Streetsblog Los Angeles

Ready for some transit system envy? This week’s StreetsWiki entry comes from Livable Streets member Andrew Nash, who fills us in on how surface transit became the mode of choice in Zürich, Switzerland:

Photo: Nicholas Kibre/Wikipedia

The first thing one notices about Zürich is that trams are ubiquitous downtown. The city considered
changing its tram network several times (either placing the trams
underground or replacing the trams with a metro system), but voters
rejected spending money on these ideas. However, in 1977, Zürich voters
did approve an initiative to make the existing surface transit system
work better by providing transit priority for trams and buses.

Transit priority means that public transit vehicles are
given priority over other forms of transportation through such measures
as traffic signal control, transit-only lanes, and traffic regulations.
Watch carefully as a traffic signal changes from red to green just when
a tram arrives at the intersection. Transit priority was not a new
idea, but Zürich has succeeded in implementing it to a greater degree
than almost any other city in the world. Zürich’s public transit
priority program is described in Implementing Zurich’s Transit Priority Program.

Combined
with Zürich’s regional rail network, the extensive implementation of
transit priority techniques enables the city to provide subway-like
service without a subway, Nash explains. If the Zürich article
interests you, check out Nash’s entry on optimizing traffic signals for surface transit — he’s looking to add information about other cities that have implemented such systems.

The inclusion of $825 million for Transportation Enhancements in the stimulus package should help pay for a lot of bike projects. Writing for Citiwire
this week, transportation analyst Sam Seskin suggests investing a chunk
of that stimulus money in bicycle boulevards, as opposed to bike lanes
or cycle tracks. What are bike boulevards? This week’s StreetsWiki entry explains:

Bicycle boulevards are lightly-trafficked streets that prioritize bicycles. Although many routes have
no bike lanes, bicyclists are free to use the middle of the street,
sharing road space with cars. Motorists on these routes expect to see
bicyclists and therefore travel with caution. Designated streets should
be distinguished with uniformly colored signs and bold pavement
markings.

For novices or younger riders, bicycle boulevards
provide a transition between bike paths and high-traffic shared roads.
But they are also quite useful for experienced riders because of their
reduced traffic and connectivity.

The cost of implementing a bicycle boulevard network is significantly less than constructing bike paths or trails.

In Portland and Berkeley, transportation planners have created bike boulevard conditions by diverting automobile through-traffic and slowing down the cars that remain. The resulting bike-friendly corridors are a key component of Portland’s strategy to increase bicycle mode share and expand the appeal of cycling beyond the "young and fearless" demographic.

Looks like the conference committee made quick work of the stimulus bill, with Harry Reid announcing that a deal has been reached much sooner than expected (perhaps a bit too prematurely). We'll have the specifics on transportation funding later tonight or early tomorrow. For now, relive the stimulus saga with StreetsWiki. Contributor DianaD has added some nice narrative chunks to the entry. Remember stemming the tide of Asphalt Age amendments in the Senate?

Senators DeMint and Inhofe were two of the more brazenly backwards policy makers during the stimulus debate.

There were a number of discouraging setbacks for green transportation during the crafting of the Senate bill. First, the Senate version allocates more than $3 billion less to transit compared to the House version. Transit's future was looking even worse when Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator James Inhofe+ (R-OK) proposed an amendment to direct another $50 billion to highway projects. But several Democratic senators refused to support the amendment unless a significant proportion of the funds was shifted to public transit and clean water infrastructure; the amendment never passed. Furthermore, Senator Barbara Mikulski+ (D-MD) offered up an amendment that would give a tax break to new-car buyers to bring more people into dealer showrooms. This amendment passed 71-26.

Those car buyer tax breaks, by the way, appear to have shrunk in conference committee.

Excellent StreetsWiki use by Streetsblog regular ddartley, who added the pic you see below to the entry on 20 mph zones. From author Andy Hamilton:

In July 2008, the British Medical Association called for the
application of 20 mph zones throughout residential neighborhoods, not
just in the vicinity of schools, where they are commonly applied.
Stockport public health director Dr. Stephen Watkins stated that "a
child hit at 20mph has a 5% chance of dying compared to 50% at 30mph."
He noted the difference between a two mile journey at 20mph and a two
mile journey at 40 mph was just three minutes. "We are killing our
children for the sake of a couple of minutes," he said.

And since we’re in stimulus mode, here’s another excerpt:

The UK study of best traffic practices across the Europe and the U.K.
concluded that 20 mph streets also increased pedestrian activity,
bicycling, a sense of safety among residents, and economic activity. 
The study cited evidence from the city of Horsham, U.K., where 20 mph
speed limits, along with a bypass road, public arts, gardens, and other
pedestrian amenities have lead to the opening of new shops and
restaurants, and a higher level of overall economic activity.

Okay, I’m convinced. Let’s get some shovels in the ground on those ped safety plans.

StreetsWiki author Andy Hamilton files this entry on an idea from our very own Federal Highway Administration: the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan.

The
concept includes a step by step methodology to identify and correct
pedestrian safety hazards, as well as to plan a more walkable community
from the ground up. FHWA developed a how-to guide, and contracted with
pedestrian design experts to provide 2-day or 3-day trainings to state
and local transportation departments around the country. This federal
effort was initiated when it was recognized that most traffic engineers
receive inadequate professional training to effectively address
pedestrian safety concerns.

From 2005 to 2007, FHWA
conducted 77 trainings in the 14 states that ranked highest in
pedestrian crashes. In some states, the trainings resulted in almost
immediate pedestrian safety improvement projects or evaluation efforts.

Implementing a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is not usually a high
priority for traffic engineering departments, and require consistent
advocacy from neighborhood organizations or elected officials.

Here’s
something to chew on. These trainings began more than three years ago
and have probably led to the creation of some actual safety plans,
which can get off the ground quickly. Shouldn’t a federal stimulus
package fully fund all of these projects before giving highway-addled states like Texas a dime for anything else?

This week’s StreetsWiki entry highlights an intriguing storyline that our colleagues at Streetsblog San Francisco will be covering in the months ahead. The Better Streets Plan aims to establish a citywide template for street improvements:

The
Plan describes a set of policies for the City and County of San
Francisco to follow to achieve a more livable streetscape environment.
It creates a street typology system for making streetscape
improvements, and describes appropriate standard and optional elements
for each street type. For each element, there is a set of guidelines
for appropriate location and design. Finally, the Plan will describe
ways that the City can fund, maintain and enforce Better Streets
improvements.

The folks at local advocacy org Livable City
say the street types in the plan are a step up from the traditional,
car-centric classification system, but caution that the current draft
lacks critical components:

Important
tasks, like identifying which streets are of what type, and creating
standards for essential elements of successful streets (street lighting
and pedestrian-friendly building fronts, for example) are missing so
far. The Better Streets project also shied away from addressing the
speed and volume of traffic, two critical elements for creating safe
and livable streets. Governance (how city agencies plan and coordinate
street projects) and a strategy for funding and implementation also
need to be addressed.

Starting in January
you can read about the evolution of Better Streets in the cyber pages
of Streetsblog SF. In the meantime, members of the Livable Streets
Network familiar with the plan should feel free to dive in and flesh
out this wiki entry.

Bike trails in San Jose, CA, on OpenStreetMap

As
a kid I used to periodically raid my grandparents’ stash of National
Geographics. Not for photos of women in scant native dress, but for the
way cool maps, with which I would wallpaper my room.

Ironically,
the maps did eventually give way to Paulina Porizkova posters, and the
years have also seen them outmoded — in function, if not aesthetically
– by amazing advances in cartography. (If you haven’t seen it, this New Yorker piece from 2006 is an excellent primer.)

The latest and greatest innovations have brought about a renaissance in community mapping, the subject of this week’s StreetsWiki entry.

Community
Mapping is the creation of a map via a community-driven process,
usually done to map non-traditional features, such as safe biking or
walking routes, local trees and parks, and other aspects of community
life. Community mapping has existed for hundreds of years, but recent
advances in technology, such as GPS’s and online mapping portals like
Google Maps, have allowed the creation of better and more detailed
maps, and have expanded their reach beyond small groups.

OpenStreetMap,
for instance, functions like a Wikipedia for maps. Unlike proprietary
services like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap operates under a Creative
Commons license, and allows users to add and edit information
collaboratively. Google Maps is of course also widely used for
community mapping, Transportation Alternatives’ CrashStat and the burgeoning Boston bike network being two examples.

Other projects employ more conventional means — the still-viable, highly-mobile print product — from Bay Area watershed mapping to New York’s official cycling map (now available in PDF form).