Steven can plan

Posts I liked today

Steven Vance — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:16:39 +0000

It’s been like two weeks since I last posted. That’s because my master’s project is due in 25 days. I have to finish it.

I still read the news while I’m busy, though!

Infrastructurist: How to Make High Speed Rail Fail: Don’t Connect the Lines. Apparently, no one’s taking the lead in Florida to ensure the high-speed rail line (Tampa to Orlando, which received $1.25 billion) will connect with the not-yet constructed SunRail commuter/regional rail line around Orlando.
BikePortland: Editorial: When it comes to family biking, size matters. Families use bikeways and streets differently than individual riders and even other grouped riders. How can we plan bicycle-related street upgrades to better accommodate family cycling?
Wall Street Journal: Surface Improvements. The New York City Department of Transportation did a great thing when it reallocated street space on Broadway to improve conditions for pedestrians, tourists, residents, and bicyclists. The eight month experiment is now permanent and the City is holding a competition to replace the semi-temporary facilities (epoxy gravel, discount store seating) with more permanent furniture.

Photo: Families in Portland, Oregon, ride together to a nearby event on a recent weekend. Photo by Jonathan Maus.

Igniting the discussion on equity

Steven Vance — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:12:34 +0000

I want to have more conversations about transportation equity

My master’s project is all about it. You might have read me talking about it a little here two weeks ago. A then I shot off a post with some key quotes I’m using about the topic in my project.

www.chicagobikes.org/bikeparking - easy to remember! The Chicago Tribune's RedEye used the data from that website to create a similar map about which to write an article. My project, "Underserved Wards," has been mentioned at several meetings of the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council. Read the meeting minutes. In October 2009, I posted a similar map. The new map is up-to-date and slightly better designed. The map graphics themselves would be slightly higher quality if I had ArcGIS at home. The original vector PDF files are at work and I didn't have access to them at the time I submitted this map. I created all the text and the new legend in Adobe Illustrator."/>

The purpose of the map is to show the difference in distribution between 2008 and 2009.

This post, though, is all about the graphic above. A lengthy conversation has begun in the comments on the Flickr page. I want more people to get talking about why 2008 might look the way it does, and why 2009 looks the way it does. Perhaps you need a little background on 2009: I made sure to visit the most underserved Wards you see in 2008 and ensure they receive new bike racks in 2009.

A big question is why people in those areas aren’t asking for bike racks. Does no one there ride a bike to the store? Or maybe they do but don’t know how to request a bike rack or know the purpose of one? Maybe they got a bike stolen and need some tips on proper locking.

Those are all questions I want my project to answer – and I’m working hard 20 hours per week to answer them! But I want more questions. I want ideas that point me to look in new directions. If you don’t like my response, tell me.

Bike parking is almost always mentioned in nationwide bike plans as a necessary way to complete the urban bicycling network. Mia Birk, “famous” bicycle planner, and principal at Alta Planning and Design in Portland, Oregon, says that bike parking is part of “the tool kit for successful  bicycle infrastructure in cities.” Another Portland entity is aware of equity: BikePortland.org.

What’s going on here? Photo by Eric Rogers.

Cycle Chic can’t stop

Steven Vance — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:41:02 +0000

The Urbanophile writes a cheeky essay not just about Cycle Chic, but also about racy girls on bikes (not racing), fashion, The Sartorialist, and more! It’s “Girls on bikes.”

It doesn’t seem like a normal topic, somehow squeezed in between copious opinions on Ohioan cities or how to fight your state’s Department of Transportation.

As seen in my blog about the Cycle Chic movement."/>

Guys can be cycle chic, too! Yours truly riding a WorkCycles Fr8 from the Dutch Bike Co. in Chicago, Illinois.

Electric cars on their way

Steven Vance — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:30:28 +0000

The New York Times is reporting that several California cities and companies are preparing for the coming rise in electric car ownership:

San Francisco is updating its building code.
Silicon Valley companies are ordering equipment for their employees.
Local electric utilities are trying to manage demand, either by predicting where ownership will be highest, in order to prepare for increased electricity use, or by asking customers to use “smart meters.”

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The Tesla Motors store on Grand Avenue has since opened.

I hope bicycle advocates, cities, and the electric car manufacturers consider the bicycle rider’s point of view: The noise a car makes is helpful for urban riders to evaluate the street and their surroundings. While nothing trumps the utility of being able to see and having facilities that help make bicycling safer, a bicycle rider uses all of their senses to navigate the urban environment.

Volunteering is up

Steven Vance — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:30:28 +0000

For 8 weeks within December, January and February, I was without employment.

I was temporarily laid off. So I volunteered. As did millions of other people. A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on January 26, 2010, puts the overall number of volunteers in September 2009 at 63.4 million people. So far in 2010, I’ve put in 27 hours at a social services organization. Last year, I volunteered 9 hours at two organizations*. My goal last year was to do 20 hours by Labor Day. That didn’t happen so I guess I’m finishing that goal now.

A volunteer at Sunday Parkways (now called Open Streets) in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Eric Rogers.

Who is the most likely person to volunteer: A white, married woman with a college degree, without children under 18. The number one volunteer category: religious organizations, leading the second category, educational and youth services, by 8 percentage points.

Have you volunteered recently? Do you prefer that your volunteer work benefit you in some way? For example, do you want your time spent volunteering to teach you a new skill, or are you satisfied with just helping out?

Fast Company shows this information on an infographic.

By the way, as this photo makes evident, I am back at work!

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*Two of these hours were spent talking to people at Millennium Park about the Burnham Pavilion designed by Ben van Berkel. The people were annoying – a lady asking me why she might want go to Grant Park prompted by “resignation.”

Quotes about transportation equity

Steven Vance — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:04:52 +0000

My master’s project involves a discussion about equity. Equity of bike parking distribution is the main focus of my project.

I picked up some great books at my school’s library. Here are some selected quotes (many of which I’ll use in the project’s paper).

“Transportation improvements distribute nonuniformly over space, implying that they affect diverse populations disproportionately” (Berechman).
“Geography defines the contours of the equity analysis in two important ways. First, since investment in transportation infrastructure is geographically specific, there is inherent competition and conflict between places” (Hodge).
The “costs and benefits of transportation policies may take place in different time periods” (Bae and Mayeres). For example, “mega projects are often built with excess capacity aimed at satisfying future needs. Such a pattern imposes inequitable intergenerational transfers, favoring the future rather than the present generations” (Berechman).
“Indirect benefits…represent real impacts that probably benefit some people more than others. It is exceedingly difficult, however, to trace through the benefit stream of these broad impacts” (Hodge).

And my favorite: ”Transportation is an unusual public service in that it is not consumed for its own sake but, rather, as a means to another end. Thus, the value of the service depends primarily on how well it provides access to other places” (Hodge).

My professor last semester said the same thing, actually, and then we had a huge discussion trying figure out situations where this isn’t true. The only thing our class (well, the professor himself) could come up with was joyriding (driving aimlessly in a car). But is joyriding really transportation? The trip origin and destination are the same and the trip has no purpose.

I thought of the transportation system at Walt Disney World, but I eventually withdrew my support – although the goal of that system is to make it easy for guests to spend more money, the system has a legitimate role in giving access to places inside and outside the “pay area.”

Sources

Bae, Chang-Hee Christine and Inge Mayeres. “Transportation and Equity.” Donaghy, Kieran P, Stefan Poppelreuter and George Rudinger. Social Dimensions of Sustainable Transport: Transatlantic Perspectives. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005. 164-192.

Berechman, Joseph. The Evaluation of Transportation Investment Projects. New York City: Routledge, 2009.

Hodge, David C. “My Fair Share: Equity Issues In Urban Transportation.” The Geography of Urban Transportation. Ed. Susan Hanson. Second. New York City: Guilford Press, 1995.

Your city’s Schelling point

Steven Vance — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:34:16 +0000

Not a selling point, but a Thomas Schelling point. Also known as focal point, a segment of game theory. Without communicating, how will two people make the same choice?

To illustrate (based on Thomas Schelling’s own example, and Yuri Artibise, who inspired this post), I ask you this question:

If I called you and asked you to meet me in downtown [your city] in an hour and then my phone’s battery died, where would we meet?

Yuri said “According to Adam [Greenfield], most cities have Schelling points, because, without effective communication between people (i.e., cell phones), meeting places ultimately converge on a couple of high visibility—and usually iconic—destinations.”

Seattleites, might you meet your friend at the Central Library in Seattle, Washington? Photo by Dolan Halbrook.

It seems for New Yorkers, the traditional answer has been at the information booth in the Grand Central Station main hall. Yuri suggests that “there is nothing inherent about Grand Central Station that makes a particularly desirable meeting place.”

Schelling’s theory explains why people might pick the same location. Contributors to the “focal point” article on Wikipedia write this:

Consider a simple example: two people unable to communicate with each other are each shown a panel of four squares and asked to select one; if and only if they both select the sameone, they will each receive a prize. Three of the squares are blue and one is red. Assuming they each know nothing about the other player, but that they each do want to win the prize, then they will, reasonably, both choose the red square. Of course, the red square is not in a sense a better square; they could win by both choosing any square. And it is the “right” square to select only if a player can be sure that the other player has selected it; but by hypothesis neither can. It is the most salient, the most notable square, though, and lacking any other one most people will choose it, and this will in fact (often) work.

The destination choice should change with context. If you were to meet a classmate on campus, you might meet in the building where the class you share meets.

Benefits of bike parking

Steven Vance — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:40:51 +0000

I’m working on my master’s project about bike parking distribution and equity in Chicago and while working on a section in the paper, I decided to get some help from readers. Many transportation projects are measured on predicted changes like trip travel time savings or trip cost savings (I give two examples below the photo).

My question is this: What are a bike parking installation’s measurable benefits to a traveler or a community?

Photo: Portland has installed 40 on-street bike parking “corrals” since 2004. What does a traveler or community gain from this bike rack installation? Photo by Kyle Gradinger.

To figure equity (fairness) for these project types, you measure these impacts for different groups (often high, medium, and low income), either in the alternatives analysis, or project selection phases. So, converting a lane on a highway to charge tolls for the lane’s users will have a certain benefit for many trips: a lower trip time. A new bus route may be convenient enough for some travelers to switch from driving to taking the bus, possibly reducing their trip cost.

High-speed rail wrap-up

Steven Vance — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:23:36 +0000

So let’s recap the week of high-speed rail announcements.

On Wednesday (1/27), President Obama in his State of the Union speech talks about how $8 billion in funding for high-speed intercity passenger rail (HSR) will be a major jobs creator.

Photo: Tri-Rail is a commuter rail service between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach. In five years, a high-speed train will whisk travelers between Tampa and Orlando. The hope is that a second link between Orlando and Miami will come afterwards.

The next day, in Tampa, Florida, he announced the winners of the $8 billion dollars of funding. Actually, the White House Press Office “leaked” the press releases the night before.

So what did I do for “high-speed rail week”?

I wrote a few articles and created a couple summaries:

Rep. Mica of Florida is confused about how best to support high-speed rail
High-speed rail stimulus awards coverage and summary – This article summarizes the projects’ major construction elements.
Thursday is a big day for high-speed rail in America
Spreadsheet summarizing ALL construction elements and funding amounts: Google Docs or Excel file.
New finds from late Thursday, early Friday:
- Interactive map from the White House (Flash),
- Federal Railroad Administration fact sheets (one sheet per corridor) with “quick stats” and miniature maps,
- and a summary chart from the White House (PDF), breaking down the funding amounts for each corridor (beyond what I did in the spreadsheet above).

If you want to read some more opinions about this part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (or stimulus), check out these articles I’ve selected:

Florida’s High-Speed Rail Route Is Going to be Very Costly for Taxpayers – Robert Poole at the Reason Foundation (not to be confused with Randall O’Toole) says Florida needs $3 billion more to build its HSR line from Tampa to Orlando and, despite this gift, taxpayers will be stuck footing the bill.
Georgia gets diddly-squat for high-speed rail funding – Thomas Wheatley at Creative Loafing. Thirty-one states got funding and Georgia didn’t. It didn’t help that the Georgia General Assembly sat on its collective rear by not planning for rail or even spending a federal earmark.
While many people don’t want a Tampa-Orlando link now (partially because of the lack transit connections at each terminal), the St. Petersburg Times editorial describes the specific types of trips people would make. Last October, the Disney corporation said it supported the train and would donate 50 acres of land for a station. Lastly, Infrastructurist provides a closer look at why Florida was ahead of the pack.

Successful bike parking

Steven Vance — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:03:18 +0000

Not every concept, skill or tool can be further and further simplified. Does anything really take just 3 steps?

1. Set it, 2. Forget it, 3. No third step! (This article is about bike parking, not Ron Popeil’s Showtime Rotisserie!)

I believe I can simplify bike parking. Here are my two rules to have successful and well-used bike parking:

1. Put bike parking as close to the front door as physically possible. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen bicycle riders use a substandard sign pole or tree instead of a high-quality bike rack because the bike rack was an additional 20 feet from the front door. UPDATE: As Dave Reid points out in the comments below, close parking increases security.

The bike parking in this photo sits only 20 feet away from the front door to a popular Chicago, Illinois, restaurant.

2. Choose the right bike rack. How do you know? Give bicycle riders a bike rack that’s easy to use and secure (i.e. don’t let the bike rack be the weak point in the bicycle’s security).

Six u-racks (also known as inverted-u, or staple racks) line the sidewalk in front of Kuma’s Corner in Chicago, Illinois.

If these two tips aren’t good enough, read through the online brochure, Bicycles at Rest, from the Capital Bike & Walk Society, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.