A school in the Toronto area goes “walking only.” http://spacing.ca/wire/2010/03/25/milton-school-forces-to-students-to-walk/
Category Archives: walking
Roop Street Widening Project – Phase 3
On March 10th, Muscle Powered attended the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission meeting to learn more about Phase 3 of the Roop Street Widening Project. This is the section of Roop Street that stretches from Washington Street to 5th Street. This phase won’t begin until after the phase that is currently under construction, Washington Street north to Beverly Drive, has been completed. Still, it is nice to know what the big picture is.
Roop Street Looking North
Three alternate plans were presented to the RTC that included:
- Four 11′ lanes for auto traffic (2 northbound, 2 southbound)
- 5′ striped bike lanes on each side of the road.
- 5′ sidewalks on each side of the road.
- 1′ concrete center divider curb.
- Left Turn Pockets at selected intersections.
All three alternate plans were the same except where to build the left turn pockets. Alternate plan 3 was the most favorable with the left turn pockets at Washington, Musser, and 5th Streets. This was a compromise between making left turn pockets available at important intersections, while preserving front yards of residences near Robinson Street.
I really like the idea of left turn pockets, since they don’t waste a lot of valuable space. This is especially important when retrofitting an already existing narrow corridor like Roop Street. A small percentage of traffic actually uses turn lanes, and only occupies the space near the intersections. The rest of the turn lane is just wasted space that could go to bike lanes and sidewalks.
Roop Street Looking South
Right of Way Challenges
This section of Roop Street will present some challenges during reconstruction. While there are some wide sections that will make it easy for construction crews, other areas are very narrow. Right of way acquisitions for the project will intrude pretty far into some people’s yards, take out some fairly large trees, and will bring the sidewalk up very near the houses. I rode down Roop Street the day after the meeting to get a better look at the impact. Some areas wouldn’t be impacted greatly with the right of way acquisitions, businesses, parking lots, bare dirt, etc. The biggest impact was to about a half dozen houses on the east side of the road about half way down. These residents would lose much of their yards.
The project is still quite a ways off though, and much can happen before construction. Will there be enough money left in the shrinking budget to continue? Will a shrinking Carson City population justify more auto capacity? In its current condition, it’s not safe to ride a bike down this part of Roop Street during many times of the day, and there are no sidewalks on many sections. Just adding bike lanes and sidewalks, and keeping the traffic down to two lanes would be a huge improvement. This would also create less of an impact for the residents, and probably save some of the big cottonwoods that provide shade for these properties.
A good lesson I took away from this meeting is that we started a ripple effect last fall when we asked for bike lanes on Phase 2 of the Roop Street widening project. The planners knew that we would want bike lanes on Phase 3, and we didn’t even have to ask. None of us had to get up and speak during the meeting. All we had to do was nod and smile.
Step by step: Join walkers on the path to physical and mental benefits
Here is a great article from the Sacramento Bee on walking, just walking - Step by step: Join walkers on the path to physical and mental benefits. Thanks to Terry Preston of WALKSacramento for the link.
Bicycling and Walking in Nevada
The Alliance for Biking and Walking, a national advocacy organization, recently released the “Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmarking Report” on the status of biking and walking in all states and major cities (Las Vegas is included). Though the report is rich variety of text, charts and graphs, some relevant rankings for Nevada include:
Cycling to Work ranking = 17th (0.6%)
Walking to Work ranking = 31st (2.3%)
All Trips Cycling 0.9%
All Trips Walking 9.2%
Bicycle Safety ranking = 37
Pedestrian Safety ranking = 40
Portion of Transportation Budget to Bike/Ped ranking = 37 (0.8%)
Portion of Transportation Enhancement Funds to Bike/Ped ranking = 31 (45%)
Advocacy Capacity – no ranking because no statewide organization
overweight rate 63% and obese rate 25%, which is in the middle of the states
2009 Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects
new bike lane on Winnie Ln
We’ve recently posted several project reports for bicycle and pedestrian projects completed in 2009 by Carson City Public Works, NDOT and Parks and Recreation, and others were posted throughout the year. Here is a list with links back to the original posts.
- Fairview Dr widening
- Hot Springs Rd shared lane
- Empire School sidewalks
- Stewart St Extension
- Curry St reconstruction
- Multi-use Path (Bike Route 6 / Linear Parkway)
- Old Clear Creek Rd improvements
- Winnie Ln
- Koontz Ln
- Eagle Station Ln crosswalk and signal
- Mexican Ditch Trail bridges
- repair of drain grates
Carson City Public Works also does ongoing sidewalk repair, which includes replacing buckled and deteriorated concrete, and adding ADA ramps. These projects are scattered about town. I don’t think that this ongoing work is keeping up with the rate of deterioration. A lot of sidewalks in Carson City were either constructed with poor quality materials or not cured properly, and they are falling apart. I believe that it ought to be the responsibility of the adjacent property owner to maintain their sidewalks in good repair, however, state law prevents local entities from requiring that owners do so.
In addition, some bicycle lanes were restriped as part of the routine slurry seal and restriping that happens every year.
Fairview Dr widening
bike lane on Fairview westbound
With completion of the Fairview Drive improvements between Roop St and the new freeway, a signed and marked bike lane has been installed. This section, which had no designation on the 2007 Carson City Bicycle Route Map, can now be designated principal (green) on the next revision. It provides a pleasant and safe connection between the bike lanes on Roop St and on Saliman Rd.
A drain grate was incorrectly installed on Fairview eastbound so that it was a bicycle tire trap hazard, but that was reported to Carson City Public Works and has been fixed. There is a “bike lane ends” sign westbound just west of Saliman which is in error – the bike lane actually ends as it is squeezed out just to the east of Roop St. This squeeze out is unfortunate and unnecessary, as it makes it hard for bicyclists continuing north on the Roop St bike lane (Route 395).
crosswalk and signal at Eagle Station Ln
new signal and crosswalk at Eagle Station Ln
A new signal and crosswalk at Eagle Station Lane allows pedestrians to cross Carson St/Hwy 395 between Koontz Ln and Clearview Dr. This crossing was formerly impossible, across six lanes of heavy traffic in a 45mph zone. The installation was part of an agreement between the city and Casino Fandango to handle traffic from the expanded casino and hotel areas on the west side of Carson St, and seemingly was accelerated by the death of a pedestrian crossing here in June 2009.
Carson City has a number of long gaps between crosswalks on high volume and high speed streets, specifically south Carson St (Hwy 395) and William St (Hwy 50). These long gaps cause pedestrians to cross without any protection. I’ll write a post in the future about these gaps and solutions. But at least one of the gaps has now been solved!
New sidewalks for Empire
New entrance sidewalk and crosswalk
Note: This entry was previously posted on the SRTS blog, but that blog is being phased out, and I thought this would be of interest to Muscle Powered people as well.
The sidewalk work around Empire Elementary is complete. The work was contracted by Carson City Public Works, and completed by Garcia Construction, with most of the funding from a Community Development Block Grant. This grant was specifically awarded because it targeted a low income neighborhood and school. Though the Safe Routes to School program certainly encouraged this project, credit goes to the city and particularly Patrick Pittenger.
Sidewalks were added along the north side of Stanton St all the way from Fairview to the school, and new walkway into the school was constructed, ADA ramps were placed at many corners on Stanton St, Monte Rosa St, Gordonia St, Siskiyou St, and Douglas St. Crosswalks have also been repainted in much of the neighborhood, particularly the ones students use on their way to and from school. Not only does this project make is easier and safer for students to walk to school, it gives a nice feeling to the whole neighborhood.
New sidewalk along the north side of Stanton Dr
Old Clear Creek Rd bike lane
Bike Lane on Old Clear Creek Rd
As part of a recent project to reconstruct part of Old Clear Creek Rd and enhance Fuji Park, there is now a bike lane on the south side of Old Clear Creek Rd between Carson St/Hwy 395 and Vista Grande Blvd. There was already a bike lane on the north side of Old Clear Creek. Along the boundary of Fuji Park and the Carson City Fairgrounds, diagonal parking and a bus pullout lane were added, along with landscaping of rock, trees, and shrubs. Wide, inviting sidewalks were also installed.
This section of road, shown on the Carson City Bicycle Route Map as alternate (yellow) could now be upgraded to principal (green). Though it has not yet been designated or signed, this section is a logical continuation of Bicycle Route 395 which now ends just before it reaches Carson St/Hwy 395 at the signal intersection on Lupin Dr. There are plans for a bike route southward along Vista Grande Blvd to connect with Jacks Valley Rd, but it was assumed that this would be completed as part of the development the retail area which has ceased for now.
MUTCD 2009 released
The December 2009 edition of the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) has been released by the Federal Highway Administration. Say what? What is the MUTCD? It is the federal standard for signs and pavement markings, so you see the results of it every time you are out on a roadway. More importantly, it specifies how and when many traffic controls can take place, so has an influence much broader than just what you see.
A good introduction to the impacts on bicyclists and pedestrians is on Bike Portland at http://bikeportland.org/2009/12/16/new-fhwa-rules-will-give-engineers-more-tools-for-bike-traffic/.
