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Pedestrian safety
by c_feaver＠mts.net 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

Globe and Mail editorial: “Hey driver, check your privilege. Pedestrians have rights, too” Says; The killing of pedestrians is an overlooked tragedy in a car-centred culture that prefers to regard road deaths as both accidental and inevitable. They are neither – at least not if you’re determined to make our cities safe places where people can go for a walk without fear of sudden death or disability. ... It is time to undo this destructive choice – by dropping speed limits, narrowing roads, extending curbs at crossings, and providing safety islands on broad, busy streets. Politicians must find the courage to resist the crude war-on-the-car arguments that will inevitably result. Pedestrians already have priority under the law. It is time they had it in reality. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/hey-driver-check-your-pri…

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Paper bike helmet wins design prize
by Beth McKechnie 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.3860483/ disposable-paper-bike-helmet-wins-design-prize-1.3860502 [Thanks to Terry Zdan for the share]

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WFP Analysis: Road safety by design (Nov.21'16)
by Beth McKechnie 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Road safety by design By: Brent Bellamy <http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/biographies/304929281.html> http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/road-safet y-by-design-402202515.html If flying were as dangerous as crossing the street, steamships and passenger trains would still be a thing. On average, about 600 people die in plane crashes across the entire world each year, while in Canada alone, one pedestrian per day is killed in a vehicle collision. In Manitoba, a pedestrian is hit and injured by a car five times per week, resulting in death once per month. We have engineered our Canadian cities for speed. Our streets have got bigger; lanes have got wider and traffic flow has been given priority over the safety of other transportation modes, such as walking and cycling. Speed reduces reaction times, increases stopping distances and has a significant effect on accident severity. A pedestrian struck by a car travelling 50 kilometres per hour has an 80 per cent chance of being killed, compared with only five per cent at 30 km/h. Reducing vehicle speeds is key to road safety, but it’s not as easy as putting up signs and red-light cameras. Drivers respond to the physical design of streets and surrounding conditions. Most of us have experienced driving on a road designed for high speeds with a low posted limit. It’s instinctively difficult not to go faster. If we hope to make streets safer, physical design will be a necessary part of the solution. The residential areas of downtown are a significant point of interaction between high volumes of vehicles and pedestrians. A few simple design features could be implemented to make areas such as South Broadway, Central Park and the Exchange District safer, quieter and more comfortable urban neighbourhoods. A first design idea might be to reconfigure the lower-volume, one-way streets in these areas back to two-way circulation. One-way streets are built to funnel traffic quickly, encouraging drivers to increase their speed. Without oncoming vehicles, driver concentration can be reduced, with less awareness of surrounding movements. A study in Hamilton in 2000 found children are 2½ times more likely to be injured crossing a one-way street than a two-way. Another important strategy to increase safety is to begin narrowing roadways where appropriate. As a driver’s field of vision expands, speeds intuitively increase. As an example, regardless of speed limits, we instinctively drive faster on Pembina Highway than on Albert Street. A precedent for road narrowing is Donald Street, where in 2013 a lane was removed beside MTS Centre. The sidewalk was widened; trees were planted and benches and lighting were installed. This made the street feel more enclosed and intimate, a condition that could be replicated on many local downtown streets, having a great effect on pedestrian safety and urban quality without significant change to traffic congestion. Road narrowing also provides an opportunity to install curbed bike lanes, further buffering pedestrians from traffic and protecting cyclists. Where streets can’t be narrowed, curb extensions, or bump-outs, can be built to expand the sidewalk into the parking lane at intersections, where the majority of pedestrian accidents occur. This has the effect of increasing pedestrian visibility as well as reducing the distance and time it takes to cross. The Montreal Public Health Agency estimates that for every extra vehicle lane at an intersection, there are 75 per cent more injured pedestrians. A design tool to increase pedestrian safety used in many cities is the elevated plateau crosswalk. This raises the street crossing to the height of the sidewalk, making pedestrians more visible as they cross and providing a physical reminder to drivers that they are entering a pedestrian zone. The plateau is gently sloped on each side and much lower than a speed bump, making them easy to clear of snow in winter. They are generally the width of the sidewalk and are often marked with contrasting paint or constructed with paving stones to give the appearance that the sidewalk is continuous as it crosses the road. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the gold-standard city for pedestrian and bike safety, raised crosswalks are a common element at intersections. Renowned Danish urban designer Jan Gehl has remarked that because of these features, when his granddaughter walks to school, she feels like she never crosses a street. This anecdote demonstrates that raised crosswalks would not only be effective traffic-calming elements in downtown neighbourhoods, but they could also be implemented throughout suburban residential areas, particularly in school zones, where more than 4,000 Canadian children are hit by motor vehicles each year. A few Winnipeg schools have already begun building raised crosswalks as a model to study. In response to recent pedestrian accidents, Coun. Janice Lukes has been calling for Winnipeg to follow other Canadian cities and adopt Vision Zero, a global initiative that promotes a holistic approach to road safety. A fundamental pillar of the strategy is to use tools such as these to design physical environments that intuitively calm traffic downtown and in residential neighbourhoods. Slowing traffic is never a popular suggestion, but when designed carefully, these initiatives can be implemented without increasing congestion and may have valuable side benefits beyond pedestrian safety. Safe streets are inviting streets. Their slower pace creates a more comfortable physical environment that attracts people. This gravity supports commercial growth, increases property values and improves the quality of life in our communities. Great walking cities have suburban subdivisions with sidewalks on every street, school zones and residential intersections that are prioritized to foot traffic and complete urban streets that are designed equally for all users: transit riders, cyclists, drivers and pedestrians. *Brent Bellamy is chairman of CentreVenture’s board and the creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group.*

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Bikeyface TEDx talk
by Kevin Miller 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

Interesting/informative/entertaining 6:16 TEDx talk by the creator of the Bikeyface comic strip blog. I had to hit pause for most of her comic slides because there is so much to read/see in them and she's changing slides quite quickly. http://bikeyface.com/2015/10/08/moving-people-bikeyface-at-tedxsomerville/ Kevin Miller k.a.miller(a)mts.net

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AT Webinar invite: Transitions between bikeway facilities, Wed, Nov 16, 2-3pm, EcoCentre
by Beth McKechnie 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of this month's APBP <http://www.apbp.org/> webinar. The webinar viewing takes place in the EcoCentre boardroom (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) and will be followed by group discussion of local applications. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth * * * * * *Transitions Between Bikeway FacilitiesWednesday, November 16 | 2:00 - 3:00 pm CST * *Speaker:* Sarah Kraum, Multi-Modal Program Specialist, Space Coast TPO Sarah will discuss various bicycle and pedestrian features and connections that have been used and are planned along Brevard County’s regional trail system. These features have made it possible for the trails to transition through various environments, municipalities, and overcome “roadblocks.”

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Metro News: Wheels are in motion for fast-tracked bike grid in Winnipeg
by Beth McKechnie 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Coun. Janice Lukes put rubber to the road on a fast-tracked downtown bike grid this week. After a well-attended forum <http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/2016/10/13/winnipeg-forum-planned-for…> proved there's interest in speeding up the cycling network, Lukes drummed up a pitch for a “downtown grid of adjustable bicycle lanes before the end of 2018.” She presented it to the Riel community committee on Monday. The motion has been forwarded to the infrastructure renewal and public works (IRPW) committee for further consideration at its Nov. 29 meeting. *Read full article*: http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/2016/11/10/winnipeg-councillor-pushin…

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WFP: Pedestrian safety requires a new Vision - Swedes have the right idea (Nov.3'16)
by Beth McKechnie 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Pedestrian safety requires a new VisionIn the bid to eliminate pedestrian fatalities, Swedes have the right idea http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/pedestrian-safety- requires-a-new-vision-399749531.html I hadn’t planned to take you back down the same old road by writing yet another column on traffic and saving little lives. But then I received another personal and passionate email from a reader: my big boss. It was a fresh take on the subject from *Free Press* publisher Bob Cox that pointed me beyond that well-travelled road to a model for safer streets that we should consider. I had already written about the Calgary model for keeping kids safer by combining reduced-speed school zones with playgrounds, creating child-safety zones that operate 365 days a year. Bob is advocating a plan called Vision Zero, which has a goal of eliminating fatal and serious traffic accidents. Hence, the "zero" in its name. It’s a strategy recently embraced by Edmonton — another Alberta city we might learn from – although that’s not where Bob pointed for the best example. Instead, Bob referenced Sweden — the birthplace of both Vision Zero and, not-so-coincidentally, his wife Lena. He noted Vision Zero has been in place in that famously progressive country for almost two decades and it’s working. "It is a full program that looks at all aspects of roads," Bob explained, "from the way they are constructed to who uses them to how fast you should drive. It has produced a lot of study of what are appropriate speed limits and the conclusion has been that the safe speed limit in built-up urban areas is 30 km per hour." That’s the same speed Winnipeg posts in reduced-speed school zones, but only during the school year. To put that speed in the context of safety, someone struck by a vehicle going 30 km/h has a 95 per cent chance of survival, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, although I suspect a small child’s survival rate might be less. At 50 km/h, the chances of survival mirror that rate of speed; 50-50. That’s why 30 km/h makes safety sense and, as Bob pointed out, in Sweden — where, for example, almost all the residential streets of a big city such as Gothenburg are posted at that reduced rate — the country has virtually no cases of children being killed while crossing the street. "Why does it work?" Bob asked, rhetorically. "One of the main reasons is consistency. You’re not constantly changing speed limits depending on whether you’re near a school or a playground or whatever. It just is the speed limit. All the time." But Vision Zero isn’t just about reducing road speeds. As Bob suggested, it’s also about designing and building safer roads that are more about keeping people safe than moving them in a huge hurry. It’s about a country with a different mindset. "Long before Vision Zero, my wife’s home town of Alingsas implemented a system that allowed cars and people to almost never meet — bike and pedestrian paths are separate from roadways," Bob explained. "They don’t even have level crossings, only underpasses or overpasses. On the residential street outside her parents’ home there is a sidewalk on only one side of the street — that way it can be twice as wide as a normal sidewalk, broad enough for both pedestrians and cyclists to use with no need for either to be on the street with cars. Signs that warn motorists of possible pedestrians depict a woman holding a child’s hand, a reminder of what’s at stake." So are we ready for 30 km/h zones on residential streets? Are we ready for safer and more progressive approaches to designing and building roads, sidewalks and bike paths? We’ve been down this go-slower road before with city administration — as recently has two years ago — and it has gone nowhere. The problem is our own mindset. It, like the roads we’ve designed and built in the past — and even those we’ve constructed in more recent years — seems to be set in concrete. It’s about what’s best for motor vehicles, not pedestrians and bicyclists. It’s more about reducing infrastructure costs than about reducing deaths and serious injuries. All of that, alas, comes from a far different kind of vision zero. gordon.sinclair(a)freepress.mb.ca Manitoba Fatalities Manitoba Public Insurance didn’t have readily available historic numbers for traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries in Winnipeg, only province-wide. But according to MPI, on average, 75 to 80 per cent of fatalities occur in rural areas. 2016 92 2015 78 2014 68 2013 85 2012 96 2011 110 2010 87 2009 86 2008 92 2007 109 Source: MPI Get the data Manitoba Serious Injuries 2015 415 2014 303 2013 307 2012 339 2011 337 2010 312 2009 384 2008 396 2007 426 WHAT’S THE HURRY? Here is a breakdown of school-zone speeding tickets issued last month compared with September of last year. *September 2016* Mobile enforcement in reduced speed 30 km/h school zones -- *8,704** ** Mobile enforcement in regular 50 km/h school zones – *3,129* Total – 11,833 *September 2015* Mobile enforcement in reduced-speed 30 km/h school zones -- *6,838* Mobile enforcement in regular 50 or 60 km/h school zones – *2,717* Total – *9,555=* **Highest speed recorded - 75 km/h* *** Average Speed - 47.8 km/h* *Source: Winnipeg Police Service* PAY UP Fine for going 10 km/h over 30 km/h — $181.50 Fine for going 15 km/h or more over 30 km/h — $246.25

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School Board Walk/Bike Charter - Quebec
by Anders Swanson 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

School boards all over Quebec are being urged to sign an impressive active transportation charter and 2 have already signed up: http://www.velo.qc.ca/fr/salledepresse/20161031212215/Pour-clore-le-Mois-In…

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Street sense - Urban thinker Jane Jacobs' life, short works captured in pair of new books (Oct.29'16)
by Beth McKechnie 31 Oct '16

31 Oct '16

Street sense Urban thinker Jane Jacobs' life, short works captured in pair of new books http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/street- sense-399133141.html For those who like their Jane Jacobs served neat and short, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive tasting menu of smaller creations by the visionary American-born Canadian urbanist (journalist, historian, economist, activist, etc.), unfiltered and undiluted. Served chronologically and spanning Jacobs’ seven decades of evolving theory on how cities function and can function better, the offerings in *Vital Little Plans* include articles from *Vogue* in the 1930s, *Harper’s Bazaar* in the ’40s and *Architectural Forum* in the ’50s. There are interviews (see Jacobs bristle in a 1993 one-on-one with Canadian journalist David Warren); an early website commentary (1995); and speeches (including one she delivered at a 2001 conference of Canada’s large city mayors in Winnipeg). There is her "foreword" to a 1952 State Department Loyalty Security Board interrogatory inquiring into her affiliations (she was a target of Cold War campaigns to expose Communists but was, in fact, an independent thinker). There is also an excerpt of a book, unfinished when she died in 2006. Jacobs’ writing is clear — expressed simply, sometimes lyrically, down-to-earth and based on observation and research — but it is not simple. Some pieces, given their complexity (particularly her economic theories), take time to digest. The knowledgable editors masterfully provide context in a style as engaging as Jacobs’ own. Samuel Zipp is a historian and academic of American and urban studies at Rhode Island’s Brown University; Nathan Storring is a curator and designer based also in Providence and New York City, with Ontario roots. Their five "part introductions," prefacing different stages of Jacobs’ writings, describe her life and times concurrent with those works. The writings are balanced between her New York City and Toronto periods. Their annotations, readily accessible at the foot of the page, succinctly identify persons referenced by Jacobs (tombstone data, career background, their relationship to her) and explain diverse concepts such as New York City’s long-gone pneumatic mail tube system, "new towns" and the Canadian Senate. They cross-reference singular Jacobs ideas, pointing to other of her works, inside and out of *Vital Little Plans,* where those thoughts originated, are expanded upon, shift and connect. The collection includes Jacobs’ 1992 new foreword to her most famous book, *The Death and Life of Great American Cities*, republished 31 years after rocking city planners, architects and the public in 1961. That seminal work appears on the dust jacket of *Vital Little Plans* as part of an extended subtitle: *The Short Works of Jane Jacobs, Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities*. This is doubly curious. Surely anyone interested in this meaty new volume will have already heard of Jacobs, so *Death and Life* is hardly a lure. Could a person possibly know that work but not Jane Jacobs? The editors suggest she may be fading from memory. A reason, they say, for now publishing *Little Vital Plans* is to "retrieve… her voice for readers who’ve forgotten it or never knew it in the first place." Jacobs is everywhere in 2016. In addition to Robert Kanigel’s *Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs*, another biography, *Becoming Jane Jacobs* by Peter L. Laurence is due, as well as another Jacobs collection, *Jane Jacobs: The Last Interview and Other Conversations*. This year, on the weekend closest to Jacobs’ May 4 birthday, tens of thousands of citizen-explorers across six continents plied local neighbourhoods to celebrate her and her ideas. It was the 10th annual edition of Jane’s Walks, the urban walking tours inspired by Jacobs’ ideas. *Vital Little Plans* encourages us to read Jacobs. Short samplings are easier to appreciate and, unlike a select work from her varied collection, provide the full palette of her thought. We can walk away satisfied with more than mere tropes, good as "sidewalk ballet" and "eyes on the street" will always be. *Gail Perry is a co-founder of the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation and co-creator of a local Jane’s Walk, Plane Jane: A Walk to the Airport.*

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WFP Analysis: Designing the perfect winter city (Oct.31'16)
by Beth McKechnie 31 Oct '16

31 Oct '16

Designing the perfect winter city http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/ designing-the-perfect-winter-city-399272171.html Winter is Winnipeg’s thing. It’s what we’re known for. It unifies us like a legion heading into battle. As we prepare to collectively stare down another winter, however, the city of Edmonton is quietly threatening to invade our turf. They not only showed up last week to beat us at our favourite winter sport, they are now trying to beat us at winter itself. In a few weeks, Edmonton’s urban planning committee and city council will be presented with an official winter design policy, a planning document that outlines an innovative set of winter-specific urban design guidelines, with the goal of transforming the Alberta capital into an international model for winter city design. Once adopted, its recommendations will influence zoning bylaws, design standards and approval processes by viewing them through the unique lens of winter living. With these new guidelines, Edmonton is hoping to turn a traditional winter hibernation into an outdoor urban celebration. Winnipeg has led the way with several grassroots festivals, activities and community initiatives that have begun to change our attitudes about winter living, but embedding winter-specific design principles into official civic policy is a visionary idea that could have a transformational effect on the character of Edmonton’s architectural and urban form. The guidelines will implement several design strategies to help make outdoor spaces comfortable and inviting in all seasons, by focusing on the creation of comfortable urban microclimates. Wind and sunlight are the two key elements that impact thermal comfort in urban areas. Environment Canada has indicated by controlling these factors through design, we can make outdoor public spaces feel warmer by as much as 10 C on cold days. Edmonton’s new guidelines hope to encourage outdoor winter activity by considering the impact of design elements at every scale. On an urban design level, dense development is promoted, with short city blocks that reduce walking distances. The use of urban alleyways is encouraged as an opportunity to provide smaller, sheltered spaces with shops, restaurants and pedestrian connections to adjoining streets. In strategic areas, the guidelines recommend buildings include small setbacks or pocket parks along the sidewalk to create sun traps and wind shelters that incorporate dense materials such as stone and brick to naturally absorb and reflect heat. The document also advocates for development of more low-rise buildings to help break up the wind and provide access to sunlight on the sidewalks. Zoning changes are suggested to create streets that have buildings with varied heights, to reduce the wind tunnel effect, while taller structures are to be located on the north sides of streets and should be designed with massing that steps back from the sidewalks as they rise, to reduce shadows at the ground. At an architectural scale, designers are encouraged to establish strong indoor-outdoor relationships, by creating buildings with many public entrances and small storefronts aligned directly to the sidewalk, so pedestrians can find regular locations to warm up. Requirements for buildings to include awnings, arcades and overhangs are promoted as a way of providing outdoor shelter from wind, snow and rain. The use of colour on building facades is encouraged, along with permanent and seasonal lighting to provide a visual warmth to the outdoor environment, particularly during the long, dark winter months. Recommendations for landscape design include development of urban spaces with public art and street furnishings that incorporate windscreens, gas firepits and other heating sources. Trees, plants and landscape elements are also seen as an important design opportunity to create outdoor rooms that control wind, sun and drifting snow in public places. By carefully implementing these strategies, designers can affect human comfort in our urban environments in very significant ways. Commitment to these principles could result in the development of a unique northern city that supports a vibrant and active urban lifestyle in every season. We have generally used technology to fight our battles against climate and have in many ways built cities that turn their backs on winter, with skywalks that replace sidewalks and climate-controlled malls instead of urban shopping streets. This has not only made a lasting impact on quality of life in many northern cities during the colder months but often affects public priorities and investment in the warmer seasons as well. There is often opposition to new ideas in cities such as Winnipeg if they are viewed as having limited seasonal use. Year-round urban amenities such as protected bike lanes, pedestrian-oriented downtown streets or walkable residential neighbourhoods are often dismissed with the sentiment that we can’t do that here because it’s too cold. With good design, however, outdoor winter participation can be increased, optimizing public investment. As an example, when bike-lane systems in Montreal and Minneapolis were designed and maintained with winter use as a priority, cycling rates more than doubled overall, and winter participation has been growing three times faster than summer use. Edmonton’s winter design policy is an inspiring first step toward making a long-term cultural shift in our perception of winter living. Their leadership is an opportunity for Winnipeg to set its own priorities for winter city design. By promoting innovative, homegrown approaches to architectural, urban and landscape design that naturally encourages more outdoor winter living, we can improve our quality of life and capitalize on the unique opportunities of our northern climate. *Brent Bellamy is chairman of CentreVenture’s board and the creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group.*

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