- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

A Few Surprises in New Bike Scores
by Beth McKechnie 02 Jan '13

02 Jan '13

A Few Surprises in New Bike ScoresRichard Florida and Sara Johnson | Dec 19, 2012 The website Walk Score <http://www.walkscore.com/> announced Tuesday the extension of its "Bike Score" rankings for neighborhoods and places to 25 cities. (See The Atlantic's initial coverage of the launch<http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/05/walk-score-launches-bike-s…>.) The cities are scored on a 100-point scale<http://www.walkscore.com/bike-score-methodology.shtml>based on four factors: bike lanes, hills, destinations and road connectivity, and bike commuting mode share. It was developed in collaboration with researchers at Simon Fraser University and The University of British Columbia. Here's how the scoring<http://blog.walkscore.com/2012/12/bike-score-expands-to-25-cities/>breaks down. *Read the article here*: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/12/few-surprises-new-bi… **Canadian cities** – surprisingly, and rather oddly, the scores fall in the lowest category of "somewhat bikeable", even for Montreal and Vancouver, but maybe it's a function of the data provided by these municipalities (and there's no score for Winnipeg, boo! we'd do really well on the hills rating): - Toronto <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/ON/Toronto> - Vancouver <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/BC/Vancouver> - Montreal <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/QC/Montreal> - Calgary <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/AB/Calgary> - Ottawa <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/ON/Ottawa> - Halifax <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/NS/Halifax> - Victoria <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/BC/Victoria> - Saskatoon <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/SK/Saskatoon> - Charlottetown <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/PE/Charlottetown> - St. John's <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/NL/St_Johns> - Moncton <http://www.walkscore.com/bike/Canada/NB/Moncton>

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Walking to Work: U.S. Cities Map
by Zdan, Terry (MIT) 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

Scroll over the dots to see more info. http://www.governing.com/gov-data/transportation-infrastructure/walk-to-wor…

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Cyclist turns New York into giant GPS holiday card
by Zdan, Terry (MIT) 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/12/cyclist-turns-new-york-into-gi… Season's Greetings Terry Zdan BA MEDes Policy & Service Development Manitoba Infrastructure & Transportation 1520 215 Garry Street Winnipeg MB R3C 3P3 please note this is my only phone C 204 227 3724 E Terry.Zdan(a)gov.mb.ca

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AT Webinar: Wayfinding Options for Cyclists, Wed, Dec.19th, 2:00-3:15 pm, EcoCentre
by Beth McKechnie 19 Dec '12

19 Dec '12

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion of local applications.* *Detailed description provided below. *Wayfinding Options for Cyclists Wednesday, Dec.19, 2012 | 2:00-3:15 p.m. CST* RSVPs are appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! Sounds like a good one. cheers, Beth 925-3772 * * * * * * * Wayfinding Options for Cyclists Bicycle wayfinding signs are different than other signs placed in the right of way because they are part of a system of sequential destination information; thus, planning, [image: image]placement and maintenance are critical to maintaining the system. This webinar will go beyond the guidance found in the MUTCD and the 2012 AASHTO Bicycle Guide to consider the details of developing and implementing a city-wide bicycle sign system. Planners, engineers, municipal staff and consultants should attend this webinar to gain a better understanding of an increasingly common bicycle facility. The presentation will cover these topics: - The value of providing wayfinding for urban cyclists - Approaches to planning and implementation - Strategies to determine and prioritize signed bicycle routes - Issues of planning, placement and maintenance of signs, including sign design and placement within the right of way that integrates guidelines from the 2009 MUTCD, the 2012 AASHTO Bicycle Guide, and the AASHTO Green Book - Special issues related to trails Examples from Seattle, Baltimore, and other locations will be included. (Note that the APBP webinar on January 16 will address the topic of Best Practices in Pedestrian Wayfinding.) Presenters: - Virginia Coffman, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group - Robert Patten, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group.

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WFP: Traffic woes at schools 'universal complaint' (Dec.18'12)
by Beth McKechnie 19 Dec '12

19 Dec '12

[Hmmm, School Travel Planning anyone?! Bike, walk, anyone? -Beth] Traffic woes at schools 'universal complaint' By: Nick Martin http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/traffic-woes-at-schools-universal-co… TRAFFIC can be a nightmare around every school in the Winnipeg School Division. No, not just the speeders who treat a school zone as a freeway -- it's caused primarily by parents dropping off and picking up their kids. There's often nowhere to park, no loop in front of the main doors and nowhere for kids to get in and out of cars easily and safely. "It was a universal complaint about every school," said trustee Mark Wasyliw, but "no two schools are similar." Earlier this year, trustee Mike Babinsky requested a staff report on traffic problems around Meadows West School, near Keewatin Street in northwest Winnipeg. Wasyliw had already heard and seen lots of problems in southern schools, so he got board support to amend Babinsky's request to cover every school in the division. The results were staggering -- not one school reported itself free of traffic problems, said Wasyliw. "This is the No. 1 issue that is universal in every school. "No one realized this is a large and difficult issue," he said. "The transportation department is reviewing it with each and every school." Residents complain about cars parked and stopping all over the area of Kelvin High School, he said. J.B. Mitchell in River Heights is kitty-corner to St. Jean Brebeuf School, a Catholic school, creating double the chaos. At Robert H. Smith School, also in River Heights, residents park on the street, forcing parents to double- and triple-park, often letting their kids out of the car straight into traffic. "Grosvenor's fast," Wasyliw said. "They're (Grosvenor School) worried about putting grades 4 and 5 out as crossing guards." Several schools are asking for adult crossing guards, which adds to the division's budget dilemma, said Wasyliw. "We're looking at possibly doing staggered bell times," to ease congestion, and so buses could pick up and drop off kids for more than one school. Many older schools have no area in which parents can pull in, Wasyliw said. "Bus loops and cutouts, they're 100 grand each. We have 13 schools (that) want them." nick.martin(a)freepress.mb.ca

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Dear Santa
by Zdan, Terry (MIT) 19 Dec '12

19 Dec '12

[cid:image002.jpg@01CDDDC3.862F2410] Season's Greetings Terry Zdan BA MEDes Policy & Service Development Manitoba Infrastructure & Transportation 1520 215 Garry Street Winnipeg MB R3C 3P3 please note this is my only phone C 204 227 3724 E Terry.Zdan(a)gov.mb.ca

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"30km/h - making the streets liveable!". EU
by Zdan, Terry (MIT) 18 Dec '12

18 Dec '12

http://en.30kmh.eu/ About the initiative 30 km/h (20 mph) limits are an inexpensive and popular way to improve safety, cut pollution and encourage smarter travel choices. They lead to improved traffic flow and less congestion. People can move without fear. We want to achieve these benefits for the whole of the European Union. What is our vision? 30 km/h shall become the standard speed limits for villages, towns and cities with local authorities being able to decide on exemptions. Therefore, we will set the agenda for the European Commission. We want the commission to come up with a proposal to introduce 30 km/h speed limits. We are organising a "European Citizen´s Initiative" - a fascinating, brand-new policy instrument in the European Union. That includes a huge effort as we must collect more than 1 million signatures within one year from at least 7 different member states of the EU. Season's Greetings Terry Zdan BA MEDes Policy & Service Development Manitoba Infrastructure & Transportation 1520 215 Garry Street Winnipeg MB R3C 3P3 please note this is my only phone C 204 227 3724 E Terry.Zdan(a)gov.mb.ca

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Grist: Chicago likes bikes – and it's about to prove it in a big way
by Beth McKechnie 18 Dec '12

18 Dec '12

Chicago likes bikes — and it’s about to prove it in a big way By Lori Rotenberk <http://grist.org/author/lori-rotenberk/> http://grist.org/cities/chicago-like-bikes-and-its-about-to-prove-it-in-a-b… Look over your shoulder, Portland, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. Chicago is about to roll out plans to lay down 645 miles of bike lanes by 2020. If you’re not careful, the Windy City is going to pedal off with the title of Most Bikeable City in the U.S. Today, the city’s bike-loving mayor, Rahm Emanuel, will unveil the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 <http://www.chicagobikes.org>, an aggressive bicycling blueprint that was a year in the making. With 30 miles of protected bike lanes already completed and another 70 promised before the end of Emanuel’s first term in 2015, the city’s new cycling infrastructure will weave through every neighborhood, assuring a path within a half-mile of every Chicagoan’s home. The unveiling takes place on Chicago’s once taxi-, auto-, and bus-infested Dearborn Street. The city spawned a wave of envy<http://streetsblog.net/2012/12/05/chicago-bike-lane-envy-sweeps-the-nation/…>among national bike bloggers this month when it removed a motor vehicle lane from the downtown artery, replacing it with a two-way protected cycling lane complete with bike traffic signals<http://grist.org/news/traffic-signals-for-cyclists-pop-up-nationwide/> . Michael Amsden, a project manager for the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Bike Program says swiping a lane from drivers took “lots of political know-how,” adding that “no other city has cut through dense traffic” in that manner. While other cities have been putting in bike infrastructure for years, what sets Chicago apart, Amsden says, is the sheer super-speed at which the city has laid down protected bike lanes, going from “zero to second-most in the country in just 18 months.” City officials hint that converting car lanes into bike lanes is the way of Chicago’s future. The mastermind of all this action is Chicago transportation czar Gabe Klein<http://grist.org/transportation/2011-12-15-zen-and-the-art-of-urban-transpo…>, known for cruising town on his Dutch-style two-wheeler sporting vintage linen suits. In many areas of the city, Klein says, lane installation is tied with planned infrastructure improvements, which will make the work less expensive. And while initial funding for the project is local, next year the city will work with federal funds awarded through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. But the plan’s strongest asset, say supporters, is its backing from the public: It’s a grid designed by the people for the people. To create it, CDOT teamed up with the Active Transportation Alliance<http://www.activetrans.org/>, a local nonprofit advocacy group that set up community meetings in nine areas of the city. Alliance volunteers met monthly for a year with residents in neighborhood bars, restaurants, and homes to discuss where they wanted to see the bike lanes installed. Major obstacles included the city’s numerous rail lines, waterways, and high-crime areas. Large maps detailing the routes were delivered to CDOT engineers. “To my knowledge,” says Lee Crandell, the Alliance’s director of campaigns, “no other city has involved the public as much as Chicago has.” Klein hopes to see the number of cars on the roads — and their speed — decrease. (According to the 2010 census, only 1.3 percent of Chicagoans bike to work, but studies show more would if they felt safe.) Future engineering includes more pedestrian crosswalks, bus-only lanes, and digital speed signs for motorists along busy thoroughfares. Over time, Amsden envisions the Windy City becoming less frenetic as the “Mary Poppins Effect” <http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/the-mary-poppins-effect/> kicks in – that is, as racing bikes and Spandex give way to more casual cruisers and street clothes. “When motorists see someone dressed in their work clothes riding a bike with a bell and a basket, while sitting upright, they seem to slow down because the cyclist’s look calls for respect,” Amsden says. “Drivers in Amsterdam, for example, know how to drive next to a person on a bicycle.” There’s been little opposition to Emanuel’s quest to transform Chicago’s driving habits. One of the few outspoken critics is John Kass, a plump (“readers tell me that bicycling to work would seriously improve the sculpt of my buttocks”)*,* car-driving *Chicago Tribune* columnist who has often painted cyclists and their protected lanes as either hipsters or snobs. When Emanuel gushed about progressive transportation and the need for sustainability in times of environmental shifts, Kass wailed that bike riders are the “One Percenters of the Commuter Class.”<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-22/news/ct-met-kass-0822-2012082…> “We thought we’d be able to get through the summer without reading a nakedly antagonistic-to-bicyclists story,” moaned a writer on the Chicagoist<http://chicagoist.com/2012/08/22/john_kass_bullshit_bike_lanes_post.php>blog. “Leave it to Tribune curmudgeon John Kass to piss in our Corn Flakes yet again.” Pete Scales, spokesman for CDOT, estimates the city spent $4 million on the 30 miles built in 2012. City Hall considers it a small investment with a large return. Bike lanes, Emanuel and Klein believe, will attract new and young entrepreneurs and high-tech companies to Chicago. Crandell adds that studies have proven that bike lanes help fuel the local economy. “It is said that the faster a credit card goes by your door, the less likely it is that card will be used in your store,” he explains. “When someone is on a bike, they can just pull over, hop off, and park. And biking creates more bike-related businesses.” Last year *Bike Magazine* listed Chicago as the 10th most friendly city for riding. This year it rose to No. 5. CDOT hopes that the Dearborn improvements will put the city in the lead. But can Emanuel really make good on such ambitious promises, given Americans’ love affair with the automobile? Word is that in Emanuel-speak, he’s f#!*ing determined. “I’m a big believer in getting things done versus talking about them,” says Klein. “So is the mayor. We have a moral responsibility to make change as soon as possible.” Lori Rotenberk is a Chicago-based journalist whose work has appeared in the *New York Times*, *The Boston Globe*, *Chicago Wilderness Magazine*, and the *Chicago Sun-Times*. She is also also wild about nature. Follow her on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/@loriandwhillie>.

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cyclelogistics - Moving Goods by Cycle
by Zdan, Terry (MIT) 14 Dec '12

14 Dec '12

http://cyclelogistics.eu/index.php?id=4 cyclelogistics - Moving Goods by Cycle Running from May 2011 until April 2014 and spanning 12 countries, the EU-funded project CycleLogistics aims to reduce energy used in urban freight transport by replacing unnecessary motorised vehicles with cargo bikes for intra-urban delivery and goods transport in Europe. CycleLogistics will expand its niche market position and be regarded as a serious alternative for the transportation of light goods in inner cities. This will be achieved by: * Communicating topic and potential to the transport sector in order to shift more goods transport from cars to cargo bikes. Existing cycle couriers will also be encouraged to transport heavier loads by utilising electric assist. * Motivating municipalities to create a favorable regulatory framework and policies for cycle logistics, to analyze the internal potential to employ cargo bikes for municipal services, and to encourage business services to take advantage of cycle logistics. * Encouraging private individuals to use cargo bikes, trailers and baskets to transport shopping and leisure time equipment, while at the same time ensuring that retailers provide customers with incentives and necessary infrastructure. * Testing and reporting on various cargo bike transport products (cargo bikes, trailers, electric motors and bags & baskets), and therefore promoting their uptake by providing potential consumers - private, business and government - across Europe with access to valuable information. FYI the Ikea store in Winnipeg has bike racks but no cargo trailers for bikes. Season's Greetings Terry Zdan BA MEDes Policy & Service Development Manitoba Infrastructure & Transportation 1520 215 Garry Street Winnipeg MB R3C 3P3 please note this is my only phone C 204 227 3724 E Terrry.Zdan(a)gov.mb.ca

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Cyclists and Pedestrians Can End Up Spending More Each Month Than Drivers
by Dave Elmore 14 Dec '12

14 Dec '12

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/12/cyclists-and-pedestrians-ca n-end-spending-more-each-month-drivers/4066/ Cyclists and Pedestrians Can End Up Spending More Each Month Than Drivers Kelly Clifton <http://kellyjclifton.com/> has heard this stereotype a number of times: "Cyclists are just a bunch of kids who don't have any money," says the professor of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University. "They ride their bikes to a coffee shop, they sit there for four hours with their Macintoshes, they're not really spending any money." If you're a shopkeeper with such suspicions, you're probably not on board with any plan that would cut down on parking right outside your door. Cyclists are the ones with time to kill; drivers are the ones with money. This perception is problematic in a place like Portland, where the bike-friendly city government is now looking to extend the reach of bike infrastructure - and the appeal of bikes themselves - to newer riders and neighbourhoods farther afield from the urban core. "As we move out beyond those areas into more auto-oriented areas," Clifton says, "we start to see businesses say, 'Hey, wait a minute. You're taking away on-street parking to put in bike lanes, you're taking away the one parking spot in front of my store to put in a bike corral. I don't see many bikers around here. So what does this mean for me?" Until now there hasn't been much empirical evidence to allay such concerns. Clifton and several colleagues have attempted to fill that research gap in a project for the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium <http://www.otrec.us/> (read a PDF of the draft report here <http://kellyjclifton.com/Research/EconImpactsofBicycling/OTRECReport-ConsBe havTravelChoices_Nov2012.pdf> ). They surveyed 1,884 people walking out of area convenience stores, restaurants and bars, and another 19,653 who'd just done their supermarket shopping. Some of the results are unsurprising: Drivers still make up a plurality of customers to all of these businesses. And, with greater trunk capacity, they far outspend people who travel to the grocery store by foot, bike or transit. But for all of the other business types examined, bikers actually out-consumed drivers over the course of a month. True, they often spent less per visit. But cyclists and pedestrians in particular made more frequent trips (by their own estimation) to these restaurants, bars and convenience stores, and those receipts added up. This finding is logical: It's a lot easier to make an impulse pizza stop if you're passing by an aromatic restaurant on foot or bike instead of in a passing car at 35 miles an hour. Such frequent visits are part of the walkable culture. Compare European communities - where it's common to hit the bakery, butcher and fish market on the way home from work - to U.S. communities where the weekly drive to Walmart's supermarket requires an hour of dedicated planning. "It's not just a phenomenon born of the need to carry things," Clifton says. Walkable (and bikeable) communities by definition facilitate a more frequent interaction between patrons and businesses. This means these bikers and pedestrians are also more regular customers. "That also says something about marketing," Clifton says, "about customer loyalty, about neighborhood-based businesses." The study examined 89 businesses across the region, 11 of them grocery stores. At the bars, convenience stores and restaurants (all high-turnover sit-down pizza and Mexican spots), researchers snagged consumers on their way out between June and early October of last year. They gave them a 5-to-10 minute tablet questionnaire about their demographics and travel behavior, how they'd traveled that day, what they'd spent, and how often they estimated they visited the business each month. The researchers coordinated with a local grocery store chain to survey customers there during a single week this April. Their findings are neatly summarized in these three graphs. This first one shows how much consumers spent on average per trip, by transportation mode: Here, people estimated how many trips they took per month: And this is the total estimate of consumer spending per month: There are obviously some other factors at play here. Families with cars are less likely to eat out than single young professionals on a bike. And we'd all prefer that drivers run up smaller bar tabs than pedestrians. Clifton also raises another possibility (although this particular study can't verify it): "Does Portland have a green dividend?" she asks, citing a concept coined by economist Joe Cortright <http://www.ceosforcities.org/city-dividends/green/special-reports/portland/ > . Cars are costly. And Portland's green infrastructure means many people don't have to foot that expense. "Do we then have more money in our pockets," Clifton asks, "to spend on other things?" As Portland begins to make tougher decisions about bike infrastructure, this is an intriguing point. The "young and fearless," as Clifton calls them, are already biking there. These are the riders who will happily dodge cars and thunderstorms without much dedicated infrastructure. Now the city needs to coax what Clifton calls the "interested but concerned." These are the people who will require a higher level of accommodation - separated bike lanes, actual bike parking - and therefore some tougher conversations about what that might mean for scarce resources and roadway (and for the drivers who might be impacted by reallocating them). "If only we had asked these questions when we invested in the automobile," Clifton says. "On the one hand, we're asking the right questions. But we're also holding non-motorized modes up to a different standard than we have held the automobile."

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