Four the Future - Urban Biking

Four stories about biking in urban areas: where to live, how to get a bike, where you can ride, and what will it do to you?

• Designing an Apartment Building for Bike Commuters
  Source: City Lab; September 6, 2016
  Summary: A new building in Malmö, Sweden is designed for biking residents and travelers. The building has no automobile storage, but each unit comes with a subscription to a carpool service. More substantially, the doors, elevators, and balconies are designed to accommodate the extra width demanded by handlebars. The motel rooms on the first floor come with an included bike rental.
  Opinion: This building represents an alternative that most American cities would be unable to accommodate because their laws cannot make onsite automobile storage optional. Local laws almost always mandate that everyone, even people who do not own cars, must pay for auto storage in their homes. This could be alleviated if we eliminated parking minimums.


• Biketown bike-share launches today: Five things to know
  Source: The Oregonian; July 19, 2016
  Summary: One thousand orange rentable bikes hit the streets in Portland in July 2016. You sign up on a website to check them out. The community is anticipating that they'll be used pretty heavily by tourists. Speaking of heavy, they do weigh in at 45 pounds, but with lights and an upright design, they're built for safety. And, yes, the parking for the bikes did displace some auto--and bike--storage locations.
  Opinion: The Columbian followed up a month later. Rentals exceeded expectations. The City is awaiting the arrival of autumn weather to see how the program is affected. Portland is a bike-friendly city, so it should be anticipated that a bike rental program would be popular for the people who choose to visit, after all, it's part of what makes Portland Portlandia. It should be interesting to see the data and what effect, if any, it has on land use patterns.


• Cyclists to Drivers: This Is My Lane!
  Source: City Lab; September 9, 2016
  Summary: Ohio is beginning to eliminate their "Share the Road" signs in favor of "Bikes May Use Full Lane" signs.
  Opinion: Subtle doesn't always work. The remaining concern is that, maybe drivers will interpret that as a special condition of that section of road. These signs are standardized through the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), so customizing it to include the word "everywhere" would be discouraged. In Spokane's case, these signs may be appropriate along bike routes, but also in locations where the City posts the general speed limits.


• The Real Risks in Urban Cycling
  Source: City Lab; September 6, 2016
  Summary: Bikes provide health benefits associated with physical activity, but there's also concerns associated with automobile crashes and bad air quality. A recent study has found, however, that in most cities, the health benefits provided by biking outweighs the risks.
  Opinion: While this is likely true, the knowledge of the health benefits may not outweigh the visceral fear of having a car blast by you! Many of the benefits of biking will not be experienced by the general public until auto operators become more accustomed to the presence of bicyclists. Unfortunately, it is likely that there will still be a population that will remain hostile and aggressive, as noted in the story.

Separated Bike Lanes

One topic often addressed by this blog is that of bike lanes due to their importance in creating complete streets to increase transportation choices, improve air quality, and decrease our dependence on oil. But, it also gets significant attention here because it is the subject of significant controversy.

One of the ways that a safe, welcoming bike lane can be provided to the public is by separating the bike path from the auto lanes. (Want to see the study on separated bike lane safety? Here it is from Injury Prevention.) These separated bike lanes not only make clear the place where bicycle riders are to be, but also exclude dangerous elements, such as moving automobiles or stationary ones with their doors suddenly opening in the path of a biker ("dooring"). And, yes, it does happen, and it can be fatal.

Spokane has a separated bike trail: the Centennial Trail. However, that's more of a bicycle highway, which allows people to travel long distances undisturbed, but also fails to successfully deliver bike riders to their destinations without, as Danish architect and infrastructure consultant Jan Gehl says, "[letting] people fend for themselves once they reach the city." Nevertheless, it's a commendable achievement that we should build upon.

The true usefulness of separated bike paths is when they're permitted to enter the core of the community. A local example of that is the bike system in Liberty Lake. It connects to the Centennial Trail, consists of a number of interconnected trails (though, not all are separated from the road), and many are surrounded by trees and grass. But, these are not urban trails as would be necessary in downtown Spokane or anywhere else where they'd need to be shoehorned in. So what do we do in that situation?

Well, it's pretty congested in New York City:

The first separated bike lane in NYC was proposed in 2007, and its cross-section is below. In this case, a 15-foot wide planted area was inserted into the right-of-way to come between the moving automobiles and the bicyclists. The planted area also includes parking while protecting the bikers from being doored.

The video above did note that there are places where solid barriers would be inappropriate, such as when emergency or delivery vehicles must approach the curb. In that case, a double rolled-curb barrier such as the one displayed here (thank you to StreetsWiki) could be more appropriate. Other options mentioned in the video include bollards (removable vertical poles) such as the ones you see where the Centennial Trail crosses roads. They prevent vehicles from passing, unless you have the authority that comes along with having the key.

Coming back to the Pacific Northwest, the current issue of Planning Magazine brings the story of Vancouver, British Columbia's newest experiment in separated bike paths. While separated bike paths were available along the water's edge, last summer brought a proposal to separate the bike path on Hornby Street, penetrating into downtown.

Could Spokane do the same thing? It does present challenges. It is more complex than laying down stripes and it does need to be designed into the physicality of the road. Second Avenue, for instance, would need a concrete strip of some kind in order to move the parking meters away from the sidewalk. However, for much of Spokane region, the roads are very wide, and a few feet for a concrete strip would be easy to accommodate. Plowing would become impossible in the bike lanes in that case, but the city doesn't sufficiently maintain the bike lanes in those situations, anyway. Indeed, you might be able to pitch it as an alternative to piling up snow in the middle of the road during major storms.

As always, the character of the neighborhood and the people's transportation demands will be key to deciding what form a transportation asset will take. But, no matter what you may think about them in general, building separated bike lanes is a valid alternative, and no transportation plan proposal should be presented to the public without it.

Four the Future - October 11

Bikes!

• Getting There: Road-sharing just got easier
  Source: Spokesman-Review; September 27, 2010
  Summary: Using a combination of dedicated bike lanes and sharrows, the City of Spokane has created new bike corridors on Howard Street from Fourth to Buckeye and a loop around downtown. A sharrow is a marking on a traffic lane that looks like a biker with arrows. It warns automobile drivers that if they see a bike, the bicycler owns the lane. (An excellent Inlander Q&A gives great detail into what sharrows can and can't do.) The new routes are the result of a $600,000 federal grant. This was a non-controversial way to add bike lanes.
  Opinion: At last count, there were 33 comments on the story on the Spokesman web site. There doesn't seem to be anything non-controversial when it comes to drivers in downtown Spokane. What's truly sad is that the bike has always owned the lane when they're in it. And yet, if there's a reminder to help make people safer, the contrarians come out in droves. I wonder if they hate painted crosswalks, too. Stories like the next one drives them into a frenzy.
  
• City analysis notes bike route's potential for snarled traffic
  Source: Spokesman-Review; October 4, 2010
  Summary: Removing a lane of auto traffic for a bike lane on second avenue would cause backups during rush hour in downtown Spokane, according to a city analysis. Councilmember Bob Apple said that a bike lane wouldn't be safe, and is annoyed by the assertive behavior of bicycle transportation advocates. He suggests bicyclists be moved to fourth and fifth streets. Bob Lutz, former chair of the city’s bicycle advisory board, says the analysis is flawed: it assumes increasing automobile traffic over time despite recent trends. Councilmember Jon Snyder points out that the route is on the master bike plan and connects other important bike routes in the city.
  Opinion: What's the point of a plan unless it's implemented? There's more on Second Avenue in the next story....
• Second Avenue: Crossroads or Opportunity?
  Source: Spokane Council Member Richard Rush; October 5, 2010
  Summary: Spokane City Council Member rebuts the city's assertion that revising 2nd Avenue to include a bike lane would require that a lane of auto traffic be eliminated. He notes that Second Avenue has an unusually high accident rate, so sorely needs to be subject to "traffic calming" methods, like making the wide 13-foot lanes narrower. He cites a study which shows that 10-foot lanes do not cause more accidents than 13-foot lanes. So, with the current 51-foot road width, Second Avenue could continue to have three 10-foot lanes, two parking lanes of 7 and 8 feet respectively, plus a 6-foot bike lane.
  Opinion: City council members who read traffic safety studies. They’re a rare breed! The images he includes showing the increase in cycling safety and a sample of what bike lanes should look like are convincing. But, is it too late? The next story answers that....
  
• Final touches on Second Avenue will likely come next year
  Source: Spokesman-Review; October 4, 2010
  Summary: There have been delays in the reconstruction of Second Avenue so it will continue until after the winter. Business has been suffering serious sales declines. While the major construction will be complete this year, a final run of asphalt will be laid down next spring.
  Opinion: All this means that it doesn't get its final striping until after the snow has finished for the year. Time to adjust the lines on the road, guys.
  

Review: The Nature of Cities

The Nature of Cities is a documentary which explores ways in which nature can be integrated into urban landscapes to reduce energy consumption, improve health, inspire curiosity, and build community (not to mention reconnecting urban dwellers to the nature around them).

The film takes us to locations around the US and Europe, including Austin, New York, San Diego and cities in Sweden, The Netherlands and France. Each location has a story to tell about how the community is improved by adopting "regenerative systems."

Austin contributes stories about how the transportation department designed bridges to encourage bat habitation and the reaction of city dwellers to having a million bats living within their midst (I assure you, it's positive!) and a native plant garden which is helping restore the landscape. San Diego's canyons, saved from development due to steep terrain and flooding streams, are nature preserves which can bring people from diverse neighborhoods together for recreational purposes.

The European cities contribute stories about green roof designs which extend the life of the building, manage rainwater, and reduce building heating costs. There are communities which have managed to reduce their dependence on automobiles, which allows those developments to turn the streets into gardens and playgrounds. One development retains a forested area which is far more used than a standard playground because it is more interesting with more things to explore and discover.

The video is a survey, certainly not a how-to, but it does provide food for thought. I would encourage viewers to look at the various design elements to think about what kinds of things appeal to them. The ideas presented are site-specific, and there shouldn't be a need to replicate them precisely. But, for instance, where there is a water feature fed by captured rainwater which otherwise be a flooding hazard, should it have a waterfall? What kinds of plants would you want to keep the water clean and provide an attractive space? Critically important: what would make it fun for the kids?

Below is a short preview of the movie. For those of you lucky enough to have access to the regional university libraries, it is available for checkout.



The DVD is available for $24.95 for individuals at the Throughline Productions web site.

References
Davis, C., Beatley, T., Kellert, S. R., Louv, R., Oblinger, M., Throughline Productions (Firm), & Electric Lodge (Firm). (2009). The nature of cities. Boulder, Colo.: Throughline Productions.

Four the future - December 28

This edition: bicycle highways, rural land institutionalization, phosphorus pollution reduction, and a planning failure.

• Bicycle Highways
  Source: The New York Times, 091228
  Summary: While American planners are beginning the process of considering a national highway bike infrastructure, the city of Copenhagen is creating segregated bike highways between the suburbs and the city center. Several technologies are being considered to help create pelotons (groups of riders moving together); GPS and RFID could be used to trip traffic lights in their favor. Highways are not the first element of a strong bike system.
  Opinion: The Centennial Trail is our highway in Spokane, though it's not always in the most effective location for commuting. It also connects to the North Idaho Centennial Trail (pdf map, 1.5MB). But, that just gives us the responsibility to make the branches grow from this trunk. Liberty Lake has its own trail system, connected directly to the Centennial Trail, and I am personally aware of people who use it as a commuting asset. The Liberty Lake community supported the concept to such a degree that they taxed themselves through a Transportation Benefit District and used city general fund to build missing sections of the trails and provide matching funds for state grants resulting in a highway overpass. Other neighborhoods would benefit from a biking plan.
  
  


• When the land's worth more than the trees
  Source: The Oregonian, 091226
  Conservation groups hope to buy forestlands to manage
  Source: The Oregonian, 091227
  Summary: This two-part feature story documents the process and effects of Real Estate Investment Trusts and how they have been instrumental in destroying rural communities for the purpose of storehousing institutional cash reserves for tax-avoidance purposes. Due to the real estate bubble, the land under the forests has become more valuable than the trees. The problem grew slower in strong growth management states, such as Oregon. Forest loss in Washington is 10 times faster than in Oregon. Conservation groups are hoping to use the popping of the bubble to gain ownership of private lands to protect them from inappropriate conversion to urban uses.
  Opinion: Encouraging local economic development is difficult because you must assemble both the labor and the means of production simultaneously. History is littered by efforts to create remote utopian towns which are self-sustaining and prosperous. All failed; they only survive by changing their goals. Given the difficulty to leverage a community into economic stability and the significant national conversation about the importance of creating jobs, one would think that considerable, coordinated effort would be applied to make it happen. However, one must wonder how a planner encourages long-term local economic development when the national government interferes by having a tax code which encourages not working for your money over working for your money. After all, why would you work for your money? It's hard to do and you get taxed at a higher rate. As long as the capital gains tax rate is lower than the income tax rate, rural job creation will be hampered because it's better to merely own an asset, especially if a glut of surplus cash raises prices, than put it to work (provided you're not the last one to dump the land as the bubble bursts). Planners must account for this bias when they're attempting to perform this kind of work. They can help mitigate the federal policy by putting in place enforceable growth management policies which preserve resource lands, in part by preventing subdivision. Subdivision of resource lands is ultimately self-defeating because eventually it's so subdivided that it becomes unproductive. At that point, it's not a resource land anymore.


• Filters show promise in river cleanup
  Source: The Spokesman-Review, 091227
  Summary: Municipal wastewater treatment plants emit phosphorus-rich effluent into the Spokane River. Standards will be strengthening to reduce this pollutant. The City of Spokane has been testing various technologies for phosphorus reduction, and there is optimism. Blue Water Technologies, a local company, has been operating a system in Hayden for years. It has sold systems in the Midwest and South Korea. At least 20 American municipal systems were identified in 2007 which achieve the required standards.
  Opinion: Chalk it up to human ingenuity that we have the ability to take out more phosphorus, a highly hydrophilic (water-loving) ion, than is present in the Spokane River as it enters the State of Washington. Unfortunately, innovation and politicians don't always mix. This technology has been available for several years. I received a briefing on it years ago because one of the dischargers, Liberty Lake Sewer & Waster District, wouldn't give Blue Water Technologies a public hearing. Spokane County's current commissioner majority has been publicly supporting more expensive technologies which do not solve the problem while disparaging these proven techniques. Too often, engineering firms have an interest in the type of technology that is used, either because they hold the patent or they want all their plants to be identical because it reduces design costs. Worse yet, they may be driven by the possibility to get Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM) contracts which allow them to operate a public facility. This gives them profit while the public takes on the risk. The company to which Spokane County granted the contract refused to put their name on the discharge permit: if they make a mistake, they're immune. Only the ratepayers, and the environment, suffer. As awareness of these newer technologies becomes more widespread, we have to count on unbiased experts to become louder, because the public won't voice strongly on these highly technical issues.


• Neighbors fear swales plan
  Source: Portland Tribune, 091228
  Summary: The proposed stormwater swale installation along 44th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, has run into a snag because neighbors oppose the construction. They are not opposing it because of the benefits its designed to produce, but because of other effects the swales will have on transportation, public safety, and delivery of public services.
  Opinion: This is a planning mistake of the first order. One of the fundamental requirements of good planning process is to engage the people who are affected by the plan. After all, they know things that planners don't about the particular character and habits of a neighborhood. Whether the swales are effective or not is a secondary issue at this point. The community must be engaged if planning is to be useful, and all this incident has caused is a rift between a group of people attempting to solve a stormwater management problem and the people they're meant to serve. It's time for the advocates to go back, review the planning method, and start over.

Four the future - December 24

Today: affordable density, Portland biking, population estimates, and straw-bale houses.

• But is it Affordable?
  Source: Sightline Daily, 090422
  Summary: Dense growth in Vancouver, BC, has been strong, but prices are high. Adding more units satisfies the supply side of the equation, but density in itself is not enough. New York and San Francisco are not considered affordable, either. The price of condominiums in Vancouver has increased from C$1000/month in 2000 to C$2200/month in 2007. Part of this is due to the same hyper-escalation that the US experienced. Perhaps prices will come down just as they have been in the US. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has recommended some new policies, including requiring 20% of housing be affordable and reduce parking requirements.
  Opinion: This is actually a problem beyond mere housing policy--it ranges into the area of finance, and the glut of cash in the United States not dedicated to any particular purpose. All this excess cash flows from one sector to another causing bubbles which burst when it moves on to the next sector. Remember the dot com speculation? Then housing speculation, then oil speculation.... This explains how building activity increased so greatly, yet prices went up--the value of cash in the housing market went down, because there was too much available. It was the same with the other bubbles. Planners can't account for where this speculation craze will go next. Some people have called this "casino capitalism," and I agree. The solution must come from outside planning, such as financial re-regulation and the return of defined benefit pensions.


• Just how boldly will Portland go into bike future?
  Source: The Oregonian, 091222
  Summary: For the first time in five years, the number of bike rides in Portland went down. Portland had spent money on increasing bike use, and some bike-hating bloggers complain about it. Portland's bike plan says that 1% of the population are "strong and fearless" bikers, and another 10 to 15 percent will bike with good lanes. Copenhagen and Amsterdam have ridership levels of up to 40 percent because of bike only boulevards and extra-wide bike lanes. However, in Portland, the low hanging fruit may have already been harvested, and to get the next group of bikers, higher levels of investment will be required.
  Opinion: Higher levels of biking is better for public health, the environment, and both private and public budgets. I've always thought it was bizarre that people would drive their cars to go to a gym to ride the bikes. The attitude is so pervasive, most of the soldiers in my unit did the same thing when I was in the Army. I ran the mile and a half to and from physical training each morning, and after a while I scored so well on my physical strength and endurance tests that I wasn't required to go to training with the other soldiers. We need a change in attitude. We've subsidized automobile activity for decades from the building and maintenance of roads, oil subsidies, and allowing unmitigated pollution to enter the air. It's gotten so bad that auto ownership is almost a requirement in modern America. Through their policies, our governments have substantially taken away the freedom to not own a car. It's time to change the equation: let's put more into sidewalks, bike lanes and boulevards, and transit to try to re-balance our transportation system.


• Recession Slows Population Rise Across Sun Belt
  Source: New York Times, 091223
  Summary: States in the west and south are growing slower partially as a result of the housing recession. In the last population estimate prior to the 2010 decennial census, the census bureau found that Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina have slowed growth, while Florida, Nevada and California actually had more people move out than move in. States in the northeast have been shrinking less quickly. The decennial census affects how many representatives each state has. Based on the 2009 estimate, Texas will gain three seats, while Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington would each gain one. Since the House is limited to 435 seats, Ohio would lose two, which Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania would each lose one.
  Opinion: Planners use the census to track changes in population, in part to anticipate growth requirements. Not all states have this issue: Michigan only increased by 0.3%, while Washington increased by 13%, in the last 9 years. Additionally, planners use the income, social and housing data to determine what kinds of services may be necessary and track economic trends. It's important data, so it's important to answer the census questions. That, and it's the law: congress actually authorized jail time for those who do not answer, though I'm not sure that prosecutors are likely to follow through on that!
  
  


• In Idaho, a house made from straw and mud
  Source: The Christian Science Monitor, 091223
  Summary: Mark Lung is building a straw and mud house in Boise. The hay bales provide insulation, and are less expensive than traditional materials. The house he's building costs $86/sq.ft. (excluding land), just $165,000 for a 1900 square foot house. He previously lived in a similar house in Colorado and while the temperature ranged from 20 to 80 Fahrenheit outside, the interior stayed between 68 and 72 without heating or cooling. Straw-bale homes aren't built in some areas because codes haven't been updated to include them.
  Opinion: Well, let's update them! (Yes, easier said than done.) There will be value in adopting standards and the expertise to ensure that they are built safely and efficiently. This also gives us a way to reduce energy needs and produces a demand (though, minimal) for a product grown in this region.