Walk and Roll: WSDOT Active Transportation Update Sept. 4, 2019

Washington State Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 09/04/2019 06:18 PM PDT

WSDOT Logo

ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION NEWS FROM WSDOT AND PARTNERS

Bicyclist/Pedestrian Manual Count Pushed Out to 2020

As the state Active Transportation Plan update and related research projects move ahead, WSDOT Active Transportation Division has decided to postpone the volunteer count that usually takes place in the fall. We'll evaluate the methodology, types of data collected, and emerging data sources before deciding dates for the count in 2020.

Cascade Bicycle Club continues to be our partner in recruiting and coordinating the hundreds of volunteers who make the count possible. We'll share count news here; you can also sign up for their e-news to receive information on volunteering when the time comes.

------------------------------

Bicycle Network Analysis: Places for Bikes Workshops, Survey

Apply to People For Bikes if you're interested in having a one-day training event for city leaders focused on challenges and opportunities of building better bicycling infrastructure. Workshop content centers around the PlacesForBikes City Ratings program.

Sample agenda for Aug. 13 workshop in Atlanta, GA

Sign up for notification of next opportunity to be included in next city snapshot survey; opens in September

------------------------------

Get Ready for Walk to School Day Oct. 2

A Walk to School Day event can help kids fire up their feet and wheels as well as their brains. Safe Routes to School National Partnerships has resources to help you plan your program.

Register your event for your school's participants to be counted among the thousands of people walking and rolling around the nation. 

------------------------------

Bellevue Recognized as Walk-Friendly Community

The Walk Friendly Communities program (WFC) recognized three U.S. cities for their commitment to prioritize pedestrians and create safe, comfortable and inviting places to walk. Bellevue was recognized at the Silver level.

Interested in applying? Next deadline: Dec. 15.

------------------------------

Save the Date: WSDOT 2019 Innovations and Partnerships Conference Nov. 21, Tacoma

The focus of this year's Innovations and Partnership conference is how we grow, manage and diversify Washington's transportation system and how, through authentic community engagement strategies and collaborative partnerships, we foster a more sustainable, integrated future.

Keynote speaker Seleta Reynolds, General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, will set the stage for the day's sessions discussing what meaningful community engagement looks like relative to the power transportation has to shape community design.

Conference registration will open in mid-September.

------------------------------

Mode-Neutral Usage: Be Mode-Specific for Clarity

In the world of linguistics the term “retronym” refers to the addition of an adjective to clarify the meaning of a noun. Think of “real butter”--you didn’t need to say “real” in referring to butter until the invention of margarine. “Cloth diapers” were just called "diapers" until the invention of disposable diapers.

You may have noticed that the need for the adjective is often created by changes in technology. In a similar vein the word “transportation” simply means “the action of transporting someone or something or the process of being transported.” At its core, the word doesn’t mean “only transportation using a motor vehicle” any more than it would have meant “only getting around by horse and buggy” back in 1884. “Traffic” means “the vehicles, pedestrians, ships, or planes moving along a route”--not “cars and only and forever cars.”

To be clear and specific about which movements you’re actually describing--and which ones you aren’t--include references to mode or vehicle types.

For example, when you say “traffic congestion” do you actually mean “motor vehicle traffic congestion”? Even more precisely, with the movement of people in cars on highways that include HOV lanes you may have “single-occupancy motor vehicle traffic congestion” in some lanes but not in the HOV lane thanks to the greater spatial efficiency of multi-passenger vehicles. (In a future with autonomous vehicles you could experience zero-occupancy motor vehicle congestion.)

A truly complete morning traffic report might then include information like this: "Those of you driving alone are experiencing longer than usual travel times between A and B. If you're carpooling or taking transit and traveling in the HOV lane you'll save 24 minutes between A and B.* Bike traffic on the Interurban and Burke-Gilman Trails is picking up, but as always your travel time will be reliable.**"

Being mode-specific provides more complete information about the infrastructure, movements or issues you’re describing. Without the modal reference when you think you're being mode-neutral you may actually be assuming "cars" serve as a synonym for "transportation" or "traffic" or vice versa.

* This 24-minute time advantage for transit/carpool over drive-alone is based on WSDOT average travel time compared with HOV travel time Sept. 4, Bellevue to Everett, around 3pm.

** We don't currently have real-time traffic data monitoring on active transportation infrastructure (beyond bicyclist/pedestrian counters in some locations). Given the greater spatial efficiency of cycling, even when a trail has a lot of people using it bike/trike/rolling traffic continues to move. 

Wrestling actively with active transportation usage? Send your questions on how you can apply multimodal language in your work to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov.

------------------------------

FIVE+ THINGS TO READ

A City Planner Makes a Case for Rethinking Public Consultation: 'You can’t just say what you don’t want. You also have to say what is the ideal. Because there are laws that are restrictive and then there are laws that are encouraging. And I want to shift folks towards the policymaking of, “What is our vision?”'

Why building walkable cities is the key to economic success: “U.S. metros where the public and private sectors work together to adapt and deliver increased supply of walkable urban places will be the economic and social justice winners of the next generation.”

How Copenhagen plans to reach carbon-neutral status in just six years: 'The city is working to become “one of the world’s greenest and most bike-friendly cities,” says Frank Jensen, the city’s lord mayor. “This is the best way forward, because it creates better space, cleaner air, less noise, and a healthier city.”'

Unsafe Streets’ New Liability: "Simply put, streets that are known to be unsafe are now the legal responsibility of their municipality, meaning that crashes caused by reckless driving on those streets cannot be dismissed as private, individual acts of recklessness, but must also be addressed on a systematic basis by the city."

Why inclusive cities start with safe streets: "If we continue to design and plan cities that are inaccessible to certain people, we are committing a serious injustice towards these people. This is about guaranteeing the right to public space to all, regardless of dis/ability."

Why Speed Kills Cities: "Reducing speeds is the best, easiest, and fastest way to quickly radically improve safety, for both drivers and anyone in front of them."

------------------------------

TRAININGS, CONFERENCES, WEBINARS

We add new trainings as we find them so the list changes with every issue. The National Center for Biking and Walking maintains a searchable international calendar of conferences, training and events. Some of these offer continuing education credits. All times are shown in Pacific time zone. 

All webinars listed are FREE unless a price is noted. All items are webinars unless a location is noted.

September

October

Know of an upcoming webinar, conference, or other professional development opportunity? Send details to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov.

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

  • Smart Cities Challenge: Transforming Intersections. Deadline Oct. 18 to apply. Cities and counties are asked to identify their smart city vision for mobility and safety, as well as intersection problems they'd like solved, including rush hour gridlock or pedestrian-driver crashes.
  • Did you know? USDOT TIFIA Rural Project Initiative loans can be used to construct pedestrian/bicyclist infrastructure
  • Have any of these that people should know about? Send information to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov

AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS

  • America Walks seeks suggestions for inspiring women who promote walking and walk-friendly, accessible communities. Email info@americawalks.org with your suggestions for women to profile.
  • Nov. 1: Deadline to submit trails for designation as National Recreation Trails.
  • Dec. 15: Deadline for entries in National Recreation Trail photo contest.

PRESENT AND PARTICIPATE

Opportunities to submit for presentation at conferences; committees and work groups seeking participants

PLANNING AND PROJECTS

  • Looking for a WSDOT project to check on status, get email updates, attend an open house? Start here.

Have an upcoming project, open house, public comment opportunity? Construction projects people should know about as they relate to biking/walking? Compliments on a project? Send to barb.chamberlain@wsdot.wa.gov

RESEARCH AND RESOURCES

SURVEYS AND DATA COLLECTION

  • Safe Routes to School Census: The only catalog of basic information about SRTS programs around the US, and it's only as good as the information you share about your program.
  • ITE Pedestrian Demand Survey: On behalf of the ITE Bicycle & Pedestrian Standing Committee, asks for information about crossings where before and after counts have been performed. Respondents will receive summary or link to completed results. Google account required to complete survey; for email option contact Mike Hendrix at mike.hendrix@perteet.com.
  • Does your city/town have bicycle traffic signals? Add to the crowdsourced tracking spreadsheet of cities in North America

If you read this far, thank you! You're finding something of value here and you know someone else who should receive this kind of news and learn what's happening with the state Active Transportation Plan. Forward WSDOT Walk and Roll to others and share the subscription link on social media (tag it #WSDOTactive).