AT-Network January 2020

at-network@lists.umanitoba.ca

3 participants
19 discussions

New research: Improving protected bike lanes through intersections and strategies to improve accuracy of ped/bike counts

by Beth McKechnie

*(Thanks to Terry Zdan for the share)* *New Report Highlights Ways to Improve Safety of Protected Bike Lanes at Intersections* The * Transportation Research and Education Center* at *Portland State University* published a report <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMjUsInVy…> that offers suggestions on extending protected bike lanes through intersections. Protected bike lanes are becoming increasingly common around the United States, yet there is little guidance for how to extend the protected lanes through one of their most dangerous links: the intersection. Led by Chris Monsere and Nathan McNeil of Portland State University in collaboration with Toole Design Group, the latest report from the National Institute of Transportation and Communities (NITC) offers contextual guidance for designing intersections that are comfortable for cyclists. *Strategies to Develop Accuracy Checks for Bike and Pedestrian Count Data* The * Transportation Research and Education Center* at *Portland State University* published a study <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMjYsInVy…> that highlights methods to improve the accuracy of bicycle and pedestrian traffic monitoring data. The research provides a practical method to verify bicycle and pedestrian traffic counts and improve data review efficiency. The results of the research will help planners better estimate bicycling and walking to inform policy and decision making. -- Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your green living hub Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://www.gomanitoba.ca>

4 years, 3 months

Scooter startup Lime is laying off 14 percent of its workers and exiting 12 markets

by Beth McKechnie

Scooter startup Lime is laying off 14 percent of its workers and exiting 12 markets https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/9/21058589/lime-scooter-layoff-shuting-down… -- Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your green living hub Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://www.gomanitoba.ca>

4 years, 3 months

WFP: Councillor blasts city after accidentally walking into traffic (Jan9'20)

by Beth McKechnie

*Councillor blasts city after accidentally walking into traffic * https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/councillor-blasts-city-after-accide… A WINNIPEG councillor got a scare Wednesday when he accidentally walked into oncoming traffic, coming off a downtown sidewalk that was recently narrowed by the public service. Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski), who is blind, was walking north from a media interview at Portage Avenue and Main Street, towards city hall around 7:30 a.m. When he passed around Main and Bannatyne Avenue — a strip that had part of its sidewalk narrowed this fall to accommodate a new loading zone — Eadie said he accidentally stepped off the sidewalk and into the road. The councillor said he was met with honks from drivers passing by, and one motorist stopped to direct him back to the sidewalk. “I just thought you know, ‘What a stupid setup.’ It makes it very difficult, especially in the winter. In the summer, there would be more identifiable markings at my cane-tip level that would have given me a cue as to where I was. But when you feel snow and stuff, it’s a different situation,” Eadie said. Afterward, the councillor blasted off an angry email to the directors of public works and planning, property and development (an email he mentioned would have contained more “F sharps” had he not been more relaxed thanks to a recent trip to Mexico). “Please remember to consult with stakeholders before running off half-prepared for the outcomes of changing our right-of-ways!” Eadie wrote in all caps. “I want to live a long accessible life as independently as possible. I don’t need anymore disabilities, thank you very much!” The narrowing of the sidewalk in question drew scrutiny last year, as it shrunk from 4.9 metres wide to 2.2 metres with little public consultation. The pavement was pared back to make way for a new loading zone in front of the School of Contemporary Dancers at 211 Bannatyne Ave, to help make room for student drop-offs after the loading zone to the west side of the building was replaced with a bike lane. Ken Allen, a communications officer with public works, said the transportation planning division has to balance pedestrian, cyclist and motorists’ interests when designing downtown right-of-ways. The juggling act “sometimes involves making compromises to achieve an acceptable solution for all users,” he said by email. Allen emphasized the new path still meets Winnipeg’s downtown accessibility standards, which legally require a 1.5-metre sidewalk. He said the street changes at the site included concrete pavement, curb and sidewalk repairs; construction of new curb ramps and asphalt overlay; and installation of detectable warning tiles at the intersection near 211 Bannatyne. Eadie said he was grateful there weren’t more cars on the road at the time of the incident, but doesn’t know if the public service could improve anything about the accessibility of the strip. On a later trip back to the area with the Free Press, Eadie couldn’t pinpoint the exact spot where he wandered into the road, but explained he must have come off the sidewalk — which is fairly low to street level — and into the loading zone, due to lack of traffic noises so early in the morning. jessica.botelho(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @_jessbu

4 years, 3 months

Langford bike shop sells first bamboo bike on Vancouver Island

by Beth McKechnie

Green Man Bikes is the first shop on [Vancouver] Island to offer bamboo bikes, which come directly from Boomers, a company in Ghana. Boomers produces bamboo bicycle frames for mountain bikes, city bikes, road bikes, and electric bikes. They source their bamboo from sustainable forests in Ghana and provide employment in many rural communities. A Boomers bamboo bike has “a zero carbon footprint, is lighter than steel … and isn’t fragile like carbon fibre,” according to the Boomers website. Full article & video: https://www.saanichnews.com/business/langford-bike-shop-sells-first-bamboo-… -- Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your green living hub Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://www.gomanitoba.ca>

4 years, 3 months

WFP: Wolseley traffic-calming plan touted for cyclists (Jan8'20)

by Beth McKechnie

*Wolseley traffic-calming plan touted for cyclists * https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-unveils-wolseley-to-downtown-b… DOWNTOWN residents can expect more one-way streets, protected bike lanes and traffic-calming measures if the city’s proposal for active transportation in and around Wolseley and the core gets the green light. Following more than a year of public consultations, the City of Winnipeg has made public its plans for the “Wolseley to Downtown Walk Bike Project.” The blueprint aims to close gaps in the area’s pedestrian and cycling network, while increasing safety and convenience for all commuters. It suggests making sections of major arteries, including Westminster and Wolseley avenues, one-way to prevent short-cutting that backs up traffic on surrounding residential streets. Also on the table are more right-on-red light restrictions, speed humps, and raised bike lanes and crosswalks. “Everybody has a right to get where they want to get to and you hope you can go as quickly as you can, regardless of your mode of transportation,” said Greg MacPherson, executive director of the West Broadway Community Organization. “I think they’ve done a good job of trying to balance convenience and safety, and the overall hope for a greener approach to transportation in this area.” MacPherson said the community has been pushing for changes to the flow of traffic in the area for years, since a large chunk of residents don’t own vehicles. He typically commutes on foot, although he also bikes and owns a car. While 70 per cent of the city’s population drives to work, the latest census data indicates only 37 per cent of residents in West Broadway rely on cars as a go-to mode of transportation. About 32 per cent take the bus, 20 per cent walk, and nine per cent bike to work. Wolseley resident Nicholas Douville, 38, bikes to work every day — rain or shine, summer breeze or windchill. He submitted some of the 11,000 comments the city received during phases 1 and 2 of the project. Douville said his main concern is Maryland Street gets so backed-up during rush hour motorists try to sneak through residential roads and create traffic jams, which can put cyclists in danger due to increased traffic in areas with no bike lanes. To avoid short-cutting, the city has proposed a westbound one-way traffic stretch between Maryland and Chestnut streets. As for other one-way sections, the city has proposed restrictions for eastbound traffic along Westminster, as well as Young and Balmoral streets west of Langside Street. “If there was a bike lane that could be cleared (on Westminster) and kept up, that would be the greatest thing, because I wouldn’t have to worry about driving straight along with cars,” said Santiago Lasko, a 16-year-old student who commutes to and from high school in the West End. A protected bike lane could stretch along Westminster, starting at Chestnut in the west, to Young and Balmoral streets and Granite Way until Osborne Street in the east, as per the plan. Mark Doucet, the study’s project manager and a transportation facilities planning engineer with public works, reiterated the intent of the study is to balance all commuter interests. Members of the public are invited to provide feedback online. The city is also holding an open house for in-person consultations at Westminster United Church on Jan. 29, 6-8 p.m. maggie.macintosh(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie

4 years, 3 months

Oregon becomes 4th state with "Stop as Yield" law for cyclists

by Beth McKechnie

*(Thanks to Terry Zdan for the share)* *Stop as Yield Law* Starting on January 1st a new law went into effect making Oregon the fourth state with a "Stop as Yield" law for people riding bikes (Idaho, Delaware, & Arkansas being the other three). Also known as the "Idaho Stop" after the law that was first passed there in 1982, this new law allows people on bikes to approach an intersection with a stop sign at a "slow speed" and if it is clear (no other person with potential right-of-way present) then they may proceed through the intersection without coming to a complete stop. If there is a pedestrian or other vehicle that has the right-of-way then the person on the bike is *still required to stop*. Different from the Idaho law there is no provision to treat a red traffic signal as a stop sign (except a flashing red light used at stop controlled intersections). This section from Idaho, which allows people riding bikes to treat a red traffic signal as a stop sign, was added in 2006 but was not considered for the Oregon bill. It's important to remember that this "Stop as Yield" law still requires people riding bikes to STOP if a pedestrian, a person in a car, or another road user may have the right-of-way at the intersection. Be courteous, take your turn, and be safe. If you've approached the intersection with care and it's safe and clear you can keep that momentum going and roll on through! For more information on how the law came to be read this post on BikePortland.org: "*How Oregon Got Idaho Stop* <https://eugene-or.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b0fe6c4eda5f68f34c6ec9…> "

4 years, 3 months

Oslo closing in on Vision Zero goal with no pedestrian or cyclist deaths in 2019

by Beth McKechnie

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary R. Cremeens <grc22(a)cornell.edu> Date: Tue, Jan 7, 2020 at 11:12 AM Oslo, Norway is getting closer to achieving a Vision Zero goal, with zero pedestrian or cyclist deaths last year. The city's lone traffic death occurred when a driver ran his car into a fence this summer — a decline from five traffic fatalities in 2018, according to Norwegian news outlet Aftenposten. The *Road Safety Annual Report 2019 <https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/irtad-road-safety-annual-…>*, recently released by the International Transport Forum, examines 41 countries' performance and repeatedly cites Norway's progress. The country nearly halved traffic deaths between 2010 and 2017, dropping from 208 to 107. Shareable Links (Same Info as above) · https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/oslo-vision-zero-pedestrian-cyclist-de… · https://www.facebook.com/CornellUniversityTransportationServices/posts/2899… · https://twitter.com/GaryCremeens/status/1214568097211977728 · https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gcremeens_oslo-closing-in-on-vision-zero-goa… Thank you, Gary Cremeens <https://www.linkedin.com/in/gcremeens> | Cornell University Transportation & Delivery Services <https://goo.gl/maps/G14w8nFzcaS2> Projects Associate II

4 years, 3 months

FI Road User Understanding of Bicycle Signal Faces on Traffic Signals

by Zdan, Terry (MI)

[http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=cover_nchrp_wod_273] [http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=viewthispdf]<http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_wod_273.pdf> [http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=sponsorbeta]<http://www.trb.org/main/blurbs/180122.aspx> [http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=buythisbook]<https://www.mytrb.org/Store/Product.aspx?ID=> Road User Understanding of Bicycle Signal Faces on Traffic Signals http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_wod_273.pdf 180122 Road User Understanding of Bicycle Signal Faces on Traffic Signals Prior to 2013, the use of bicycle-specific signals in the U.S. was limited to a few jurisdictions. However, in recent years, the number of installations has grown rapidly. This research identified more than 500 intersections using bicycle signals in a variety of contexts. Despite the recent approval and practice, the TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Web-Only Document 273: Road User Understanding of Bicycle Signal Faces on Traffic Signals explores the questions that remain regarding road-user understanding of bicycle signals. The objective of this research was to summarize and synthesize the U.S. experience with bicycle signal installations to identify any remaining gaps in understanding road-user comprehension and compliance with bicycle signals that could be effectively addressed through further research. E-Newsletter Type: Recently Released TRB Publications<http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs.aspx?fields=ENewsletterType|Recently%20Relea…> TRB Publication Type: NCHRP Web-Only Document<http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs.aspx?fields=PublicationType|NCHRP%20Web-Only…> HAPPY NEW YEAR IT will be EYE POPPING [8E11B49] Terry Zdan, BA MEDes

4 years, 3 months

WFP: Oslo holds key to making Winnipeg safer (Jan4'20)

by Beth McKechnie

*Oslo holds key to making Winnipeg safer * * Norway’s capital bans cars in certain areas* https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/oslo-holds-key-to-making-winnipeg-s… BRENT Bellamy has long called for more bike paths and pedestrian-friendly streets to make Winnipeg safer by reducing the number of fatal collisions. That’s why it wasn’t surprising for the senior design architect with Number Ten Architectural Group (who also writes a column in the Winnipeg Free Press) to take to social media Friday, pointing out different civic policies created different results in 2019. In Winnipeg, two cyclists and 13 pedestrians were killed on city streets; in similarly-sized Oslo, zero such fatalities were recorded. There was one angle Bellamy didn’t tweet about: he could easily have been the third cyclist killed, when an inattentive SUV driver collided with him at Wellington Crescent and Academy Road in early December. “I was so lucky,” he said Friday. “(The driver) was turning and looking for an opening, and I was yelling at him but he plowed into me. “He hit me just behind the seat. I have a Dutch bike, so I sit upright, and it was just like a tablecloth being pulled out — the bike was hit and I was left on the pavement in the same position.” Such an incident would likely not have happened had he been cycling in the Norwegian capital instead of Winnipeg, he said. One of the biggest reasons: Oslo has banned cars in certain areas of the city. As well, Oslo has replaced almost all of its downtown parking spots with lanes for bicycles, benches to sit on, small parks to congregate in, greenery, and dropped speed limits to 30 km/h. “The biggest difference between the two cities is just political will — they just decided to do it and they did it,” Bellamy said. “I was there five years ago, and they had no bike lanes and they have hills — it’s not a great place to bike — but they just decided, ‘Let’s do it.’ Traffic was getting worse there, just like here. We have 15,000 more cars on the road every year. Oslo was the same,” he said. “They decided they could build expensive, big roads or they could ban cars, build 15 kilometres of bike trails each year, and expand public transit — and it has worked.” Bellamy pointed to a tweet by Anders Hartmann, who works on policies for walking, cycling and road safety in Oslo, which had information on the number of road deaths in the city. Hartmann, after noting, “This makes me happy,” pointed to a graph that shows road deaths in Oslo, now with a population of 673,000, has not only been going down since 1975 (41), but has dramatically fallen since about 2007. Hartmann also noted the only fatality in traffic last year involved a driver who died after a car struck a railing at a light rail station. No children died in a traffic-related death in Norway in 2019. Still, Hartmann posted it doesn’t mean Oslo had reached Vision Zero, a global traffic project aimed at having no fatalities or serious injuries caused by vehicles. It began in Sweden in 1997, and the City of Winnipeg has since adopted it. “While we are making great progress, there is still a way to go to consistently keep deaths at zero for all road users,” he said. Marc Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg, said the Nordic countries and the Netherlands are at the forefront of Vision Zero, and he would like to see Winnipeg follow their lead. “The numbers show if you use that pathway, the results are there,” Cohoe said. “The numbers of people killed in a collision over there is miniscule compared to the numbers in North America. Losing 13 or 15 people on our streets isn’t acceptable. Why do we accept it on our roads, but we wouldn’t in the workplace? I’m hoping we can do more with the city’s transportation master plan this year. “Over there, they say five minutes of inconvenience isn’t worth the lives we are losing — we will still get around. And they have buy-in from the general population.” kevin.rollason(a)freepress.mb.ca

4 years, 3 months

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AT-Network January 2020