Who Pays For Roads?

As we become a more muti-modal country many drivers are claiming the roads they use are intended for motor vehicles only – bicycles and scooters are considered usurpers. There has been a belief that roads are meant for vehicles because drivers pay gas tax. But everyone is paying for roads, car owners, or not. In this 2015 article the author suggests, “It’s also high time to enact a per-mile fee that can be adjusted for the types of transportation costs we’d like to capture—emissions, congestion, construction, maintenance, transit equity…”

Debunking the Myth That Only Drivers Pay for Roads

ERIC JAFFE MAY 13, 2015

Landing on the moon was still a wild dream the last time gas taxes paid nearly the full cost of our roads.

“”When you tally all these hidden costs together, alongside the assists that already occur for road construction and maintenance, the average household pays between $1,105 and $1,848 a year in what the report calls “uncompensated damage costs to support motor vehicle use in the United States.” Again: whether they drive a lot or hardly at all.””

News: Electric Scooters And Valet Parking!

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition says YES to mobility options like scooters, which will get people out of cars, reduce congestion in the city, and provide transportation for people who don’t own cars .

Asbury Park Transportation News!

The City of Asbury Park released its Summer 2019 transportation updates Friday.

“This summer, the City launches an electric scooter program, downtown receives a valet parking service, an additional parking payment app becomes available, and the new Guest Parking Permit program was introduced,” a written news statement said.

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019

Video: WNYC, Gothamist, The Green Space Panel On Biking

Watch (or listen) to this show if you’re a bicyclist – or have interest in safety for everyone on our streets. Panelists dig deep into issues that concern everyone in any city in the US: bike and pedestrian infrastructure, car culture, law, e-bikes, police enforcement and more…NYC Police Chief even gets some heat.

We the Commuters: Biking NYC

Originally Aired: Thursday, July 11, 2019

Up for discussion: Biking (and bicyclists’ safety), Citi Bike, delivery guys and more. Throughout the night there will also be bike-curious trivia, where we’ll put your bike-related knowledge to the test for some super sweet swag.

WNYC and Gothamist reporters Shumita Basu, Jake Offenhartz, Stephen Nessen and Chris Robbins host the evening with guests State Senator Zellnor Myrie; Chief Terence Monahan from the NYPD; Citi Bike‘s Caroline Samponaro; bike lawyer Adam White; Jing Wang, the filmmaker behind the documentary “A Winter With Delivery Workers“; and Shabazz Stuart, an urban transportation advocate and CEO of Oonee.

Watch:

https://www.thegreenespace.org/watch/we-the-commuters-live/

July 12, 2019

Take Action! Support A National Complete Streets Bill

A NEW FEDERAL BILL TO MAKE OUR STREETS SAFER

A handful of leaders in the U.S. House and Senate introduced a bill that would finally require states and metro areas to design and build safer streets for everyone, but it will need strong and vocal support from across the country to become law.

Take Action For National Complete Streets

The Complete Streets Act of 2019would require states to set aside money for Complete Streets projects, create a statewide program to award the money (and provide technical support), and adopt design standards that support safer, complete streets. It was introduced today by Sen. Edward Markey (MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (TN), and co-sponsored by Senators Blumenthal (CT) and Schatz (HI), and Reps. Espaillat (NY) and Gallego (AZ).

Complete Streets bill—tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor the Complete Streets Act of 2019.

July 11, 2019

Asbury Pod: Great Interview with Asbury Park Transportation Manager

Asbury Pod episode #3, Transportation, starting around 19:00 ’til around 1:02:00. Asbury Park Transportation Manager, Mike Manzella, Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn, and Joe Walsh get down into issues like parking, scooters, how to make a walkable and bikeable city, transit, and the rising numbers of automobile/pedestrian and cyclist fatalities across the US.

Thanks for a great in-depth interview!

Listen:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/asbury-pod/e/62425309

July 8, 2019July 8, 2019

Video: Amsterdam children fighting cars in 1972

Amsterdam wasn’t always bicycling heaven. Vehicles had been taking over city streets there just as they have been taking over streets in the US, but they did something about it…

This 1972 documentary video tells the story of a how the children in a neighborhood in Amsterdam fought for safe streets and a place to play with what we now call “tactical urbanism”.The area had become congested by vehicles. People, especially children were endangered. Does this 1972 neighborhood look like any American cities we are familiar with today? Some US cities are taking steps to change from “car culture” , into cities for people of all ages , but not enough, and not fast enough. 40,000 people are killed in motor vehicle related crashes every year in the US!

The documentary video was discovered recently, and shortened to about 10 minutes with subtitles. Watch and share.

Image from the documentary from 1972. The streets are dominated by cars and there is not a tree in sight.

“This would be a perfect area for a trial with a maximum speed of 30km/h” (18mph) explains a traffic expert of the city of Amsterdam to a child in a film that was broadcast on Dutch national TV almost 42 years ago.

“The TV documentary was made for a progressive broadcasting corporation and shows the Amsterdam neighbourhood “De Pijp” which was about 100 years old at the time. The homes were run down and small. The streets were never built, nor fit for all the cars brought in by the 40,000 people living in the small area and its many visitors. This led to an overpopulated neighbourhood with a lot of dirt and filth and especially the children suffered. The documentary is one of a series and this particular episode looks at the situation from a child’s perspective.”

The same street as seen in Google Streetview is very different. The carriage way was narrowed. The homes renovated and the trees and bicycles make the area a lot friendlier.

Red Lights and People on Bikes

This contentious issue is in the news everywhere. This important article by Doug Gordon is from 2014, and not much has changed. In many cities the dispute about bicyclists’ rights at intersections is degrading the relationship between law enforcement and people riding bikes (looking at you NYPD) and people driving vehicles. In most cities in the US there are #toomanycars, and people walking and on bikes are being killed. People on bikes at intersections are just safer when they can get away from cars and trucks. Until the rules change we need to apply common sense and focus on safety of the most vulnerable road users.

Here’s the the last, spot on comment to the article:

““It is like expecting badminton players to use the rules of squash.”

Worse. It’s like expecting badminton players to use the rules of squash because you forced them to play on a squash court which was obviously designed with no concessions to badminton. And if they don’t follow the rules it will upset the real squash players.

Or maybe it’s like the penguins turn up to the zoo to be told there’s no penguin enclosure – not enough room or money… – so they have to man up and get in with the lions for the duration, and because of that they have to get locked into little cages every night like the lions, just for consistency.””

Cyclists and Red Lights: Actually, It’s Complicated

MAY 23, 2014

I knew it was coming.

The minute I finished reading Joseph Stromberg’s piece on Vox, “Why cyclists should be able to roll through stop signs and ride through red lights,” I had a feeling that a response would be published by someone somewhere — Felix Salmon? Slate? — and that it would have a somewhat tsk-tsk-sounding headline. “No they shouldn’t” or something like that. I had been waiting to weigh in on the subject of cyclists and red lights myself, in fact, until such a piece was written, because I knew it would frame the discussion in a typically binary fashion and I was hoping to stake out a more nuanced position.

Well, the response I was waiting for was just published on Grist.org. In a piece headlined “Why bikers should live by the same laws as everyone else,” Ben Adler says that Vox.com and anyone advocating for Idaho stop laws, at least in cities, has it wrong.

I had a lot of problems with this piece, starting with the title. Should bikers live by the same laws as everyone else? What does that even mean? First of all, which laws? The laws applying to drivers or the laws applying to pedestrians? Because the laws that apply to each of those groups are very different. (Pedestrians, for example, can’t walk on interstate highways, while drivers, at least in theory, aren’t supposed to drive on sidewalks.) Cyclists, being a third thing somewhere between pedestrians and drivers — but obviously much closer to the pedestrian side of the spectrum — need their own laws. Which was essentially what Stromberg argued at Vox.

Read about it~

https://brooklynspoke.com/2014/05/23/cyclists-and-red-lights-actually-its-complicated/

June 16, 2019June 16, 2019

People On Bikes Get Hit By Drivers A Lot (And Get Off)

When a bike rider is struck by a driver of a motor vehicle, the police report and news articles may represent that the person riding the bike is responsible for being injured or killed…we need to change car culture. Can the US do it?

How We Talk About Drivers Hitting Cyclists

Joe Lindsey May 6, 2019

What the media gets wrong, and why, says a lot about how our society views vulnerable road users

It’s hard to say whether tensions between drivers and cyclists are worse than ever, or if it just seems that way because of social media. News stories often play a key role in shaping public understanding of traffic safety. And when news stories victim-blame or fail to convey the larger context in which these crashes take place, they do deep injustice to the victims and the conversation about road safety in general.

Read the whole frustrating story:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2392955/lets-talk-about-drivers-hitting-cyclists?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebookpost&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3_jLOeo7AFH-CyXrrSsRdV2g5hGsNsq5_eg9v4yqvkACxjWT5uhtUtsC8

June 3, 2019

Asbury Park Gets A Grant For Safer Streets

Residents on through streets who have been rightfully concerned about speeding will see traffic calming measures put in place to #slowthecars. New bike lanes will be implemented so students can ride to school, and pedestrian safety will be improved with new signals. Thanks Safe Routes To Schools and Transportation Manager Mike Manzella. Asbury Park is building infrastructure to become a model city for biking and walking.

Asbury Park Grant For Pedestrian Safety Improvements

The funds will be used to make pedestrian safety improvements focused on three main areas of resident concern.

By Tom Davis, Patch National Staff | May 30, 2019

“We’re proud of our current Gold Level standing with the Safe Routes to School Program and thankful to EZ Ride for the significant support they’ve provided the city in reaching that goal,” said Transportation Director Michael Manzella. “We have been putting in the work to build and maintain our standing in the program in anticipation of applying for grants such as these and securing future funding.”

Read about it:

https://patch.com/new-jersey/asbury-park/asbury-park-grant-pedestrian-safety-improvements