MyWHaT

Announcement

TART Trails postcard invite for next Tuesday’s Complete Streets shin-dig.

See you there…

To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they knew in their work and play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world.”

~ Munsey’s Magazine, 1896

Over a century later, and the bicycle still holds that potential for better communities.

Tomorrow, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals will hold a free webinar titled ”Women Can Change the World through Cycling.” This discussion will build on a survey question they asked last year that attracted over 11,000 responses.

That question was: “What would cause you to start or increase your cycling?”

The free webinar is tomorrow, Wednesday 03/30 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. (Click to register)

Anyone interested in writing something about or related to tomorrow’s webinar?

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* Image from Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) via Brain Pickings.

Well Put

If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy.”

~Proverb

Slow Down

Over the next week (maybe two) posts won’t be as frequent.

Call it spring break, spring clean-up, or something else, but the neglected items on my to-do list are growing in number and some of them have approaching deadlines–can you say tax day?

There will be the occasional post, perhaps a question to respond to or a meeting to attend, an image to consider or a post from one of the MyWHaT guest writers.

Mostly, it will mean slower mornings for the editor. The intent is a workers’ blogger’s slow down.

Be back soon.

* The editor’s Twitter feed will remain as active as ever. Tweet-tweet.

At Issue this week: TC’s proposed Boardman Lake Ave.

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• BLA: Let’s Call A Spade A Spade (MyWHaT-see comments)
• What Are We Trying To Do With West Boardman Lake (MyWHaT)
• My Notes from the March 22nd West Boardman Lake Public Meeting (Hinge Line)

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And, unrelated, but what you might have missed: Sarnita gears up for winter biking, year one.

Weekly Chatter

The Wrap

Last week in The Wrap, we introduced a Virginia study measuring the effectiveness of zig-zag stripping to slow traffic as it approaches ped and trail crossings. This week, more zig and zag!

This time in Chicago where they are adding an additional optical illusion element to the markings. These look more clean and controlled and, I’d imagine, even more effective. I’ve tried to get this idea into the hands of Traverse City planning and engineering. Response from planning is good, response from engineering is… suspicious.  (photo and video by Steve Vance)

Have a weekend! (If you’re at the Michigan Bike Summit tomorrow, say hello.)

Graphic Friday

(click to enlarge)

by and via larchlion (@WalkableDFW)

The vertical y-axis are the costs, many of which we’d rather hide and not account for, yet, they are at the root of many of our concerns. It comes down to one question: what kind of place do you want to live in?

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NOTE: Making a comment and it isn’t appearing? There may be a delay before a comment appears if it’s the author’s first comment or if it has links.

The Playground

Besides thinking about roads and streets (which is tiring), I’ve been thinking about playgrounds, play areas and parks lately. I have a lot to learn on this subject and it’s exciting to think about what we could do with a little investment.

Soon, the parks and recreation commission will be diving into what the natural play area designed into the bayfront plan includes and looks like. As well, the parks and recreation commission would like to see our neighborhood parks have more activity. For most of them, an equipment and landscape facelift is in dire need.

I’m asking, how creative can we be?

As such I’m brainstorming and researching what other places are doing and as far as playgrounds, the concept has expanded way beyond slides and pre-fab equipment. But, not to the loss of things like a slide. Check out these hill slide images via Play Enthusiast.

Hill slides are great because they expand the use of a slide and allow for creative impulses for children. It’s no longer climb up, slide, down, repeat. With a slide built on a hill, the entire area becomes a place for play and can be an attractive addition to a parks landscape. Just one idea that I’d like to see thrown into the TC Parks tool box. (Note to self: do we have a toolbox? Build a tool box.)

The Clinch Park Natural Playground/Playscape

We are really going to need to get this right! This topic needs another, longer post in the future because there are many different ideas about what is and isn’t a natural playscape. Still, I couldn’t help seeing possibilities for the Clinch Park space with this image from The Playground Enthusiast.

It’s not too difficult to imagine the pulled back scene and how that might fit into the space at Clinch Park. Something where children, teens and adults can walk along rocks, play in sand and explore. If no one is there, what is there can be landscaped into an attractive area. These areas can also be universally designed to allow access for everyone. And, of course, the bayfront plan calls for a brook and will certainly need to be more attractive than the area above.

These are a few images and concepts that I wanted to share. If you’ve seen anything creative going on in parks that you’ve visited, please let me and/or the parks and recreation commission know. We meet the first Thursday of every month at 6:30 at the Governmental Center. Also, leave a quick comment with a link here.

NOTE: Any opinions expressed here are mine alone. I cannot speak for other commissioners or the commission on things other than items expressed in our goals and objectives.

Let’s Call A Spade A Spade

~ by Megan Olds, Old Town resident

I went to Tuesday night’s meeting about the proposed Boardman Lake Avenue. I live in the Old Town neighborhood. I lean toward finding and testing network solutions that involve using the existing grid, rather than building a new road. I went to the meeting with the impression that scenarios were still being explored and that building the road was not a “given.” This is what the community was told at the last meeting about the proposed Boardman Lake Avenue project in February.

Here’s what I saw and heard at the meeting on Tuesday night:

• I read through the packet of data and heard the consultant describe and share a series of road design concept maps.

• I heard frustrated residents express their concerns about the Boardman Lake Avenue, questioning the impact to the natural resources, water quality and wildlife, the impact to recreational uses, and safety, aesthetics, noise, and air quality impacts.

• I heard other residents (far fewer) express commitment to the construction of the Boardman Lake Avenue.

• I watched as members of the audience were told that any discussion or exploration of city-wide impacts to the streets in Old Town was really outside the purview of the Boardman Lake Avenue road discussion (such as traffic patterns on West 8th Street, etc.)

• I heard City Manager Ben Bifoss affirm that the timeline to move forward with building the road is being driven by the purchase agreement deadline with the property owner of Copy Central and that the City does not see an opportunity to extend the deadline. A decision to purchase the property has to be made this spring.

• I heard the consultants who were facilitating the public meeting say that they were told not to include a “no road” scenario in their presentation “by the people who hired them.”

Green Dot Go, Blue Dot No

Tuesday night’s session gave the public an opportunity to comment about what they liked or disliked about specific road design scenarios. Unfortunately, that singular goal and intention was not communicated to the public prior to the meeting. Many (it felt like a majority) of the people that came to the meeting were expecting more follow-up and discussion regarding the questions and concerns that were expressed about the road at the last public meeting. This mismatch in meeting expectations led to a frustrating and unwieldy session. I left questioning the timing and content of the meeting. For example, if we are still debating the road’s approval for construction by the City (which I thought we were), it is premature to ask the public to review and provide input on road design scenarios. The format and content of Tuesday night’s meeting gave me the impression that the decision to build the road has already been made.

I wish that we could try some cheaper and faster traffic calming solutions to see what kind of impact that might have on users’ experiences of Union and Cass. It would be terrific if we could take some time exploring network-enhancement solutions that would cost virtually no money, like a scenario that would open up 7th and 8th street to two-way east/west traffic to test the impact for a year or two and see what happens to the north/south traffic volumes on Cass and Union. But if exploring these options (or others) due to neighborhood or city politics or a lack of staff or technical capacity is untenable, and if building the Boardman Lake Avenue road is a foregone conclusion, then let’s just call a spade and spade and move on.

How To Build A Road

If the City is committed to building the road, then let’s implement a quality public input process to talk about placemaking in this neighborhood. Let’s talk about land use and natural resource protection and recreation and safety and aesthetics, and about the needs of the Avenue’s users and its neighbors. It felt like that’s where the organizers of last night’s meeting might have wanted the dialogue to go, but because the City’s commitment to build the road is not being stated clearly, people were not coming to the table to have that type of conversation.

The City Master Plan was created through a public process and includes the Boardman Lake Avenue road’s development. It’s true that people have been promised this road for a long time. I do not like the idea of building the Boardman Lake Avenue. I am not convinced that it is going to solve the traffic issues in Old Town. In fact, I am pretty sure based on what I’ve learned that it is going to create more traffic issues within our neighborhood. But I’d much rather have a productive conversation with my neighbors and as a community about how we design the Boardman Lake Avenue and redevelop or restore the land in that corridor in a way makes Old Town and Traverse City a great place to live, work, and play than participate in a public process that feels like it’s built on false pretense.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I continue to offer this blog as a place to clarify thoughts, document public comment and test out your ideas. Thank you to Megan for sharing her thoughtful reflections from Tuesday night’s meeting and pointing out that the BLA discussion is really about “how do we build a better community”– road or no road. As always, I invite others to contribute here. Many of the City Commissioners do follow the comments on this blog and they, as well, are encouraged to contribute. If you’ve never left a comment, it’s pretty painless and we really only ask that we keep it constructive and civil, but you can read the full comment policy here.

UPDATED 03/25 11:45: Clarification Added

NOTE: This is not a comprehensive re-cap of last night’s meeting, nor is it an attempt at providing news. Rather, it is a slightly cranky, head-cold influenced reflection of last night’s process and the information provided [reaction to the over-all approach to the BLA project. Citizens have been continually told, for at least the last year, that the decision to build a road hasn't been made, yet over that year everything has been lining us up to do just that while the same questions continue to be unanswered.] (updated)

This a call out for your own reflections on the Boardman Lake Ave. project (whether you were their last night or not). You can leave those as a comment here or perhaps you’d like to contribute a post. For, against or something else entirely is all good. Also, it is a big reminder that there is need for public input before and at future planning commission and city commission meetings (information on those forthcoming.)

BLA Crank

The turnout at the St. Francis High School cafeteria last night was robust. Numbers were comparable, if not more than, the estimated 80 people who showed at the previous Boardman Lake Ave./Development input session a month ago. The results of that process were once again reviewed, but what was missing was any clarity in the answers requested. For the most part, the input of  opportunity and issues was merely organized into four categories for further discussion: data, environmental/place, plans & design and city-wide impacts.

For example, under the classification of “plans/design” the top opportunity/issue raised in February was for a traffic calming plan for Cass St. and Union St. to be explored. Basically, improve the roads we have before building a new one. There was no additional information to that concern last night other than that it falls outside of the purview of the BLA district.

A tie for the most raised opportunity/issue under “plans/design” is that there is no proof that the Boardman Lake Ave. will reduce traffic in Old Town. It is an assumption that suffices for many, but for many others, the pattern of success isn’t there. There is a real concern that 5-10 years from now the additional generated trips and increased traffic will simply leave the community with another arterial and a divide while Cass St. remains the same.

Instead, many people want to see a plan to reduce dependency on single occupant vehicles traveling to and through the City. Again, left out of the discussion last night. I get it, it is difficult community discussion, but the assumption that we have to continually attempt to subsidize increased motorized traffic, with all of its associated externalized problems isn’t a neutral starting point. We can choose what level of service we subsidize as a community.

The Designs

Last night residents were presented with an array of design options for the proposed Boardman Lake Ave. none of which reflect this as anything other than a road to facilitate automobile traffic. Yes, there are trails and there is a plan to improve the natural setting along the shoreline of the lake; those all can and should happen regardless of the road. They are already happening.

The contentious point remains Boardman Lake Avenue. and none of the road designs (concepts really) last night were awe-inspiring. It still appears to be a difficult stretch to keep speeds at 25-mph or under in large part  because there is no development along it other than a mandatory fence between the road and the railway. So, it’s not enough that we get the blight of a road and motorized traffic next to Boardman Lake, we also have to accept an ugly fence that will only increase in ugliness over-time. Lovely addition to the neighborhood.

A "No Road" Option Did Make It On The Wall and received lots of support (green dots).

Absent from the design selection last night was a “no road-fix the current roads option.” Why is their such a reluctance by City staff and officials to champion that message forward? Simply because it hasn’t been possible for the last 20 years needn’t be a reason not to try now to reduce the problems using aggressive traffic calming measures and the politically difficult, but repeatedly suggested, opening up of our lovely grid. Yes, those one-way streets need to go.

There are plenty of questions remaining. Too many to list here. The results from last night will be made available in the coming weeks and we will revisit it then.

In the meantime, where is the proof that its construction will achieve the stated goal? Last night, the only stated goal was ameliorating the problems associated with motorized traffic in Old Town neighborhood. Does a new road do that? More broadly, how does that reflect the values of the community?

As well, and something raised after the meeting last night, what is this? Is it a road project? Or is it a redevelopment project? It’s unclear and the process for either, from the beginning, long before this week, is flawed.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Part II of contributor Sarna Salzman’s reflection on her first year of winter biking…We left off in Part I with Sarna ready to go shopping for a new ride. Considering the 9″-12″ of snow northern Michigan received last night, her story is still quite timely–stay upright everyone.

Comfortable Commuter: Gearing Up (Part II)

by Sarna Salzman

Shopping For The Right Bike

One of the points I negotiated before the move was help from my partner to extend my biking season. He’s a biker for sure, sporty too; a true cyclist. We started by looking to cities that have loads of bike commuters and loads of snow. In Copenhagen, a lot of people ride these great, stable tricycles with two wheels and cargo in the front. In this country one of these is a $3,000+ proposition. As I was still nervous about committing to the winter commute, this felt like too high a price.

Next, I went solo to local bike shops. We have great shops with great staff in this town, but every time I went in alone I was steered toward mountain bikes. Were those fat tires the answer, really? Then why did every winter biker I know steer me away from the fat tire? What’s the deal here? The answer to that question, I don’t know. The sporty biker beau, however, upon walking into McClain’s was immediately supported in his desire for me to have a simple cross-bike with all the fixings.

And so, the journey down this path began.

‘What is a cross-bike?’ was my first question. It’s a cyclo-cross bicycle, which is designed for a style of racing that demands the cyclist traverse a number of course features, often including mud. It has a nice blend of functionality like the child of a pure road bike mom and a grandma on the father’s side who was a mountain bike. It can wear a nice knobby tire and some extra accessories really easily. Just as easy for the bike is to get stripped down to bare essentials, wear slick tires and let the rider chase lunch 50 miles away. So far, so good.

Though less expensive than a car, a new bike is not cheap. There are a million ways to put together a bike purchase and this step really requires a proficiency in bike-lingo. Luckily there are many folks around who were happy to help with that barrier. My advice is to make sure that you feel comfortable with your guide and that they encourage the barrage of questions you are likely to have. The process definitely took some time and I am really happy with the results. One shout-out at this point needs to go to Dennis Bean Larson at the Fixed Gear Gallery who outfitted me last year with my first road bike. He introduced me to a bike frame that actually fits my body, which has revolutionized how my shoulders and back feel forever. McClain’s staff fitted me and my cyclo-cross bike together – another step that can take time and is worth every minute.

So, my season extender and primary commuter bike is a sweet, small-framed Motobecane CX with the dual brakes that I like and the strings up-top, which keeps them clear of all the muck on the roads. It has more gears than I need, but the price was right.

Other important dressings included:

• Studded tires:Worth the ducats. Bike tires are made by the same manufacturers of winter car tires.
• Fenders: : Absolutely necessary if one does not want to be forced into wearing rain pants everyday. Love them.
• Lights: : duh. I’m more concerned with ensuring that oncoming and passing traffic can see me, rather than light for me to see by. Make sure they are bright and that they stay bright.
• Rack for carrying paneers: They increasingly have some cute ones that can easily slip on and off the bike serving as an all-purpose bag that can come into commission chambers with me – keeping my gear theft safe and still looking good for work.

And for me, I also got a couple of pieces of fabulous gear:

Watching out for blind-spots

• Helmet: Mine is a sweet over-the-ears helmet and a gift (from the beau) direct from the motherland of winter bike commuting (Denmark) and has a nice girl-ish flare that I enjoy.
• Rear-view Mirror: Nerdy or no, the mirror that attaches to the helmet is the best. This piece of gear helps me feel safer than almost any other.
• Goggles: I found out these are supposed to be called “optics”. I wear glasses, and to effectively use a scarf without fogging up, these are necessary. I had to go to a ski shop to get the kind that fit over prescription glasses. I think my face might be smaller than the average because they nearly cover my nose. Oh well, more protection, I guess.
• Paneers: One of those cute paneers with a hard, washable bottom and a bonus bottle opener.
• Reflective pant-leg Velcro things:What are they called? They keep your pants from getting in your gears.
• More lights:Can’t have too many, really.
• Padded gloves: I don’t know about you, but I feel like a football player getting brain damage from the jarring of the road through my arms. Well padded bike gloves really help and I wear them under my winter gloves (instead of forking over for expensive winter bike gloves that don’t look very warm).

For a brand new bike that continues to bring me a priceless feeling of liberation, the price (well under $3000) feels reasonable. I’m fortunate too in that my employer footed a big part of the bill as part of my health & wellness plan. Ask your employer if they will do the same for you. The idea is increasingly main stream these days – just ask the Hagarty HR department.

Gear Taking Care Of, What About Infrastructure?

Now I’m back to noticing infrastructural choices that could improve the life of a bike commuter in this City. Winter brings its own challenges and I don’t enjoy certain sections of 8th Street no matter how I try. When I get nervous, I do what all bikers should do: I claim my lane, demand the attention of drivers (with smiles and waves) and use my rear view mirror a lot.

Overall, I feel safer not being tied to a car every day.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: First-time contributor Sarna Salzman made a move across town that lengthened her commute by 6 miles. As one of the few people I know in TC who has never owned a personal car and gets quite cranky after being around them for too long, she was left with little choice: gearing-up for winter biking. We will run part II tomorrow morning.

Comfortable Commuter: Gearing Up For Winter Biking-Year 1

- by Sarna Salzman Read: Part II

As a recent convert to ‘winter biker’, I offer you my perspective on making winter a bike friendly season because after my first day, I came home with a powerful appetite and a strong sense of liberation. I would like to help others like me feel comfortable making a similar move.

The author navigating the 8th & Garfield intersection (photo: glhowe)

Let me back up and say, I’m pretty much a scaredy-cat when it comes to biking.

I don’t like being near cars and I don’t like to fall. I am not one of those ‘sporty’ types. I don’t get excited to loop up-and-down Old Mission after work or travel in circles through Leelanau County. I don’t enter races and I certainly don’t do triathlons. Also, when I’m on my bike, I’m in street clothes not spandex.

I love bicycles. They are the most efficient form of transportation humans have ever invented. I’m a commuter and I ride my bike to get somewhere. That’s pretty much it.

The Big Move That Forced The Issue

I recently moved into a house with my partner on the very east end of Traverse City. Moving from the castle at Minervini-ville (The Grand Traverse Commons) took some convincing, not the least of which was that I had to give up my 4 minute walk-commute to my office, which is also at the Commons. The new 6-mile round-trip commute is a bit longer than I will willingly walk…on a regular basis. Yes, I’m experienced at organizing carpools for myself and yes, I am familiar with the BATA Cherriot. Still, once the snow started flying, I found myself ‘borrowing’ my partner’s car nearly every day for the commute. There are some strong positives for commuting by car: it’s warm, you can style your hair in an ‘up-do’ and wear long skirts. Still, not something I want to do everyday.

I needed a bike.

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NOTE: To be continued…(shopping can be complicated)