The decline in driving makes the gas tax less reliable as a transportation funding stream. VMT graph: FHWA.

The Clean Low-Emissions Affordable New Transportation Equity Act is a bill that sets aside revenue from a cap-and-trade program in a future climate bill towards green transportation projects that reduce greenhouse gases. CLEAN TEA was introduced in the House of Representatives in the 2009 session as H.R. 1329 and in the Senate as S. 575.

Under CLEAN TEA, ten percent of the revenue would be used to create a more efficient transportation system and lower greenhouse gas emissions through strategies including funding new or expanded transit or passenger rail; supporting development around transit stops; and making neighborhoods safer for bikes and pedestrians.

CLEAN TEA is contingent on some pretty big ifs, like whether a cap-and-trade program will make it through Congress. But the Obama administration projects raising $80 billion a year from auctioning off carbon emissions permits, and CLEAN TEA has sponsors from both parties in the House and the Senate, so this is definitely an idea with some momentum.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

South Bronx Greenmarket. Photo: Susan Donovan

Another key element to such an economy could be locally-grown food, available at farmers' markets -- the subject of this week's featured StreetsWiki article. In this entry, Streetsblog regular Susan Donovan writes:

By reducing the distance that food travels, fewer fossil fuels are used and fewer greenhouse gases are released. On average, an American meal travels 1,500 miles to reach the dinner table. Farmers' markets also avoid some of the costly packaging found in some stores. Many farmers' markets are accessible by foot or bicycle, providing another way to reduce your carbon footprint.

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).

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to suburban sprawl and a means of regenerating economic growth in central cities. The development is likely to include housing and/or offices as well as retail stores. A TOD also usually has relatively easy access for people on foot and bikes, while cars and other vehicles are discouraged from parking too close to the station. As a result, TODs are often friendlier to pedestrians and bicyclists than other forms of land development, and they encourage people to ride trains and buses rather than drive. The concept was slow to take off in the United States, but has gained strength in the first decade of the 21st century as fuel costs rise and traffic causes many Americans to rethink where they want to live and work.

Despite evidence that "drive 'til you qualify" sprawl presents an unsustainable drain on financial and natural resources, planners have been reluctant to abandon it. Even in relatively transit-rich metro NYC, TOD has been slow to catch on beyond the realm of private-sector advocacy, though recent remarks indicate the concept is at least on the radar of state-level officials in Connecticut and New York.

Photo: RACTOD/Flickr

A Bike Bus is a group of cyclists riding together to a specific destination on a schedule with an experienced leader. Bike Buses are often formed by commuters who ride together to work. However, a Bike Bus can be adapted to go anywhere groups of riders want to go- church, shopping, the zoo, parks -- If a road goes there, a Bike Bus can go there. It's called a "bus" because there is a set route and timetable so it can pick up more "passengers" along the way.

The Bike Bus rides two abreast (where legal) and will single up as needed.

The pace of the bike bus is agreed upon by the members that day. Since the Bike Bus serves a safety and a social function, dropping slower riders is generally not a good idea. However, if there are enough riders, splitting the Bike Bus into two or three groups riding different paces can be a good idea. Smaller groups are easier for motor vehicles to pass as well.

TA has been organizing variations on the bike bus for commuters who ride over the Queensborough and Williamsburg bridges. Their bike commuter pools meet up once a month, giving homeward-bound cyclists some safety in numbers on Queens Boulevard and Delancey Street, where physical protection is sorely lacking.

Queens committee chair Mike Heffron tells us all went smoothly on the last Queens Boulevard pool. The next one departs this Friday at 6:30 p.m. from the base of the bridge, on the Queens side.

Since it is only people that are being moved, using modular vehicles the size and weight of human beings, and optimally much smaller, is a much better, more agile and cost-effective way to move them. Bicycles would be the first step in achieving such systems, by converting 40% of New York City travel to cycling, as in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Borrowing from successes of Parisian Vélib and German public bike systems, scaled up to significantly service New York’s 8.5 million daily commuter population, will be the most expedient cost-effective first step in implementing modern and immediately valuable transit improvements.

Ultimately, if zero VMT vehicles replace standard vehicles there may be justification to consider them negative VMT vehicles; doubly so if they can serve as modular components of transit systems to greatly improve systemic efficiencies, practicality, and costs.

We could see this entry being expanded with info, for instance, on how bike share can serve to complement existing transit systems by relieving overcrowding. Any takers? If so, sign up for Livable Streets account to add to this or any other article.

In a StreetsWiki entry on Safety in Numbers, Andy Hamilton points to the theory stating that the more cyclists and pedestrians use the streets, the less likely they are to be injured. It's an observation advanced by public health consultant Peter Jacobsen, but others have weighed in as well.

Traffic engineer and amatuer bicycling expert John Forester believes the relationship is a spurious correlation, with no proven cause. But safety experts appear to disagree, and believe that motorists drive more cautiously when there are a larger number of walkers and bicylists in their environment. For example, Dr. Chris Rissel of Sydney University in Australia stated in a 2008 interview, "It appears that motorists adjust their behavior in the presence of increasing numbers of people bicycling because they expect or experience more people cycling. Also, rising cycling rates mean motorists are more likely to be cyclists, and therefore be more conscious of, and sympathetic towards, cyclists."

Jacobsen cites evidence from three studies that show drivers slow down when they see bicyclists and pedestrians, and speed up when they don't.

An unscientific look at New York stats appears to support the Safety in Numbers theory. While the number of city cyclists has increased dramatically in the past 10 years, the number of fatalities and injuries have dropped. Though most agree that one death is too many.

To contribute to this or any other StreetsWiki article, or to add your own, sign up for a Livable Streets account.

Earlier this month "Wikis Take Manhattan" brought in thousands of photos for StreetsWiki and Wikipedia articles. As those shots are matched with their respective entries, we'd like to draw attention to a few StreetsWiki posts that could use fleshing out text-wise:

• Curb Cuts
• Street Wall
• Speed Bumps, Humps, and Cushions
• Sheridan Expressway
• Ghost Bikes
  

To add to these or other StreetsWiki entries, or to initiate new ones, all you need is a little time and a Livable Streets account.

The traffic justice movement, as outlined in this week's featured StreetsWiki entry, may be old hat to many NYC Streetsblog readers. Sadly, it remains as relevant as ever.

On the other hand, it is encouraging to know that organizations like the National Center for Bicycling and Walking have programs dedicated to calling attention to the plague of traffic injuries and fatalities that most Americans accept as a fact of life.

One in 90 Americans will die in a motor vehicle crash. There is no greater killer of people in their 30's. In terms of years of potential life lost, only cancer and heart disease take a higher toll than traffic. Yet for most Americans, driving is a daily habit. Despite its dangers, people drive because other options are either not available, take much more time, or are not encouraged by the culture. Such willful blindness to a preventable danger is nothing less than human sacrifice.

The consequences of traffic injustice are as ingrained as they are innumerable, from parents who are resigned to putting inexperienced kids behind the wheel as a rite of adulthood to community leaders whose solution to hazardous conditions, even in a thriving pedestrian environment, is to keep people away. Then there is the cheapening of human life that pervades media coverage of traffic "accidents."

Read the full entry to see what measures the NCBW's Traffic Justice Initiative is looking to bring about. And to contribute to this or any other StreetsWiki item, sign up for a Livable Streets account.

October 2007 photo of car in Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza/WNBC via Gothamist

It follows, then, that the StreetsWiki entry on parking policy would be a thorough one, covering everything from the shredding of urban fabric in the 1950s to state-of-the-art concepts like parking meter districts and variable pricing:

Ideally, rates between on-street and off-street spaces should be similar, with the most convenient spaces priced the highest. This is contrary to the usual practice, where parking meter rates are minimal and spaces in parking structures are set far higher, reflecting the cost of providing them. This results in drivers “cruising” for parking, adding significantly to traffic and pollution.

With advocates actively urging New York City planners and transportation officials to adopt consistent, coordinated regs more suited to the urban environment -- and as progressive policies are explored in other cities -- expect the parking policy page to be a StreetsWiki favorite for some time to come.

To contribute to this or any other StreetsWiki entry, or to add your own, start by joining the Livable Streets Network.

Photo: christinaa/Flickr

A Complete Street is a roadway designed to safely accommodate all users -- pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, transit riders, and those with a disability. For decades, traffic engineers have designed streets, particularly urban arterials, primarily for the efficient movement of private motor vehicles. Residents across the U.S. are demanding street features that consider the needs of other users.

Word. In fact, with Congressional legislation in the hopper and the backing of one of the nation's most powerful lobbies, the AARP, the Complete Streets movement may be poised to go mainstream in time for next year's federal transportation funding reauthorization. Writes Hamilton:

Since the early 2000's, state laws, local ordinances, and regional transportation funding agencies have begun a quiet revolution, adopting Complete Streets policies (though not usually using this term). Such policies are not one-size-fits-all, and need not be threatening to traffic engineers. They generally require that, depending on the context, roadway construction projects must include consideration of its various users.

Now that higher gas prices have everyone from seniors to school kids looking at car-free means of transport, there is a lot of Complete Streets news to pass along. If you'd like to contribute to this or any other StreetsWiki entry -- or add one of your own -- you can start by joining the Livable Streets Network.

Photo: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

This week's StreetsWiki feature takes us to the Quartier Vauban in Freiburg, Germany. With an area of 84 acres, the Quartier Vauban is a neighborhood of 5,000 people, designed and built as a sustainable community between 1993 and 2006. Contributor Meg Saggese writes that the Vauban "represents the state of the art in environmental protection in terms of transportation, alternative energy production, and sustainable construction techniques."

One of the key concepts developed through the Forum Vauban was the creation of a car-free neighborhood. While cars are allowed in the Vauban, their use and ownership is restricted. Streets are shared spaces primarily designed for people, not cars. To date, 40 percent of households have chosen to live car-free.

Transportation within the Vauban centers on its tramway. Another key component in making the Vauban car-free was the adoption of compatible parking policies, including a change in a state zoning law that at the time required builders to include a parking spot for each residential unit. After years of talks between Quartier Vauban planners and lawmakers, "the law was amended to permit Vauban residents to live car-free without the expense of building an unnecessary parking space." Parking is not permitted on private property in the Vauban, while on-street parking is limited to the main street; residents who own cars store them in garages on the outskirts of the neighborhood.

Might a certain American metropolis with a vast public transportation network and mostly car-free citizenry take a cue from this tiny European village on bridging the gap between transportation and planning?

If you have sustainable urban policy info to share on StreetsWiki, jump in by joining the Livable Streets Network.

Photo: aurelie83/Flickr

In the StreetsWiki entry on Beijing, contributor Meg Saggese looks at the decline of bicycling as the city's dominant mode of transportation, and its prospects for revival:

The hordes of bicycles that ruled Beijing's streets even two decades ago, however, are quickly becoming the stuff of nostalgia. In the 1990s, around half a billion bikes were still in use throughout the country. At the time, families in Beijing chose bicycles for 60 percent of their trips. By 2007, that figure was down to 20 percent. The culprit? Every day, a thousand more cars hit the pavement. As a result, bicycling has become a perilous affair on streets where vehicles predominate and traffic laws are poorly enforced. But only a few of those who have stopped biking can afford a car. The vast majority are forced to dismount by the rising danger in the streets and the worsening air quality of the city. Recently, even prominent leaders within the environmental community and the bike industry have decided to stop riding, citing the increased hazards.[3]

Many observers are tempted to applaud this transformation as the outcome of newly-acquired affluence and to reject the memory of bicycle-packed thoroughfares as a sign of former poverty. But some press accounts tell a different story. Immersed in congestion and gridlock, many residents feel betrayed by the false promise of automobiles. The city center comes to a standstill at rush hour, and the air is dangerous to breathe. Returning to bicycles becomes harder and harder with every new car.

We'll see after the Olympics whether the Communist Party's newfound enthusiasm for clear skies translates into more bike-friendly policies for Beijing.

As always, don't be shy about editing the post. Join the Livable Street Network to contribute.

Bicycling with children initiates so-called "virtuous cycles" that further promote bicycling. Parents who bicycle with their children may be encouraged to bicycle more often because of their children's enthusiasm for bicycling. Adults bicycling with children tend to zealously guard their children's safety, becoming potent advocates on the road and with government for improving bicycling safety. Motorists tend to drive less aggressively when they are aware of children bicycling nearby. Children who bicycle regularly will be more likely to bicycle as adults. In all of these ways, urban bicycling with children promotes bicycling and bicycling safety generally. 

As Enrique Penalosa has said, "The measure of a good city is one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can safely go anywhere."  Parents can help realize this vision of a good city by bicycling with their children and making sure that they are safe.

After the multi-generational turnout for New York's first Summer Streets Saturday, the audience for this type of information should be on the rise.

Which reminds me, there's a new wiki entry on Summer Streets that's just begging to be filled out. I'm sure there are plenty of Streetsbloggers out there who can chip in. All you need to contribute is a Livable Streets account.