You’ll recall that I took my recent CyclingSavvy class through the diverging diamond intersection at I-44 and Kansas Expressway. It’s scary looking. But, given the traffic speeds, it is rather easily negotiable by bicycle. Walking through it, however, is another matter, according to the following critique: I disagree with the narrator’s comments about driving this [...]
Park Central Square is finished. Here are the results. You’ll see that it has become a more pedestrian-friendly place. Technorati Tags: Springfield Missouri, Urban and Regional Planning, urban design, urban development, Urban Planning
This is what happens when you hang out in coffee shops jawboning with cronies. One of the virtues of an urban area — especially a densely-populated downtown core — is that creative people bump into one another and start talking (or old farts start jawboning — take your pick). And that talking leads to ideas. And [...]
Just in time for the First Friday Art Walk, the Square is open again. Here’s an iPhone image from a few minutes ago. Technorati Tags: cycling, urban design, urban development, Urban Planning
Drive your bicycle. That’s good advice. Drive your video game. Huh? I don’t drive a car very often. But my family does own one. And now we own a new one because the old one died. So that’s a picture of the new one — a 2010 Toyota Prius. It’s like driving a video game. [...]
Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando and CyclingSavvy, has updated her excellent video Bicycling in Traffic is a Dance You Must Lead. Something to note: You are NOT watching “hardened” cyclists or “road warriors” or “adrenaline junkies” who brave the dangers of traffic. Bicycling in traffic is safe (compared to a lot of other dangerous things [...]
My current project for the STAR Team is to update our Drive Less, Live More booklet. Changes in the works include: New title — It will fit with our new active transportation PR campaign. I can’t give you details yet. But stay tuned. New copy — I’m not doing a complete re-write. But I am [...]
OK, so I was in Kansas City on Monday to attend an academic conference, and to get there I rented a compact car from Budget. I’ve rented three cars in 2011 — to go to Florida for a winter vacation, to go to St. Louis on a class field trip (I’m working on a certificate [...]
In my quest to discover just how much nonsense Carbon Trace readers will put up with, here’s another scintillating bicycling video — 37 minutes of driving 4-lane arterials in the Springfield suburbs. Does it get any better than that? I think not. Roads traveled: National, Sunshine, Campbell, and Sunset. My thanks to Christopher McNeese of A&B Cycles [...]
What ought to be the order of courtesy in traffic between car drivers and bicycle drivers? I think the best way to approach this question is to check what the law and common understandings of the traffic system call for. First among these is the order of right-of-way (304.351. 1. Right of Way). In general, the [...]
Please be careful what you ask for, that is. There’s a movement afoot at the Bicycle Friendly Springfield group on Facebook to have Springfield bicyclists send postcards to the mayor requesting more bicycle friendliness in Springfield. The post cards are available at local bicycle shops. Fill it out. Send it in. Be heard. Good idea! [...]
Wow. Newsy day transportation-wise in Springfield. Check it out. Grand St. at MSU Eyed for Improvement: Never was their a better stretch of road needing some attention to make the lives of pedestrians and non-motorized traffic better. A preliminary design shows the project would cost around $2 million to pay for upgrades of traffic lights at both [...]
It be shining on me. I’m happy that the whole honor was focused on my efforts for bicycle and pedestrian advocacy instead of simply academic stuff. The academic stuff is important, but all too often it is, well, academic Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, cycling, green transportation, transportation, Transportation Planning
The following is an e-mail issued by Butler, Rosenbury & Partners today about the renovations to Park Central Square: Construction crews are finishing work on Park Central Square in downtown Springfield 20 days ahead of schedule. This is the culmination of a four-year effort to improve Springfield’s Public Square. History Originally positioned as the city center in 1838, [...]
Interesting lecture from TED: Technorati Tags: transportation, Transportation Planning
