tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89623692004093019942024-02-06T21:01:14.833-08:00rEvolving TransportationSharing information about Traffic Signals, Bicycles, Technology, and the Urban Form.
I work for the City of Portland. The views expressed on this blog are my own. pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.comBlogger530125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-81411786889556444522023-12-20T14:47:00.000-08:002023-12-20T14:47:06.439-08:00New MUTCD and the Safe Systems Approach<p> </p><p> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="m_-3936728853431763831HLMsgOuter" name="HLMsgOuter" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="margin: 0px;"><table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" colspan="2" style="margin: 0px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="5" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px;"><p>The 11th Edition of the MUTCD is out now!</p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="m_-3936728853431763831HLMsgOuter" name="HLMsgOuter" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="margin: 0px;"><table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" colspan="2" style="margin: 0px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="5" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px;"><p>The role of the MUTCD has been something that I have thought a lot about in my 25 plus years as a professional. Several years ago when there was discussion about the potential to separate the Manual into two volumes, I agreed with the consensus that thought it was not a good idea. Yet upon more experience with its application as an engineer in the public sector, I appreciate the interest and the significant differences between a City Center or Business District where distinctly different levels of multimodal activity are expected. There are going to be cases where we have completely different goals (safety, equity, asset management) than our traditional aim related to mobility. <br /><br />As a practitioner in a City that has multimodal policies, the MUTCD has at times been a barrier to getting to solutions that meet the goals of our community. The MUTCD has not kept pace with proven countermeasures and treatments that we use regularly to implement policies. I can assure you that I appreciate the need for research and believe we're not investing enough to change the document through peer reviewed studies. To this end, the City of Portland has done more work with our nearby universities (Oregon State University, Portland State University) and partners in the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) University Transportation Center (University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, and University of Utah to name a few) than ever before.<br /><br />But back to the MUTCD... In too many cases the language written that finds its way into the document continues to favor automobile traffic over other modes. In many cases, this isn't based on research. In the case of this NPA, there are many instances where the document is too strict or is not just not practical. The most recent example about how bicycle signals in the ITE Community is one such example. That language has stopped us from using federal funds to build bicycle signals in ways that we had been having success with for many years prior to the FHWA ruling.<br /><br />The other problem that I will share is that cities that are required to follow the guidance of the MUTCD, those engineers are turned into the professionals that are essentially telling our politicians "No" much of the time, often without a clear reason why. So, as a practitioner that is asked to implement the goals of an urban area, the practitioners are faced with difficult questions about how to use treatments that are focused on safety vs. meeting the standards. Simply meeting the standards of the MUTCD or the guidance will not result in a safe system, which is the primary argument against moving forward with the current NPA. In my opinion, our role as engineers is not to dictate to political leaders what should be done, but to articulate the realm of possible. When asked to implement Vision Zero, I have to admit I was and remain skeptical, but it's not a smart career move to throw up my hands and say we just can't do it because the standards won't get us there. Having a mission like Vision Zero is similar to the Apollo 13 mission. To rescue the crew (our public), we need all of the partners working to this goal, we need all of the ingenuity to save lives, we didn't hear the Apollo 13 crew giving up and saying that they can't change the mission because it doesn't meet the federal standards and the crew can't be rescued. <br /><br />Uniformity is critical for issues such as stop signs and freeway striping and signage where the risks of uncertainty are high. Yet, there are many cases where the strive for uniformity works counter to our local goals. The National Transportation Safety Board report entitled: "<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS1701.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1703198554421000&usg=AOvVaw31-KbkPhB59K9K3tHUywYZ" href="https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS1701.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SS1701.pdf">Reducing Speeding-Related Crashes Involving Passenger Vehicles</a>" is a great example of this. A few quotes from the report focus on the guidance on speed limits in the 2009 MUTCD "may lead to higher operating speeds" and "the relationship between speed an injury severity is consistent and direct". This is why they have recommended changes to the Federal Highway Administration next edition of the MUTCD. It is also why the NTSB said "the current level of emphasis on speeding as a national traffic safety is lower than warranted". It's also why there is a tremendous effort through ITE to describe the importance of speed management. <br /><br />The need for uniformity in urban areas where 20 mph speeds and the mixing of people walking and cycling adjacent to heavy vehicles and buses is easily debatable. If we are to improve on our safety record, we need to examine why we have the amount of traffic violence on our streets that we do and do more to address the thousands of people walking and cycling that are lost every year. The chapter on bicycles is a great example that while much improved is insufficient for meeting the needs of many of the practitioners in ITE community. Finally, as a cyclist and a practitioner who also teaches at Portland State University, I do not appreciate your characterization on bicyclists and their whims. I can assure you that I can easily find people to debate with about cycle length and clearance intervals just as easily as I can find someone that has an interest in bicycling facilities that are different than what we designed even 10 years ago. That's the evolution of an engineering practice based on evolving research. <br /><br /></p><p>We have a long ways to go in this profession to realizing our mission is safety of all users. I have to say that while this edition has some significant improvements, it seems we still have a distance to travel to realize that not all communities have the same goals and that we must continue <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ite.org/about-ite/about-ite/&source=gmail&ust=1703198554421000&usg=AOvVaw1q6aMxdyNcvRaoAeioEwq2" href="https://www.ite.org/about-ite/about-ite/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="https://www.ite.org/about-ite/about-ite/">to serve the needs of our communities and help shape the future of the profession and transportation in the societal context</a> (ITE Mission Statement). </p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote>pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-30385559801996657592023-01-24T08:25:00.004-08:002023-01-24T08:25:59.568-08:00Response to America Has No Transportation Engineers<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">An engineer wrote an article titled: "America Has No Transportation Engineers", critiquing the civil engineering education that many of my colleagues recieved. The point was that our lack of interdisciplinary studies leads to an over reliance on standards. As someone that's worked on encouraging the industry for some time, I agree with the author and those that argue that a civil engineering education did not make me a "transportation engineer". The criticisms are consistent with the trend that engineers are often blamed for the challenges of today's transportation system, which isn't entirely fair. The challenge faced is transportation is a physical system based on many decisions (historical and current) that have interdependencies that are difficult to unpack. From induced demand, behavioral economics of transportation choices, traffic signal software to concrete mix design, the transportation industry is complicated. Colleagues are working on reform, hopefully we can do more as a profession to support this important work. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06AX1zf9VeBIm1Ce2cxZN7hWCnX-JamDVYaenUaXFG1y0f8G7qNYV4WMGuIfaWJEMqJ9Q1RFblNQHXHpuCuAvj8csOA7znfYoLUTemfF2Psf13RVephpEDcV3pitQfaSB3IfZnE3WsuFOk_lijGJyPtTejCPKAM8DhtiA1h9wy7HgcGcn_19_brfAyg/s4032/IMG_3753.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06AX1zf9VeBIm1Ce2cxZN7hWCnX-JamDVYaenUaXFG1y0f8G7qNYV4WMGuIfaWJEMqJ9Q1RFblNQHXHpuCuAvj8csOA7znfYoLUTemfF2Psf13RVephpEDcV3pitQfaSB3IfZnE3WsuFOk_lijGJyPtTejCPKAM8DhtiA1h9wy7HgcGcn_19_brfAyg/s320/IMG_3753.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Today's engineering designs are working to improve conditions for cycling, walking, and community. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">We all have bias and the data that one gathers to develop the guideline or standard may not result in the intended outcome. Where it seems that the transportation engineeirng profession runs into trouble is that we have been slow to implement changes in approaches to planning, design, operations, and maintenance necessary to deliver on the safety goals (especially if that's what your community is asking for). To deliver Vision Zero, we need significant and comprehensive changes (vehicle restrictions, design criteria, etc) to improve safety. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">My community has sought changes to the approach to speed limit setting, Level of Service, traffic signal timing, bicycle facility design (some of which has already been reformed in guidance from ITE and other groups) and other context specific approaches to transportation solutions. In the start of my career, it was mostly about moving cars and reduced vehicle delay based on the Highway Capacity Manual. Today, we are undoing some of those past "improvements" because we're solving a new problem. The ability of the transportation industry to provide the solutions to today's challenge (traffic fatalities as one objective) is not done in a vacuum. Our industry's emphasis on improving safety (hopefully) has made it clear that one cannot simply apply the HCM without consider safety, i.e., adding lanes to an arterial and expecting the safety outcomes for pedestrians to improve on the arterial. Yet, it's not entirely clear that we have an understanding of the safety consequences of efficiency improvements that remain part of our local ordinances and policies. The solution: continue to invest in research, education, and technology transfer to keep pace with the expectations of the community, and our elected leadership.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhPuQqOkf4DFOohRako1JgfWSnkF4Vwym21WozoS0v7EqB34RbkNnMFx8LulhiNpxc_QuwppWl9rlMnmhzikMl00L_Dn9kGtK3RDqAF9AiB-hF1ZI7GyTi3PGE8TAx4Y1HYzyuDbbG6DpkxHlCYy3hER2T5gro6ucwbsnAddGEVM-my8JkB58k0wpIg/s4032/IMG_9374.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMhPuQqOkf4DFOohRako1JgfWSnkF4Vwym21WozoS0v7EqB34RbkNnMFx8LulhiNpxc_QuwppWl9rlMnmhzikMl00L_Dn9kGtK3RDqAF9AiB-hF1ZI7GyTi3PGE8TAx4Y1HYzyuDbbG6DpkxHlCYy3hER2T5gro6ucwbsnAddGEVM-my8JkB58k0wpIg/s320/IMG_9374.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By consolidating bicycle facilities to one side of the street, we can reduce turning conflicts that lead to crashes</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><article class="update-components-article feed-shared-update-v2__content" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); display: var(--artdeco-reset-base-display-block); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0.8rem 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><div class="update-components-article--with-large-image" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><div class="update-components-article__link-container" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); height: 0px; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); max-width: 100%; padding-top: 359.8px; position: relative; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><a aria-label="Open article: America Has No Transportation Engineers by nextcity.org" class="app-aware-link update-components-article__image-link tap-target" data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/america-has-no-transportation-engineers" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-link-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); font-weight: var(--font-weight-bold); height: 359.8px; left: 0px; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); outline-offset: -1px; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); position: absolute; text-decoration-line: none; top: 0px; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); width: 540px;" target="_blank"><div class="ivm-image-view-model " style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); height: 359.8px; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); width: 540px;"><div class="ivm-view-attr__img-wrapper ivm-view-attr__img-wrapper--use-img-tag display-flex
" style="border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; display: flex !important; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); height: 359.8px; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); width: 540px;"></div></div></a></div></div></article>pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-37313763985230975932019-04-11T14:44:00.001-07:002019-04-11T14:44:11.338-07:00incorporating walking and biking into Traffic Impact Studies<br />
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For developments coming in, we (like everyone else) require traffic studies to be performed for <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">impacts related to streets, </span>traffic<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> and circulation. One of the ideas we are toying with is requiring those studies to have an element of bike/ped data baked in. So we have a more well-rounded answer on why we want this data, I'm curious if your municipality also asks for bike/ped data when traffic studies are required? If you need do ask for this data, what are your primary reasons?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span>Thanks!<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
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This is one of the key areas of improvement for many of our communities. There are so many reasons to reform Transportation Impact Analyses. It shouldn't just be done for development projects either, it should be more inclusive of all capital projects (ideally). The first reason is to improve the analyses is to address the safety performance of our streets using proven countermeasures for reducing risk for people walking and improving access to transit. The second reason is to implement long range mode split goals into our forecasting of transportation demand. In Portland, ideally a new development would be producing 25% bicycle mode split for commute trips. Once you state that as a goal, it makes the agency consider whether the adjacent street should provide a protected bicycle lane adjacent to the development. If the mode split is 8% for people walking to work and 15% for transit, the preparation of the traffic study should complete trip assignment that identifies the paths of the people walking to the development. That necessitates the analysis of intersections to determine whether crossing improvements (beacons, medians, etc) are necessary to insure safe facilities.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Most of us know how the provision of additional travel lanes for automobiles makes intersections wider and potentially more dangerous for people crossing. So, another recommendation is to inquire whether the City is willing to consider a lower Level of Service (LOS) during the peak hour. In addition, the analysis completed as a part of the Highway Capacity Manual, actually considers the peak 15-minute of traffic flow, so one simple recommendation is to consider eliminating the use of the peak hour factor to reduce the extent that traffic analyses are focused on the worst 15 minutes of the entire day. Truly designing for the 1%!<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />As for the data for walking and cycling, many good traffic counting firms already provide the data in their turning movement counts. If they don't, you should specifically request this in your traffic impact study requirements documentation. Once you have this data, an agency could easily do some modification to the Highway Capacity Manual to estimate delay for people walking and cycling. If an agency requires the traffic impact study to conduct an analysis of intersections adjacent to the development to determine whether an enhanced pedestrian crossing is recommended it could be useful.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The other thing that you could require is aggregating person delay from the Highway Capacity Manual methodologies. By incorporating the delay calculations for the various HCM methodologies (pedestrian, vehicle, bikes (with modification), and transit), is a concept worth considering. Person delay is a weighted average that utilizes the traditional LOS analysis and other modified HCM procedures to assess walking, cycling, and transit delays. The number of people on the bus would increase the importance of that particular approach to the resulting measure. It can be useful when using existing data, reflecting the people that are using the street currently and for future considerations. The various results from the different modes are aggregated to discern the overall person delay for each signalized intersection. The future considerations would require assumptions of mode split by the local agency, but this would be consistent with the recommendations contained in the City Planning documentation.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A few other agencies have policies that have caught my eye:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">San Jose Protected Intersections </strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A Protected Intersection in San Jose is defined as a local intersection for which no further physical improvement is planned. The City declares that these specific intersections, because of the presence of substantial/potential transit improvements, adjacent private development, or a combination of both circumstances will not be modified to accommodate additional traffic and operate at a Level of Service (LOS) D or better. If a proposed development project would cause a significant LOS impact at one or more of the listed Protected Intersections, the proposed development will include construction of specific improvements to other segments of the citywide transportation system, in order to improve system capacity and/or enhance non-auto travel modes.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">San Francisco Incorporation of Vehicle Miles Travel</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The City of San Francisco used intersection LOS as the primary metric to evaluate the performance of roadways until 2016. At that time, the city sought to use a process that better aligned with its existing policies aimed at encouraging more transit use and improving the bicycle and pedestrian systems. After a detailed analysis, the City settled on VMT per capita as a metric to assess the impacts of new development. This new metric encourages development in transit-rich areas and supports higher densities that encourages multimodal tripmaking.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fort Collins Multimodal LOS Performance </strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The City of Fort Collins, CO has redefined Level of Service standards for multimodal transportation for use in their community. It is effective because it provides quantitative measures for walking, cycling, and public transit. The City developed these standards because "applying LOS standards to specific sidewalks, for example, would ignore the issue of whether the sidewalk in question is connected to the rest of the pedestrian network". The Fort Collins Multimodal Level of Service Manual establishes standards for each mode, recognizing that "When LOS for automobile mobility falls below identified levels, mitigation will be required to ensure a high degree of accessibility is provided through alternative modes".<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Pedestrian LOS is based on the following three criteria:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />· Directness – distance (out of direction) to destinations including transit stops;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />· Continuity – measure completeness of the sidewalk system; and<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />· Street Crossing Safety – uses NCHRP 562 criteria;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div>
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</li>
</ul>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-9902923788727637912017-07-10T04:54:00.003-07:002017-07-10T04:54:36.596-07:00Understanding Dutch Design by Visiting Rijswijk, a suburb of The HagueWe gathered at the New Church at 9 AM and broke into two groups.<br />
Paul and Peter lead the tours. We exited Delft on Delftseweg on a newly opened rebuilt fietsstraat. There was a lot of #FreshElmo as we headed north with several different configurations. One treatment that isn't very common is head in parking, which suggests that most configurations work in the Dutch concepts.<br />
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The Portland State University Study Abroad program visited Rijswijk, a suburb of The Hague and Delft. Rijswijk has 350 companies and 15,000 jobs with the two prominent local employers being the European Patent Office (2,700 jobs) and Shell (2,700 jobs).<br />
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The local planner provided a summary of the community's transportation plan and a few select projects. One example project was the new bridge in Broekpolder that opened up three years ago to connect Delftseweg to the west side of the river and the employment areas. Just as we arrived, the bridge opened and we got a nice view of the cross section, <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1yr_-Lg2ox8">which also happened in 2015</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cross section of the bridge (opened for barge traffic)</td></tr>
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We stopped on the Delftseweg where we spent some time looking at the tram line (Route #1) and the Haagweg where the most narrow green space was installed to make the separation between the light rail tracks, the motor way, and the service road.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">From left to right: Rail lines, auto space (with chicanes), cycletrack </span><br />
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Our next stop was on Caan van Necklaan, which was a diagonal street that used to serve as a cut through for car traffic. The intersection of Da Costalaan was designed with a circle that provides bicycle through movement and limited access for automobile traffic.<br />
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General Spoorlaan was a facility that surprised me on this visit. It is a street that has a significant distance where four auto traffic lanes are carried through the signal, allowing for passing in front of the old City Hall. Our guide Paul indicated that this sort of design isn’t used today, and is a remnant of 1960 design principles.<br />
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Our host at Rijswijk mentioned that they will be reducing this cross section for traffic safety and to reduce maintenance costs. Peter Furth said: that’s brilliant and our host says: “It’s common sense”.<br />
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-58552895341091483472017-07-10T03:22:00.001-07:002017-07-10T05:05:50.679-07:00PSU Study Abroad Visit to Gemeente DelftThe Portland State University Study Abroad program visited the City of Delft today. Our host was Jan Nederveen, who visited Portland and Boston a few months prior to our visit. The <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9DumC_NMIa9dVBHU0lIT05FUE0/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=mspresentation">presentation</a> he gave focused on the planning of Delft and how they have approached the challenge of getting people to cycle more.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Traffic signals and intersections are designed specifically for cyclists.</td></tr>
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The City had a good start in 2005 when they worked on the City transportation plan because nearly 15% of the population is students at TU Delft (a technical university) and the town is 100,000 inhabitants, so the scale of the city is very easy to cycle in because it is 5 km x 5 km, so you can get anywhere in the City with a 20 minute ride. In the transportation plan, the City used five key categories to guide transportation decisions:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Air Quality, </li>
<li>Noise, </li>
<li>Safety, </li>
<li>Emergency Response, and </li>
<li>Ecology </li>
</ul>
The transportation analysis showed with these categories determined that cycling was a good way to increase the air quality. They have done a lot with cycling, but it's not the entire story. Transit is a big part of their work becuase many people are commuting to TU Delft from significant distances, the City has also invested quite a bit on transit planning. The presentation describes their investment in rail which has been centered on the main train station which is at significant cost. There has been limited work on the connections to the bus network. The bus provides some connections for people that can not cycle.<br />
<img src="webkit-fake-url://e6d2ac7c-145e-4916-991e-c0b4dee0ed10/imagepng" /><br />
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One of the massive initiatives in Delft to help them realize their goals was undergrounding the railroad that divided the main center from a significant neighborhood to the west. The largest impact of the rail corridor (200 trains per day) was the noise of the trains crossing near the homes in the area and its impact to the community.<br />
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The City recently completed the railroad tunnel that provided 4 tracks and is 2.3 km long. It provides an amazing boost to the nearby neighborhood adjacent to the station. Two tracks are operational now, but an additional two tracks are being dug out so that there won't be a need to come back later to address capacity needs between The Hague and Rotterdam.<br />
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1 Billion Euros was the overall cost of the project. 80 Million Euros were contributed by the local agency (Gemeennte Delft). The financing for the project was established because they are in the process of building 10,000 houses as a part of the project on the land that is reclaimed as a part of the railroad tunnel. Unfortunately for Delft, the housing crisis hit at the wrong time for the community and as the market returned the project has suffered from delays in the finance plan coming to fruition. Ultimately, the investment is worth the costs, because of the alternative of not building would result greater societal costs.<br />
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The project also included a high capacity bike facility separate from the other modes and bike parking facilities. In 2007, the bike parking was overloaded, even though there were 6,000 spaces. In 2016, the completed project added 2,700 parking spaces with a bike garage of 5,000 spaces!<br />
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The Delft station and an adjacent parcel that will be redeveloped in the coming years as a "Student Hotel" for students that are staying for four weeks (or something like that) and there's another plan for the Delft City office buildings were opened a few weeks after our opening. <br />
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Hey kids, let's go to the 5,000 space bike parking garage on vacation!</div>
pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-382777258842781022015-11-17T21:55:00.000-08:002015-11-17T21:55:04.524-08:00<div class="MsoBodyText">
It was another successful year in collaborating with professionals involved in research or applications that are worthy of presenting at the annual Transportation Research Board meeting. </div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br />Here's the list of papers that will be presented in 2016:<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Paulsen, Kirk, William Farley, Todd Mobley, Michael Ard
and Peter Koonce,<b> “Analysis of Active Warning Sign to Address Potential Bicycle
"Right-Hook" Conflict at Signalized Intersections”. </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Moore, Adam, Peter Koonce, Paul
Zebell, and Jon Meusch, “<b>Timing Issues for Traffic Signals Interconnected
with Highway-Railroad Grade Crossings”.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Sobie, Christopher, Edward Smaglik,
Anuj Sharma, Andy Kading, Sirisha Kothuri, Peter Koonce, “<b>Managing User
Delay with a Focus on Pedestrian Operations”.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Boudart, Jesse, Nick Foster, and
Peter Koonce, <b>“Improving Bicycle Detection Pavement Marking Symbols to Increase
Comprehension at Traffic Signals”.</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
The <a href="http://koonceportland.blogspot.com/2015/01/trb-annual-meeting-2015-papers.html">list for 2015</a> is here and a link to my <a href="http://signalsystems.engineering.iastate.edu/2015/01/30/presidents-note-trb-2015/">post-TRB letter to the Committee on Traffic Signal Systems</a>. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
The TRB Annual Meeting is one of the most wonky times of the year.</div>
pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-32988552705010640962015-11-01T10:58:00.000-08:002015-11-02T17:18:11.385-08:00NACTO 2015 Conference in Austin, TXNACTO held its annual conference in Austin, TX. Austin is a good city with the potential to be great. The National Association of City Transportation Officials meeting was a great chance to learn about updates from many of the NACTO member cities and industry leaders.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Austin has spent a lot of effort making connections for multimodal travel in the past 10 years. </span></td></tr>
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<br /><br />The meeting set a record for attendance (650!) and included many of the leading voices in multimodal transportation. I spent a lot of time with notes on Twitter, so if you want to review more you can look back in my timeline. I find Twitter useful for sharing and learning more about what others are thinking. In fact, I learned about "<a href="http://www.thenewsociallearning.com/">The New Social Learning</a>" this past week. <br /><br /><br /> NACTO offers a chance for cities to share ideas. These include big picture policy ideas and design details such as what an engineer needs to know to get a facility built. The Commissioner panel and keynote speeches were fantastic for providing the big picture guidance. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Global Street Design Guide: A New Approach to Street Design</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janette_Sadik-Khan">Janette Sadik-Khan</a> kicked off the conference with a keynote on advancing transportation policies and a preview of the Global Street Design Guide, NACTO's latest project. This latest initiative will incorporate guidance from the <a href="http://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/">Urban Bikeway Design Guide</a>, <a href="http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/">Urban Street Design Guide</a>, and other documents into a document that represents international best practices. The most interesting concept from the preview included an emphasis on desired outcomes such as health and safety with a focus on users and context. <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Great quote from LADOT GM.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The presentation was followed by a pecha kucha session that included former APBP Board Member Seleta Reynolds who is General Manager of LADOT, Robin Hutchinson, who the Director of Salt Lake City Transportation, and Ryan Russo, Deputy Commissioner of NYCDOT. The pecha kucha session challenges presenters to offer quick thoughts in a fast paced way that keeps attention of the audience. It's something that I hope to see more of in the future because of the excitement created by the quick pace.</span></span><br />
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<br /><br />One of the best parts of most conferences are the technical tours in cities that afford an opportunity to learn about the implementation of innovative projects from the practitioners responsible for the project. In Austin, we had a chance to visit their downtown protected bike lanes, the City's Traffic Signal Shop and Operations Center, and many other facilities. The City of Austin have completed some fantastic projects that are advancing walking and cycling in a traditionally car oriented community. The protected bike lanes on the ground in Austin have evolved since <a href="http://koonceportland.blogspot.com/2013/03/austins-cycletrack-on-rio-grande.html">my last visit to Austin</a>, two and a half years ago. During that visit, I learned about the detector confirmation light which was using an "off the shelf device" for greater purposes. The City of Austin still hasn't installed a bicycle signal stencil like <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5241074,-122.6508492,13z/data=!4m2!6m1!1sz2DO-dQXc7fo.k0Prx0fudMj8">we have in Portland</a> (map at the link), but they have several projects that have made cycling better in the City. <br /><br /><br /> My main takeaways from this visit were not signal related. Although, City employees have done some very interesting work in deploying an ap developed by Kimley Horn that can use data from mobile phones within the traffic signal system. The data transmitted from the phone is a Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) prototype that may be used for detection of people on bicycles (although it could be used by people in cars as well). <br /><br /><br /> The most important reason to attend the conference is to put faces with the names and exchange ideas.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan Wilkes shares knowledge with attendees.</td></tr>
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Ideas that are "traded" City to City save the public money. Take for instance the Urban Bikeway Design Guide. The City of Portland doesn't need to reinvent the wheel and develop a "<a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/334689">Portland specific Guide</a>", we can use NACTO's version. If we need more information, we can also call our colleagues as opposed to using consultants for every detail. (No offense to my consultant friends). The example of curb types for protected bike lanes is one such example. I was impressed with the City of Austin's abilities to implement curbs on some on-street sections where it would have been easier to leave separation and transition to either shared space or a more traditional bicycle lane. As Nathan Wilkes, our tour guide said, "the City did a lot of outreach in order to insure that the protected lane was preserved for the entire length of the street".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">There are some design details that have to be seen to appreciate </span></span><br />
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-75693244999146656372015-08-07T09:09:00.000-07:002015-08-07T09:09:06.130-07:00History of Traffic Signals in PortlandThe Oregonian had a nice write up on the 100th birthday of traffic signals in Portland. The column concluded with an email I sent awhile back thinking to the future of transportation.<br />
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"Curious about what Portland's traffic and its growing signal system might look like 100 years from now, I recently asked Peter Koonce, the city's chief traffic signal engineer, to take us into the future. Here's how he responded in an email:"</div>
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<em>I am not a futurist (yes, that's a title), but I played one when writing a Strategic Highway Research Program Project proposal back in my consulting days. There are so many scenarios, it is really hard to imagine and state what's actually possible. So, in order to talk around the question, it is best to describe various possible scenarios.</em></div>
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<em>There's what I would call the pessimistic view that suggests that we'll have the same constraints in the future because the public sector will be financially constrained and afraid to innovate and adopt new technologies.</em></div>
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<em>There's an optimistic perspective that offers that technology will change everything and what we have today will be obsolete. Driverless cars and "Connected Vehicle" concepts will be the new normal. Technology could eliminate the need for much of the travel that we have to make today including the typical work commute.<a href="http://amazon.com/" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Amazon.com</a> is a good example of the impact of technology on shopping trips, video conferencing for business should continue to evolve and become more useful, and the population will change albeit slowly as we age more gracefully (if that trend continues). </em></div>
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<em>At the end of the day, the cost of energy (think Peak Oil and climate change) will likely play a large role in this and that's hard to pin down since you're asking a transportation professional, so that will be an influence.</em></div>
pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-51567850843993410792015-07-15T03:10:00.002-07:002015-07-16T12:23:26.196-07:00 A Vision Zero Community: HoutenI asked our host Andre Botermans in Houten about their safety record. He answered promptly "<b><i>Safety is no issue in Houten</i></b>".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andre Botermans addressing the PSU-Northeastern University class</td></tr>
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He went on to discuss the notion of traffic crashes and he said the following:<br />
"If we're talking about fatalities, we had one (1) fatal of someone on a bicycle in 20 years. A car was involved of course. There are car fatalities that have occurred on the ring road."<br />
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He went on to say that the safety on the bike paths has been increased by removing obstacles. They eliminated 150 bollards where cars were not wanted and it was possible for them to turn, but along the way they have found that the car drivers know not to be on the red asphalt, so these bollards and barriers were unnecessary and proved to be a problem for the youngest and oldest people on bikes.<br />
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There are low pedestrian crash rates and no fatalities in the last 20 years because the entire town is a maximum 30 km/hr speed limit (once you leave the ring road which is 70 km/hr). The City has no connector-distributor roads (collectors in the U.S.) other than the ring road because the street network offers a clear definition between that auto specific facility and the community residential streets.<br />
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People walking and cycling do not have to mix with freight trucks. The City planners put the working areas outside the ring road. All of the places where trucks may conflict there are separated bicycling facilities. Grade separation may be necessary at times to create the safer conditions (shown below).<br />
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The class discussion mentioned as much. One of the groups met with a woman at a park and she said that when her kids left Houten, she had to train them how to ride in a more complicated cycling environment. That sounds a bit extreme, but perhaps supported by Mark Wagenbuur's point that people take some of this as obvious in Holland, but it's very deliberate design that makes this happen.pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-17044016961981095222015-07-15T02:54:00.001-07:002015-07-15T03:09:45.603-07:00Bicycle Oreinted Development: Case Study in Houten Houten may be the best example of bicycle oriented development in the world. The land use was carefully prepared to insure that the system worked as intended. The other factors that make this such a successful Bicycle Oriented Development community includes the following:<br />
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<li>Robust, safe bicycle network</li>
<li>Convenient Parking for bicycles</li>
<li>Support from the community</li>
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The layout of the city is focused first around the Houten train station, similar to what is considered with transit oriented development in the U.S. In my opinion, what makes Houten a bicycle oriented development is that the layout to the train station was designed to be accessed via bicycle first and foremost as opposed to providing efficient automobile access. The transportation system was laid out with bicycle highway perpendicular from the train station and rail alignment. Car access through the community was provided on the ring road and is less convenient than the bicycle network. It's not just about the bicycle network, it also has to include bicycle parking and of course a supportive community.<br />
<h3>
Details about the Bicycle Network</h3>
The bicycle highway is 2 km from the train station (east-west) before you reach the ring road. All of the homes in the community have a low stress route to the bicycle highway and it is only 8 minutes to the train station from the furthest house to access the bicycle parking garage. The schools were planned carefully so that they are all oriented towards the bicycle highway. There is a movement of design for 8 years old to 80 years old, Houten may be 6 years to 100 years old.<br />
The south part of Houten decided not to connect the bicycle highway to the ring road to the east side of the community. In that case, the planners decided to<br />
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The red asphalt is a standard. The width is 3.5 meters wide. They have transformed many of their old routes to meet this new standard.<br />
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When cars are added to the bicycle network, they use the Fietstraat signs, auto te gast (cars are guests), that is used in many cases throughout the country.<br />
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Safety is a separate post next to this one. This is no issue in Houten.<br />
<h3>
Parking Layout and Bicycle Theft</h3>
Parking layout for bicycles is key for growing the use of people on bikes. Mark Wagenbuur mentioned the importance of bicycle parking in his presentation and this is clearly an emphasis of Houten's urban planning. As opposed to placing a large vehicle parking lot at the train station, they chose to construct a bicycle parking garage directly under the station.<br />
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The bicycle theft is very low in Houten. The parking garage reduced theft by nearly 40% overall, but it was still very low compared to larger cities.<br />
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<h3>
Comments from the Community in Houten</h3>
The planners in Houten say that people are not that aware of what problems exist. When he talks to his friends they think that Houten is just normal. It's usual for them to see the City putting bicycles first in the plans. In Houten, there is a critical mass of people that cycle. When guests come to Houten to live, those people "have to adapt and when people explore cycling, they find it safe and more social". Essentially, the point being made was that the City's intent is to make people happy and they know from research that the more people cycle and walk, the happier they will be. He described an example in Austin, TX where there was a 8-lane street with a bike lane and they were trying to change it to include a cycletrack. The problem with a lot of cities in the world is that the streets are dominated by people that drive, so the modification of a street is resulting in a change to the most people.<br />
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<br />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-91832281244361957092015-07-15T02:05:00.001-07:002015-07-15T03:29:18.140-07:00Returning to Bicycle Heaven - Houten and South HoutenI visited Houten previously and wrote up a summary of the <a href="http://koonceportland.blogspot.nl/2012/07/houten-fietsstad-2008-presentatiinby.html">presentation from 2012.</a><br />
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There was a very nice <a href="http://www.itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/22.-092211_ITDP_NED_Desktop_Houten.pdf">write up by ITDP on Houten.</a> A <a href="http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/06/a-case-study-in-bike-friendly-suburban-planning/396107/">CityLab writeup</a> provided a national audience for Houten in the last few months.<br />
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On this trip, I wanted to dig deeper into the south part of Houten. The south part of Houten was under construction when I was here in 2012. The construction is still active in some cases, but a lot has been completed since that time.<br />
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I also wanted to learn more about their safety performance, the past presentation reported their crash rate was 31% of a comparable Dutch town, which is already much better than a U.S. city.<br />
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<br />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-50383352714898454742015-07-13T07:23:00.003-07:002015-07-15T02:47:27.661-07:00Cycling in the Netherlands by Mark Wagenbuur @BicycleDutchWe had a presentation from Mark Wagenbuur, who is the blogger of Bicycle Dutch. he provided an interesting perspective on Dutch cycling starting from the 1950s, it was the same as it was today. Cars were there in the 1950s, there was money and people able to afford the cars after WWII. As the country prospered, congestion increased and the parking was also congested. In the 1970s, it was similar to the U.S. with traffic engineers planning the cities. An overview of his presentation is available <a href="http://youtu.be/XuBdf9jYj7o">here</a>.<br />
The presentation focused on how the Dutch got great cycling infrastructure starting back in the 1950s, where after WWII, there was a need to get back to moving freely after the Nazi occupation. Yet, there was also a growing automobile culture, that was partially halted by the oil embargo of 1973. This and the rise in fatalities of people and especially children were other motivating factors. This made way for protests in the streets of Amsterdam in 1975. Several examples were given of protests.<br />
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We want a SAFE Street - Wij Willen een Veilige straat.<br />
Stop murdering children, safe footways and cycleways - Stop Kindermoord<br />
Autorijden? Ga Nou Gauw Fietsen - Protest rides all over the country.<br />
Cyclists Union was founded in 1975. The lonely cyclist struggles ahead, but no longer alone.<br />
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The community demanded genuine cycling policies and the resources to go with the change. The Cyclists Union wanted the government to give cycling a true role in the policies. There were two specific demands:<br />
Separate slow and fast traffic (bike and motor)<br />
Give cycling free routes through towns.<br />
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There was already a law on the Dutch government that says if you have more than 500 cyclists per day, you have to have separate cycling (rural conditions). So, in the 1970s this was a good place to start and he described the three strategies as: <br />
Elimination of through traffic<br />
Removal of parking<br />
Prioritization of bus lanes<br />
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He then described the three simple requirements for mass cycling?<br />
A bicycle<br />
Parking on both sides of the trip<br />
Good cycling infrastructure<br />
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In describing the standards for a bicycle, it has to be sturdy, upright, (could be heavy), chain case, fenders, wheel dynamo (no batteries), lock, etc. The parking has to be located well, the government mandates that the parking is indoor (ideal and now a requirement), with easy access to the street and where you don't have to carry it (remember it is a heavy bike).<br />
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Finally, Dutch design for good cycling infrastructure includes careful planning of the space in the City. Designing for people is key and auto traffic flow is secondary. There are planning policies that are used.<br />
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This is a particular example of those policies and how to move people in cities. <br />
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Bus stop and cycletrack design are great examples in The Netherlands. What they know is that bike lanes are not good enough. He wants protected intersections to be the main stream like it is in The Netherlands. The other important element of Dutch design is that the speed of the street is 50 km/hr speed limit for all streets with people cycling. Higher speed does not work without supporting infrastructure. In Houten, when there was a street design that was 100 km/hr and the police was asked to enforce a 50 km/hr speed limit, the police stepped in and decided to ask engineers to solve the problems. Engineers were set up a traffic calming function on the request of the City police. Police can't accomplish their job, if the design isn't supported.<br />
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The policies that have been used in the history of cycling include the following:<br />
Dutch Bicycle Master Plan 1990-96 only time federal government has focused on the issue.<br />
Sustainable Safety policy 1990-now<br />
Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic (CROW) generally followed by municipalities.<br />
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The Dutch are very strict on their use of a road categorization that requires designation and there are three main classifications. <br />
Through regional routes 130 to 80 km/hr - no cycling<br />
Local distributing - collector roads - 50 km/hr - depending on traffic you would have physical or visible spearation (bike lane) - collector roads can not have parking or destinations.<br />
Residential streets/places - Speed 30 km/hr (18 mph), no separation is needed.<br />
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Some municipalities have fought for a hybrid extra (destinations are the typical element that is added).<br />
He used Houten as an example designed in the late 1960s as a cycling friendly city. Red lines can not be crossed by motor traffic. ring road all around the city, that provides circulation into the different parts of the City. Cyclists can not go anywhere. Cycling is almost always faster than the car.<br />
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He used Houten as an example of how to retrofit existing residential areas<br />
1. Block off streets, narrow other streets with traffic calming.<br />
2. 18 exit/entrance biking, 3 for cars (provide more options for bikes to avoid traffic)<br />
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He also cited that the Dutch closed down traffic on a Sunday as an experiment for placemaking in city centers<br />
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Where did the cars go? In the City Center of Utrecht, changes were made so it was impossible to go through the City. Now, the traffic stays out on the fringes. No through traffic in the main area. Simple fences were used and buses allowed through. Cameras are providing the enforcement.<br />
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Downgrading former arterials are key to the implementation<br />
Traffic dispersion happens, but don't worry about chasing all of that traffic.<br />
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What can other countries learn? They should do the following as others are working on this issue too:<br />
Placemaking is happening.<br />
Complete streets, including cycling infrastructure<br />
Protected intersections<br />
Designing a network.<br />
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Placemaking - Prague, Paris, and NYC<br />
Complete streets - Sydney, Chicago<br />
Protected Intersetions - SLC, Davis, Austin, and Boston.<br />
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<br />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-13865284017012058142015-07-13T01:38:00.004-07:002015-07-13T01:38:32.009-07:00What do Advocates Do? Jeff Rosenblum, Livable StreetsAs a trained engineer who became an advocate, then City bureaucrat, and now Ph.D. candidate, Jeff has a vast experience of what makes a city tick and how change happens. He has some great takeaways from his time creating Livable Streets, describing "What Advocates Actually Do?", he boils it down to three points:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ul>
<li>Convince government to do it</li>
<li>Provide technical assistance</li>
<li>Build grass-roots support for projects</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Also, I will add one more that he said: Thank bureaucrats when they do the right thing<br />
Jeff has some great examples also of specifics.<br />
<h3>
What specifically do Advocates do?</h3>
They build relationships with magazine editors - Bicycling Magazine puts Boston on the worst cities for Cycling.<br />
Build bike rides that start people thinking about riding bikes in the City - Boston Hub on Wheels Citywide ride & festival<br />
Building constituency<br />
Lawsuits when necessary - reconstruction projects must accomodate bikes and pedestrians to the best practicable. Only person doing the suing - Attorney general<br />
When government is no longer the problem, organize a Bike Summit, pick a project to get started on. Make the engineers be the heroes by helping them get project designs correct. Make planning effective by prioritizing the connections that are most important.<br />
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-50949345682358204592015-07-13T01:33:00.004-07:002015-07-13T02:56:35.880-07:005 Misconceptions in Transportation by Jeff Rosenblum - Livable StreetsI will start with the takeaways instead of the misconceptions, because not everyone will read the entire blogpost and the talk was really positive, but he used the misconceptions to drive the conversation for the students. He also described his role as an advocate which is a separate blogpost altogether.<br />
<div>
<ol>
<li>Streets are for people</li>
<li>Cars need less space</li>
<li>Traffic calming works</li>
<li>Decisions are political</li>
<li>Economic growth relies on livable streets not more highways.</li>
</ol>
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1. Streets are for cars</h3>
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<ul>
<li>Streets that are busy for 15 minutes a day</li>
<li>Place where no one wants to walk, no cafes</li>
<li>People used to use streets as part of their living environment - today 75% of place that children are free to roam has been compromised by automobile</li>
<li>Jeff used the example of a Dutch school drop off, paint being used in NYC, and Portland street paining at SE 34th & Yamhill.</li>
<li>European cities were not always the way they were. Amsterdam in the 1950s was moving toward car ownership, but they saw the way the U.S. was going and reoriented toward bicycle. Delft Center used to be a parking lot. NYC and Broadway is another example. Anytime you can take place in a city, you're making livable streets. <a href="http://parkingday.org/about-parking-day/">Parking Day</a> is a great example of this, founded in San Francisco.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
2. Cars need more space</h3>
<ul>
<li>Reducing congestion is not a goal for cities. Massachusetts Avenue road diet occurred in 1996. There is time and space. Don't let the number of lanes fool you! It isn't about just space, there's also the time component. Preventing left turns, retiming traffic signals, etc are all strategies that have to be part of the conversation.</li>
<li>Not enough parks, take space from parking or on-street traffic</li>
<li>Lafayette Square was rebuilt in 2008 as an example of remaking a crosswalk into a park. </li>
<li>Western Avenue in Cambridge there was a cycletrack of 9 feet wide with a 7.5' parking, 10.5' travel lanes and another 7.5' parking. The speed limit is 30 MPH in Massachusetts, but 25 MPH is on Western Ave. Bus bulb outs are part of the cycletrack, eliminating parking.3</li>
</ul>
<h3>
3. Traffic calming is the most important thing that engineers can do</h3>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Pasanen (1992) http://tinyurl.com/yuohsg - <a href="http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/HS809012.html">NHTSA study</a></li>
<li>Traffic engineers have the tools at our disposal and we need to use them</li>
</ul>
<h3>
4. Decisions are technical</h3>
<ul>
<li> USDOT Ray LaHood started the dialogue related to considering additional flexibility. The Green Book even provides the following: "the intent of this policy is to provide guidance to the designer by referencing a recommended range of values..., sufficient flexibility is permitted to encourage independent designs tailored to particular solutions."</li>
<li>NACTO </li>
</ul>
<h3>
5. Cars drive the economy</h3>
<div>
Jeff used the example of Interstate 95 coming into Charles River. One of the Livable Streets founding Board Member was going to have his home demolished and have a highway that comes through the Northeastern University campus. </div>
<div>
McGraff highway in Somerville is an example of an antiquated highway that is going away. It takes concentrated efforts to think differently about the</div>
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<div>
<span style="color: orange;"><b>Kendall Square Example </b></span></div>
<div>
Parking TDM policy "pays off" - no more than 45% or people drive themselves. If they don't have less than 45%, the building gets shut down. Clean Air Act and parking freeze. Self reporting happens once a year and the City gets to check how it is going. The City provides an ala carte menu of things.</div>
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The success has resulted in great model for the City to follow when large projects occur. </div>
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-70196291620917491972015-07-09T00:39:00.000-07:002015-07-09T00:39:04.326-07:00Left Turn Options at Traffic Signals <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Two stage queue boxes are an area designated to hold a queue of people waiting to finish two stage turn manuever. To use this design, a person would remain in the bike lane and veer right, turning their bike to orient towards making the turn. <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: jaf-facitweb, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG9W4h7EZBHY2kPQdbQiSTAKrnluoWyREieW8-w46fMfUK2ILTkCkru29GohFAzuphwQaTgEgvsN3PdrhY7DjCXBXASQkWe-ffYP37iFnXLk-gI787qUJRgAMlTzvJRCTNWHNlW-enVKGQ/s1600/IMAG6079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG9W4h7EZBHY2kPQdbQiSTAKrnluoWyREieW8-w46fMfUK2ILTkCkru29GohFAzuphwQaTgEgvsN3PdrhY7DjCXBXASQkWe-ffYP37iFnXLk-gI787qUJRgAMlTzvJRCTNWHNlW-enVKGQ/s320/IMAG6079.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Two stage queue boxes are not used very often in the Netherlands due to the nature of how many cycletracks they have throughout the country. During our study of traditional bike lanes used in the City of Delft, we found this intersection where the left turns at the traffic signals is made from the left turn lane shared with cars. The detection of the people on bicycles is done with a conveniently placed push button adjacent to the curb. There is the maintenance concern with a pole placed that close to the curb, but that short pole with the button is before the curve, so with a low volume left it may not be a problem. I am not clear why they felt the need for a button as opposed to having an inductive loop detector, which is used throughout the City in other places. The other element of the traffic signal in this particular location was that they have a nearside signal head for both the vehicles and the cars. It is a supplemental head mounted adjacent to the pedestrian push button.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This traffic signal pole is used for the supplemental nearside left turn signal indication, the pedestrian push button and both vehicle signals (larger displays).</td></tr>
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The other option presented for the left turning person on a bicycle is the two stage queue box. The picture here shows a younger person with an adult who might not want to weave across the through lane to get to the left turn lane. This two stage queue box offers an opportunity to remain in the bike lane and make what we often call the "Copenhagen left" because this treatment is often used there.<br />
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The farside traffic signal provides an arrow underneath a bicycle symbol to clariy what the person on a bicycle should do upon getting the green.<br />
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The left turn queue box is staged in front of the side street through and left turn movement in effect blocking that movement so that the person on the bike can be at the front of the queueand not incur delay . It operates like a bike box without the lead in lane. <br />
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<br />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-74007218273291382122015-07-08T03:16:00.002-07:002015-07-08T03:16:36.481-07:00Rainbow Crosswalk in UtrechtA visit to Utrecht provided a pleasant surpise in the form of color on the street at a crosswalk.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedestrian crosswalk (rainbow edition) </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedestrian point of view</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="text-align: center;">In addition to the rainbow crosswalk, there is a diagonal crossing for a movement for people using bicycles. This diagonal crossing provides an opportunity to eliminate what would be a two stage crossing in Denmark or most other cases. It takes advantage of the fact that there is a long time necessary for pedestrian crossing perpendicular to this through bike movement.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Diagonal crossing of the intersection</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bicycle traffic on the corridor is heavy and you could imagine that a left turn queue box farside would be difficult to have the<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div>
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-87781981484214273292015-07-08T02:55:00.000-07:002015-07-08T02:55:03.049-07:00Bike Box in Delft on Wateringsevest at Noordeinde<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The bicycle box was a treatment that came from European traffic engineering practice. The Delft community does not have that many bike boxes, but this is one in the north part of town that is constructed in different colored brick. The street these cars are on is Noordeinde and the intersecting street is Wateringsevest.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The stop bar extends along the bike lane (mistake?) </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left turn queue box for people on Wateringsevest turning to the north</td></tr>
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<br />pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0Binnenstad, Delft, Netherlands52.016755232151652 4.35208529233932552.016602732151654 4.3517702923393253 52.016907732151651 4.3524002923393246tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-77113601843819810952015-07-08T02:32:00.002-07:002015-07-08T02:34:17.608-07:00Delft Bicycle Parking GarageDelft recently reconstructed its train station. The train station was a lovely old building, dating from 1847 and rebuilt this past year (2015). The parking for 8,700 bicycles includes 5,000 underground immediately south of the train station.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Start of the bike path to the underground parking</td></tr>
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The project included a 2.3 km tunnel under the city center includes a wonderful bike connection. The bike connection is on the east side adjacent to a canal and provides grade separation from the east-west crossings and a direct link to the underground bike parking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-ZpA0hOyvL8ciMGZQ4blN1NCi6hK92wBlfp9tZ7jspCLdoVIAKKpOUYim3JMbR8NIGNf8lJTd_FK5GlcQrfOTHLKwcptujabxQpMvPoPLxWlJwYRNllB4S62dkDjiVJm5hE5zWVVCA9t/s320/IMAG6044.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entrance to the parking garage - below grade of the main entrance but<br />
closer to the train level</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two level bike parking complete with number of spaces available</td></tr>
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The bicycle parking information is fantastic with information available on how many spaces are available in each row of parking. In a garage with 5,000 spaces, the Dutch use numbering to help you remember where you parked your bike.<br />
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The number 2 is shown below (not quite as clear as the Utrecht garage) and this is the parking for oversized bikes including bakfiets.<br />
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Real-time train information is available adjacent to the bike racks, so you don't have to look at your phone to know how much time you have before your train is coming.<br />
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The exit to the garage is sized very well to allow an efficient egress, ample space to pass the person that may be exiting the bicycle service facility.<br />
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The wikipedia has a lot of information on the transit that is available here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft_railway_station</div>
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0Delft Delft51.999956 4.374395tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-82950251891646042422015-05-06T22:57:00.003-07:002015-08-25T15:56:05.137-07:00Bio for Peter Koonce - Updated to 2015I get asked to speak at various events and I often have to search for introductory information on who is Peter Koonce? Here's what I am using currently, you can find past biographical sketches from earlier editions on this blog.<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Peter Koonce, P.E., has been described as one of the most progressive transportation engineers in the United States, dedicating his life to innovative treatments that improve the safety of multimodal travel. He manages the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation's Signals, Street Lighting, & ITS Division and is responsible for the oversight of an annual budget in excess of $13 Million and 43 professionals. He has served as an adjunct professor at Portland State University teaching graduate level courses in transportation engineering. He is a member of the Bicycle Technical Committee of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and was appointed Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Traffic Signal Systems. Peter is active with multiple professional societies including Institute of Transportation Engineers, the National Association of City Transportation Officials, and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. He has served on several University Advisory Boards related to transportation engineering and is in his first year as a Board Member of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. </span></span>pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-23809534904080436252015-03-29T13:21:00.002-07:002015-03-29T13:21:57.695-07:00Media Quoting What I said in a WebinarI have been asked to speak for professional society webinars on occasion in the past several years. One of the recent webinars was for the Association for Pedestrian Bicycle Professionals on the topic of Level of Service and how engineers are (the industry) using performance measures (past, present, and future). It was a topic I have covered in several lectures. What was unique from this particular experience was that a reporter from Minn Post took the language I used during the webinar and made it seem as if I was talking to him in the <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2015/01/way-engineers-rate-city-streets-rapidly-evolving-thats-good-thing">piece he did for the web</a>. As a reader of the piece, when the author uses quotes, I immediately think that the writer talked to the source directly. Yet, we didn't have any conversation I can recall. He did set up that we didn't really talk when he said the following: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15.9899997711182px; line-height: 23.9850006103516px;">As </span><a href="https://twitter.com/pkoonce" style="background-color: white; color: #801019; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15.9899997711182px; line-height: 23.9850006103516px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Peter Koonce</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15.9899997711182px; line-height: 23.9850006103516px;">, an engineer in Portland, Oregon, explained during the session,"</span><br />
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The article even had a bit of a misleading headline:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"The way engineers rate city streets is rapidly evolving. That's a good thing."</span></div>
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I wouldn't necessarily agree that the performance measures are "rapidly evolving" sadly enough.<br />
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The article was flattering but it makes me wonder if it is a cautionary tale to be more mindful of what opinions are shared in "public" settings like webinars.pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-21251931145523451362015-03-11T19:48:00.000-07:002015-03-11T19:48:00.137-07:00Clearance Intervals: How Long should a Yellow and Red be?I have been studying this issue for what seems like half my career, both as the Principal Investigator for the Federal Highway Administration's <a href="http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/arterial_mgmt/tstmanual.htm">Signal Timing Manual </a>and as a practitioner who has worked all across the country from Seattle, WA to Lee County, FL and now is responsible for a City traffic signal system. Safety is the first goal with signal timing. As a consultant, I didn't always appreciate that but now as someone responsibly in charge of traffic signal timing, that is clear to me.<br />
The operative question is this: Do higher speeds and longer clearance intervals improve safety of the transportation system?<br />
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In a complex urban environment with multimodal travel, the answer appears to be No. Safety is drastically influenced by driver behavior and the built environment and controlling speeds is difficult. This <a href="http://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2015/03/06/surprising-facts-florida-bike-crashes/24431091/">most recent article </a>that came to my attention highlights some of the challenges that I experienced in Florida working in the many high speed streets of southwest Florida and while this article focuses on the safety of bicycling, it is a reminder of the challenges given an 85th percentile speed limit setting and what that can do when serving multimodal transportation.On the flip side, downtown Portland (I am sure many of you have similar experiences) is an example where all modes converge and generally speaking on average the safety record is better than average. Our statutory speed limit is 25 MPH, but the built environment manages speeds even lower than that for the most part. In fact, most dense urban areas are safer because of this fact.<br />
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But back to the topic at hand (clearance intervals). The research I point to most about this topic (and cited in the Signal Timing Manual) was completed for the Minnesota DOT. The document entitled: "<a href="http://www.lrrb.org/media/reports/200426.pdf">Effectiveness of All-Red Clearance Interval on Intersection Crashes</a>" focuses on All Red Intervals and the long term effects of changing them. I encourage folks to read it as they consider the <a href="http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_731.pdf">NCHRP 731 research</a>. The research exposes the harmful effect of increasing all red times over the long term. Much of the research focuses on short term effects (increasing the yellow and studying it a day or two later shows positive safety benefits), which doesn't account for changing driver behavior. I believe Florida DOT experienced similar changes in driver behavior given the long clearance intervals being used on their high speed, wide arterials cited in the aforementioned News Press article about safety in Florida communities.<br />
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We should also consider what the changing technology landscape presents in terms of opportunities for increasing safety. A Connected Vehicle/Traffic Signal world presents some amazing opportunities where an increased clearance interval will unnecessarily reduce the efficiency of an intersection. These are exciting times.pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-28817073063214941212015-02-20T23:15:00.000-08:002016-02-20T23:15:31.933-08:00Sub/Urban & Transportation Related Songs I love the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sOfO8Ei1g">Shop Vac</a> is song by Jonathan Coulton because it starts with "We took the freeway out of town" and laments about the need for a left turn signal to get to a Starbucks. Any song that can incorporate a traffic signal reference is okay with me.<br />
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An old school tune that's more urban is Stevie Wonder's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSRyf5G2uI8">Living for the City</a>. Stevie Wonder is one of the most amazing artists.<br />
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Obviously, if you're talking suburban songs, you have to hand it to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34u_3Z9_LUw">Rockin the Suburbs</a> by Ben Folds. You know it's a parity when Weird Al Yankovic makes an appearance in the video. Ben Folds touches on racial tension and equity with a mention of "white boy pain" and about his grandparents and slavery, which is followed by a line of <i>"y'all don't know what it's like, being male, middle class, and white"</i>. Of course, the guitar rifs are pretty fantastic. The fact that they mention pulling up to the stop light is pretty awesome.<br />
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Another couple of funny songs that came out that parody new urban places are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UFc1pr2yUU">Whole Foods Parking Lot</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T1RMuoQnKo">Arlington: The Rap</a>. These aren't great songs, but make me laugh because they seem inspired by places that people can relate to.<br />
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The Talking Heads is a band that must have been urban planners in another life. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtCittJyr0">Road to Nowhere</a> is a great song with the lyrics: "<i>There's a City in my mind, C'mon and take that ride and it's alright, baby it's alright. And it's very far away, but it's growing day by day"</i>.<br />
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While we are on the Talking Heads, it would be a share if I didn't mention <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wg1DNHbNU">Once in a Lifetime</a>, with the lyrics "You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile..." might have been the first time I thought about traffic and transportation with a cool soundtrack. My other favorite lyric is "You may ask yourself, what is that beautiful house, you may ask yourself, where does that highway go to, you may ask yourself, am I right, am I wrong, you may say to yourself, My God, what have I done?"<br />
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The band Arcade Fire sang <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Euj9f3gdyM">The Suburbs</a> and the video is not a happy story, but you have to like a song when the lyrics start with:<br />
<span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"In the suburbs I, I learned to drive, </span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">And you told me we'd never survive, </span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Grab your mother's keys we're leaving"</span><br />
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It wouldn't be a song list from me, if I didn't include one of my favorite artists, Randy Newman. The song Baltimore laments the challenges of a City and is less about transportation, but certainly put next to Stevie Wonder's Living in the City, you can recall a bit about what cities were like in the 1970s.<br />
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Of course, you have to make the connection between Land Use and Transportation, so you have to highlight some walking, biking and car songs.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvV3nn_de2k">I Can't Drive 55</a> is a classic, but as a multimodal guy, I prefer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvQ-IJihrJM">Walk of Life</a> and the sports bloopers and celebrations that are one of the reasons I enjoy sports.<br />
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Way before they were viable, They Might Be Giants were singing about the joys of an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BPU5mKipNo">Electric Car</a>.<br />
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Let's not forget about our friends that are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pafY6sZt0FE">Truckin'</a>. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olDLxq6quOw">Bicycle Race</a> is the best biking song in the history of music. I had no idea the video was nude women actually racing bicycles. This is >PG-13.<br />
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Handlebars by the Flobots has a great chorus of: "I can ride my bike with no Handlebars, no Handlebars" and finally, the Red Hot Chili Peppers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyQxJ8d5PPo">Bicycle Song </a> where they say: "how could I forget to mention, the bicycle is a good invention".<br />
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And one more bike song I have heard on the KBOO Bike Show is from Mark Ronson called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVELTxKRoHA">The Bike Song</a>. "gonna ride my bike until I get home".<br />
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Lastly, is one more parody about transit titled the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkjfh5klUzM">Metro Song</a>.<br />
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-69649778448891550932015-01-11T13:18:00.000-08:002015-01-12T07:12:04.903-08:00Power & Importance of Research #TRBAM<br />
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<span style="font-family: ConduitITC; font-size: 11pt;">I blame graduate school and the internet (yes, that was new way back then) for the excitement I have for the research of transportation. I spent a lot of time during my time at Texas A&M and Texas Transportation Institute learning as much as I could on various topics that would help me be an effective engineer and leader in the future. All of the time in Texas, I was fortunate to have access to not only the internet, but also many of the researchers who had contributed to our knowledge in the industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ConduitITC; font-size: 11pt;">As I think about research, it truly is an essential part of transportation in many ways. The innovation that comes not only from research but by collaboration that happens at the annual TRB meeting results in leads to development and
application of new processes and materials for an effectively
functioning system. It is through research that the issues as defined by our political leaders and transportation practitioners can be addressed with limited resources.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ConduitITC; font-size: 15px;">The <a href="http://www.rita.dot.gov/sites/rita.dot.gov.rdt/files/rdt_strategic_plan_2013.pdf">USDOT Research Plan</a> says the following: </span><span style="font-family: ConduitITC; font-size: 11pt;">Funding research is an investment that pays off through the application of
concepts that are proven, via research, to be effective, resulting in a more
efficient, durable, and convenient national transportation system. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ConduitITC;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">I appreciate that statement and support it's content, but also think that there was a key. Essays of safety missed in the content. Fortunately, safety is a big part of the document an at the front of much of the work that we do.</span></span></div>
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-1303781256767117522015-01-11T08:11:00.001-08:002015-01-11T08:11:59.559-08:00Comments from Professionals Against Changing the MUTCD <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This post was inspired by how complicated it can be to modify a standard sign. The specific sign is shown below and is the <span style="line-height: 19px;">Right Turn Yield to Pedestrians Sign.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There
was significant debate on a seemingly simple topic of adding a bicycle symbol
to a sign that previously had a walking person as the only option. </span><img src="http://epg.modot.org/files/3/3c/R10-15.jpg" height="317" width="320" /><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There were 40 comments from across the country that included some fairly concerning perspectives that border on unprofessional. One comment that I am willing to talk about includes that by adding a bicycle symbol to the sign, "there is an impact to pedestrian travel". In other words, the simple placement of a bicycle on the sign would somehow degrade the pedestrian environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The specific comment was: "The R10-15 sign should only be used at intersections where there
are no marked crosswalks, because the sign gives the pedestrians <i><b>short shrift</b></i>." Clearly the comment was made in a
manner that highlights bias from the commenter. I think this reflects the challenge of people working to improve the bicycling and pedestrian environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Another thing that the commenters seem to forget is that the sign is optional. Clearly, if their engineering judgment suggests that the sign is not the right one for their conditions, they don't have to use it. In Portland, we have found them helpful and will continue to use them selectively to address locations where travelers may benefit from a reminder of the expectation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There
was also a comment related to "how will people on bicycle know how to use these signs". Luckily on the Committee, the point was made </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">that the sign is not for the people on bicycles, but rather for oncoming vehicles that could use the information</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> explicitly.</span></div>
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pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8962369200409301994.post-63141272112470262882015-01-11T06:56:00.002-08:002015-01-11T06:56:42.228-08:00TRB Annual Meeting 2015 papersI am always proud of the range of work that I can be involved in to advance the profession. The following is the abstract of each paper I had a small part in. I am very lucky to work with such smart people working to improve the transportation industry.<br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Assessment of Bicyclist Behavior at Traffic Signals with Detector Confirmation Feedback Device - 15-3409</b><br /><i>Boudart, Jesse Alexander; Koonce, Peter J .V.</i><br /><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">Monday, 07:30 PM - 09:30 PM</a><br />Bicycling is increasing in North America and therefore intersections have been modified to better accommodate these new cyclists. However, the increasing demand of cycling is outpacing the supply of high quality cycling markings, signing, signals, and general infrastructure at intersections. For example, recent research indicates more than 50% of bicyclists do not understand that the 9C-7 bicycle stencil symbol indicates the optimal waiting position for a cyclist to call a green light. Subsequently, people on bikes may run red lights because they don’t understand the feedback of a 9C-7 pavement marking. This cycling infrastructure shortcoming illustrates the need to study how new roadway information may impact user behavior and traffic signal compliance. This research documents the impacts of an active feedback device on cyclist behavior in an effort to improve the cycling experience for the increasing number of cyclists. A blue light feedback device was installed at a signalized intersection approach and its impact on bicyclist behavior, indicating that a statistically significant increase of people on bikes used the 9C-7 marking instead of the existing bicycle push button after installation of the blue light feedback device and especially after a sandwich board sign was installed describing the purpose of the blue light. These results indicate a blue light feedback device (accompanied with bicycle detection and the standard marking) could be used effectively in lieu of bicycle push buttons. Also, the impact of the blue light feedback device on bicyclist compliance with traffic signals (red light runners) was negligible.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Exploring Thresholds for Timing Strategies on a Pedestrian Active Corridor - 15-3025</b><br /><i>Kothuri, Sirisha Murthy; Koonce, Peter J .V.; Monsere, Christopher M.; Reynolds, Titus </i><br />Traditional signal timing policies have typically prioritized vehicles over pedestrians at intersections, leading to undesirable consequences such as large delays and risky crossing behaviors. The objective of this paper is to explore signal timing control strategies to reduce pedestrian delay at signalized intersections. The impacts of change in signal controller mode of operation (coordinated vs. free) at intersections were studied using the micro-simulation software VISSIM. A base model was developed and calibrated for an existing pedestrian active corridor. The base model of three intersections was used to explore the effects of mode of operation and measures of delay for pedestrians and all users. From a pedestrian perspective, free operation was found to be more beneficial due to lower delays. However, from a system wide (all user) perspective, coordinated operation showed the greatest benefits with lowest system delay under heavy traffic conditions (v/c > 0.7). In the off-peak conditions when traffic volumes are lower, free operation resulted in lowest system delay (v/c < 0.7). During coordination, lower cycle lengths were beneficial for pedestrians, due to smaller delays. The results revealed that volume to capacity (v/c) ratios for the major street volumes coupled with pedestrian actuation frequency for the side street phases, could be used to determine the signal controller mode of operation that produces the lowest system delay. The results were used to create a guidance matrix for controller mode based on pedestrian and vehicle volumes. To demonstrate application, the matrix is applied to another corridor in a case study approach.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b> Estimating Performance of Traffic Signals based on Link Travel Times - 15-3371</b><br /><i>So, Jaehyun ; Stevanovic, Aleksandar ; Koonce, Peter J .V.</i><br /><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">Tuesday, 07:30 PM - 09:30</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recent advances in communication and computing technologies made travel time measurements available more than ever before. On urban signalized arterials, travel times are strongly influenced by traffic signals. Yet, these travel times are rarely used to deduce information about performance of the signals. This study presents a novel method, based on well-known principles, to estimate performance of traffic signals (or more precisely their major through movements) based on travel time measurements. The travel times are collected between signals in the field, by using one of the point-to-point travel time measurement technologies. Closed-circuit television cameras and signal databases are used to collect traffic demand and signal timings, respectively. Then, Volume/Capacity ratio of major movement of the downstream signal is computed based on the demand and signal timings. This Volume/Capacity ratio is then correlated with the travel times on the relevant intersection approach. The best volume-delay function is found, among many, to fit the field data. This volume-delay function is then used to estimate Volume/Capacity ratios and, indirectly, few other signal performance metrics. The method, called Travel Time based Signal Performance Measurements, is automated and displayed on a Google Map. The findings show that the proposed method is accurate and robust enough to provide necessary information about signal performance. A newly developed volume-delay function is found to work just slightly better than the Bureau of Public Roads curve. Several issues, which may reduce the accuracy of the proposed method, are identified and their fixes are proposed in future research.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>G06 - Does the Bicycle Detector Symbol Change Cyclist Queuing Position at Signalized Intersections? - 15-2501</b><br /><i>Bussey, Stefan W; Monsere, Christopher M.; Koonce, Peter J .V.</i><br /><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">Tuesday, 10:45 AM - 12:30 PM</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Manual of Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) includes a bicycle detector pavement marking (Section 9C-05) and accompanying explanatory sign (R10-22) which may encourage cyclists to position themselves over detection at traffic signals. This paper presents the results of an observational and survey-based study evaluating the bicycle detector marking. Three minor actuated approaches at signalized intersections with significant bicycle volumes and without bicycle detector markings were selected for treatment. Three configurations were compared: 1) bicycle detector marking only 2) bicycle detector marking with the R10-22 explanatory sign, and 3) an alternative bicycle detector installed over a contrasting green rectangle. Analysis of 688 observations, gleaned from over 300 hours of before and after video data, indicate that while all three marking options influence cyclist stopping position, the effect of the marking is not large. For the marking only, 23.5% of cyclists waited over the space where the marking was installed. This improves to 34.8% with the addition of the explanatory sign and 48.4% when the marking is applied over the green rectangle. Analysis of survey responses of 227 cyclists indicates that only 45.4% of cyclists understand the roadway marking is meant to show where they should wait to be detected. An additional 11.5% understand that the marking indicates the recommended waiting location, but do not know that it is for the purpose of detection. Finally, survey respondents expressed concern about waiting in the travel lane and preference to wait closer to the curb (a position which usually prevents them detected).</span></div>
pkooncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13685359921487183869noreply@blogger.com0