Archive
You are what you measure
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Counting traffic
2-3 pm May 15 on the Fremont Bridge, Seattle Washington.
A friend likes to say, you are what you measure. She also typically attaches a warning to it, “so be careful.”
If we only measure cars, we will only get cars. Instead, what else can we measure?
The instant feedback counter (above) in Seattle went mainly unnoticed by daily commuters, but a high number of people, both people on foot and on bike (it only counts the latter) did take notice; they smiled when the count went up…then up again.
40 second clip of rush hour
I never made it down to the bridge at midnight to check the final number. My guess is it approaches 6,000.
For the record, on my ten-day trip to Seattle and Vancouver I spent a lot of time walking, a bit on bike, some critical connections made by bus, and some necessary car riding, mostly to visit a friend outside of the city, but also a taxi or two.
- Walk: 53 miles *
- Bike: 56 miles
- Bus: 202 miles
- Car: 81 miles
- Train: 165 miles
- Ferry: 12 miles
* An equation needs to be developed for walking miles in major urban centers vs. more rural settings. For each mile walked in a city, there are so many offerings for the senses, interactions, opportunities, and general input that one mile in the city is easily equal to one and half miles, if not more. It’s a thought. Anyone have a better exchange rate?
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Walking Garfield Ave. makes me cranky
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Whose ROW is this anyway?
On Monday, I took the opportunity to walk home along Garfield Ave. with camera in hand. The images in the slide show below really explain themselves. They show that Garfield Ave. is indeed a shit-hole an underperforming corridor with ample underused property with infrastructure devoted to the hey day of the automobile, for which the bill for its second life cycle is now due.
It is also a depressing place to have to walk. The sidewalks that are present are disconnected and often run into parking lots and parked cars like below.
This scene gave me pause, because I never really put it together before that the City has allowed the public right of way to be used for a private parking lot. It is happening throughout the Garfield Ave. corridor and, apparently, in several other places around the City. Somewhere in the history of the City, permission was granted or permission was assumed that granting the use of public space for a private parking lot was more important than providing connections for people on foot.
More and more I’m becoming comfortable with stating unequivocally that I’m a public space advocate. I know this about myself because when I see a scenario like this, where a private gain so egregiously encroaches onto public space, I get offended. I’m not sure there’s anything to be done, but I’d like my disappointment noted for the record.
More images as larger files on the MyWHaT Flickr page
Tally-Corridor-Ho
The condition and design of Garfield Ave. bothers me for a number of reasons. As one of the gateways into Traverse City, it’s an aesthetic and functional embarrassment and it doesn’t serve the adjacent residents as if they matter. The strip mall land use pattern underperforms economically and is highly inefficient, so when commissioners whine that we’re broke I want to hold up a giant poster of the land use they’ve supported over the last 30 years and…
The Planning Commission, on which I serve, identified Garfield Ave. for the Corridor Improvement Plan that the City has reviewed over the last 6 months. I had high hopes that this section of Garfield Ave. could be retrofitted, but after walking it this week, my hopes are a bit diminished. No fear, that shouldn’t stop me from trying and could just be the impact of exhaust and noise I took in while standing next to a stroad of cars going 40-50-mph for an hour.
Onward. Tally-Corridor-Ho. Welcome to Tree City.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Calculating the miles…Part II: The cost of walking
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…Or, rather, the savings
Here are the trips left out of yesterday’s post…
First, the big hit…The two jet plane trips this year. One, completed back in March and another coming this May. In one aspect, reducing the miles I drive locally allowed me to more readily afford a plane ride, theoretically at least. It’s also interesting to point out, that these two trips flying were really a means to get to more walking opportunities.
Made for walking
Your 20-minute walk commute?
One way I’ve been able to reduce my motorized miles is that I’m able and willing to walk pretty much anywhere within a mile and half radius. That ability was a key factor for making the choice to live where I do. This happens to also be just under the 2-mile trip length of 40% of car trips in the United States (Bike League). I’m also able and willing to bike my fair share of trips within a more expanded radius. The bike radius on average is anything within 5 miles, but can expand to 15 or 20 given the right circumstance.
The estimates below don’t take into account two-wheeled joy rides up and down the peninsulas or walks in the woods. I tried to stick strictly to average weekly miles where I’m on a task above and beyond exercise.
External costs for biking and walking are 0.9¢ and 0.2¢, respectively (Whose Roads?-PDF)
Missing from this chart is the cost of shoes and a bicycle, so to be honest let me knock off $200 from my private savings, because over a 5-year period I’m sure I spend $30 annually on transportation shoes and another $170 on new bicycle gear. Still, that’s a nice $1,000 savings for simply choosing to walk and bike around my community.
Interesting to note that my estimated $398 cost of driving that I externalize, is more than off-set by my willingness and ability to walk or bike 1,770 miles. Those miles, if driven, would cost society $513 (29¢ a mile, see yesterday’s post for explanation), so I’m willing to call it even if you are….Now, what to do to off-set my carbon footprint (GHG) for flying?…Ideas?
To close, and since I’ve used his research on the costs so heavily, a quote from Todd Litman about reducing our miles driven:
A gallon of gas saved by reducing driving is worth an order of magnitude more in terms of consumer savings, community savings…in terms of economic development than that same gallon of gasoline used to get someone to drive a more fuel-efficient car.”
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Are you saving money because of reduced miles?
How are you doing it?
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Use the comment section below or through this page to send us a message, on any subject, anytime, anyhow. Comments will be sent to author and potentially used in future posts. Please highlight whether you’d like you’re name published with your comment.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Calculating the miles…and costs of driving
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First quarter numbers are in
As astute readers will recall, last September a city tree attacked my little Honda Fit in a windstorm. It was totaled and being a one-car family at the time, we officially became a no-car family after choosing not to jump back into car ownership. We aren’t car-free though, because as we realized, there is an abundance of cars available, in addition to an abundance of good friends and considerate family, willing to share. When that doesn’t work, we can take the bus, a cab, or rent a car (sometimes from friends). We are rarely left in lurch.
Although Traverse City might not have the population for an official car-share business like Zip-car, I find myself driving almost as much as if I owned a car. Of course, I’d already lowered my annual miles driven (like many people) from around 13,000 miles in 2005 to around 8,000 in 2011. Using the total miles driven (excluding other motorized trips) from January 1st to March 31st, and projecting to the end of the year, I expect to at a minimum drive 4,800 miles in 2013. I easily see adding an additional 1,000 to 2,000 miles as driving tends to increase in the summer.
As the numbers show, by not owning a car I’m not seeing a significant drop in mobility, however, I am realizing a financial savings from not owning a vehicle. Here are the rough numbers with annual miles from the Department of Transportation for comparison:
Projecting forward
The annual projections and averages are simplified and only a gauge, but the cost of owning a car versus borrowing, renting from friends, sharing cost of gas (carpool), or renting from a rental company offers significant savings, even in the first three months. An extra $664 is a nice car-less bonus and the projected annual savings of nearly $2,000 makes that new wood floor for the upstairs seem almost doable.
I’m also tracking the estimated carbon footprint of my motorized mobility, the direct cost of which I externalize onto the rest of society to collectively pick up the tab (thank you). There isn’t a lot of clarity for the layperson on the carbon cost in the literature and so in my log, not shown here, I calculate a conservative, low-ball average carbon tax of $.15 per CO2 per KG, which totals $34.00. The true externalized costs are much higher.
Society’s gift to me
In the chart above, I track the total external costs as a result of my driving. I use $.29 a mile based off of the research by transportation specialist Todd Litman of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute. $.29/mile is a conservative amount that accounts for most subsidies that benefit drivers. These are costs picked up somewhere, somehow, but not directly paid for by so-called “user-fees”. Those costs are accrued through subsidies for parking, safety risks, road construction, and environmental mitigation (Litman’s cost is actually 29.3¢-PDF).
At the end of the year, my cost on society for my driving will be around $1,400–and I don’t even own a car! The average driver in the United States will benefit from at least a $4,000 benefit and locally, the average subsidy will be over $6,500. (Again..and why can’t we afford a complete sidewalk network?).
I will revisit this in the future. I also have estimates for walking and biking, and I’m also privileged enough to fly on occasion. I just didn’t know exactly how to work them into the discussion today.
As well, something else to look for is a new initiative out of MyWHaT underwriter the Michigan Land Use Institute dubbed Local Motion, will be releasing some regional data about costs of driving later this spring. They are also hosting an event on June 4th to discuss transportation management strategies, that you and your employer might be interested in. No details to link to, but if you follow @jimbruckb on twitter or on his blog, you’ll be in the loop.
Do you see something I’m missing in the numbers? Missing data?
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Resources:
- AAA Cost of Owning a car
- True cost of driving (commute solutions)
- Calculating CO2 per mile
- Whose roads? (PDF)
- Life doesn’t end after giving up the car…far from it (MyWHaT)
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Americans are driving fewer miles, are you?
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Video Tuesday
The latest in the StreetFILMS Street Facts Series, Americans are driving less…and less.
Why? The Short Answer…(WaPo)
Costs, recession, transit, aging population, and young people valuing connections, not high-speed mobility…read, social media, urban living, networks, all have contributed to what some called peak driving (Economist), the point at which a society hits a peak, and begins descending the downward slope of the graph.
More Vehicle Miles Driven charts by Dough Short
This reality of a declining driving population, coupled with a fewer and fewer percentage of the under 30-year-old crowd even having a driver’s licence, even has car enthusiast sources like Motertrend running articles that question how we allocate transportation dollars. Quoting from an author of a report titled, Transportation and the New Generation (Frontier Group), Motortrend lays it all out:
Our lack of a coherent federal transportation policy and the notion of spending Federal Highway Trust Fund monies on mass transit rather than roads is an age-old political hot button. But the Trust Fund doesn’t cover 100 percent of new highway projects. New mass transit projects face strict approval processes, while new highways are easily approved.
In Northwest Lower Michigan, we’re still driving quite a bit. According to US-DOT numbers, many of us over 20,000 miles per year. Yet, we have our low-mile drivers as well and anyone who follows MyWHaT knows, we’re interested in reducing those miles more and more (if we could only get a sidewalk!).
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Where are you? Are you driving less? Why?
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Use the comment section below or through this page to send us a message, on any subject, anytime, anyhow. Comments will be sent to author and potentially used in future posts. Please highlight whether you’d like you’re name published with your comment.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
What would Fonzie do? Traverse City tackles street food & ADUs
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This coming Monday night City Commission meeting (April 15) is as good as any to see local government in action. There are two issues the City has struggled with on the agenda and both should attract interesting public & commissioner comment. The two topics I’m thinking of are the revamped street vending ordinance and an ordinance permitting accessory dwelling units in the signal family district of North Traverse Heights Neighborhood. Come for those topics and stick around for the public comment, because you never know when the cops might get called….Monday night at 7pm at Government Center…agenda will be posted here.
Bring on the yum…
First up is something MyWHaT has advocated for more than enough: Street Food. This will be the first meeting the full commission will have a chance to either adopt or send back the ad hoc committee’s recommendations. The language won’t be available until Friday, but the Record Eagle covered the broad scope yesterday (RE).
Want to support street food? It isn’t too late to lend your name in support of street food.
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Step into my ADU
Next up, and perhaps more controversial than food trucks, is an expansion of where Traverse City allows Accessory Dwelling Units (a.k.a., granny flats). The City already allows ADUs by right in numerous multi-use and multi-family districts and temporarily in single family districts by special land use permit–there are currently two permitted ADUs in the city. This is a follow-up attempt to create a regular, permanent policy within what’s called an R1 zoning district, or single-family dwelling district. If adopted it will allow ADUs by right, requiring only a regular building permit, if meeting the specific ADU rules.
ADUs are one way to increase affordable housing in the City. They do this by 1) creating more small scaled, less expensive rentals, and 2) providing a supplemental income to homeowners that helps pay the bills, often allowing older residents to stay in their homes as they get older. ADUs are also one of many recommendations continually raised by studies aimed at finding more affordable, workforce housing. The most recent being a study by the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments looking at housing strategies for the County (gov).
ADUs are typically self-contained apartments built above a garage. They are often used to expand family quarters, particularly when parents or grand parents need family members living near-by. That’s one reason the AARP is a big supporter of communities creating policies to reduce the restrictions to ADUs (AARP).
Fonzie was always there for Mr. and Mrs. C, not to mention a mentoring force for young Richie and Joanie.
Aaaaeeeyyy!
When I think of ADUs, I flash back to Happy Days and Arthur Fronzelli’s sweet pad above the Cunningham’s garage. The Fonz had his issues, but from what I recall he made one heck of a neighbor.
For an updated version of The Fonz character, an efficient ADU makes a great apartment for a young professional working at Hagerty Insurance, at Munson, or a teacher just starting out at TCAPS. Or, they perhaps are a student at NMC or a Coast Guard cadet in Traverse City for a 2-3 year stint. Or, perhaps they are the coolest barista in the City.
Workforce housing solutions, like ADUs, address the high cost of housing for people on limited incomes. In addition to potential lower housing costs, by providing more housing options closer to the core activity areas, transportation costs are reduced. When people can live closer to the core areas then driving becomes less of a necessity because they are closer to work, grocery stores, and other activities. This saves them and local governments money.
ADUs, or Fonzie Flats, work really well in traditional neighborhood settings like we have in Traverse City. As a planning commissioner, I was happy to see that the planning commission was already working on this before I was appointed. The ordinance being considered was written to address the many concerns that have been raised during the years (e.g., cars, privacy, owner occupancy) and represents a safe step in the right direction.
The ordinance’s restrictions and the market barriers to a homeowner ensure the City won’t see a huge uptick in requests, but in the coming years, with an aging population, stagnant incomes for the young workforce, and increasing transportation costs, this is precisely the type of measure to embrace.
What do you think? Could we use more Fonzie Flats than two?
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If you have an opinion, of course send us a comment here at MyWHaT, but also consider sending a quick email to the City and check out NWMCOG’s new community participation site Letsdecidehow.org. They currently have a general poll question asking about ADUs.
A brief introduction to housing issues by the NWMCOG
Related Resources
- ADUs: An Affordable Housing Option for Traverse City? (YourPlaceGrandTraverse.org)
- Housing Affordability Strategies: ADUS (NWMCOG-PDF)
- A Regulatory Framework for Workforce Housing in Traverse City (TC-PDF)
- Model Ordinances (AARP)
- Legalizing inexpensive housing (Daily.Sightline)
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Elly Blue + friends to speak, cook, and chat in Traverse City
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ANNOUNCEMENT
The snow isn’t gone yet, but each day more and more bikes are rolling through our streets. With the Tweed ride coming up and May just around the corner, Traverse City’s streets will soon be humming with every day bicyclists. Right?
Here’s another reason to look forward to May: Acclaimed author Elly Blue and Dinner + Bikes tour is bringing it to Traverse City in a happy marriage of food culture and bike culture.
Purchase Tickets Here
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Full press Release via our friends at TART Trails:
Traverse City, MI – Enjoy Dinner and Bikes, a traveling road show of vegan food and bicycle inspiration, on Sunday, May 5th from 6pm to 9pm at The City Bike Shop. Joshua Ploeg will delight with a vegan and gluten free buffet dinner, Elly Blue (TakingtheLane.com) will present about transportation equity, and Joe Biel will show an excerpt from Aftermass, his forthcoming documentary about the history of bicycle activism in Portland. The event is followed with a book signing, time for questions, discussion of local issues, and perusing the traveling bookstore.
The City Bike Shop’s floor space, located at 322 S. Union Street in Old Town Traverse City, will transform to host the event. Traverse Area Recreation & Transportation (TART) Trails, MyWHaT and Oryana are partnering sponsors.
Steve Basch, owner of The City Bike Shop, shares, “With continued growth of cycling in the area we’re excited to host Elly Blue’s Dinner and Bikes program to share ways to incorporate cycling into everyday life.”
A limited number of tickets are available for $10 each online at traversetrails.org/event/dinnerandbikes. If any tickets are remaining they will be sold at the door on a first come first serve basis.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Traverse City’s Brown Bridge Trust Fund: Time to spend?
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Or, time to leverage?
UPDATE 10:10-AM: The revealing of a draft ballot proposal came sooner than thought, the City Commission will discuss the draft at tonight’s meeting at 7PM. Included in the packet here -PDF.
A few weeks ago, the Traverse City City Commission discussed putting to a public vote whether or not to access the BBTF (Brown Bridge Trust Fund) royalties collected from the oil & gas from the City’s Brown Bridge property (City). There was general support, if not agreement on the use of funds to give a capital boost to our 34 city parks, however, there was less agreement on details of how a ballot proposal would read.
The Sunday Record Eagle’s editorial page (RE) highlighted the need for details and questioned the timing of the proposal.
But the best question hasn’t been fully answered: Why? Why does the city now, at a time when tax revenues are slowly creeping back to pre-Great Recession levels and a substantial amount is already being spent on streets and sidewalks and parks aren’t in a crisis mode, do we need to tap the trust fund at all?
If the money is there, why not?
Similar to the State’s Natural Resources Trust Fund, which has funded numerous recreational projects in the area (e.g., Historic Barns, West Boardman Lake Trail, the Bayfront project at Clinch), the City’s BBTF was established with the understanding that the royalties may be used for public good if 60% of voters agree to withdraw funds. That’s one option. Oddly, the other option of capping the fund only needs a simple majority (a more comprehensive history was provided by City Manager Ben Bifoss in the March 23rd packet-PDF).
The BBTF account now sits at around $13.2-million. The City’s general fund receives an annual deposit from the interest income in the range $300,000. The BBTF oil & gas royalty amount also changes year to year, and over the last 10 years has averaged nearly $450,000. The fund regenerates as long as a market for oil and gas exists.
The Brown Bridge Pond is now a river and there is desire for BBTF money to be spent on restoration needs on site. (2012 Photo)
Details, details, details
This idea isn’t new. Withdrawing BBTF money has been done twice before, both times to purchase parkland. Back in 2010, when I was on the Parks and Recreation Commission, then Chairperson Nate Elkins led a signature campaign to have a proposal put on the 2010 ballot. What was attractive about that proposal (included below) was the provision for 1) a timeline of projects, 2) distribution across the City, and 3) the creation of an endowment fund that would help ensure that parks are annually considered an important part of local government.
This is the type of detail that voters would like to see. We want to see the effort tied to a vision and that there is a commitment to use the money, which is otherwise just sitting there, to improve the quality of life of residents and visitors. Investing in our parks and improving access to them has a measurable economic, social, and environmental rate of return when done well.
The details of the latest discussion have yet to be seen. Offers to assist the City staff and the City Commission in this endeavor so far haven’t been met with any invite, which likely means that in the near future a ballot proposal will surface and public input will be limited to public comment at one or two meetings. If so, that’s unfortunate because it risks creating a missed opportunity to achieve something great in favor of perceived expediency.
I know many MyWHaT readers have personal and professional opinions on this subject, so I encourage you to contact the City Commissioners as soon as possible. As well, share with us here what it is you will be looking for in a potential BBTF ballot proposal.
Where do you see potential for adding value to our community?
* Traverse City’s Parks and Recreational Goals and Objectives.
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2010 BBTF Ballot Proposal (Petition language)
We the undersigned support placing on the ballot a proposed amendment to Section 129 of the City Charter.
The amendment would require that three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($3,750,000) be withdrawn from the principal of the Brown Bridge Trust on or before December 31, 2011, leaving at least nine million ($9,000,000) in the Brown Bridge Trust to be used as currently permitted by the City Charter. Of the three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($3,750,000) withdrawn from the Trust, the amendment would require that:
- By December 31, 2015 the City of Traverse City spend one million two hundred and fifty thousand ($1,250,000) on planning and capital projects for waterfront parks
- One million two hundred and fifty thousand ($1,250,000) on planning and capital projects for other neighborhood and downtown parks.
- The remaining one million two hundred and fifty thousand ($1,250,000) shall placed in an endowment fund that would be used for payments for park operations and maintenance, including planning and capital projects, and that it would be invested as permitted by MCL 129.97a and other applicable law.
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Traverse City’s fat streets and the benefits of a diet
Benefits of Road Diets_
This past Tuesday night the Traverse City Planning Commission wrapped up its review of the Corridor Improvement Master Plan. The comments generated through the four meeting review process will now be shared with the consultants for final edits, additions, and omissions. After those changes, it will come back to the PC for review and consideration on how best to use the plan.
Can 8th Street be better?
Beyond mobility
As expressed before Spring Break, the concept of applying road diets to 8th Street and Garfield Avenue were recommended. A road diet is the roadway conversion most often associated with converting a 4-lane roadway to a three-lane roadway, often narrowing the lanes, and thus creating more space for improved pedestrian and bicycle consideration.
Often the debate around road diets focuses on terms of mobility. Chiefly, how will it impact traffic? And, by traffic, this often narrowly expressed in purely motorized terms. We showed two weeks ago how road diets can actually be a net positive, or at least neutral, impact on motorized capacity of a corridor. However, implementing a road diet is not so narrowly focused.
Instead, particularly for under serving corridors like our two stroads (and, really, any of the other 3 corridors studied), it is about creating improved access and a more engaging place. A road diet is a shift away from the goal of satisfying people’s needs to go through an area to the primary goal of creating a place that attracts people and provides greater public good for the specific corridor and community. Fundamentally, it is about designing a place as if the people living and working there matter.
Below is a StreetFilms short that explains the benefits of road diets and why they are steadily being proposed in communities around the country. In addition to the film, I used a series of other resources to create the following diagram of a few of the most commonly found benefits of road diets.
(Click to embiggen)
What are the benefits I’m missing?
Getting there
Road diets don’t typically happen without a bit of political courage. Communities that have lived with a certain context for decades are often resistant to the suggestion that a change away from the focus on moving cars is possible without a slew of negative consequences. Traverse City will certainly deal with this discussion in the coming months and years. As the literature shows, if done in the proper context many of the negative fears of congestion, spill-over, and safety issues will not manifest themselves. Like other communities, there will be initial resistance followed by wide acceptance and requests for more; we have little reason to think otherwise.
Please, share the above diagram and information, as well as the video below, with people likely to be engaged on this matter.
Resources
- Going on a Road Diet by Federal Highway Administration
- Road Diets: Fixing the Big Roads by Dan Burden and Peter Lagerwey (PDF)
- Evaluation of Lane Reduction “Road Diet” Measures on Crashes by FHA
- York Blvd: The economics of a road diet by Cullen McCormick (PDF)
- The Economic Merits of Road Diets Dom’s Plan B
- Road Conversions: A Tool for Complete Streets Connected Communities: Complete Streets
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* Messages to the author can be sent via the comments section. This is a change away from the message form experiment that has unfortunately created too much spam. Comments will be reviewed and shared as a future blog post without the readers identity, unless otherwise requested.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
Want to be a radical? Go for a walk
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Well said
Walking is more dangerous to the established order of things than it is to the pedestrian trying to avoid being run over at a faded zebra crossing. It’s one of a number of antidotes to ignorance, binding us to our environment through the accumulation of local knowledge. (Cars, used largely for local journeys, reduce such knowledge to that of shortcuts and rat runs.)”
Author, Lynsey Hanley, in her commentary, Why it’s good to walk (Guardian).
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the opinions of writers previously published here or any of the organizations, committees, commissions or other affiliation the authors may belong to, unless so stated.
