The Atlantic: Bike Lane Design Bible

The Design Bible That Changed How Americans Bike in Cities

A movement has brought safer bicycle lanes to the United States. But it took a manual to spread them.

STEVEN HIGASHIDE MAR 1, 2018

How did the protected bike lane suddenly become common in America? Advocates will tell you it was the result of stalwart activism. And trailblazing, politically daring transportation officials did play a part in bringing better bike lanes to the nation. But the spread of bike lanes to so many corners of the country couldn’t have happened without a simple, ordinary technology: a set of street-design standards, written down in a book so that less daring engineers didn’t have to blaze their own trails anew.

March 18, 2018March 16, 2018

PARKING PROBLEMS?

Asbury Park isn’t alone. Parking issues are common and not insurmountable. Learn about parking minimums here.

MARCH 14, 2018
BY RACHEL QUEDNAU

When a local government proposes removing or decreasing parking minimums, communities tend to freak out a little bit.

Business owners show up at public meetings concerned that their customers will have nowhere to park. Homeowners write angry letters, worried that their quiet residential streets are going to fill with spillover parking.

March 17, 2018March 17, 2018

The Case Against Jaywalking Laws

Thankfully there is not over enforcement of jaywalking in Asbury Park, but on social media we’ve often heard complaints about jaywalkers on Main Street and elsewhere in the city.

This article is one of many explaining how the term “jaywalking” originated, and the problem that has resulted from our nation’s streets belonging to cars rather than people, and the targeting of people of color (mostly black men) for a trivial infraction that almost everyone has committed numerous times in their lives. These stories are harrowing and all-too familiar.

Asbury Park and APCSC are working on keeping pedestrians safe by developing better infrastructure and by slowing cars with traffic calming methods, not by criminalizing people walking outside painted lines.

Jaywalking laws are enforced disproportionately against black Americans, sometimes with fatal results.

By MATT FORD

March 12, 2018

“What sets jaywalking apart is that it never should have been against the law in the first place. City streets were meant for foot traffic and horses from ancient times until the early twentieth century. As a result, early automobiles found themselves alongside all sorts of pedestrians. To make way for cars, literally and figuratively, wealthy drivers and the U.S. auto industry set out to stigmatize lower-class pedestrians who crossed streets at will. Those who wouldn’t step aside for vehicles became known as “jay walkers…”

March 16, 2018March 15, 2018

Bike Helmets Keep Bicyclists Safe? Think Again.

AMERICAN CITIES’ PREOCCUPATION WITH HELMETS MIGHT UNDERMINE MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS TO PROTECT CYCLISTS.

THE UNHELPFUL WAYS CITIES TALK ABOUT BIKE HELMETS

CITYLAB

BENJAMIN SCHNEIDER

MAR 8, 2018

Former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (center) wore a helmet for the unveiling of the city’s Bcycle bike-share system. But do any of its users? Ed Andrieski/AP

By contrast, other cities depict cyclists of various races and genders in street clothes, some wearing helmets and others not. Culver cites the following promotional image from Minneapolis as a positive example of cyclist representation.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/03/why-cities-should-watch-their-words-on-bike-safety/554600/

March 15, 2018March 14, 2018

Complete Communities Prioritize Pedestrians

In complete communities, pedestrians take precedence

By JENNIFER KEESMAAT

Sat., Aug. 16, 2014

Part of the appeal of downtown Toronto is that it represents our most mature “complete community,” defined in the city’s official plan as places where it is possible to live, work and enjoy daily life within walking distance or a short transit ride from home. (RAFFI ANDERIAN ILLUSTRATION)

Part of the appeal of any downtown is walkability, and easy access to local transportation, and “last mile transit” from public transportation to destinations within the city.

March 13, 2018March 12, 2018

The Perilous Politics of Parking

The average car moves just 5% of the time. To improve cities, focus on the other 95%.

In Ireland people ask St Anthony to help them find parking spaces. In Chicago, if you shovel the snow from a space, it belongs to you. In Shanghai people beg their parents to reserve spaces by sitting in them. Everywhere parking is a big reason law-abiding people pay fines to the government and a cause of screaming rows between strangers. More important, it profoundly shapes cities — usually for the worse.

March 10, 2018July 24, 2018

What’s a Street? What’s a Road? And A Stroad??

What’s the difference between a street and a road? What’s a stroad? Find out here. Asbury Park is mostly a grid of streets and avenues and we want to maintain that by design.

SLOW THE CARS

JANUARY 16, 2018 BY CHARLES MAROHN

“We design our streets like roads, as if their primary function — and sometimes their sole function — is the movement of automobiles.

Many people don’t grasp the difference between a street and a road. They think the terms are interchangeable, and rightly so. In the United States, we’ve spent decades — and trillions of dollars — blurring the distinctions.”

A Street

A Road

March 10, 2018March 9, 2018

Streetfilms: The Right to Walk

Traffic injuries are the leading cause of death ages 15-29…but it doesn’t have to be the case in Asbury Park. APCSC advocates for streets that provide safe access for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

What does walkability mean?

“Every person has the right to walk. Choosing to move on foot—to work, school, or the market—should be safe and easy for urban residents. Yet city streets are increasingly being built for high-speed, personal vehicles, with hazardous intersections and narrow or nonexistent sidewalks. In many cities, simply getting anywhere by foot has become a dangerous: thousands of pedestrians are killed on the world’s roads each week.”

Watch:

https://vimeo.com/234826824?ref=em-share

March 10, 2018March 10, 2018

Great News! Main Street Renovations Beginning

Excellent Coverage in The Coaster!

“Project improvements include the resurfacing of Route 71/Main Street, upgrading 29 intersections with ADA compliant ramps, and several pedestrian upgrades including curb and sidewalk replacement.

Additional improvements include bike lanes, 17 new traffic signals, the replacement of steel utility poles with standard wooden poles, landscape restoration, utility relocation, and improved lighting to enhance the safety of the road for the thousands of motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists using the road each day.”

March 9, 2018March 8, 2018

Paris to offer subsidies to those who buy bikes, give up cars

What an idea! If not subsidizing bike riding here in the US, how about making it a whole lot more desirable and easier to ride bikes and walk?

“Would similar schemes work in the United States to encourage more city dwellers to ditch their cars for two-wheeled machines instead? ”

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition

Posts