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.

Tomorrow (Thursday, January 20, 2011) is Winter Bike-to-Work Day.  As in past years, the Active Transportation Alliance will celebrate the event and honor participating cyclists with a warming tent, Caribou coffee and tea, and Eli’s cheesecake in Federal Plaza from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for temperatures at or below 20 degrees throughout the day, so dress warm!  For tips and a “how-to” guide on cold-weather biking, visit Bike Winter’s website.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is sponsoring anew four-part webinar series focusing on the ways in which transportation systems impact public health.  With speakers from across the nation, the series will cover state and local programs that consider health and equity in transportation planning, the health benefits of active transportation, health impact assessment tools, and innovative programs to prevent roadway deaths and injuries. The webinars are free, andregistration is required.  The webinar titles, dates, and times are as follows:

1. Community Health and Transportation Planning (Tuesday, January 18, 1:00 to 2:00p.m. CST)
2. The Health Benefits from Active Transportation (Tuesday, February 15, 1:00 to 2:00p.m. CST)
3. Health Impact Assessments (HIAS) in Transportation (Tuesday, March 15, 1:00 to 2:00p.m. CDT)
4. Preventing Roadway Fatalities and Injuries (Tuesday, April 5, 1:00 to 2:00p.m. CDT)

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.

Walkscore.com now features rankings of the walkability of 6,000 neighborhoods in 2,500 U.S. cities.  As a December 2010 Planetizen article notes, neighborhood-level data is important because it is, generally, the scale at which walking trips are made.  With data available for so many cities and their neighborhoods, one can also now get a snapshot of metropolitan regions.  Here is WalkScore’s “heat map” for greater Chicago area.  (A heat map is a graphical representation of data where the values taken by a variable in a two-dimensional map are represented as colors.)

The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) recently held elections for board members and two Chicagoans became new members: Craig Williams of Alta Planning + Design; and Mark de la Vergne of Sam Schwartz Engineering.  Read APBP’s press release.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT)has proposed a new safety regulation designed to help prevent fatalities and injuries to pedestrians -- especially young children and the elderly -- in low-speed back-up accidents.  The new regulation would help eliminate blind zones behind vehicles that can hide the presence of pedestrians by expanding the required field of view for all passenger cars, pickup trucks, minivans, buses, and other vehicles, enabling drivers to see directly behind the vehicle when in reverse.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which issued the regulation, is providing a 60-day comment period on this rulemaking that begins when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Safety Office has developed materials to assist states, localities, and citizens in improving pedestrian and bicycle safety.  Recently, the FHWA Safety Office produced two brochures that are available for free download.  One is on the safety benefits of walkways, sidewalks, and paved shoulders; the other is on safety benefits of raised medians and pedestrian refuge areas.

In addition, the FHWA has placed recordings of past webinars in its Pedestrian Safety Focus States and Cities program online and available for download (see the section “Past Recorded Webinars” approximately half-way down the FHWA Safety webpage).  The last webinar featured presentations on New York City’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan, and the State of California’s Pedestrian Safety Assessment Program. To view the recording, visit http://fhwa.adobeconnect.com/p47557469/.

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.

The Sun Times reports that work has begun on the reconstruction of the bridge carrying Halsted Street over the Chicago River North Branch.  (This is the bridge just south of Division; not the bridge just north of Chicago Avenue.)  Halsted St. is a major north-south bikeway, and so in addition to motorists, cyclists should be aware that the project will shut down Halsted between Chicago and Division for one year.  No temporary bridge will be erected.

The new bridge – which cost $27M – will increase the number of travel lanes on the bridge from one lane in each direction to two lanes in each direction. The new bridge will include bike lanes on structure to maintain continuity with existing bike lanes on Halsted north and south of the bridge.

Hear Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Commissioner, Bobby Ware, explain the goals of CDOT’s Complete Streets program.  Commissioner Ware spoke on the topic at the Metropolitan Planning Council’s roundtable "Alternative Avenues: How Livable Communities Promote Health and Wellness” on November 3, 2010.  The event was sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. CDOT's Complete Streets program goal is to accommodate and balance the safety and convenience of all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, freight, and motor vehicle drivers, in all types of transportation and development projects and through all phases of a project so that even the most vulnerable – children, elderly, and persons with disabilities – can operate safely within the public right of way. Download Commissioner Ware’s and other presentations at MPC’s website.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft guidelines on school siting.  These guidelines are intended to assist communities and community members in making the best possible school siting decisions in order to protect and improve the health of students and school staff. A 90-day public comment period runs until February 18, 2011.  For more information and to read the report and submit comments, visit the EPA website.

According to the local online newspaper, MySuburbanLife.com, the Lemont Village Board of Trustees voted unanimously last month to approve two resolutions rejecting the inclusion of bicycle facilities at two McCarthy Road intersections that will be renovated in the next few years.  The intersections are: McCarthy and Walker Roads, andthe “triangle” intersection at McCarthy, Derby Road, and Archer Avenue.

These resolutions were needed in order for Lemont to “opt out” of IDOT’s Complete Streets law, which mandates that IDOT must accommodate all users, including bicyclists and pedestrians, when designing, building, or rebuilding state or state-maintained roads.

According to the newspaper article, Lemont Trustee Jeanette Virgilio, who identifies herself as an avid cyclist, said, “I want us to look at future projects that we can accommodate this law,  Unfortunately, the timing of these projects did not allow us to accommodate this.”

After a year of construction, bicyclists and pedestrians on the Prairie Path can again safely and easily cross the Union Pacific railroad tracks near downtown Wheaton.  The Illinois Prairie Path bridge, which connects Liberty and Front Streets, near the Wheaton Metra station, reopened earlier this month.  The bridge has been redesigned to include a wider and longer platform, higher elevation, and new decorative lighting and fencing. For a press release announcing the bridge reopening, visit the City of Wheaton’s website.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently completed and published a Pedestrian Safety Strategic Plan.  This is a 15-year plan for pedestrian safety research and technology transfer.  The plan was developed to address pedestrian safety concerns and equip professionals and other stakeholders with proper knowledge, resources, and information needed to identify problems and implement solutions related to the roadway environment.

This plan will be of interest to engineers, planners, researchers, and practitioners, as well as city, state, and local agency officials, who have an interest in or responsibility for public safety.  In addition to the plan itself, there is a background report, which provides the knowledge base behind the Strategic Plan and documents the activities and findings of the project that support the development of the Plan.

The Association of Bicycle and Pedestrian Professionals (APBP) will host a webinar on “Bike Boxes” on December 15, 2010, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. CDT.

A bike box is a colored or striped area at a signalized intersection that allows bicyclists to pull in front of waiting traffic.  Designed to be used only at red lights, the box is intended to reduce car-bike conflicts, increase cyclist visibility, and provide bicyclists with a small head start when the light turns green.  The concept is gaining popularity in cities across the U.S.  In Copenhagen, Denmark – where cyclist intersection safety has been studied longest and in the most depth – bike boxes have been demonstrated to improve bicyclist safety.

The cost is $50 per site for APBP members and $75 per site for non-APBP members.  Register online.  For more information, contact Debra Goeks (262-228-7025 or deb@apbp.org).

The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) National Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) issued the report, “Guidance for the Design and Application of Shoulder and Centerline Rumble Strips.”  The report provides guidance for the design and application of shoulder and centerline rumble strips as a crash reduction measure, while minimizing adverse effects for motorcyclists, bicyclists, and nearby residents.  The report is of special interest to engineers and safety practitioners with responsibility for roadway design.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) have jointly developed and published the Livability in Transportation Guidebook: Planning Approaches that Promote Livability. The guidebook, working mostly through case studies, provides planning and policy practices, design and implementation strategies, and applications that have been developed to promote livability.  The Guidebook illustrates livability in transportation planning, programming, and project design.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation, in partnership with CEOs for Cities, presents a reception and lecture by the renowned Danish architect and urban planner, Jan Gehl on Wednesday, December 8, 2010.  A reception is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., with the lecture to follow at 6:00 p.m.  For more than forty years, Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world – including the Times Square pedestrian mall in New York City.  Gehl will describe his strategies for creating high quality, functional, people-friendly places and cycling- and pedestrian-friendly cities around the globe, using his latest book, Cities for People, as a point of departure.

This event is part of CEOs for Cities’ Give a Minute, and Change Your City campaign.  Give a Minute is a new kind of public dialogue about how to make Chicago an easier place to get around without owning a car.