Thursday, January 28, 2016
US Mayors Support Bike Policies and Infrastructure
In a recently published study by Boston University researchers a survey of 89 US mayors of medium and big cities (populations over 100,000) showed that these public officials express strong support for bike-friendly policies and bicycling infrastructure. Not surprisingly, however, aging and underfunded physical infrastructure was the most pressing challenge the mayors faced, and these problems continue to outrank bicycling, pedestrian, parks and recreation needs in the cities’ funding priorities.
The study explains that “big ticket” infrastructure needs, including roads, mass transit, and water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, dominate the mayors’ plans and efforts.
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| Figure 2: Thinking about infrastructure in and around your city, what are the top three areas you would prioritize if you could allocate a significant amount of new money? |
Still, when asked to name more modestly priced infrastructure priorities, bike and pedestrian infrastructure and parks were the most frequently cited by the mayors. According to survey, the mayors included bike-friendly policies with biking infrastructure as funding priorities.
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| Figure 5: Please think about “small” infrastructure projects. That is, projects with costs equal to a small portion of your city’s annual capital budget. If your city were given an unrestricted grant to pay for any ONE such “small” infrastructure project, what would you spend it on? |
As encouraging, 70 percent of mayors support improved bike accessibility, even at the expense of parking and driving lanes. A mere 15 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.
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| Figure 6: Cities should make their roads more accessible to bicycles even if it means sacrificing driving lanes and/or parking. |
Labels: advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle policy plan, bike-friendly community
Monday, October 24, 2011
Virginia State Bicycle Policy Plan released
FABB provided extensive comments on the plan in September 2010. Most of our comments were included in the final draft.
The Policy for Integrating Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodations was adopted in 2004. It ensures that bicycle facilities are included in the planning and implementation of all future projects (with exceptions). The new policy plan provides better guidance to ensure implementation of the 2004 policy.
The two goals of the police plan are:
Goal 1: Increase the use of bicycling in Virginia to include a full and diverse range of the population for all trip purposes
Goal 2: Improve safety and comfort of bicyclists throughout Virginia, reduce bicycle crashes
Remaking our roads and connecting existing bike facilities: Here in Northern Virginia we have a major challenge with creating bicycle facilities on a road network designed almost exclusively for cars. The plan tries to address this issue:
Goal 2: Improve safety and comfort of bicyclists throughout Virginia, reduce bicycle crashes
However, further guidance is needed to determine the appropriate type or level of bicycle accommodation that may be needed in different roadway environments. This is a particular issue for large suburban roadways because land use changes due to development create an even greater need for non-motorized transportation accommodations and safety countermeasures.
This should include strategies to ensure that piecemeal development results in bicycle facilities that are contiguous and functional in both the short- and long-term, see example policies and procedures in Appendix A.
From Appendix A: This should include strategies to ensure that piecemeal development results in bicycle facilities that are contiguous and functional in both the short- and long-term, see example policies and procedures in Appendix A.
During road construction and rehabilitation projects, VDOT will investigate nearby bicycle facility connections and make all reasonable attempts to close gaps and facilitate transitions between different bikeway types.
This has not been the case in the past. FABB worked with VDOT to try connect the trails being constructed as part of the Route 50 widening project, that ended west of Route 28, with trails on the east side of 28. We were not successful in getting the project limits extended; the new policy provides incentive to make this type of connection in the future.
Innovative bike designs: The policy also includes support for using non-standard bike facilities that are in use in other communities.
VDOT will study and, where appropriate, implement new types of bikeways that are being used effectively in other jurisdictions, including bike signals, bike boxes, cycle tracks, buffered bike lanes, contra-flow bike lanes, and bike boulevards, among others.
Performance measures and data collection: We have very poor information about the level of bicycle use in the county and about the effectiveness of various bike facilities. The Plan includes recommendations for improving that knowledge:
VDOT should establish benchmarks needed for future tracking of bicycle-related implementation efforts and changes in ridership numbers over time. Measures that can be considered include the number of bikeway miles implemented, the number of bicycle crashes, the number of bicycle parking spaces, percentage of students bicycling to school, and other measures.
VDOT should establish a long-term pedestrian and bicycle facility inventory and counting program, in coordination with towns and cities, Regional Planning Commissions, Planning District Commissions, and Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
Narrow lane widths to create bike facilities: One advantage to having so much asphalt in Northern Virginia is that our travel lanes are relatively wide. They can be reduced to create bike lanes or wide outside lanes:VDOT should establish a long-term pedestrian and bicycle facility inventory and counting program, in coordination with towns and cities, Regional Planning Commissions, Planning District Commissions, and Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
VDOT should consider issuing an Instructional and Informational Memorandum (IIM) that encourages the inclusion of bike lanes during road reconstruction and resurfacing projects by narrowing travel lanes to 10-foot (where possible). This IIM should explain when 10-foot and 11-foot wide travel lanes can be utilized without decreasing safety for motorists
The plan contains lots of good information and it's worth spending some time read it. See page 36 for a summary of the recommendations.Labels: bicycle policy plan, vdot
Monday, April 4, 2011
VDOT Six-Year Improvement Program public hearing May 4
The Northern Virginia public hearing VDOT's Six Year Improvement Program is scheduled for Wednesday, May 4 at the new N. Va. VDOT District Office, Potomac Conference Center, 4975 Alliance Drive, Suite 1N201, Fairfax, VA 22030 (map). The hearing begins at 7pm.We're doing some research into the plan and will likely present comments at the public hearing. Unfortunately the VDOT Six Year Improvement Program page doesn't help much as it is about a year out of date. We'll have to wade through the Six Year Plan database.
One major concern we have is that the state has been without a bicycle coordinator since Jakob Helmboldt left in January 2010. Since that time the State Bicycle Policy Plan has been in draft form and the bicycle advisory committee has not met. To our knowledge this is a federally funded position and there's no excuse that it has not been filled.
Labels: bicycle coordinator, bicycle policy plan, vdot
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Draft State Bicycle Policy Plan comments
Recommendations from the Plan we strongly support that could have a major impact on future bicycle facilities include:
- Semi-annual review the bike policy implementation (Action 1.2b)
- Allowing narrow travel lanes (down to 10 feet) to provide space for bike lanes (Action 1.3a). This is currently done in Arlington Co. and elsewhere with little impact on road capacity.
- Reviewing lane widths and capacity during new construction, reconstruction and resurfacing projects to provide space for bicyclists (Road Diets, Action 1.3b). This could lead to more projects similar to the one that created the Lawyers Rd. bike lanes.
- Improving routine maintenance by VDOT of state-maintained bicycle routes, shared use paths, paved shoulders, bicycle lanes, and other existing bicycle facilities (Action 1.7c).
- Better use of shoulder paving funds (Action 1.8a).
- Each VDOT District should have a bicycle advisory committee. This will improve communication between VDOT and area bicyclists and give bicyclists an opportunity to provide feedback on current problems and planned projects.
- VDOT should provide recommendations on bike parking and shower and changing facilities at buildings owned or occupied by the Commonwealth of Virginia. VDOT should also encourage use of bicycles by state employees to be a model for businesses and other organizations.
- VDOT should encourage more people to use bicycles for short trips by providing public service announcements, fact sheets, and other encouragement materials.
- VDOT should track and make better use of the 2% of maintenance funds dedicated to providing paved shoulders for bicyclists. Two-foot shoulders are not sufficient for bicycle travel. The minimum should be increased to three feet, with four feet being the preferred width.
Labels: bicycle policy plan, vdot, virginia
Monday, August 30, 2010
Charlottesville public radio show: The Future of Cycling
Virginia Insight, a Charlottesville public radio show on local issues, hosted a good program on bicycling in Virginia. It included a brief discussion of the draft Virginia Bicycle Policy Plan.The following people discussed making Virginia more bike-friendly: Vince Caristo - Executive Director, The Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation (ACCT), Thomas Jenkins - Former professional mountain bike racer. Co-owner of Shenandoah Bicycle in Harrisonburg. Advocacy Coordinator for the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, and Ruth Stornetta, Ph.D. - Member of the cyclists’ advocacy group Bike Charlottesville and past president of the Virginia Bicycling Federation.
We don't have a direct link to the show yet. We listened to it live and we assume it will be on their archives page soon.
Giving UVA students a bike education class as part of their orientation was one of the better ideas mentioned. One issue that should be addressed in the bike policy plan is the fact that local communities receive transportation funds based on the number of lane miles, and when a road diet is used to create lane miles for bicyclists, they lose funding. Instead communities should receive incentives for implementing road diets.
The comment period for the bicycle policy plan ends Friday, September 17. We'll be posting our comments here soon.
Labels: bicycle policy plan, virginia insight
Friday, August 13, 2010
Draft State Bicycle Policy Plan released
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has developed the State Bicycle Policy Plan to ensure bicyclists are an integral component of Virginia’s multimodal transportation system, and to provide bicycle policy recommendations that will guide the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of bicycle accommodations.
The draft plan provides strategies and identifies opportunities for enhancing the implementation of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s 2004 Policy for Integrating Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodations, as well as VDOT’s coordination within the agency and with stakeholders across the commonwealth.
The VDOT State Bicycle Policy Plan, including a summary of recommendations is available for public review and comment beginning Monday, Aug. 16, and concluding Friday, Sept. 17, 2010.
In an earlier FABB blog post we noted that this draft was expected in mid-February. Since that time the state bicycle coordinator left his position, which likely delayed completion of the draft.The draft plan provides strategies and identifies opportunities for enhancing the implementation of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s 2004 Policy for Integrating Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodations, as well as VDOT’s coordination within the agency and with stakeholders across the commonwealth.
The VDOT State Bicycle Policy Plan, including a summary of recommendations is available for public review and comment beginning Monday, Aug. 16, and concluding Friday, Sept. 17, 2010.
As stated in the title, this is a policy document. There are few specific facility recommendations. Those are left to the local jurisdictions, even though VDOT controls most roads in the state. There are recommendations for the segments of US Bike Routes 1 and 76 in Virginia. Fortunately Fairfax County has begun the bicycle master planning process to develop specific recommendations for the county.
We plan to review the document and prepare comments that we'll post here.
Labels: bicycle policy plan, vdot, virginia
