MyWHaT

A message sent via email from a Traverse City City Commissioner:

Just went back and reviewed the comments from the snow calming post. I understand people want the sidewalks cleared of snow, I do to. But fact is, the ordinance clearly states it’s up to citizens to keep walks clear of snow (Section 668.11). The snow pushers are not plows and can not remove all the snow to the pavement, making it safe for pedestrians. They are used to help after the roads are taken care of and people seem to think it is a given that it should be done.

Rather than ranting and raving about it you might encourage your readers and posters to take action. Maybe to first amend the ordinance that requires residents to keep the side walks clear and then suggets that DPW make it a priority to remove the snow. At this point it is not.

It’s easy to sit on the couch and bitch about a situation but that gets little done. People need to organize and present a plan to the planning commission and/or city commission to change priorities. Otherwise this is just a lot of hot air which gets old year after year. I can’t do this by my self, people need to organize and large groups of citizens need to come forward asking, demanding a change. It’s not going to get done otherwise…[sic]

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TC Snowpusher (blower)

The message is in response to previous posts, and comments, this week here and here.

Again, point taken. We all need to work on this together if it is to be a priority. And, the time to be working on changing policy and implementation is in the summer months when we’d rather be shoveling sand on the beach. The great thing is we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, the difficult task is organizing. Here is help with the former today.

Below are some model ordinance elements that the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals  culled from cities where providing access to all transportation choices is a priority. Many of these could be public-private partnerships and investment by the City of time and energy into a communication system would assist the citizen-wide effort. I’ve added comments following a few.

You can view the fact sheet at AmericaWalks.org (PDF).

• Dedicated City Sidewalk Snow Crews: It is essential that the City begin clearing sidewalks the day of the snow, simultaneous with their street clearance activities. Sidewalk crews’ responsibilities include clearing sidewalks in front of non-compliant properties after a grace period. (Madison WI)

* This crew could also focus on sidewalks adjacent to government-owned property.

• Clear Multi-use Paths: Multi-use paths given same priority as arterial streets. The parks department clears these and gives highest priority to these paths, before ice rinks, for example. (Madison WI)

* In Traverse City, I’d recommend key school, downtown, and transit routes to this list–these are the thorough-fares of people on foot. 

• Timely Removal: Cities that experience regular snow require that snow be cleared by 9 AM or Noon of the day following the snow (Boulder CO, Madison WI). Some policies state explicitly that one must arrange for another person to clear one’s sidewalks whenever one is out-of-town. (Saline MI) Policies that allow for 24 or 48 hours after snow ending appear to be more ambiguous and thus are less enforceable–people cannot be relied upon to know when the snow ended and such a policy may cloud responsibilities in an ongoing storm.

* A direct alert system could be used nicely here. Confused about when you are or aren’t required to clear the walkway? Sign-up to a text message and social media alert system, and avoid fines or fees for non-compliance. 

• Enforcement of Requirements: It is necessary to include a mechanism for just enforcement. A high fine is one way to go. Preferred, however, is to have a city crew that clears the sidewalk and accesses a high fee plus a billing charge. (Madison WI)

* The City of Lansing last year passed a fine based enforcement system. Offenders pay at least $120 and it is complaint driven, so staff isn’t spending extra time patrolling for uncleared sidewalks.

• Abrasives for Ice Accumulation: When conditions result in an ice accumulation, abrasives must be applied. For these purposes, the city supplies sand for free at specific locations. (Champaign IL)

* Traverse City has a few places with sand buckets (Cass St. bridge). I’d like to also see shovels handy at certain points around town. I’m happy to lend a hand if provided the tool. 

• Brochure, Web page, and Zone Requirements Map: The city publishes and distributes the policy to ensure the public is adequately informed. Identify geographic or zoned responsibilities via online map. More stringent removal requirements may be applied within certain areas or on specific thoroughfares. (Champaign IL)

• Assistance for Elderly and Infirm: Those residents who are physically unable to clear their sidewalks can request assistance. Sidewalk snow removal by city crews or neighborly assistance will be arranged. (Madison WI)

* This is an excellent chance for a public-private partnership, like the Commission on Aging or the United Way volunteer system. 

• Complaint Hotline: A telephone hotline is provided to report sidewalks that need clearing. (Madison WI)

* Or, an equal online version. 

• Sidewalk Maintenance: When there is no snow, the city inspects sidewalks to ensure that heaving or cracking is not so extensive that it would interfere with shoveling the walkway.  

* TC is trying…public works is doing well with limited resources and the planning commission is interesting in expanding/quickening this progress.  

• Sidewalk Buffers: Sidewalks are separated from street with sufficient buffer areas to allow snow storage. Snow plow operators are conscientious not to needlessly bury sidewalks when plowing. 

How we came to our present situation is important.

The struggle was difficult and sometimes fierce. In motordom’s way were street railways, city people afraid for the safety of their children in the streets, and most of the established traffic engineering principles of the 1920s. Motordom, however, had effective rhetorical weapons, growing national organization, a favorable political climate, substantial wealth, and the sympathy of a growing minority of city motorists. By 1930, with these assets, motordom had redefined the city street.”

And, streets as places for the widest public good, based on centuries of “cultural and legal legacies”, was to take a radical hit in the 1920s and 1930s. This is the history the introduction to Fighting Traffic – The Dawn of the Automobile in the American City lays out in first 18 pages.

It is a history mostly forgotten, and sounding almost conspiratorial, but 100 years ago automobiles were widely seen, and treated, as intruders on the city landscape. As their presence became inevitable, communities tried to confine and regulate their impact rather than create entire municipal economies to serve their use. On their side, was the historical right to the street by people moving under their own means.

Rather quickly, however, groups like AAA, Chamber of Commerces, and engineering departments began to remove emotion (remove the public) from the discussion and “professionalized” traffic control. And, also very quickly, “public interest” became defined less about quality of community, including safety, to relieving congestion and designing for speed–focused on our new motoring habits. They did this by claiming the primary urban medium: the city street.

They were largely successful with campaigns employing fear tactics targeted at the most vulnerable.

Ride of Death, 1940s

The battle over the right to the street is only the foundation of a deeper look into how the American city evolved over the last 100-plus years. Once we really start to look at the landscape with a critical eye, we see the dominance our automobile habit has on our economy–almost everything is in some way tied to the rise of the automobile. In addition to highlighting the landscape of the land, Fighting Traffic examines democratic processes, cultural and historical legacies, and the rise of the city manager form of government that all have a connection to the rise of the automobile.

Fighting Traffic is thick and despite having been reading it for over 3 weeks, I’m barely half-way through it. Almost every page deserves further reflection and a look back at a previous section. It feels like an important history to know.

Too often, providing for our driving habits, at huge public and private investment, is treated as unquestionable. It is empowering to know that the history was not so straightforward. There were choices made and there are choices yet to be made; communities need to value that they do indeed have choices.

I’ll certainly be returning to this book in the near future.

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Fighting Traffic is just one of the many books on the MyWHaT R&D reading list. 

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The Pedestrian Ninjas need your help…thank you.

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Penguin directing traffic

Last week’s “we are idiots when we drive” award at Webster and Wellington Streets provided an opportunity for implementation of a long-anticipated traffic calming penguin program.

The penguin replaced a tree that was removed by the City after the crash suffered last Tuesday night. Early observations suggest the inflatable flightless seabird provides an effective reminder for drivers to proceed slowly around the traffic circle. Bystanders also noticed a slight increase in the number of walking trips through Boardman neighborhood as rumor spread of the bird’s new nest.

In addition, feedback from nearby neighbors signal a quick and heartfelt affection for the three-foot tall traffic calming deputy. “I love it,” was frequently expressed. After only a day of service, a smaller bird joined the larger cousin on the island. Apparently, an overflow of whimsy from a nearby 1-year-old’s birthday party. *

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What the…?

A call for additional traffic calming deputies

The view on Webster St. while heading east.

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Have any suggestions for the dispatching of a penguin or two? 

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* Reports from the scene this morning claim a third penguin is now on duty. 

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Traffic calming penguins eat lots of fish–please, consider a donation.

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Laura Herd read Monday’s litany of shame and sent in this message:

Here’s why no one in Traverse is paying attention to infrastructure/design planning.

Here’s what happens when you go to 9 & 10′s website and search the word pedestrian.

Of the top 10 on the first page…

… 7 are about pedestrians being hit
… 3 are about pedestrian safety infrastructure

Out of the full 17 results…

… 10 are about pedestrians being hit
… 5 are about pedestrian safety infrastructure or design(2 are about the same pedestrian tunnel)
… 1 is safety tips for pedestrian trick-or-treating

The last and final result tells you to walk inside if there isn’t anywhere safe near you (IN NORTHERN F**KING MICHIGAN) to walk outside.

The Inside Scoop: Walking Indoors Keeps You Active Year-Round. Why? …Because your job schedule has changed or home life demands have increased. Perhaps there are no sidewalks, trails or safe pedestrian areas near your home or work.

Point taken.

Why aren’t there safe, comfortable and convenient sidewalks or trails near where we live and work? And, why isn’t that news?

To be fair, UpNorthLive results.

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Next Tuesday (Monday is president’s day) the City Commission will consider a resolution of commitment concerning the street/road/highway called Division St. Their packet won’t be available until tomorrow. This is an excellent opportunity to remind the City and readers about the two set of recommendations for Traverse City’s Division Streetdeveloped over the last 2 and half years. (A search of posts related to Division St. will lead readers to more in depth coverage and commentary.)

It began with the hiring of URS Corporation who conducted a weeklong, well represented, public process to provide a plan that attempts to ameliorate the traffic and place issues in terms of context, safety, access and quality. Modern roundabouts were recommended and preliminary modeling was positive in showing automobiles would still be able to move smoothly trough the corridor. The promise is that it would also improve the other aspects of this part of the City.

After that plan stalled, a citizen committee was formed to make side treatment recommendations for the corridor. The intent of this process was to come-up with short-term improvements to the corridor that would move the City forward until a time when the intersections can be changed, which is a larger, messier process that must involve MDOT, potentially a vote on the use of parkland and, perhaps, some fairy dust. These citizen recommendations include streetscape recommendations, sidewalk placements and creating a definitive transition as people enter the City.

That committee’s objective statement is a clear statement of intent that came out of a large, diverse mix of interests:

To change the character of Division Street to create a City Street that is:

• safer for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians to share, travel along, and to cross
  
• better fits the context of the city and its neighborhoods
  
• unites the east and west sides of the street, and
  
• creates the environment and driver behavior to insure that traffic speeds will be reduced to 30-mph. This must be a demonstrable requirement.
  

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I certainly support any and all effort given to this project. We shall see where it goes.

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When pedestrians are present, and you don't see them, you're going too fast for conditions.—
MyWHaT/G. Howe (@glhjr) February 08, 2012

Mini-Rant

A few mornings ago, during the normal coffee & perusal of the news, two separate news items inspired the above tweet.  The specific news incidents aren’t as important as the pattern of passivity by law enforcement across the state of Michigan.

I don’t seek out these news reports (9&10). Actually, readers send the gory stories my way figuring I’m a sucker for them–true. The pattern emerging from these reports is that when a person walking is seriously maimed or killed by a driver who “didn’t see them“(REagle), was “blinded by the sun“, was where “the streetlights weren’t working” (Fox), or simply “couldn’t stop in time“(REagle) the norm seems to be not to issue a citation.

The slightest fender bender typically involves one-person or another getting a citation, but when a woman crossing the street with an 18-month old gets hit and her daughter dies, the police simply shrug their shoulders and let the person who hit them go (Freep). Some police reports even suggest blame on the person on foot for activities like listening to music (Tuscola).

Fox News Screen Grab

It is not just with people on foot where the callousness is on display. Just over a year ago, James Sawicki was stuck and killed while riding his bicycle (Fox) on the shoulder of a Sterling Heights road. A driver with a record reached for something on the floor as she approached him. She then veered off the road, slamming into him and he died…she walked clean without charges. The Sterling Heights police lieutenant’s response,”there was a brand new sidewalk just installed about 15 feet from where he was riding.” (T-MI)

What gives?

I get it. We don’t have strict liability (MyWHaT) in this state. As well, each case is unique and news reports often don’t tell the entire story. Typically, what we end up reading is only as good as the police reports, which themselves are often written with little understanding of the pedestrian’s perspective.

Still, it is difficult to believe that people are throwing themselves willy-nilly in front of speeding cars. More likely, people are driving too fast in places where they need to expect pedestrians and to expect the unexpected. Driving where people are present is like driving on ice, in a snowstorm or heavy fog–the conditions demand that we take extra caution. Michigan’s “What Every Driver Must Know” (MI.Gov-PDF) emphasizes extra care around pedestrians.

Officers, claiming they have no legal means to cite someone ignore the law on their side: driving too fast for conditions.

What’s your take?

Are you offended by news/police reports of people being maimed or killed with no citations being issued?

Thank you for slowing down when pedestrians are present.   

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Last year, Ann Arbor passed a crosswalk ordinance that become the model Traverse City used for its recent crosswalk ordinance (TC’s Uniform Traffic Code Section 410.03). It requires all vehicles (including bicycles) to stop for pedestrians in unregulated crosswalks that are marked and posted.

If you haven’t noticed, it is in effect. Any reports from the streets?

Front side of a postcard campaign by Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition

Driver Behavior Remains the Issue

Ann Arbor has had issues with compliance of their law as the privilege associated with driving a car is difficult to change. People behind the wheel are still not readily stopping and there has been an uptick with fender-bender rear ends when someone stops too quickly. Ann Arbor is attempting to improve that with stricter enforcement, enhanced warning systems and perhaps with a slight clarifying of the ordinance language to clarify that a stop is only required if “a pedestrian is stopped at the curb or ramp leading to a crosswalk.” It avoids the vague term of “when approaching” a crosswalk.

Still, authorities in Ann Arbor are discovering that the biggest obstacle to compliance has nothing to do with the ordinance or pedestrians; the biggest issue remains driver behavior. Namely, distracted driving and driving too fast. There is state law to help reduce the former and the latter requires that the city focus on design of the streets to restrict speeds, but also to protect pedestrians with greater use of bump-outs, medians and narrow streets. It appears from the comments by council members, that Ann Arbor’s council is supporting continued improvement in street design guidelines to achieve those ends. Ann Arbor is also attempting to raise the awareness of the ordinance through postcard and ad campaigns, as well as continuing to provide video footage of the experience on the street.

Want to Help

Forces are coming together in Traverse City to begin a PR campaign for our new ordinance, both through the City Planning office and through citizen effort. If you’re interested in lending a talent, an idea or being filmed as you navigate the streets, you can send me a message or contact the planning department to be plugged in. TC resident Marya Tyler is also interested in putting together some short PR videos that will air online and public access. If interested, email at: maryawashingtontyler@hotmail.com

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The following video was effective in helping to get A2′s ordinance passed. (If you need a bit of a pick-me-up in your attitude before your daily walk commute, watch this video).

“We can have a community where we no longer feel invisible as pedestrians– where motorists stop to allow children to cross the street.”

Related Articles:

• Go Team! Policy Changes Need Love Too
• A Stop at Crosswalk Ordinance is Only One Needed Treatment
• Word of the Day: Crosswalk Creeping
• City May Pass Ordinance Requiring Stops at Crosswalks

Graphic Friday

Each dot = A life ended on U.S. roads

In total, 369,629 people died in crashes between 2001 and 2009.

49,827 of those deaths were people on foot, bicycle or some other non-motorized vehicle.

Dangerous by Design

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Get to zero

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* Graphic: Screen grab of the The Guardian’s interactive US road accident casualties: every one mapped across America using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Announcement

The snow hasn’t started to fall yet, but there’s no better time to begin thinking about winter commuting than mid-November. Not that it takes that much preparation or consideration. In reality, pedaling around in the winter isn’t that different from a walk in the winter. If you dress sensibly and stay dry, you’ll be fine. Winter bicycling around town is not a sport, it is simply a means to get somewhere. Most of the season, the streets are clear and the weather is more mild than you might imagine. You’d be surprised how ho-hum the experience actually is.

Ho-hum moments aside, there are some wintry nights when the ride home is almost transcendental…there is a crispness in the air and the sounds of the city soften with freshly fallen snow. Often you only hear the gentle hum of your own wheels…it can be beyond blissful.

Call 231-941-4300 for info

However, there are other wintry nights where you might find yourself cussing the name of whomever turned you on to it. Stating the obvious, it can be cold. There is also the occasional slipping and sliding on hidden ice. It’s like anything we do in the winter, it takes a bit more caution and there are certainly tricks of the street that can increase comfort levels.

Next Thursday, TART Trails and Brick Wheels are hosting a panel discussion covering some of those tips. The free workshop titled “Winter Bicycling: How to pedal through winter” begins at 6pm. They’ll have free hot drinks and bakery treats, both of which help with any winter commute.

Once we have some snow, I’d like to see a skills course set up an icy parking lot somewhere as I’m a firm believer that the only true way to learn how to fall is to fall. And, it can be fun.

This is MyWHaT’s second winter online and we have written about winter riding before. Those archive posts remain relevant:

• A Quick Lesson In The Art Of The Two-Wheeled Winter Commute
• This Is How They Bike Winter In Minneapolis
• Once Again, Cyclists From Copenhagen Showing Off
• Winter Scenes: Behind the Bars
• It wasn’t that long ago when you were young & there was snow

Have fun, stay upright (mostly).

by Teppo via Flikr

Related articles

• Top U.S. Cities For Winter Bicycle Commuting… (rcmc467.wordpress.com)
• Drivers ‘should take care in snow’ (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
• Rain, shine, or snow, bike commuters to gain traction this winter (Concentrate)

According to AAA, for people ages 5-14 deaths from collisions are 4 times higher on Halloween night…you’d think people would be hyper-aware knowing the witches, goblins, zombies are out…if you must drive, slow down, look-out and chill-out. 

Happy Halloween!

by David Carmack Lewis