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Tag Archives: traffic design

Faux Honk Report

On my way to the STAR Team meeting yesterday afternoon I noticed a distinctive car in my mirror as I was riding downtown — a Miles Electric Car owned by fellow team member Rick Scarlet. Unlike the hybrids, this is an electric-only vehicle. And it is quiet. He and I have discussed before the possibility [...]

Posted 19 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

School Kids And Barrier Streets

One of the things I liked about graduate school was using critical theory to ask uncomfortable questions about social and cultural artifacts of various sorts. Another way to put it: It was fun learning to be an intellectual pain in the ass. Allow me to demonstrate… Consider this article (part of a series) in today’s [...]

Posted 16 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (13) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Placement of Sharrows

A “sharrow” is a shared lane marker painted on the street. Sharrows should not create de facto bicycle lanes, i.e. be painted on the road in such a way that it shunts bicyclists to side of the road in the manner of a bicycle lane. Dan Gutierrez has posted some interesting photos on Facebook that show what’s [...]

Posted 03 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , ,

(Ir)Rational Choice On The Road

Rational Choice Theory is a useful idea as long as we don’t get too hung up on the word “rational.” Rational choice theorists use a slightly different concept that claims individuals seem to balance costs against benefits (the “rational” part) in order to make choices that maximize personal gain. The problem with this idea is that [...]

Posted 27 July 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged: , ,

Explain Bicycle Lanes To Me

I’ll soon have the first results of my recent bicycle survey ready. But here’s an interesting preliminary result (as yet an uncrunched stat): A bunch of respondents (almost 40%) indicated that the best thing Springfield could do to make bicycling better is add bicycle lanes. And as I gazed across the columns of answers one [...]

Posted 17 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (20) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Interesting Stuff Re: ‘Burbs and Diets

Two items of note today from Planetizen: Many Ways to Reimagine Suburbia takes a look at the finalists in a contest to figure out what to do with Long Island. That is, BTW, the home of Levittown — kinda the start of it all. There’s much to read and ponder in the 23 entires left [...]

Posted 12 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , ,

First Friday on The Square

The new perimeter of the Square continues to work as designed. I’m looking forward to work beginning on the interior. Here’s what the area looks like full of people. The open, permeable space invites people to walk about as they please. Drivers are welcome. That is a street you’re seeing there. But the space tells [...]

Posted 05 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Build It First

I swear I’m not making this up. The following is a snippet of conversation I heard at the Mudshouse. The interlocutors were high school kids: Kid 1: “There’s just too much sprawl here.” Kid 2: “Yeah, not enough density.” Kid 3: “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to live here anyway.” How do we make [...]

Posted 16 May 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Looks Like Fun!

Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando, just published this photo on Facebook. Her cutline indicates that drivers were giving them a full lane of passing width until they arrived at this bicycle lane. Then look what happened. By the way, that looks like 3 feet of clearence to me. Two things are going wrong here: Florida [...]

Posted 16 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle safety § ecology ‡ Comments (11) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Too Much to Ask?

I attended the student presentations for the new city strategic plan yesterday. Students from area high schools, Drury, OTC, and Evangel (no MSU team? hmmmmm…) presented the city council with a snapshot of what it will take to attract them to the city as a place to live and work following graduation. (Congratulations to the [...]

Posted 14 April 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (10) ° Also tagged: ,

Welcome to the Danger Zone

Take a good look at this illustration; it’s supposed to represent good street design (source). From the same source, here’s another illustration. This is not a joke. These illustrations show bicycle lanes beside parked cars on narrow urban streets. These lanes are dangerous. And they are designed to lure beginners. Such lanes are supposed to, [...]

Posted 09 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle safety § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (10) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Networks

Transportation is connected to everything else in urban planning. That means, among other things, that the goals of a transportation system ought to fit with the goals of other planning concerns. In the following video, Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, talks about the important goal of creating networks [...]

Posted 26 March 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: ,

Going With The Flow

Here’s a TED video that I found at Commute Orlando: Are we stuck with the status quo? I hope not. Technorati Tags: traffic design, transportation, Transportation Planning

Posted 24 March 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: ,

CIP Powerpoint

Click here to see a PowerPoint presentation about the Capital Improvement Sales Tax that will come up for renewal in June. This money will be funding bicycle and pedestrian projects, including sidewalk repair, sharrows, and a new bicycle route numbering system. I believe it is important to Springfield’s progress that voters re-approve this tax. Technorati [...]

Posted 11 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: ,

A Walking Winter

Carbon Trace is also supposed to be about walking, but I don’t spend much time writing about it. Perhaps I need to change that. The last few weeks have given me much to think about because the weather has kept me on foot. I’m prepared to ride my bicycle no matter what the temperature is. [...]

Posted 25 February 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: ,