How pedestrians "interfere with traffic"

A post by Greater Greater Washington, which is a blog I used to follow more closely than I do now. This is like BikePortland.org but for all things transit and transportation covering three times the area/population.

How pedestrians "interfere with traffic"

Brew to Bikes Book Review

My initial post on this was over at my personal blog at : http://peterkoonce.blogspot.com/2011/01/reading-list.html.

Charles Heying and his cadre of coauthors wrote a nice book and I thought a few of the recommendations are worth commenting on. This raises a question about the future of old school media and the popularity of books as we increase the amount of electronic content in the world. The nice thing about reading a book is you get a significant amount of content from one source. A downside is that it doesn't force you to articulate your thoughts on a particular subject like commenting on a blog would. Media like Bikeportland.org  is such a site where the comments can offer significant insight. The newest radio shows on Oregon Public Broadcasting offer an online format for collecting thoughts and the host brings those into the show to offer perspectives that the generalist host would otherwise have.

Back to one of the recommendations worth noting in the book...

Recommendation #2: Don't let economists design your economic development strategy. Here's the excerpt:

For one, they are trained to use data that comes from sources that were design in an industrial economy, like gross domestic product. They focus things like growth and jobs and old school terminology. "things like environmental impacts are described as externalities, as if the economy operates in some abstract world and its connection to the physical world is tangential, even accidental. Pollution and resource depletion seem to come as a surprise to economists, something akin to collateral damage.

There are some socialist leanings in this book, but having read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" among other titles, I appreciate some of these critiques.

Reading the first review on Amazon, it was funny to see that the commenter was from Austin, TX a City where the "Keep (insert City name here) Weird" slogan started. Essentially, I see that sort of a movement as a keep it local concept, an effort to preserve the uniqueness of a community. I don't believe Weird is the right moniker, but it's something that one can hang your hat on (whether it be of a cowboy or bicycle messenger variety).

Bicycles 2010

Bicycles 2010 in the TRansportation Research Record. also, SYNTHESIS are due Feb 18th.

Visit to Seattle to Discuss Bicycle Signals

I was invited up to Seattle to present to a group of engineers, planners, and architects from the City of Seattle, SvR Design and the Cascade Bicycle Club.

I was excited about the chance to share some of the work we're doing, because I find it forces me to reflect on the work we're doing and the presentations always stimulate discussion and in many cases ideas that I hadn't thought of. You can also get a pretty good sense from the audience when we're doing innovative things. Not just innovation for the sake of innovation, but with the intent of improving conditions.

The biggest chalenge for the engineers I spoke with is believing the build it and they will come concept. One of the engineers asked specifically how we can spend the money for detection for bikes when there are only a few of them using the facility. It's clear from the question that the City's vision hasn't been shared and the link to sustainibility hasn't been made. I feel strongly that I am serving the City and our mayor. I also happen to agree with the goals, the mode split targets, the intent of our infrastructure spending. Yet, even if I didn't I think I could make the argument with whatever policy it is that there are specific expenditures that would make the signals and street lighting better and meet my interest in sustainability.

The argument for transit priority that I would make is that the costs for transit exist and as a taxpayer, I want to reduce the costs to society of operating the transit vehicles. With street lighting, an investment in new fixtures would reduce long-term electricity costs and the coal that's burned in Boardman (Oregon's favorite coal planet).

There are obvious equity issues associated with pedestrian investments and we're able to make those investments as the requests come in because we prioritize providing access for all users.

But back to Seattle! They have been doing some great things as of late as indicated in the City's Blog. The trip to Seattle was quick with less than 3 hours in the City. I would have liked to have a chance to spend more time and have more a of a chance to learn about what they're doing as opposed to being the presenter, but that's for another time. The ITE Quad meeting is coming up in April.

Peter Koonce Mention on Streetsblog

The link name doesn't jive with my mention in the blog post, but alas it was fun to come across this on a recent google search and archive the mention.

The Dividends of Car-Free Parenting

Bike Signal Debate in Salem

I visited our state capital to testify in front of the Senate regarding SB 130 which would add a bicycle signal into the Oregon Vehicle Code. This is important in that it would allow engineers to consider using the display in cases where if applied would reduce confusion regarding the control of the right-of-way. It seems to be moving forward throughout the process and I am hopeful that this step will be one that makes our transportation system safer.

http://bikeportland.org/2011/02/01/pbot-in-salem-to-testify-in-support-of-bicycle-signal-bill-47099#more-47099

Bicycle Signals (Coverage by KATU 2 News)

I remember the interview, but couldn't find the YouTube video to post it at the time, so here it is.