanding of what issues we, as residents of Traverse City, need to raise when we are asked to support more parking. I think it’s a stretch to say that we don’t subsidize it, even with the use of captured development dollars and metered fees. There remains several locations in the city, even near to downtown, where parking is ‘free’ to the user. Some of those places, like parking on the bayfront, as mentioned by Bacigalupi, are on prime real estate . We also pay in opportunity costs when development is funded by a single funding model that favors one mode of transportation over place-making of the entire city.

Love the decks or hate them, building them ties us to maintaining and building infrastructure to serve them for decades.

This was a good start to the discussion. We will return to those questions, and perhaps pieces from this interview, in the coming weeks and months.

Related Articles

• Winning Downtowns Stack Their Decks (MLUI-article referenced in interview)
• Parking Space Economics (outsidethebeltway.com)
• How Portland Sold Its Banks on Walkable Development (streetsblog.org)
• Nimble Cities: Can eliminating parking spots make cities more efficient? (slate.com)
• Mid-sized cities make progress in revitalizing downtowns (theglobeandmail.com)

Tuesday Video

via StreetFilms

“There’d be no cars in the street and I would ride my fire bike”

Looking for some area teachers to introduce this question to some of their students. Anyone know any teachers?

From the weekend

Street Pong

The Lincoln/Boyd Street Brigade held a small gathering in the street over the weekend, with full permission.

In the TC Street Ordinance (PDF): 1020.05 CLOSING STREETS; PERMIT REQUIRED (PDF). No person other than a police officer or firefighter shall close any street without a permit. A person who violates this section is responsible for a civil infraction.

Permit is easy. $25.00

EXTRA: I do take issue with this section in the Street Ordinance. Streets are for people too…

1020.04 PLAYING IN STREETS AND ALLEYS; TOY VEHICLES.
(a) No person shall play ball or any other game upon any public street or alley.
(b) No person upon roller skates or riding any coaster, toy vehicle or similar device shall go upon any roadway except while crossing a street on a crosswalk. (1976 Code Sec. 9.06)
(c) A person who violates this section is responsible for a civil infraction. (Ord. No. 410. Passed 12-19-94).

Reclaim the streets, beginning with your own.

An introspective rant (of sorts)

• 無爲 wúwéi or “non-doing.” Add an extra 爲 wéi and you get wéiwúwéi “action without action”, which is action that is spontaneous and effortless. •

Lately, I’ve been tangled up with outcomes and at the same time, feeling a need to detach from them. For example, trusting that the city and MDOT will carry out improvements for accessibility & calming in the 2011 Division St. maintenance project. There is some positive movement, and a lot of non-movement. Those with the power to do something often seem the least motivated, and I’m not even referring to the roundabout option; a few extra crosswalks painted will be difficult.

On a path, off a path

I believe we choose a path and direction, then we walk it. We go forward creating our vision while concentrating on the fundamental structure beneath our feet. Is that structure rewarding? Is it resilient? Does it support my intentions? The path actually disappears and with it the destination. I never really get anywhere; I’m already there.

What does this have to do with MyWHaT?

Nothing. Everything. Despite being a public service for local ideas, perspectives and, dare I say, news, it has been for the most part a personal BLOG, disguised as it is. For seven months I’ve explored concepts and current thinking related to public spaces and transportation. I’ve also dived into city planning through my role on the parks and recreation commission, a transportation committee and various other enterprises. A lot of that activity has been reflected on this BLOG. To what end? Any achievements? I’m just not sure. Are there achievements to be achieved?

An end indeed

I’m not exposing anything new on MyWHaT or at the governmental center. People have put up the ‘good fight’ against uninspired planning, obnoxious traffic and hand-tied bureaucrats for years. In particular since the 1950′s when the car culture rose to its current dominance, there has been opposition offering a different, human centered perspective to designing neighborhoods and cities. Occasionally, there have even been victories, but the overall trend has been a dominant culture of motorized vehicles über all. This is true globally, as well as locally. I see nothing changing that imprint.

Still, that’s no reason not to continue the work to ameliorate a problem street (Division, Eighth..), an under-served park (Clancy, Sunset…) and a vague master-plan (TC’s). All are valuable projects in need of attention, however, the short-term often takes over and it’s the long-term structure that I’m truly interested in unraveling. To not drive myself mad, I need to let go and laugh at it all. To practice ‘non-doing’.

This reminds me of an article a mentor shared with me, as way of advice, when I started this endeavor. A Serious Talk About Humor in the Office by non-other than John Cleese, is a speech targeted at a group of serious people, trying to get ‘stuff’ done. He makes the case that there’s a need to be serious, but not solemn, rigid & stressed. In part, he explains:

“The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned mode that we find ourselves in so much of the time.”

Slow change, accelerated

Despite the odds against significant change in how we design our public spaces, I feel better about the MyWHaT endeavor. Why not feel better? When I look within (myself, my family, the tribe, the community), I do see positive change. 

爲無爲 wéiwúwéi. My impact is minimal and everything remains possible.

A response I receive a lot when I introduce MyWHaT to new acquaintances and we begin to discuss the issues, is that change takes time. They say things like, “Traverse City is ‘moving forward’” and “slow change is often better.” Philosophically, I agree. In human terms, in a human time-frame, I disagree. On the ground, day-to-day, it’s a questionable rationalizing of the status-quo based in a belief that there is a natural progress to something better. In the short-term things can get worse without intentional designs. Intent that takes energy. The 8th Street Kerfuffle was instructive in teaching me that what we do today is what we will have for 30 years, so we bets do it right today.

This doesn’t mean that we need to focus on cataclysmic events and run-around looking for the sexiest idea to carry out today. There is value in slowness; its glacial character is comforting & introspective. The entrepreneurial thinker and author, Seth Godin recently wrote about the power of slow change. The glacial shift of culture compared to the big events that get our attention. He writes:

Cultural shifts create long-term evolutionary changes. Cultural shifts, changes in habits, technologies that slowly obsolete a product or a system are the ones that change our lives. Watch for shifts in systems and processes and expectations. That’s what makes change, not big events. Don’t worry about what happened yesterday (or five minutes ago). Focus on what happened ten years ago and think about what you can do that will make a huge impact in six months.

It’s the Daoist approach to civic engagement. I underlined a section for a reason. Although there’s real value in slow change, there’s no reason to embrace the incremental as a cover for not making bold moves today. Yes, things take time. But sometimes, it’s the build up of pressure over decades that suddenly releases and the glacier gives. At that point, we best be ready because in the time-frame of humans, nature, the broad definition that includes human culture, can move very quickly.

Change is and has been occurring even if we don’t realize it. Are we watching where we place our feet?

NOTE: The author claims no ability in the art of Taoism, apart from a brief study of way-finding on the sacred mountain of Wudang with a Daoist sage carrying a pineapple. 

(photo Jan-Michael Stump/Record-Eagle)

The Third Coast Bicycle is set to begin this Sunday, August 22 and will continue with events throughout the week.  The festival has a little something for all types of velophiles, including lycra clad road racing/rides, fixed gear sprints/hill climbs, Two Wheel Technique‘s “fun cruise around town”, film night at the State Theatre and a plethora of other events. Suggestion for next year: A Tweed Ride. Hopefully, the Old Town Crit & won’t be in a torrential downpour like 2009.

www.TCBikeFest.org for the schedule.

Weekly Chatter

• An undriving license? Does it get you into the bar?

• Why does A2 always get the cool stuff first? TC wants a couple of Hawk signals,  too!

• Cyclists are better shoppers! The adage that “vitality of commercial enterprises = access by car” is out-of-date.
  

  Out of the bikelane, dude! (via a MyWHaT reader)

• The yikes department: story from Taiwan, 10-year old Boy Collapses on forced bike excursion. He was “soaked, tired and hungry.”

• I’ve been noticing a lot of bad parking lately, here’s a BLOG dedicated to it. To the right, an example in Traverse City ––>

• The largest oil spill no body has even mentioned, until now. 3.1 million barrels dumped into the U.S.: “We’re looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions.” That other, messier spill, isn’t just going away.

• There’s nothing wrong with dirt roads. Why the current underfunded roadways are not an emergency and reflective of a “paving binge for the last 50 years” by the federal, state & local road agencies.

• New York pedestrian safety report has a few surprises. The good news? Deaths down 20% since 2001. The noticeable? Male drivers overwhelmingly involved in crashes that led to ped death–> 80% of them.

• Lessons learned from a town planner. “Mostly, the work I was asked to undertake largely focused on making cars happy…I was obligated to tell developers they must provide a huge amount of parking.“

From Twitterville:

• who you calling bike crazy? (1st on street bike parking in Minneapolis) (@BirchwoodCafe)
• “Vehicular cycling should be regarded as a riding strategy for the individual, not an organizational strategy for the development of cycling” (@t1mmyb)
• “Cars are the leading cause of death among children between the ages of 1-14″ Our answer, removing the children from a place. (@thebusbench)
• Read this story, then look at ‘From other news sites’. If these weren’t car crashes this would be called an ‘epidemic’ (@mikedunn)
• Based on SCIENCE, not fearmongering: (Helmet debate) (@copenhagenize)
• My Evolution from Biking Girl to Biking Mom: Being a first-time mom comes with its challenges  (@BikeShopGirlcom)

To wrap, more love for Montreal. Not only is it an excellent place to develop appreciation for sharrow use, it’s also a great place to bike around for a morning. It’s even one of the top 5 cities to ride around in style, at least according to girlsgetaway.com. You don’t even need to take a bike as Montreal’s Bixi Bike is easy, inexpensive and everywhere. The following tourism video sells it well, follow Tammy:

Have a weekend.

Park Portrait: Arbutus Court

Arbutus Court Park in Traverse City, just off of Boon St., is a small neighborhood pocket park. According to a resident who walked by, it is the ‘big kids’ park in the neighborhood. The smaller kids use the nearby Boon Street Park. Personally, I appreciate small parks like Arbutus Court; they add significantly to a neighborhood and are a neutral, public space for people to meet and gather, or just sit alone.

It be interesting to see if the neighborhood would like to work on a small beautification project here. At the least, the city could find some funds to expand the basketball court to something more than a 3-second lane. Although, it is a good place to practice free throws. Additional parks images.

* Reminder, a map of all 34 city parks is available at the government center. You can also view and download a digital version at the MyWHaT Scribed site.

The Harassment Incident

Guest Contributor: Bill Palladino

Yesterday, while taking a loop downtown on my sweet little Purple cyclocross bike, on my way to a local cafe’, I was accosted by a driver in a Subaru.  I was heading eastbound on State Street in the left-hand lane, more or less in front of Modes’.   I was preparing to turn left on Cass Street, so this was a reasonable and perfectly legal maneuver. I could hear a car to my left-rear obviously laboring to pass me, but I held my lane, keeping myself positioned in the middle of the lane.

As I pulled even with Max’s Service the car lunged by me on my right revving his little four-cylinder engine (reenactment). The occupant, a middle-aged man in a scraggly beard, then began yelling out the window and pointing insistently. “There’s an entire  #^%&ing bike lane over there you @#$%ing   #$%hole.  Get in the %^%ing bike lane.” (Reenactment not available).

I said nothing in response at this point, but accelerated to get a better look at his license plate. He kept yelling at me through his open window as he sped off. I imagine he was greatly intimidated by the 19 pound aluminum and steel beast I was riding.  Boo, yah!

The quick of it is, it’s my right to be in that lane, or any lane I choose to be, as long as I’m not unreasonably impeding traffic flow.  The bike lane is an extra-added solution that is completely optional.  It’s also my right to be in the city where I live, and to not be called nasty names by a complete stranger!

Who ya going to call?

This type of verbal assault is a nuisance, no doubt.  But it’s also this simple type of incident that often easily escalates to physical violence.  I feel pretty strongly that people need to understand the rules of the road, so I jotted down the guy’s license plate and quickly did what I’ve been told to do by both City Police staff and by my friends at the Cherry Capital Cycling Club.  I called the City Of Traverse City non-emergency line to begin the process of making an official report.  This number is for problems that don’t require calling 911, and is: (231) 995-5150 .

Again, that’s (231) 995-5150.

The author describing the incident to the dispatched officer.

Calling this number will get you a quick recording reminding you of its non-emergency use.  And after pushing a button or two I was then forwarded very quickly to a pleasant-sounding woman who heard my complaint.

I said, “I want to make a complaint about a person in a car verbally abusing a bicyclist in downtown Traverse City.”

She replied, “Very good. And are you the bicyclist?” I confirmed and I gave her my name.

She then asked me what had transpired, where, and if I was able to provide a description of the vehicle.  I relayed all this to her, and she asked one last question: “Do you want me to send an officer out to take an official report?”  I told her I wanted to do whatever it would take to ensure that this guy in the Subaru got a talking to by an officer.  She replied, “That’s exactly what will happen, I’ll dispatch an officer right away.“

About 20 minutes later TC Police Officer Jeremy Medeppennigen showed up on my doorstep. “How’s it goin’?” he said casually.  ”Fine,” I said and we introduced each other.  Then I told him the whole story.  ”You did the right thing calling us.  You have a right to be in that lane. The bike lane is there as an option and a courtesy,” he replied.

Sometimes a reminder is needed

I asked him if he would track down the driver, and he said they’d already done the check on the license number, and that yes, he’d get a talking to when they found him.  He also said this is something they do a lot of at the Police Department, and that it works. He said, “sometimes people just need to have the law explained to them.“

Summing it up, I have to admit that my experience with the TC Police was right on point.  They were supportive, fact-based, and very friendly.  More importantly, I never got the feeling that calling them in on something like this was either an annoyance or a bother.  This is something I’d encourage you all to do when you come across unreasonable people who feel a need to toss verbal abuse your way… whether they be car drivers or cyclists. Learning to live together here is something we should all have as a priority.

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Editor’s Extra:

From the Michigan Penal Code and Motor Vehicle Handbook, the applicable law, emphasized in bold is the most appropriate section:

257.660a Operation of bicycle upon highway or street; riding close to right-hand curb or edge of roadway; exceptions. A person operating a bicycle upon a highway or street at less than the existing speed of traffic shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except as follows:

(a) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or any other vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

(b) When preparing to turn left.

(c) When conditions make the right-hand edge of the roadway unsafe or reasonably unusable by bicycles, including, but not limited to, surface hazards, an uneven roadway surface, drain openings, debris, parked or moving vehicles or bicycles, pedestrians, animals, or other obstacles, or if the lane is too narrow to permit a vehicle to safely overtake and pass a bicycle.

(d) When operating a bicycle in a lane in which the traffic is turning right but the individual intends to go straight through the intersection.

(e) When operating a bicycle upon a 1-way highway or street that has 2 or more marked traffic lanes, in which case the individual may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of that roadway as practicable.

(Laws are available online, which M-Bike has kindly posted links to, as well as the full text of bicycle laws. Thanks, Todd!)

As a community, can we do better?

Looking north at Randolph and Division St. on the east side. Wide open, broken sidewalk, a car-lot, and the Elk’s Club’s back-end leave little to be desired for communicating this is a place for people. Yet, around the corner is a bakery, a bank, a party store, a restaurant and across the street, the Dairy Lodge.

A broader view. (click to enlarge)

A social trail is well worn on the east side of Division St. It continues all the way to Grandview.

2011 could see some improvements along this corridor. What those improvements entail will largely be up to community residents’ persistence. A list of small requests, things like a beautification project in the stretch shown above, has been sent to the city. These projects won’t fix the entire street, but they should help.

* More images from MyWHaT’s tour of Montreal’s bicycle network at our Flickr page *

Love for the sharrow

At the beginning of July I explored the use of the sharrow. Since then, I have experienced the wide use of them in Montreal and New York.  Love may be too strong, but there is certainly a new found fondness and understanding of how they could be used in Traverse City.

Sharrow use across an intersection in Montreal.

Montreal is using them liberally as a design solution to difficult situations, like connecting two disconnected bike paths or shifting traffic coming out of a bike lane. This pavement marking’s use is growing in north America’s most bicycle friendly cities. It’s technically called a “shared lane marking” or is otherwise broken down as “share+arrow=sharrow”.

The appreciation for the sharrow inspired a map of Suggested Sharrow use for Traverse City (below). It’s robust and will stretch the minds of certain city staff (not to mention public), yet the suggested placements are all achievable and would go a long way in communicating that Traverse City is serious about improving it’s image as a bicycle friendly place. My goal is to encourage more trips by bicycle and design solutions like sharrows will help.

Bikes Belong

In the previous post, I went through the uses of the sharrow. Mainly, they are used to position bikes away from opening car-doors, however, the basic advantage I see is that they communicate that bicycles and cars have an equal right to the lane; that bikes belong. They aren’t meant to replace bike lanes or the need for separate bike paths. They are one tool in the tool-box for encouraging bicycling by delineating bike routes, communicating that bikes belong and guiding the direction and positioning of traffic. As I saw in Montreal, they are also a great design asset effective at connecting a bike network that is truncated or broken by a narrow street, intersection or broken street, like one-way streets.

The Sharrow Map

View Larger Map

Each sharrow has an explanation to its placement. Icons: Red boarder = could be implemented ASAP; Black boarder = possible future location; Yellow boarder = pushing the limits of what’s possible, but not unreasonable.

What do you think? Have you ridden in a city that used sharrows?

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EXTRA: The southeast Michigan bicycle BLOG M-Bike posted a piece yesterday asking, “Would Sharrows work in Detroit?” What’s interesting in Detroit is that they have streets overbuilt for current use. The result is plenty of public right of way for bike lanes and segregated bike paths, which are preferred over sharrow use. Traverse City has a limited street network and our main areas where safety is the issue arguably have little room for bike lanes. MyWHaT ran a post about biking in Detroit earlier this year.

Video Tuesday

We were watching some short films on the National Film Board of Canada’s website this weekend and came across this 1966 documentary that proves that there is life on earth!

Watch “What on Earth!” at the NFB site (embed not available).

However, here is a quick teaser of the earthling discovered.

Watch for the parasites!