Roads Need To Be Designed For All Users; Plus Helmet Video

Roads need to be designed for all users: all genders, and all ages.  Many women have well-founded fear of riding on American streets and it’s the same in the UK.  Also, see a video with more discussion about helmets.

Helen Pidd June 13 2018

Women shun cycling because of safety, not helmet hair

Roads designed by men are killing women – and stop millions from cycling

The main reason most women don’t cycle in the UK is because they think it is dangerous.

Read more and see video:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/safety-women-cycling-roads?CMP=share_btn_fb

Happy Father’s Day! Walk Or Ride A Bike With Dad Today

The best ways to spend Father’s Day, whether you’re the dad looking for some bonding time, or if you re the offspring thinking about doing something meaningful with your dad… You guessed it!  Take a walk or  bike ride in a Monmouth County park!  Read on for inspiration from the UK, and see below for bike and walking trails in Monmouth County.

How should I spend Father’s Day? 6 great ideas for family bonding time

THERE’S nothing more important than spending time together as a family and Father’s Day is a great time to take dad out for fun.

Monmouth County Walking Trails

Monmouth County Bike Trails

Read more…

https://www.express.co.uk/featured/life-style/life/973223/How-should-I-spend-Father-s-Day-6-great-ideas-for-family-bonding-time

How to Slow The Cars

Let’s keep the discussion going about slowing the cars.

New York City only used speed bumps to slow the cars on narrow city streets, and injuries to people walking or biking actually increased 6 percent.  London added raised crosswalks, raised intersections, curb extensions, pedestrian refuges, traffic diverters, mini-roundabouts, and other traffic-calming measures.

London’s Slow Zones Save Lives and New York’s Don’t. Here’s Why.

In New York’s slow zones, speed humps are the only physical traffic calming measure. London uses a greater variety of traffic calming measures, installed more intensively.

Read more…

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2018/06/13/londons-slow-zones-save-lives-and-new-yorks-dont-heres-why/

Traffic Signals Prioritize Cars

We’ve been publishing articles about traffic signaling (Like LBIs and LPIs) which has hopefully been enlightening for readers .  This article explains signaling further, and with Barcelona as an example the subject is interesting, and even beautiful. Cities say that they want to prioritize walkers and bicyclists, but traffic engineers are still designing for cars…will Asbury Park develop as a city designed for all users and not just cars?  We think so!

How traffic signals favour cars and discourage walking

David Levinson

The settings on traffic lights make pedestrians wait longer by giving higher priority to vehicle traffic.”Traffic signals give priority to motor vehicles over pedestrians. This inequality undermines many of the stated goals of transport, health and environment policy.State and city governments say they want to encourage walking and biking for many reasons:

  • it is space efficient
  • it has less environmental impact
  • it is healthier
  • it is safer for other travellers
  • it reduces the numbers of cars on the road, so even motorists should be in favour of other people walking.

Read more…

https://theconversation.com/amp/how-traffic-signals-favour-cars-and-discourage-walking-92675?__twitter_impression=true

Complete Streets Webinar June 20th

Register for this 1 hour session and assess the status of Complete Streets in Asbury Park (or your city).

Complete Streets Technical Assistance Program Informational Webinar

Wed, Jun 20, 2018 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM EDT

An informational webinar will be held Wednesday, June 20, from 1:30pm – 2:30pm to review how to assess the status of your complete streets efforts, the types of technical assistance available to assist you in moving forward, and how to apply to be part of the program.

Sustainable Jersey, the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority and Together North Jersey are pleased to announce the Complete Streets Technical Assistance Program. The program will support municipal government efforts to implement complete streets in nine municipalities. Selected participants will receive free direct technical assistance to complete a specific task related to advancing a complete streets initiative in their communities. This informational webinar will review the details of the program including the types of technical assistance available and online application process.
Register:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7174759064363667713

Concerned About Speeding?

Concerned about speeding on city streets? Learn here about traffic calming.  Asbury Park and Hoboken share some of the same challenges.

Hoboken Traffic Calming Toolkit

The purpose of the Traffic Calming Toolkit is to provide residents and community leaders with information about the City of Hoboken’s Traffic Calming Policy. The toolkit is designed to highlight common traffic calming measures and explain the protocol used in selecting the most appropriate measure for each instance.

Traffic Calming vs. Traffic Control
“Traffic control” is often confused with “traffic calming,” and it is important to understand that these two terms have very different roles for transportation planning and engineering. Unlike traffic calming, which emphasizes managing traffic speeds, traffic control primarily is concerned with managing traffic flow. Stop signs are a good example of a traffic control device that is often confused as a traffic calming measure. Stop signs are intended to assign the right-of-way among motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists at an intersection. Although many citizens believe that stop signs help reduce speeds on their street, numerous studies have shown that speeds are as high or higher at mid-block than those locations without stop signs. Also, the FHWA Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) states that “Stop signs should not be used for speed control. For the purposes of this Traffic Calming Toolkit, traffic control devices will generally not be included except for the purposes of prioritizing pedestrian crossings at intersections where high volumes exist.

 Read more…

Hoboken-Traffic-Calming-Toolkit

 

 

 

The Case For Urban Cycling

At the initial stages of redesign from car centric city to a people centric city-some residents will undoubtedly say, “we’re not “X”(name of city)”.  Copenhagen is a perfect example. Let’s use the models of cities that are doing it right and strive to imitate them.

Copenhagenize your city: the case for urban cycling in 12 graphs

Mon 11 Jun 2018

Danish-Canadian urban designer Mikael Colville-Andersen busts some common myths and shows how the bicycle has the potential to transform cities around the world

Read more…

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/jun/11/copenhagenize-case-urban-cycling-graphs?CMP=share_btn_fb

Bike Lane Network Success Story

Laying down a network of bike lanes all at once isn’t the way most cities do it, but it was a success in Calgary and here are some tips on how it can work elsewhere.  Asbury Park?

The unlikely success of Calgary’s bike-lane network has these lessons for other cities

Boldness Paid Off

“It might have been easier politically to build the network one lane at a time, as most cities do, but the uptake on a lane with few connections would have been slow. In this case, dropping down a well-thought out network gave cyclists and would-be cyclists a broader peek at what a cycle-track network can do, and, more importantly, gave them somewhere to go.”

Read more…

http://shifter.info/the-unlikely-success-of-calgarys-bike-lane-network-has-these-lessons-for-other-cities/

Smart Intersections

Who would have thought…Detroit state of the art for moving cars, bicycles, and people safely through intersections. Asbury Park could do this.

BY  JUNE 11, 2018

These Smarter Stoplights Could Be Lifesavers

New traffic signals in Detroit are designed to help pedestrians, cyclists and ambulances get through intersections, while helping traffic planners test safety improvements quickly.

Miovision, a vendor working in partnership with Detroit, has touted the city’s newest signal exchange as “the world’s smartest intersection.” (Miovision)

But in solving that very basic problem, the city has taken significant steps toward creating some of the smartest intersections in the country. It is experimenting with five “smart intersections” along a nearly two-mile stretch of Larned Street near the riverfront, including some downtown sites.”

Read more…

http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-intersection-technology.html?utm_term=These%20Smarter%20Stoplights%20Could%20Be%20Lifesavers&utm_campaign=These%20Smarter%20Stoplights%20Could%20Be%20Lifesavers&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

Making A Plan For Bicyclists

We use examples of what cities are doing all over the world to let our readers know how Asbury Park is yes, unique, but also facing the exact same challenges.

Asbury Park’s Main Street NJ Rt 71 has long been a thoroughfare for cars to get someplace else.  Our initiative in reconfiguration is to make Main Street a destination that is accessible to people on bicycles and on foot.  With better signaling, bike lanes and crosswalks, plus a vigorous bike share and other options for transportation like jitneys and electric car share, we should be able to make streets safer, eliminate parking issues and do this!

 

Ghent – Changing the Whole Circulation Plan Overnight: a Strong Political Decision

April 12, 2018

“You can’t become a cycling city, if you don’t say something about cars. In order to increase the number of cyclists and develop a bicycle culture, it’s necessary to take some anti-car measures. If we get rid of the through traffic, you get fewer cars, more space for pedestrians and cyclists, and infrastructure gets an extra value” asserts Filip Watteeuw.
“A noticeable impact of this measure comes from some inhabitants who were quite reticent to this plan, but have already changed their routines by adopting new mobility habits. Generally speaking, 25% of Ghent inhabitants made a decision to change their mobility habits by purchasing an (e-)bike, subscribing to the local public transports or starting car-sharing.”

 

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2018/04/ghent-changing-whole-circulation-plan.html?m=1