The American Public Health Association (APHA) developed several new resources to help public health and transportation professionals understand the connection between health and transportation.  One is an on-line toolkit with fact sheets, communications and outreach materials, and background data and resources; another is the four-part webinar series on "What Healthy Communities Need from their Transportation Networks" (archived online); and a third is the report entitled “The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation,” which addresses the ways in which transportation systems can contribute to or hinder progress toward improving public health.

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) published a new report, “Accessible Pedestrian Signals: A Guide to Best Practices (Workshop Edition 2010).”   The report provides an introduction to accessible pedestrian signals (APS) and highlights issues related to the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of APS.

The report also addresses public education, issues related to travel by pedestrians who are blind or who have low vision, traffic signals, and modern intersection design.

The report is a web-only document.  A companion document, appendix (including a tool for intersection prioritization for installation of APS), and documentation of the research used to develop the training course and tool are available on TRB’s website.

Suburban multifamily housing is the fastest growing housing type in the U.S.  Although areas with this type of housing tend to be near local commercial areas (LCAs), the combination of an absence of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure with a site design practice that lacks access or connectivity makes trips using these modes difficult.

A new study by the Oregon Transportation Research Education Consortium (OTREC)explores pedestrian connectivity in suburban multifamily housing and investigates the link between mode choice and connectivity in these developments.

The study shows that, while suburban multifamily development sites are very often designed and built for access by automobile only,  there is a substantial amount of walking in and around these areas, and that better connected sites/infrastructure result in more walking.  The author concludes that creating better pedestrian connections has the potential to save residents money, provide environmental benefits, and increase residents’ health and sociability.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board (TRB), is offering a series of web briefings to on the content and methods of the new Highway Capacity Manual (HCM2010).

Among the major changes to HCM2010 is the inclusion of new multimodal methods and applications. Especially important for engineers and planners concerned with urban, multimodal, and non-motorized transportation, is the new Urban Streets methodology.  This methodology includes a new multimodal approach to determine level-of-service for automobiles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders on urban streets.

Upcoming web briefings will cover the new signalized intersection methodology (May 17) and auto mode in the new multi-modal urban streets methodology (May 19).

A new report (NCHRP Report 674) explores the issues and design solutions for the accessibility of two complex intersection forms for blind pedestrians: intersections with channelized right turn lanes (CTLs) and modern roundabouts with one-lane and two-lane approaches.  The report offers guidance and information related to the establishment of safe crossings for blind pedestrians at these intersections.

For CTLs, the study team concludes that channelized turn lane locations can be very challenging to cross for blind pedestrians and signalized treatments may need to be considered at these sites.  Since field tests indicated that high vehicle speeds contributed to the high incidence of unsafe crossings at CTL locations, geometric designs and treatments intended to reduce vehicular speed -- such as traffic calming designs, raised crosswalks, pork-chop islands, narrow lane width, small curve radii, and the absence of an acceleration lane -- may further decrease the likelihood of unsafe crossing for pedestrians who are blind.

For single-lane roundabouts, the study concludes that while some blind research participants had difficulties crossing single-lane roundabouts in a safe manner, these sites appear not to pose crossing difficulties that are beyond those experienced by many blind travelers at similar signalized intersections. Key factors for safety here include:

• Low vehicle speeds at the crosswalk
• The willingness of a majority of drivers to yield to pedestrians
• Properly installed detectable warning surfaces at all transition points
• Availability of certified orientation and mobility instruction customized to roundabout crossings

The study also confirmed that two-lane roundabouts are challenging and not accessible without the provision of additional crossing treatments or a drastic change toward an increase in likelihood of drivers voluntarily yielding to pedestrians.

An article in the journal Injury Prevention examines the relative risk of injury for bicycling on cycle tracks versus in the street. The study, which was conducted in Montreal (where a relatively extensive and long-standing network of cycle tracks exists) compares bicyclist injury rates on six cycle tracks versus the risk rate (RR) on comparable reference streets.  The study found that the risk of injury for cyclists riding on cycle tracks is about 28 per cent lower than for cyclists riding on roads where they are unprotected from traffic.  Specifically, the RR of injury on cycle tracks was 0.72 (95 percent confidence interval 0.60 to 0.85) compared with bicycling in the reference streets.  The authors conclude that the “data suggest that the injury risk of bicycling on cycle tracks is less than bicycling in streets. The construction of cycle tracks should not be discouraged."

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) is issuing this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to develop accessibility guidelines for shared use paths. Shared use paths are designed for both transportation and recreation purposes and are used by pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, equestrians, and other users. The guidelines will include technical provisions for making newly constructed and altered shared use paths covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (ABA) accessible to persons with disabilities.

Comments on the proposed rule must be submitted by June 27, 2011.  You can download the document and submit comments directly from the eRulemaking Program  website.

A new study sponsored by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Royal College for Art (RCA) in the U.K. investigates how blind and partially-sighted people navigate the public realm in order to gain a better understanding of their needs and to embed this understanding into emerging street design practice. The study surveyed a range of urban designers, engineers, architects, and people with low vision in order to gain information and insights. The study attempts to look at how real people experience real street environments, and thereby seeks to move the debate away from abstract ideas and towards practical interventions informed by user experience.

It should be noted that the designs and guidance offered in this study may not be consistent with U.S. best practice and proposed guidance, which can found on the U.S. Access Board’s Public Rights-of-Way Advisory Committee (PROWAC) website.

A new report (FHWA-HRT-10-068) examines the relative daytime and nighttime visibility of three crosswalk marking patterns: transverse lines, continental, and bar pairs. The primary objective was to study the visibility of crosswalk markings by determining detection distance and identifying the variables that affect this distance.  The main conclusions of the study are:

• The detection distances to continental and bar pairs are statistically similar. The detection distances to continental and bar pairs are statistically different from transverse markings.
• For the existing midblock locations, a general observation is that the continental marking was detected at about twice the distance upstream as the transverse marking during daytime conditions. This increase in distance reflects 8 s of increased awareness of the crossing for a 30-mi/h operating speed.
• Participants preferred the continental and bar pairs markings over the transverse markings.

The study recommends that the following revisions to the MUTCD be considered:

• Add bar pairs as a usable crosswalk pattern.
• Provide typical dimensions for the marking patterns including spacing that will assist in avoiding wheel paths.
• Consider making bar pairs or continental the “default” for all crosswalks across uncontrolled approaches (i.e., not controlled by signals or stop signs), with exceptions allowing transverse lines where engineering judgment determines that such markings would be adequate, such as a location with low-speed residential streets.

According to the Physics arXiv blog, since 2005, the French city of Lyon’s bicycle-sharing system, called Velo'v has been praised for its use of innovative technology (such as electronic locks), onboard computers, and access via smart cards. The blog recently offered a preview of a paper on the Lyon system, which now offers some 4,000 bikes at nearly 350 stations around the city and accounts for approximately 16,000 trips per day.  

Since its introduction, the city’s bike-share system has recorded the start and end locations, as well as the travel times, of every journey.  Researchers have now analyzed this data in an article entitled “Characterizingthe speed and paths of shared bicycle use in Lyon,” now published in the journal Transportation Research Part D: Transportation and Environment.  The authors look at 11.6 million bicycle trips in Lyon between May 2005 and December 2007, in what they call “the first robust characterization of urban cyclists’ behavior.”  The data provide information on cycle flows that may be of use in the planning of dedicated bicycle lanes and other facilities.

In March, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) released its Urban Bikeway Design Guide at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C.  The guide is part of the Cities for Cycling Initiative. The guide’s stated purpose is to provide cities with state-of-the-practice cycling solutions to create complete streets that are safe and enjoyable for bicyclists.

The guide is divided into five major sections, presenting innovative treatments and designs for bike lanes, cycle tracks, intersections, signals, and signs and marking.  There are also sections containing case studies from NACTO member cities, a matrix of all the treatments that the guide presents, and a list of the design guide project team members in each of the NACTO member cities.  The Bikes Belong coalition and the SRAM Cycling Fund sponsored the guide.

Most of the treatments in the guide are not directly referenced in the current versions of the AASHTO Guide to Bikeway Facilities or the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), although many of the elements are found within these documents. The Federal Highway Administration recently posted information regarding approval status of various bicycle related treatments not covered in the MUTCD, including many of the treatments provided in the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide. All of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide treatments are in use internationally and in many cities around the U.S.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has instituted a proceeding to clarify, update, and seek public comments on proposed changes to its existing regulations and procedures regarding the use of railroad rights-of-way for railbanking and interim trail use under the  National Trails System Act (Trails Act).

Comments are due by April 12, 2011; replies are due by May 12, 2011.

For more information and instructions on how to comment, see the Federal Register notice (February 16, 2011, Volume 76, Number 32).

According to a new report by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, planning and building bicycle and pedestrian projects creates more job per million dollars spent than road repairs and road resurfacing.  The study finds that in the City of Baltimore pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure projects create 11 to14 jobs per $1 million of spending, while road infrastructure projects create approximately 7 jobs per $1 million of expenditures.

U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) secretary Ray LaHood in his blog Fastlane.com stated that this study, when combined with a new survey released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that indicates widespread public support -- 67 percent -- in America's cities for street designs that increase physical activity, “creates a powerful argument for continuing U.S. DOT's support for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects.”

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) will present a webinar in its Livable Communities Webinar Series entitled, “FHWA Resources for Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals,” on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. CST.  The webinar will provide an overview of tools and resources available to communities to enhance walking and bicycling in their local area.

Presenters include:

• Dan Nabors, Senior Transportation Engineer at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.,
• Charlie Zegeer, Director, Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
• Libby Thomas, Research Associate, UNC Highway Safety Research Center
• Tamara Redmon, Pedestrian/Bike Safety Team Leader, FHWA

Bridges are critical parts of most communities’ transportation networks, and making sure they safely accommodate people on foot or on bike allows for expanded mobility and transportation choice, as well as increased safety.  A new report from the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) shows how to successfully advocate for “complete” bridges, including lessons learned from several campaigns.

FHWA has published a TechBrief, summarizing a study whose purpose was to evaluate the impact of several uses of shared-lane pavement markings – specifically the “sharrow” design – on operational and safety measures for bicyclists and motorists.  Experiments were conducted in Cambridge, MA; Chapel Hill, NC; and Seattle, WA.  The study concludes that, “sharrows can be used in a variety of situations, and increased use should enhance motorist awareness of bicyclists or the possibility of bicyclists in the traffic stream. Results indicate that sharrows increased operating space for bicyclists.  Sharrows have reduced sidewalk riding not only in the current study but also in a previous study in Gainesville, FL.”

Smart Growth America and the Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report looking at current state-level transportation policies in all 50 states.  The report evaluates the extent to which, and in what specific ways, these policies address climate change and work to reduce carbon emissions.  The report’s recommendations suggest ways states can improve their climate performance while continuing to meet their mobility needs.

This report builds on the 2009 report, Moving Cooler: An Analysis of Transportation Strategies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Public Roads, a bimonthly magazine published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), has published on article entitled, “Street Design: Part 1—Complete Streets.”   The article – the first of a two-part series on street design – looks at how complete streets policies can help make the transportation system more accessible to all travelers.  The article defines complete streets, cites U.S. Code supporting the concept of complete streets, gives examples (Context Sensitive Solutions and Safe Routes to School), and summarizes the roles of state DOTs and MPOs, as well as local governments and transit operators.

The rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) device is a pedestrian-activated beacon system located at the roadside below side-mounted pedestrian crosswalk signs.  This FHWA-sponsored study examines and evaluates whether or not RRFBs increased driver yielding to pedestrians on high-volume, multilane crosswalks at uncontrolled locations.  The report, looking at 22 sites located in three cities, concludes that RRFBs produce an increase in yielding behavior. In addition, data collected over a two-year follow-up period at 18 of these sites also indicated that the positive effect of the RRFBs on yielding behavior does not diminish over time.

TheNational Center for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) launched a new feature that provides local Safe Routes to School programs the ability to collect Parent Survey responses online in both English and Spanish. According to this press release, “the online Parent Survey option is a free service that streamlines the data collection and submission processes, and saves local programs administrative time and money."

The online Parent surveys helps local program implementers determine how they can improve opportunities and conditions for children to walk and bicycle to school, as well as track parental attitudes over time as local SRTS programs are implemented. To see if online surveying is appropriate for your school and for information on how to start using this new feature, visit the NCSRTS website.