• Distracted Driving Summit looks at the dangers of cell phones, eating and other activities

If you’re a regular bike commuter, it’s probably happened to you. You’re riding on your way to work when you notice the car behind you is drifting into your bike lane because the driver is chatting on a cellphone, eating, lighting a cigarette, putting on makeup or reading.

Distracted driving is a huge safety concern on our roads, and Tuesday the U.S. Department of Transportation hosted its second National Distracted Driving Summit to try and find solutions to the problem. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said on his FastLane blog that the three biggest takeaways from the summit were 1) enforcement works, 2) we must reach America’s young people and 3) Americans don’t need more dashboard distractions.

“I must stress this one idea: Distraction-related crashes are 100-percent preventable; all we need is for drivers to step up and take personal responsibility for the 2,000-pound vehicles they command,” LaHood wrote on his blog. “Distracted driving does not just happen; it is a choice that flies in the face of that responsibility.”

Last year, at least 5,500 people in the U.S. were killed and more than 450,000 people were injured in distracted driving crashes, LaHood said, adding that the real numbers could be higher because not all police agencies note in their accident reports when a wreck is caused by distracted driving. A U.S. government report released Thursday (Sept. 23) reported that auto deaths due to cellphone use and driving jumped from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008, an increase of 28 percent. The report also said texting and driving caused more than 16,000 fatal car wrecks from 2001 to 2007.

While there are many forms of distracted driving, cellphone use has drawn the most attention in recent years because of the rapid growth and acceptance of the new technology. These distracted driving deaths and injuries are 100-percent preventable. The New York Times posted an interactive feature last year that demonstrates how trying to text while driving can affect your reaction time.

And lest you think it’s only the car drivers causing the problem, cyclists and pedestrians can cause wrecks when they’re using cellphones, listening to music with headphones/earbuds, etc. If we’re the pilot of our mode of transportation, then we can’t multi-task. We need to focus on what we’re doing, if for no other reason than it allows us to respond when someone else isn’t paying attention.

A 2006 study by the University of Utah showed drivers talking on cellphones are as dangerous as drivers who are legally drunk. But young drivers still don’t see the danger as a State Farm Insurance study released on Tuesday showed 36 percent of teen drivers don’t consider themselves to be at risk for a fatal car wreck when they are texting and driving, while 55 percent of them thought they were at risk for a fatal wreck if they drove drunk, and texting is considered a bigger driving distraction than talking on a cellphone.

In September 2008, Alaska became the 14th state to have a law take effect that banned texting while driving. But through May 2010, only 34 people had been charged under the new law. The law also bans having a television, video screen, computer or similar visual device in view of the driver while the vehicle is in motion.

Since the 2008 text messaging/video ban for drivers took effect, two other cellphone-related driving bills have been introduced in the Alaska House of Representatives, though neither has passed. In 2009, Reps. Berta Gardner, Chris Tuck and Cathy Muñoz sponsored a bill banning teen drivers younger than 18 years old from using cellphones. In 2010, Reps. Mike Doogan, Bob Buch, Peggy Wilson and Cathy Muñoz sponsored a bill banning the use of cellphones for all drivers. This year’s bill, written by Doogan, drew the most attention, with an article in the Juneau Empire, an editorial in the Mat-Su Frontiersman acknowledging the danger but saying the bill is too restrictive and should be scaled back, an editorial by John Aronno in the Alaska Commons blog asking for more discussion and less politics about the dangers of cellphone use and driving, while also taking to task an editorial by contributor Alex Gimarc in the Alaska Standard blog that called for civil disobedience if the law passed.

Read Full Post »

• Walk Friendly Communities program prepares to make national launch in November

Since 2003, cities and towns across the United States have been able to apply for Bicycle Friendly Community awards offered through the League of American Bicyclists.

Starting in November, American cities and towns will be able to apply for Walk Friendly Community awards through a new program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. The new program will be maintained by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, with the support of 17 national partner organizations.

According to the Walk Friendly Communities website:

Walk Friendly Communities is a national recognition program developed to encourage towns and cities across the U.S. to establish or recommit to a high priority for supporting safer walking environments. The WFC program will recognize communities that are working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort.

The new program currently is in its second round of pilot testing with five unnamed communities selected in July. The first round of testing featured three communities of varying demographics — a small town (Cedarburg, Wis.), a small town with a college and commuter population (Davidson, N.C.), and a large city (Orlando, Fla.).

The Walk Friendly Community program will borrow heavily from the Bicycle

Roof supports and a narrow sidewalk make for tight passage by Brenner's Store in downtown Sitka, especially on cruise days during the summer.

Friendly Community award program, which already has been adapted to create a Bicycle Friendly Business, Bicycle Friendly State and, announced just this week, a new Bicycle Friendly University award program (by the way, 18 new and eight renewing Bicycle Friendly Community awards were announced on Wednesday).

The Walk Friendly Community program will use the same 5 E’s model used by the Bicycle Friendly Community program (Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation), in addition to other elements that affect a community’s walkability such as city planning and Complete Streets designs. Each of the 5 E’s heads a section where communities answer a series of questions about that topic within the application. By answering the questions using the 5 E’s model, communities are able to discover any barriers to walking that exist in their town and what they also learn what they do well when it comes to making it easier for residents to walk around town.

The 59-page Walk Friendly Communities Assessment Tool (see attached PDF file below) was released on Sept. 1 and will serve as the rough draft for the new program’s application, which will be filled out and turned in online. Even though the new program hasn’t been launched yet, there already are a multitude of excellent resources posted on the program’s website to help communities evaluate their community walkability rating.

Several communities won’t earn the Walk Friendly Community award on their first application, but the application is designed to help communities develop and document their pedestrian safety and encouragement plans. Only about a third of the more than 400 communities that have applied for Bicycle Friendly Community status earned awards at one of the five levels of that program. But completing the application served as a community learning process and that helped even non-winning communities improve their support and infrastructure for biking and walking.

Sitka and Anchorage already have earned Bicycle Friendly Community bronze awards, so they may be ahead of the game among Alaska communities when the Walk Friendly Community applications finally are released. But Alaska communities have some of the highest rates of walking in the country when it comes to walking to work and school, despite our snowy and icy winters, so this new program may be a perfect fit for many Alaska towns.

• Walk Friendly Communities Assessment Tool (released Sept. 1, 2010)

Read Full Post »

• A sad story about a road construction project gone wrong for Fairbanks cyclists and pedestrians

Phillips Field Road in Fairbanks during the winter

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner columnist Dermot Cole wrote an interesting story for the Thursday, Aug. 26, edition of the newspaper, telling the story of a road construction project gone wrong for Fairbanks cyclists and pedestrians.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities recently rebuilt the east end of Phillips Field Road, which runs through an industrial section of Fairbanks between the Chena River and the Johansen Expressway, with part of the road next to some Alaska Railroad land (click here for map). But the upgrade did not widen the road or add shoulders to make things safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. Even though this is an industrial area of Fairbanks, there also are some popular stores, such as Spenard Builders Supply, on Phillips Field Road.

Long before construction began on this project, local officials were pushing for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and the Alaska Railroad to figure out a way to make the road safer and wider.

But the road is not wider and the shoulders that are about eight feet wide near the Ice Park, dwindle down to nothing by the time you approach the main part of the railroad yard. The only concession for pedestrian and bicyclists appears to be the signs that say “Shoulder Narrows” and “Share the Road.”

From what I’ve found, it appears that the budget, the design schedule and a lack of cooperation between the state transportation department and the railroad combined to produce a result that is not what it should be.

Both agencies will dispute this. But they should look back at the decision-making process to see whether things could have been done differently to end up with a better situation.

Cole goes on to write about how it appears that the voices of several key stakeholders were not heard or considered when the road was planned. It also appears there were bureaucratic hurdles that weren’t cleared, especially regarding an expired easement the state had on some railroad land. Even though there were calls for a wider road with shoulders, the plan without these improvements went ahead for expediency’s sake.

The railroad and the transportation department should be called upon to not act like sovereign nations, but to make an overall judgment about what is best for public safety in the broadest sense.

What’s not clear to me is if there was any attempt by the two agencies to strike a balance in which rail safety and the safety of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists are considered. If not, the process is flawed.

What’s sad about this fiasco is that in March, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a major change in national road project priorities.

“We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects,” he said. “We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.” LaHood also announced seven recommendations for state and local departments of transportation, including treating bicycling and walking as equal forms of transportation modes.

These recommendations obviously weren’t followed in Fairbanks and now there is about a half-mile of Phillips Field Road with “no shoulders to speak of,” even after this $2 million “upgrade.”

Read Full Post »

• Two new resources will help people work on Complete Streets in their communities

Local bicycle and pedestrian advocates have two new resources that will help them get Complete Streets for their communities.

The Alliance for Biking & Walking this week released a new edition of its Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns, a 117-page book that updates the 2006 edition with Complete Streets policy examples and other tools for local advocates. To learn more about the book, click here.

The book was made possible with support from Planet Bike and assistance from the National Complete Streets Coalition. Since 2006, more than 100 state and local jurisdictions have adopted new Complete Streets policies that require transportation projects include safe accommodations for all users, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

According to a press release from the Alliance for Biking & Walking, Alliance President/CEO Jeff Miller says this new manual could be a catalyst for groups to kick-start or super-charge a successful campaign in their area.

“This updated guide is a key resource for grassroots advocates pursuing Complete Streets policies for their states and cities,” Miller says. “This compilation shares the step-by-step actions and lessons learned from peers across the country, making it the most up-to-date and on-the-ground advice for winning Complete Streets.”

The press release also includes the following book description:

Book Description: Our nation’s transportation system poses significant challenges for the third of our citizens who do not drive. A full 13 percent of traffic deaths are bicyclists and pedestrians, yet most roadways are still being built with only motor vehicles in mind. Complete Streets policies require that future transportation projects ensure safe accommodation of all users. Bicyclists, motorists, transit vehicles and users, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities safely and enjoyably travel along and across complete streets. The Alliance for Biking & Walking’s Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns compiles a blueprint for winning a complete streets policy in your city, region, state, or province. Filled with models from past and current campaigns and tips from advocacy leaders in the field, this guide is an indispensable resource for the new or seasoned advocate working towards complete streets.

The Alliance for Biking & Walking’s Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns is part of a series of Alliance guides, which aim to build the capacity of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations. To purchase the guide online visit http://www.PeoplePoweredMovement.org/publications.

Also released this month is a new book from the National Complete Streets Coalition and the American Planning Association, Complete Streets: Best Policy and Implementation Practices. The book was partially funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s STEP program.

Barbara McCann, one of the book’s writers, wrote this description of the project on the National Complete Streets Coalition’s website. “The report is based on thirty case studies of states, cities, counties, and MPOs that have adopted and are implementing Complete Streets policies. Suzanne Rynne, Stefanie Seskin, David Morley, myself, and a number of other APA and Coalition staffers talked to dozens of planners, engineers, and other insiders about what it took to adopt a policy in their state or community and the techniques they are using to fully integrate multi-modal planning into every transportation project.”

The case studies showed the researchers what strategies were working and also added new information about how communities go about getting Complete Streets policies implemented. They also learned how advocating for Complete Streets policies helps communities communicate their transportation priorities to local and state governments.

McCann adds:

A few of the case studies really stand out; their thoughtful and thorough implementation practices can almost be a guide unto themselves. Charlotte, North Carolina (already the basis for our Complete Streets Workshop system) is one of these, as is Seattle, Washington. In fact, Seattle has come up with an elegant answer to the frequent question of what to do when a project budget simply won’t allow full realization of a Complete Streets design. In Seattle, they make sure that this need is added to a future projects list, and they look for ways to fulfill it.

Perhaps the most inspiring theme in the publication is the way that Complete Streets policies have empowered planners and engineers to tackle a new challenge with creativity and innovation. In almost every case study, planners and engineers have invented new ways to consult with partners, deal with limited right-of-way, and save on costs.

You can get an idea of the breadth of the report from the table of contents; the first two chapters focus on policy adoption, and the next two on the steps to integrating Complete Streets into transportation planning processes. Chapters Six and Seven expand on the issue of paying for Complete Streets, and the many different ways communities have tackled design considerations. The final chapter summarizes twelve lessons learned; readers will undoubtedly draw many more. You can get a sneak peak by reading Chapter Five: Making the Transition, which we have posted to our website (as a PDF file). The full report is available for purchase from the American Planning Association, and please let us know what you think of it.

At this point, no Alaska communities nor the State of Alaska have adopted Complete Streets policies, but several Alaska groups are encouraging their implementation. The Alaska Public Health Association passed a resolution advocating for Complete Streets at the Alaska Health Summit in December. The Anchorage Bicycle Plan unanimously passed by the Anchorage Assembly in March includes several proposals based on the Complete Streets model, but doesn’t fully implement Complete Streets. The Alaska Transportation Priorities Project also promoted Complete Streets principles when it released its Alaska Campaign for Active Transportation: Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla in 2008.

Read Full Post »

• U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announces policy change to make biking, walking equal to motorized transportation

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood addresses the National Bike Summit last week at the Dirksen Senate Chambers in Washington, D.C. (Photo © Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland)

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates from around the country received a pleasant surprise when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood jumped up on a hearing room table at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., to thank the crowd and to reconfirm his support for biking and walking. The next day, LaHood announced a major new DOT Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation, Regulations and Recommendations. “It is simply the strongest statement of support for prioritizing bicycling and walking ever to come from a sitting secretary of transportation,” the League of American Bicyclists noted on the group’s blog.

On his own Welcome to the Fast Lane blog, LaHood wrote:

Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.

We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:

• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
• Go beyond minimum design standards.
• Collect data on walking and biking trips.
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
• Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.

Now, this is a start, but it’s an important start. These initial steps forward will help us move forward even further.

If you want to see and hear LaHood’s tabletop speech, here are video links from the League of American Bicyclists and the StreetsBlogSF channels on YouTube.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood addresses the National Bike Summit on March 11, 2010, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. (Photo © Jeffrey Martin of the League of American Bicyclists)

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates around the country praised LaHood’s announcement, which some think might lead to a national Complete Streets policy. The new DOT policy even addresses concerns such as snow removal from sidewalks and shared-use paths, which is a major issue during Alaska winters. In addition to praising LaHood’s announcement, the National Complete Streets Coalition blog noted that the Institute of Transportation Engineers at its conference Monday in Savannah, Ga., announced a new recommended practice for designing multi-modal urban streets, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach.

Unfortunately, not everybody was happy with LaHood’s announcement and on March 17 several Republicans ridiculed bike lanes and even LaHood (a former Republican Representative from Illinois) during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. The Courthouse News Service reported that Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette even asked during the hearing if there still was mandatory drug testing in the Department of Transportation.

A blog post on the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage site said LaHood’s announcement couldn’t have been more timely, since the Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan are working on the Anchorage Bicycle Plan, which is up for additional public hearings and a possible vote during the Tuesday, March 23, meeting of the Anchorage Assembly (5 p.m. at the Assembly Chambers at Z.J. Loussac Library, Agenda Item 13-C, click agenda link for supporting documents). The Anchorage Bicycle Plan previously was discussed during the March 2 meeting of the Anchorage Assembly, and video is available from this link. If you can attend the meeting, take your bike helmet to show your support. If you can’t attend, the meeting is televised on Channel 10 in Anchorage.

Read Full Post »

• Florida ranks as most dangerous state for walkers, Alaska is safer than most

On Monday, a Reuters article declared Florida the most dangerous state for walkers. The four most hazardous communities for walkers, according to the Pedestrian Danger Index, all were in Florida — Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville.

The article is based on a new report from the group Transportation for America (T4), which surveyed 360 metro areas from around the country to see how pedestrian fatalities can be prevented. The report is part of a program called “Dangerous By Design,” which looks at how our roadways are dangerous by design because they are engineered for speeding cars and trucks and they make little or no provision for people traveling by foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles. The report also lists some solutions to make our streets safer. More information can be found on the T4 blog (scroll down for the “Dangerous By Design” entry).

Only two Alaska communities were rated — Anchorage and Fairbanks. Anchorage, with more people and traffic, had the highest Pedestrian Danger Index of the two. But out of the 20 communities from Florida rated, only one had a better rating than Anchorage and that was only by a small amount. Fairbanks had one of the better ratings of the 360 communities listed, but still Fairbanks had a worse rating than all of Minnesota’s eight listed communities (including Minneapolis-St. Paul). A fact sheet for Alaska can be downloaded from the link earlier in this paragraph.

Read Full Post »

• Video promotes school zone safety in tribal regions

Native Americans have the highest rates of pedestrian injury and death of any group in the United States. In fact, adult pedestrian death rates for Native Americans are almost 3.5 times that of the general population. For Native American children, the pedestrian death rate is almost four times that of the overall population of the United States.

Alaska has 229 federally recognized tribes, about 40 percent of the 562 nationwide, so there are a lot of tribal zones in the state. Because many of Alaska’s tribal zones are in rural areas, we don’t have some of the traffic problems as tribal zones in the Lower 48. The highest pedestrian annual death rates per 100,000 tribal citizens are in the Plains states, with 6.5 deaths per 100,000 compared to 1.4 nationally. Alaska has a death rate of 3.5 per 100,000, which is lower than the top rate but still more than twice the national average.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has released a video, “Tribal School Zone Safety,” designed to teach school kids how to safely walk to school. The DVD, which is free if you order it from the link, also includes a second video that teaches parents, school officials and tribal administrators how to make sure their children’s routes to school are safe for them to walk. The first video features students from several tribal schools around the country as they learn how to check traffic, how to wear reflectives and bright colors for visibility, and why they need to turn off their iPods and cell phones so they can hear what’s going on around them. There also is a tool kit for teachers who want to use the first video in their lesson plans. You can preview the videos and see the tool kit if you go to the link.

Since International Walk (or Bike) to School Day is this Wednesday, Oct. 7, the video is worth watching for both parents and educators. Click here to learn more about the Alaska Safe Routes To School program, and click here to go to the National Center for Safe Routes To School page.

Read Full Post »