50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets

As more cities try to improve walkability—from car-free "superblocks" in Barcelona to heat-protected walkways in Dubai—a new report outlines the reasons behind the shift, the actions that cities can take to move away from a car-centric world, and why walkability matters.

"The benefits of walkability are all interconnected," says James Francisco, an urban designer and planner at Arup, the global engineering firm that created the report. "Maybe you want your local business to be enhanced by more foot traffic. But by having that benefit, other benefits are integrated. Not only do you get the economic vitality, but you get the social benefits—so people are out and having conversations and connecting—and then you get the health benefits." A single intervention can also lead to environmental and political benefits.

The report sifted through dozens of studies to quantify 50 benefits of walkability in cities.

Read the list here.

With Citizens' Help, Cities Can Build A Better Bike Lane

There's a new term that has become popular in city planning circles: tactical urbanism. The idea is that small experiments, done cheaply and quickly, can make cities better, and more nimble.

Some of the tactics are guerrilla methods: citizens might paint a crosswalk where they believe one should exist, or post their own road signs where they find the official ones confusing.

Across the country, DIY urbanists have been leaving their mark on cities — and now city governments are trying to bring them into the fold to harness their ideas.

'How can they say no to kids?'

At first glance, the battle for a bike lane in Burlington, Vt., seems like the sort of thing that plays out in town meetings everywhere. A group of concerned citizens wanted a protected bike lane by the elementary school downtown, to make it safer for kids to get to school.

But there are a few things that make this case different. For starters, the bike lane was really a symbol of something bigger: showing that streets could be made better for everyone, and that citizens could lead the way through experimentation.

Read the rest of the story here.

September Is Bicyclist And Pedestrian Awareness Month

RICHMOND, Virginia – Visibility and safety go hand in hand.

September is Bicyclist and Pedestrian Awareness Month, and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is reminding everyone who uses the roadways – motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians – to be visible and aware of others who are sharing the road. This includes not driving distracted.

According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, 15 bicyclists and 78 pedestrians were killed in crashes with motor vehicles last year in Virginia. In that same period, 661 bicyclists and 1,718 pedestrians were injured. 

The following tips promote safety for everyone: 

• Pedestrians should always use crosswalks and sidewalks. If no sidewalk is available, pedestrians should walk facing traffic.
• Motorists should be aware that every intersection is a crosswalk whether marked or not.
• Both bicyclists and motorists must yield the right of way to pedestrians in any crosswalk unless the pedestrian has a “Don’t’ Walk” or red signal.
• Those who bicycle and walk at night should be alert, wear bright colors and use lights. Bicyclists are encouraged to wear helmets.
• Bicyclists should ride as far to the right as practical but motorists should be aware that bicyclists are allowed to ride in the middle of the lane for a variety of reasons, including traveling at the normal speed of traffic, turning, avoiding obstacles or if the lane is narrow.
• Bicyclists may ride two abreast but need to move into a single file formation when overtaken from the rear by a faster vehicle.
• Bicyclists are required to give an audible signal when passing pedestrians on paths.
• Bicyclists are treated as vehicles and must obey traffic laws.
• Motorists must pass at a reasonable speed at least three feet to the left of the overtaken bicycle.
• Motorists may legally cross a double yellow line to pass bicyclists provided they can do so safely.
• Don’t drive, bike or walk distracted.

Additional information about laws and safety and VDOT’s Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Program can be found online.

Inaugural FASTLANE Grants Leverage $3.6 Billion to Support Transportation Infrastructure

WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced 18 infrastructure projects across the country that will receive federal grants as part of the new Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) program.

The grants, totaling nearly $800 million, will be combined with other funding from federal, state, local, and private sources to support $3.6 billion in infrastructure investment in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

“The FAST Act gave us a set of tools to begin addressing America’s infrastructure deficit, and we have been moving full speed ahead to get critical road, rail, and port projects off the ground across the country,” said Secretary Foxx.  “From eliminating traffic bottlenecks and enhancing port capacity to overhauling a major freight corridor, the 18 inaugural FASTLANE grants will enable people and goods to move more efficiently.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Secretary Foxx was joined by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack on a national call with reporters to highlight the new FASTLANE grant awards. A few examples of this year’s FASTLANE awards include:

• In Virginia, the Atlantic Gateway project is a corridor approach to improving mobility across the Eastern seaboard. Combining a $165 million FASTLANE grant with public and private funding from multiple partners, it improves and expands key segments of the corridor.
• The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will be awarded $62 million to improve safety and efficiency of high volume freight traffic along the US 69/75 corridor in southern Oklahoma. The project will implement grade separations, remove railroad/local street crossing conflicts, and increase speeds to increase mobility.  
• The Arizona Department of Transportation will be awarded $54 million for bottleneck improvements along I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. To increase driver safety, new dust storm early warning technology will also be installed along I-10.
• The Maine Department of Transportation will be awarded $7 million to improve the infrastructure, equipment, and technology at the Port of Portland. With improvements to the access and connectivity, the Port upgrades will replace truck shipments from Canada via congested interstates.

The FASTLANE grant program was established as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and is administered by the newly-launched Build America Bureau (The Bureau) at the Department of Transportation (USDOT). The Bureau will drive transportation infrastructure development projects in the United States by streamlining credit and grant opportunities while providing technical assistance and encouraging innovative best practices in project planning, financing, delivery, and monitoring.

“The Build America Bureau brings together FASTLANE grants, credit programs like TIFIA and RRIF, and technical support into a one-stop-shop designed to get infrastructure projects funded and built,” said Andrew Right, Acting Director of the Build America Bureau.

FASTLANE grant recipients were selected through a thorough review process at the Department of Transportation to identify projects that will have significant regional and national impacts by reducing congestion, expanding capacity, using innovative technology, improving safety, or moving freight more efficiently.

FASTLANE grants will address many of the challenges outlined in the USDOT report Beyond Traffic, including increased congestion on the nation’s highways and the need for a strong multimodal transportation system to support the expected growth in freight movement both by ton and value.  is the grant awards are also in line with the Department’s draft National Freight Strategic Plan released in October 2015, which looks at challenges and identifies strategies to address impediments to the efficient flow of goods throughout the nation.

For more information about FASTLANE grants, visitwww.transportation.gov/FASTLANEgrants.

The USDOT awarded Fiscal Year 2016 grants in the amounts below to the following entities to make improvements to:

Interstate 10 Phoenix to Tucson Improvements
Arizona Department of Transportation
Pinal County, Arizona, Rural
Amount: $54,000,000

SR-11 Segment 2 and Southbound Connectors
California Department of Transportation and San Diego Association of Governments
San Diego County, California, Urban
Proposed Grant Amount: $49,280,000

Arlington Memorial Bridge Reconstruction Project 
National Park Service and District of Columbia Department of Transportation
District of Columbia, Urban 
Amount: $90,000,000

Port of Savannah International Multi-Modal Connector 
Georgia Ports Authority
Savannah, Georgia, Urban 
Amount: $44,000,000

I-10 Freight Corridor Rehabilitation and Expansion (CoRE) 
Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development
Lafayette, Louisiana, Rural 
Amount: $60,000,000

Conley Terminal Intermodal Improvements and Modernization 
Massachusetts Port Authority (MASSPORT)
Boston, Massachusetts, Urban 
Amount: $42,000,000

I-390/I-490/Route 31 Interchange, Lyell Avenue Corridor Project 
New York State Department of Transportation
Town of Gates, New York, Urban 
Amount: $32,000,000

US 69/75 Bryan County 
Oklahoma Department of Transportation
Calera, Oklahoma, Rural 
Amount: $62,000,000

Atlantic Gateway: Partnering to Unlock the I-95 Corridor 
Virginia Department of Transportation
Commonwealth of Virginia, Urban 
Amount: $165,000,000

South Lander Street Grade Separation and Railroad Safety Project 
City of Seattle
Seattle, Washington, Urban
Amount: $45,000,000

I/39/90 Corridor Project
Wisconsin Department of Transportation
Janesville, Wisconsin, Rural
Amount: $40,000,000

Truck Parking Availability Systems 
Florida Department of Transportation
State of Florida, Rural (Small Project)
Amount: $10,778,237

Cedar Rapids Logistics Park 
Iowa Department of Transportation
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rural (Small Project)
Amount: $25,650,000

U.S. 95 North Corridor Access Improvement Project 
Idaho Department of Transportation
Kootenai County, Idaho, Rural (Small Project)
Amount: $5,100,000

Maine Intermodal Port Productivity Project 
Maine Department of Transportation
Portland, Maine, Rural (Small Project)
Amount: $7,719,173

Cross Harbor Freight Program 
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey and New York, New York, Urban (Small Project)
Amount: $10,672,590

Coos Bay Rail Line – Tunnel Rehabilitation Project 
Oregon International Port of Coos Bay
Lane, Douglas, and Coos Counties, Oregon, Rural (Small Project)
Amount: $11,000,000

Strander Boulevard Extension and Grade Separation Phase 3 
City of Tukwila, Washington
City of Tukwila, Washington, Urban (Small Project)
Amount: $5,000,000

Jim’s Journeys … Traveling the TTA Highway

Greetings from the road!  

What a fun couple of days traveling this great state!  After gearing up with a new set of tires I took off to the southern part of the state to South Hill then up towards the Richmond area, heading up to Ashland. 

In Dinwiddie County I met Steve Edwards and Mark Bassett (see picture) who are not only already on our mailing list, but Steve has taken several classes with us!  I hope to see you both at future training sessions!

At Ashland’s VDOT Residency the new building is almost finished and hopefully we can work with Bruce McNabb to bring some TTA workshops to the facility once the paint dries.  It’ll be easier to find the Ashland crew once the new building is finished and they can move out of their old digs tucked behind the new building… and some equipment…and the generator…and some materials…

I also had a great talk with Butch Sirry at the Chesterfield Residency.  He has over a hundred workers in need of training and TTA is here to help.  Butch will be getting a call from TTA Program Coordinator Robin Carpenter soon (if he hasn’t already) to set things in motion!  Robin is always ready to help coordinate bring a class to you- if you have a need for a particular workshop don’t hesitate to drop her a line (rbh3c@eservices.virginia.edu)

Watch for information about when I’ll be traveling to your location. Or contact me at jwz9m@virginia.edu to schedule a visit.

I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.

How Cities Can Work With Uber And Lyft To Create Better Transportation Networks

Will your next public transit trip be in the back of an Uber? That might have seemed ridiculous in years past, when the company was less established, and more likely to be challenging city regulations as opposed to collaborating with municipal authorities.  But the increasing ubiquity of transportation networkcompanies (TNCs) such Lyft, as well as carshare and bikeshare companies, have made these services increasingly important parts of our urban transportation networks. City transit authorities aren’t seeing TNCs and emerging mobility companies as upstarts or disruptors,. They're potential partners who can offer cost-effective ways to expand service and reach underserved populations.

TransitCenter, a New York-based public policy research and advocacy group, examined how these new agreements are changing transportation, and their potential to reshape how we get around cities in the future. The result, Private Mobility, Public Interest, suggests the changing landscape will continue to introduce popular new transit technologies. Cities need to adapt, seek out mutually beneficial partnerships, and embrace rapid change.

"Partnerships have been coming out with increased frequency this past year," says Zak Accuardi, a program analyst with TransitCenter, during a press conference yesterday to discuss the report. "They’ve been happening so fast that even with a team here dedicated to conducting this research, it’s been hard to keep up. There’s a lot of confusion and concern over these services, and the exact role that they play."

Read the rest of the story here.

What The Next Great Bikeshare System Will Look Like

We've come a long way from when the first U.S. bikeshare opened in Washington, D.C. six years ago. There are now more than 125 programs around the country, and millions of miles are ridden each month on thousands of bikeshare bikes.

So where do we go from here? Bike networks will just keep getting better, according to experts. Here's some of what we have to look forward to:

1. The perfect parking spot

Today, riders have to return bikes to docking stations, which is inconvenient when you're in a rush, or going somewhere far from a dock.

Portland, Oregon, which launched a bikeshare system in July, lets riders park a bike anywhere in the city. Locks are built into the bikes so that they can be safely secured. There's a $2 charge for leaving a bike away from a docking station, but riders who return orphaned bikes to docking stations receive a $1 credit.

Read the rest of the story here.

Credit Unions Make Bike Loans Available

The inability to afford a bike keeps many potential riders off the road. So it's exciting to see that in recent years bike shops and credit unions have begun partnering to offer bicycle loans. These partnerships reflect the growing popularity of bicycling and the reality that loans can lower the financial barriers that prevent some people from buying bikes.

Virginia Credit Union (VACU) is one example. According to Glenn Birch, VACU's director of public and media relations, in its first year, VACU has issued $118,000 in bicycle loans, with purchases ranging from quality starter bikes that cost hundreds of dollars to more upscale road bikes that may cost a few thousand. The credit union partnered with local bike shops by coordinating social media campaigns and ensured that bike shop staff were well-informed about the program. The idea was first floated by a staff member, “as a creative way that we could reach out, meet the needs of active members of our credit union, and make bikes more affordable,” Birch explains.

Read the rest of the story here.

Inaugural FASTLANE Grants Leverage $3.6 Billion to Support Transportation Infrastructure

WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced 18 infrastructure projects across the country that will receive federal grants as part of the new Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) program.

The grants, totaling nearly $800 million, will be combined with other funding from federal, state, local, and private sources to support $3.6 billion in infrastructure investment in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

“The FAST Act gave us a set of tools to begin addressing America’s infrastructure deficit, and we have been moving full speed ahead to get critical road, rail, and port projects off the ground across the country,” said Secretary Foxx.  “From eliminating traffic bottlenecks and enhancing port capacity to overhauling a major freight corridor, the 18 inaugural FASTLANE grants will enable people and goods to move more efficiently.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Secretary Foxx was joined by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack on a national call with reporters to highlight the new FASTLANE grant awards. A few examples of this year’s FASTLANE awards include:

• In Virginia, the Atlantic Gateway project is a corridor approach to improving mobility across the Eastern seaboard. Combining a $165 million FASTLANE grant with public and private funding from multiple partners, it improves and expands key segments of the corridor.

Read the rest of the story here.

The Drive To Survive

I’ve never ridden a high-wheeler. I’ve never played bicycle soccer. I’ve never hucked seaside village rooftops like trials master Danny MacAskill. But I’ve enjoyed countless types of cycling experiences and revered them all. Many of my best rides have been on the road. But today—like so many people who bike—I am seriously concerned about the future of the road riding experience, particularly the challenges of navigating among angry and distracted drivers.

I think I understand the roots of angry driving. The U.S. population is growing by more than 2.5 million people per year. More places are getting crowded and, of course, that includes most roads. Crowding increases stress and frustration, and that fuels anger. U.S. car and truck sales hit an all-time high in 2015—a year in which Americans drove more miles than ever before.

News of bike fatalities travels faster and every bulletin is unnerving. Even if bike deaths on the road aren’t significantly increasing (either as a raw number or percentage of trips), riding on the road today feels more dangerous. Forty-six states have passed anti-texting laws that prohibit typing while driving. Nevertheless, I frequently see people breaking this law. Whether I’m on a bike or in a car, at every red light I notice just about everyone behind the wheel looking down. When the light turns green, many don’t put their phones aside.

Read the rest of the story here.

After I-25 Was Widened, It Filled Back Up With Cars In Less Than 5 Years

Colorado spent $1.2 billion to widen I-25, and all it got was more traffic and no congestion relief. Why does Governor John Hickenlooper think that widening I-70 will be any different?

In this chart, you can see why spending billions to widen highways is a shortsighted, ineffective way to deal with people’s travel needs. About two years after the widening wrapped up, I-25 was just as congested as it was when construction started, and within five years it was more clogged than ever.

The term for this is “induced demand.” When cities make more room for cars, people drive more. Usually within a few years, any initial improvement in congestion levels has evaporated, and drivers start agitating for more lanes.

A stunning recent example comes from Houston, where Texas DOT spent nearly $3 billion to take the Katy Freeway from eight lanes to 23 in some sections. Traffic was as slow as ever six years later.

In I-25, Denver has it’s own (smaller) version of the Katy Freeway. Colorado DOT finished widening the highway by as many as four lanes in 2006 for the project known as T-REX. In a few years, congestion on I-25 through south Denver reached pre-construction levels, according to a report by the Southwestern Energy Efficiency Project and the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.

“The state spent $1.2 billion on this road widening, with no long-term benefit in lowered congestion,” the authors write.

Hickenlooper is ready to build a massive boondoggle of an expansion on I-70 even though he learned all about induced demand in 2004 at the Mayors Institute on City and Design.

With I-25, there’s proof right under his nose that highway widenings aren’t worth the expense. And yet, under Hickenlooper Colorado DOT keeps repeating the same mistakes.

Read the rest of the story here.

The Economic Value of Walkability: New Evidence

One of the hallmarks of great urban spaces is walkability–places with lots of destinations and points of interest in close proximity to one another, buzzing sidewalks, people to watch, interesting public spaces–all these are things that the experts and market surveys are telling us people want to have.

Its all well and good to acknowledge walkability in the abstract, but to tough-minded economists (and to those with an interest in public policy) we really want to know, what’s it worth?  How much, in dollar and cents terms, do people value walkable neighborhoods?  Thanks to the researcher’s at RedFin, we have a new set of estimates of the economic value of walkability.

Redfin used an economic tool called “hedonic regression” to examine more than a million home sales in major markets around the country, and to tease out the separate contributions of a house’s lot size, age, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage and neighborhood characteristics (like average income). In addition, the RedFin model included an examination of each property’s Walk Score.  Walk Score is an algorithm that estimates the walkability of every address in the United States on a scale of 0 to  100 based on its proximity to a number common destinations like schools, stores, coffee shops, parks and restaurants.

Read the rest of the story here.

Traffic Deaths Are Up- DOT Asks The Public To Investigate

The U.S. Department of Transportation is asking for big data help after 2015 numbers released this week showed that traffic deaths were up 7.2 percent last year, the largest annual increase in half a century. Reversing a recent historical trend that saw fatalities decreasing every year, 35,092 people died while walking, biking and driving on U.S. streets in 2015. The department released the data three months early, along with a call to action, asking nonprofits, tech companies and citizens to help interpret the data and use it to prevent future deaths.

“What we’re ultimately looking for is getting more people engaged in the data … matching this with other publicly available data, or data that the private sector might be willing to make available, to dive in and to tell these stories,” Bryan Thomas, communications director for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told FedScoop. “It’s a very, very rich data set, there’s a lot of information there. … Our own ability is, frankly, limited to investigate all of the questions that you might have of it. And so we want to get the public really diving in as well.”

The call to action includes several questions DOT thinks are worth exploring. “How might improving economic conditions around the country change how Americans are getting around?” it asks. “How might climate change increase https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/traffic-deaths-increase-2015-usdot-help-datathe risk of fatal crashes in a community?” At least four private firms, including Waze, have already committed to release additional traffic data or to utilize DOT’s data to inform the public. Mapping platform Mapbox, for example, will launch an app that shows crashes over the past five years overlaid on a user’s commute, showing contributing factors like alcohol use or speeding.

One trend the data shows clearly is that while traffic deaths rose for nearly all types of road users, pedestrians and bicyclists fared particularly poorly. According to Fortune, even though the number of cyclists injured in traffic collisions dropped 10 percent to 45,000 people in 2015, more of those involved fatalities. Cyclist deaths increased 12.2 percent to 818 people last year, the highest level since 1995. Pedestrian fatalities increased 9.5 percent to 5,376, the highest since 1996.

Read the rest of the story here.

Road Rage In NC Is Not An Isolated Incident

Well, road rage has again reared its ugly head near Charlotte, North Carolina. This time no one was hurt, but the behavior was life threatening, photos were taken, and the social media story went viral.

As a bike crash attorney in Charlotte, and as a member of the Bike Law national network, I deal with anti-bike rage all the time.  This time, though, there were photos.

On August 24, a group of bicyclists, led by a safe and experienced rider, was out for a ride in Ballantyne, south of Charlotte. As they rode along in a tight double paceline, a woman in a Mercedes sedan, with her daughter in the front seat, buzzed the group, veered in front of them into the bike lane and almost to the curb and then slammed on her brakes. Instead of screaming or pounding on the car, the cyclists tried to talk calmly to the woman, but she was not to be calmed. As the now viral photos show, she flipped them a double backwards bird with a possessed look on her face.

Here’s the original post. 

Read the rest of the story here.

The Morbid and Mortal Toll Of Sprawl

A federal report this week revealed that traffic deaths have risen 9 percent over the last year and have totaled 19,100 in the first six months of 2016. More than 2.2 million people have been seriously injured in that time. The economic cost of those accidents is estimated annually at $410 billion, or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product.

The human cost is harder to calculate. Although motor vehicle accidents rank around 10th in causes of death in the US, they are the most frequent reason for fatality of children 5 and up and young adults. In terms of life years lost, motor vehicle crashes rank near the top—in this study, third behind coronary attacks and strokes.

Much of the blame has been placed, predictably, on distracted and drunk driving and rising vehicle miles traveled. The “elephant in the living room,” the factor that nobody wants to talk about, is sprawl and the infrastructure of sprawl.

The roads built to support sprawl, designed to modern safety standards, are contributors to the majority of US traffic deaths and injuries. A study by Garrick and Marshall of 24 small-to-medium-sized California cities highlights this issue dramatically. Twelve of these cities are mostly built on pre-1950 street grids. Those cities have less than one-third the traffic deaths per capita as the other 12 cities, with modern thoroughfare networks.

Read the rest of the story here.