MyWHaT

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Engage and Represent

Contact your Commissioners

It’s budget time for the City of Traverse City. Exciting stuff! Well, sort-of. From the vantage point of an engaged citizen, it can be rather deflating watching departments fight for budgets, the City Manager try to give “just enough” information (or, perhaps signaling that he as well only has “enough” information), and City Commissioners pull their hair out to decipher the needs and actual status of the City coffers, all the while promoting their own agendas.

What often gets lost is that the budget ought to reflect the values of the community, not drive them.  

In past experiences, the discussions that take place in meetings are almost impossible to follow for observers only privy to a public memo or two.  As the process unfolds each new step seems to have another layer of vagueness and hamstrung-ness to it (I think I just made up a word). I suspect that even the decision makers feel a bit of that. I believe last year’s final budget meeting went well past midnight.

Still, this is where the direction for the next fiscal year happens and the least we can do as engaged citizens, is to weigh-in with the values and priorities that we wish to see represented in the City’s budget. I’ve not wrapped my head around it yet to make strong comments either-way, but this week City Manager Ben Bifoss released his recommendations for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. The memo is readable and available under the “Government” drop-down heading on the City’s homepage (yes, not front page and not easily located). Or, download it here (PDF) or view it below–easy.

Key recommendations from the memo are: 

• Reduction of staff beyond normal attrition in fire, police, and the streets/parks department.
• A reduction in cemetery maintenance costs by, I assume, keeping it in-house.
• Reduction in recreational costs by eliminating the operation of the ski program at Hickory Hills (this will be fun to watch)
• A status quo, if not increases, for almost every other department. (Last year, then Mayor Chris Bzdok and Cmmn Mike Gillman made budget recommendations (Plan4TC) that may be informative to this year’s discussion.)

The meetings where the budget will be discussed aren’t solid yet, but a potential April 30th meeting is the earliest followed by a definite public hearing on May 7th, likely May 21st and at the latest a June 4th meeting, where the final version needs to be adopted. The memo is just a recommendation, the decision is solely up to the elected commissioners.

Certainly, more to come.

What are your first impressions?

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• Traverse City Manager Proposes Cutting Police, Fire, Museum And More (IPR)

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If you build for the car, the car, and all its shadows, is what you get. 

by ITDP Mexico

¡Excelente!

Before someone says it…Yes, the numbers of people who drive are reversed in the United States (70% drive, 30% find other means, mas o minus), but that is precisely because we have committed vast sums of money to subsidize automobile use over the last 75 years. Attempts at charging a market price for its use and storage is fought at every opportunity, typically by the same people who are the most staunch free-market promoters. Those same folks tend to also be the most vocal complainers about high gas prices despite the U.S. paying the lowest prices at the pump than any other of the richest nations.

The U.S. is at a critical point. The infrastructure we have propped up in the name of one mode is in need of repair. The question remains, will we repair the public spaces to serve more than one need, a complete street approach that honors public space, or will we continue to encourage and favor the mode that has the most externalities that we all pay for one way or another–regardless of how much you drive.

Externalities* discussed in film: traffic (congestion), pollution, time-loss, stress, health issues, lack of public spaces, accidents (crashes), climate change…they might have even missed a few.

What externalities might you add?

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* Externality: A consequence, that can often be quantified economically, of an activity that affects other parties without it being reflected in the cost, thus obscuring the true cost to individual and society.

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Traffic is like gas…

Screen grab

~ via neighbourhoods, copenhagenize, Atlantic Cities, and planning geeks everywhere.

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The Rapid in Grand Rapids

Last month, I participated as a photographer in the Michigan Transportation Odyssey. The odyssey was a three-day tour of Michigan’s transit infrastructure from Detroit to Traverse City hosted by a consortium of organizations involved in Trans4M (Transportation for Michigan).

I’m not here to recap it; there are plenty of those out there: here (MLUI), here (T4M), here (M-Live), and here (M-D) and all have links to further re-caps, reviews, and details.

Beer + Transit

Something none of the above articles focus on, though some do highlight, is the growing connection between transit centers and the craft beer industry in Michigan. It is certainly a topic worthy of more exploration. As the Google Map screen grabs show, in the three transit centers I visited, I was never more than a 5-minute walk from a craft Michigan beer. 

Beginning in Kalamazoo, where after meetings we had an extra hour before catching a bus to Grand Rapids, we were able to relax and wait in style at Bell’s Brewery and walk to catch the bus with plenty of time to spare. Reaching Grand Rapids, Founder’s Brewing Co. is literally across the street so to say it is a minute walk is even a stretch. You could, if you hurried, get off the bus and have a beer in your hand in 2-minutes. In Traverse City, there are two craft breweries within shouting distance.

In Grand Rapids, the delegation met Dave Engbers, a co-founder of Founders, who in a panel discussion was not shy about his desire to locate Founders near the transit station. For him, it was a choice to be part of redevelopment focused on the future needs and desires of his customers for a more vibrant, place focused community. Asked how to increase use of transit, he dead-panned, ”Make it sexy.”

Or, at least well hydrated.

• What other transit centers in Michigan have breweries nearby?
• Is there another kind of transit tour that has yet to be explored?
• The Great Michigan Brewery Tour of 2012? 

RT @jleff: Good transit is all about good beer. #Founders to North Peak in about 3.5hrs. @T4Michigan @jimbruckb @glhjr #miodyssey #tcmi—
James Bruckbauer (@jimbruckb) March 24, 2012

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Sunday’s Record Eagle editorial tackled traffic complaints coming out of the neighborhoods. In particular, lending support for the complaints associated with the proposed Munson expansions and fears of an increase in the number of cars running down Monroe St. and Elmwood Ave. An alley and City owned land sale for the project is on the City Commission’s agenda for this evening (PDF).

The attention to genuine concerns about traffic is appreciated, unfortunately our paper’s solutions are reactive and may even make matters worse. In part, because they buy in to the natural fallacy that economic growth must and will induce more motorized traffic. Certainly, if we treat it as inevitable, more motorized traffic is what we will get.

The Power of the Grid

However, we need to be real. As long as we are all addicted to driving as a default for transportation needs, and continue to encourage the habit by building for it, complaints from the neighborhoods are going to continue. To efficiently serve that without destroying other parts of town, we need our grid system left intact, not turned into cul-de-sacs as the RE proposes. Cutting off streets will only increase the frustration levels in other locations and will only serve to lengthen driving trips and the number of cars on the streets.

As other traffic concerns in the City, if a reduction of vehicles per day is the goal, shifting traffic elsewhere does nothing but postpone the issue and create other problems, many of them economic.

There is no solution, but there are choices.

Munson’s expansion may or may not increase over-all traffic, and that may or may not be a doomsday scenario, but Munson is one of the largest businesses in town that does actively support smart-commuting amongst employees–how can the City further incentivize this effort? What can the City do to support increased transit use between Munson West, NMC, and Munson East? 

This discussion also showcases why it is so important for the City Commission to support and be champions of a commitment to developing a city-wide traffic calming program. One that isn’t complaint driven, but part of the ongoing re-construction and maintenance of the public rights of way. Often, it isn’t the number of cars that people notice on their streets, but the behavior of the drivers who are racing between stop-signs with no regard to the context. Last year, Elmwood Ave. north of W. Front St. was narrowed and treated with some minor tweaks; it’s a good start, and the next re-do of a street needs to be more aggressive, regardless of what neighborhood it is in. The same concerns out of Slabtown are the same concerns across the City.

Also needed is a comprehensive bike-ped plan, as called for in the City’s master plan. This plan needs to be integrated with a more robustly supported transit system backed up by smart-commute lots on the edges of the city. This needs to be embraced and funded as a real transportation solution.

We can no longer continue to build for an auto-centric world and then turn around and complain about it. At a certain point, the community needs to recognize that every trip we can encourage to be taken not in a single-occupant-vehicle is an action that will save us time, money, and head-aches.

What can we shoot for–10%, 20%, or 30% of Munson employees arriving by other means than an SOV?

What about city-wide? 

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This blog takes time, energy, & electricity (and a little beer) consider a donation

For 2-1/2 years, I’ve enjoyed the effort of researching, writing and editing, scribbling, and in general curating the content for MyWHaT. Even the associated advocating has its moments. One of these days, I’m going to keep track of the hours put into it, but for now I’m blissfully ignorant of the exact time commitment. The energy level does wax-and-wane, but it certainly picks up when a reader helps subsidize the effort. My goal is to keep the blog ad-free, only having collaborative underwriters represented on the side-panel and underwriter page (thank you to them!). Really, it’s the many modest contributions that energize the work. Your support affirms that I’m making the world, and my community, a better place. If you find this material and the work behind it valuable, intriguing, or even critical, I’d greatly appreciate your contribution. Thank you. 

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Racing to slow down

The other day, as I pulled out of our neighborhood, my girlfriend commented, “you’ve been driving slower lately.” Thank you, I replied.

First, yes, I do drive. I own a car. Apparently there is some confusion about that amongst some readers of the blog. Second, she’s right, I’ve been driving slower. Or at-least trying to. In a world designed for speed that can be difficult. Wide lanes, wide-sweeping curves, so many lights just about to turn red, and oh, the places I must be, are just a few of things that throw me off the plot. The 4-lane section of Traverse City’s 8th Street is particularly troublesome to keep the Fit at the speed limit of 25-mph. It’s rarely congested and visually wide-open, it’s a half-mile urban-highway right in the middle of the city.

Still, I’m trying. Religiously watching the speed-odometer, staying focused, and taking in more of my surroundings. And, as the following ad-campaign in The Netherlands attests, in the urban environment in our communities, our neighborhoods, commercial mixed-use areas, school zones, there is no excuse to speed when we accept the self-responsibility of not injuring others.

There is no excuse, slow down. You’ll get there. 

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uploaded by markenlei

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Dissolving road commissions

~ by guest contributor Rory Neuner

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates in Michigan have reason to celebrate legislation signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder in February. Public Acts 14 and 15 allow county boards of commissioners to dissolve and take over the duties of county road commissions.

Michigan Counties

Dissolving road commissions has been applauded as a way to reduce costs and the redundancy in the number of units of government in Michigan. After all, Michigan has more layers of government than the layers of clothing one might don on a cold, snowy day in Houghton.

This legislation is an opportunity to remove the biggest barrier to implementing complete streets in Michigan counties. It opens the door for bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and place-advocates to work with their county governments to rethink the way they are providing transportation services. It will help establish a more value based approach to designing communities.

I’ll spare you the full history of county road commissions in Michigan (PDF), however, here are the basics: road commissions came to being in 1893, based on Bay County’s 1883 Stone Road District. Each of Michigan’s 83 counties has a county road agency. In most counties, the road commission is the agency responsible for building and maintaining county roads.

Prior to PA 14 and 15, counties had no authority to manage roads. That was the job of the road commission. And in most Michigan counties, the transportation planning that’s gone on at the road commission has focused solely on moving cars; not people.

The County Road Association of Michigan (CRAM) makes no secret about this bias. CRAM (what a name!), which represents county road commissions in Lansing, was one of the only groups to oppose Complete Streets legislation successfully passed in 2010. And CRAM’s legislative priorities routinely include eliminating the Act-51 requirement that agencies spend 1% of their funds on non-motorized (PDF).

Aside from CRAM’s politics, dissolving road commissions is an opportunity to move our county governments away from auto-centric planning and maintenance toward a people-centric approach to transportation. 

Ingham County (mid-Michigan) is home to the first serious dissolution effort, and it’s a great case study in what an opportunity this is for bicycle and pedestrian advocates. Back in December, the Ingham County Board of Commissioners began the process of absorbing its road commission. This week the County (LSJ) will hold its second public hearing and the board will take a final vote in late April.

For the last several years, the Ingham County Health Department has been working to encourage communities across the county to adopt complete streets ordinances. The Health Department is overseen by the Board of Commissions, which passed its own resolution encouraging complete streets. But until PA 14 and 15, counties couldn’t manage their own transportation infrastructure. As Todd Scott pointed out over at M-Bike.org (MB) “(c)ounty governments (could) manage parks, human services, health departments, airports, water supply, refuge collection, lake improvements, libraries – but not roads.”

So despite the best efforts of the Health Department, complete streets was going nowhere at the County level. In the middle stood the Ingham County Road Commission, with its own priorities that didn’t include complete streets. If the Ingham Board of Commissions moves forward with dissolution, its hopeful that new Ingham County Department of Transportation will tackle complete streets.

The location of this new Department should also mean better coordination between transportation spending and the other services counties provide. It improves the chances that connections are made, for example, between a county park trail system and a bike lane on a county road.

A Platform for Local Funding Options?

In the future, embedding transportation in County governments may also set up the structure necessary for counties to pursue a local revenue option to fund improved transportation services. Among the dozens of transportation-related proposals Governor Snyder has outlined over the last year is a plan to allow counties in Michigan to levy their own vehicle registration fees to fund transportation improvements. Under Snyder’s proposal (T4MI), voters would get to decide at the local level whether to raise vehicle registration fees, money that would be used for road and transit spending in that region.

Counties that act now to consolidate their road commissions and move toward a 21st century vision for transportation services may be better positioned to put such options in front of voters, and in turn, build safe, vibrant, healthy communities focused on providing access to goods and people for all modes.

Please, ask your neighborhood County Commissioner what he or she is going to do about it. *

~ Rory Neuner was born and raised in Lansing and is an advocate for smart, sustainable transportation, formerly with the Michigan Environmental Council and Transportation for Michigan (Trans4M).

* Grand Traverse County Commissioners have yet to officially consider dissolving Grand Traverse’s road commission (RE). Visit the county website for list of Grand Traverse County Commissioners.

Related articles

• County road commissions going away? (elkrapidslive.com)
• Complete streets: transportation needs (MyWHaT)

A reader recently asked me why people on bicycles ride the wrong way on one-way streets (FB) and my answer alluded to the dual nature of bicyclists; they are often more like pedestrians than drivers of a vehicle. It doesn’t excuse the illegality and lack of consideration of riding the wrong way down a one-way, but it does help explain why it sometimes happens, particularly when the design doesn’t provide a natural alternative. Part of this dual nature is actually captured in Michigan law (MW).

The mantra that bicyclists are vehicles and subject to the same laws and responsibilities as people in 2-ton transportation pods is expressed a lot, but as the team at M-Bike clarified last week, that isn’t the case under Michigan law (MB). They simplified the traffic types under Michigan law in the following info-graphic:

Although they are many crossovers responsibilities between traffic types, Michigan does specifically call out bicycles under devices. Even granting them “all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle” when upon the roadway. But, people on bikes are also able to go back and forth between being a roadway user, sidewalk user, or a trail user. It’s an advantage of the device and highlights the separateness between the actions of driving and riding a bicycle. To quote a previous M-Bike post, “we are a separate group despite what the bumper sticker implies” (MB).

There are certainly more we, whether we ride a bicycle or not, can do to be more informed of the laws. The League of Michigan Bicyclists Handbook (LMB) is a good start. As well, as we move into the busy time of the year for people moving about on two-wheels a better understanding of the bicyclist’s needs, both recognized and un-recognized in the law, needs to occur.

Last week, Talk of the Nation highlighted the issues about sharing the road (NPR) by starting with a question centered around the idea that bicyclists are their own worst enemies. A notion we’d never apply to people when they drive, yet every so often it’s expressed that if we want more bicycle amenities, bicyclists need to follow the rules (TW).

Because some bicyclists are rude, therefore they don't deserve consideration. Apply that logic to drivers & we'd have no roads @totn—
MyWHaT/G. Howe (@glhjr) April 05, 2012

Thankfully, the NPR program quickly left that angle behind and author Tom Vanderbilt captured that by pointing out that in many U.S. communities the bicycle amenities are disconnected and ill-thought out. This leads to quite predictable law-bending and abrasive attitudes. ”In the U.S., sometimes, there’s kind of this marginalization, almost criminalization that cyclists feel on the road, attributed to a sense of persecution,” he said.

That won’t go away by simply wishing it to be. It’s why we are advocates for complete streets (MW).

We can all do better; be considerate. We are all trying to get somewhere.

Resources

• Collection of  bicycle laws (M-Bike)
• Michigan Vehicle Code website (keyword searchable)

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Morning reading

My first guest commentary for the monthly Traverse City Business News is now out. The guest commentary isn’t online, but copies are on newsstands around town. Editors willing, I will be writing again for the June issue. Have any suggestions for issues in need of commentary?

For my first attempt, “Fostering Connections”, I write to the need to invest in building social capital and community through more inclusive, intentional design of public spaces. In it, I offer one definition of Placemaking:

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Placemaking is investing in the public realm to encourage effortless, easygoing, unhurried interactions. Places like pocket parks, trailheads, and dog-parks where civic life can occur without being centered on consumption or entertainment. Places where happiness is pursued through the joy of being an active and socializing contributor to the community experience.

Pick-up a copy or sneak a peek while in the coffee shop, and let me know what you think.

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NOTE: Next Wednesday night in Bellaire, I’ll be leading a discussion on the topic as part of ISLAND’s Art, Film, Philosophy series. The discussion is titled, “Design for Chance Encounters with Strangers” and is from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Bellaire Community Hall 202 North Bridge Street, Bellaire, MI.

If you want to ride along from Traverse City, give me shout (the journey will include a stop at Short’s).
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April is a great time to consider a donation or to subscribe to a monthly contribution.  

Abundant and attractive bicycle parking outside of Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo.

FYI: Oberon was released yesterday for the summer.

A “Great” on the bike rack evaluation scorecard.

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Click for larger view

Surveying the crowd

Trip chaining (DLSM) and less driving seem to be the primary changes in our driving behavior as gas prices have increased, according to a recent AAA survey sourced in an article titled “How high do gas prices have to get to trigger behavior change?“(Grist).  In an additional poll, from Gallup, the article reports a per gallon price would have to hit $5.30 before Americans would  ”cut back on spending in other areas or make significant changes in the way they live their lives.”

Click for larger view

In another Grist article from yesterday, David Roberts drew heavily from Senator Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from New Mexico, about the myths surrounding the cost at the pump (Grist). Mainly, oil is a global commodity with costs linked to events beyond any one country’s control. Increasing domestic production in the U.S., which has occurred (Graphic), isn’t going to ease the cost at the pump unless the government nationalizes socializes the industry and starts delivering barrels of oil to every household (or, something equal to $190-billion/year subsidy-(Atlantic)).

Hard to believe this is even a consideration considering we already subsidize an oil addiction and pay the least per gallon among the world’s rich nations–see graphic. 

Finding solutions

What’s slowly becoming clear, is that the one sure way to reduce the national, and any one individual’s, vulnerability to rising gas prices is to be less dependent on the need–thus changing behavior and priorities. As Sen. Bingaman summarized to his colleagues in Washington:

But what can Congress do to help ease the burden of high prices for U.S. consumers, when oil prices are determined mostly outside our borders? I think a realistic, responsible answer has to be focused on becoming less vulnerable to oil price changes over the medium and long-term. And we become less vulnerable by using less oil.

For most of us, the only real solutions within our immediate control are personal choices like all of the above changes in the AAA survey, in addition to walking further, biking more, and taking transit as much as possible. A couple of weeks ago, a guest contributor explained how she lives 30-miles from the City, but when she comes-in for work, meetings, and errands, she parks her car once and walks most of the rest of the day (MW). Or, as she discovered, she can find ways to ride the bus. That’s an example of an easy behavioral change that saves fuel, money, and opens someone up to new adventures.

Behavioral change is also the most prudent, conservative, and self-reliant adaptation. Way more effective than crying for government and industry to bail us out of our addiction to the refined black gold, which, to be honest, is getting a little old.

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Are you noticing the rise in pump prices? What are your behavioral changes? 

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The dangers of traffic zombies are real, please donate today.

* Post updated for clarity and typos at 10am. __

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