Monday, March 31, 2014

CicloSDias Comes to PB

The latest incarnation of CicloSDias came to our neighborhood this weekend, providing a great excuse to walk and bike in what would otherwise be a pretty unfriendly stretch of Garnet Avenue and Cass Street. Here are some pictures of the festivities.




For the unfamiliar, the Ciclovia movement started in 1976 (!) in Bogota Colombia, but grew to international prominence under the leadership of mayor Enrique PeƱalosa in the 1990s. Since then cities across the world have followed suit with their own version of Ciclovias (sometimes know as Sunday Streets or Open Streets events), including several dozen cities in the US (more info in this nice write-up from Atlanta Streets Alive).

While Sunday's Pacific Beach event was populated primarily by cyclists in all shapes and sizes, there were also plenty of walkers, a handful of skaters, and (this being a beach town) any number of skateboarders enjoying the sunny weather and lack of cars. Despite the abundance of cyclists, I felt pretty comfortable walking the route with my two-week-old in her stroller; I didn't see anyone pedaling at an unsafe speed or being overly aggressive towards slower folks. While it would have been nice to have a few more booths or activities along the route, the adjacent businesses provided lots of excuses for pit stops.

From an anecdotal perspective, whether or not the event increased business traffic seemed to depend on the type of business. Some of the restaurants seemed slower than usual, and I doubt the auto-parts store was seeing much action, but the cafes and ice-cream shops seemed to be doing a brisk trade (they got our business, at least!).


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Trip and Fall Lawsuits vs. Sidewalk Repair


Reading through this article about how much the City of Helsinki spends on trip and fall compensation over the winter ($1.37 million) got me wondering about those same costs here in San Diego. Granted, conditions in Finland aren't exactly comparable to those here, but according to a study cited in the article Helsinki would save at least $10 for every $1 spent on road maintenance and planning. Would fixing our sidewalks before someone falls actually save us money in the long run?

On their face, the calculations here, suggest no--at least, not in legal fees. Repairing San Diego's sidewalks would cost at least $6 million each year, and it would take another $170 million to install sidewalks in all the place they're missing. But the City only pays out about $350,000 each year to resolve trip and fall lawsuits (yet another reason we're lucky not to have snow and ice, I guess). The situation is the same for our largest neighbor to the north. Los Angeles has a sidewalk repair backlog of $1.6 billion, while the city spends a "mere" $3 to $5 million on trip and fall suits each year.

But these numbers don't take into account the added value that well-kept sidewalks might contribute to their adjoining properties. There's little research how sidewalks specifically impact property values and sales, but one study suggests that walkability in general adds up to $34,000 to home values, and another shows rents in walkable shopping areas can be over 50 percent higher than those in their less-walkable counterparts. Retail sales in walkable areas are higher, too.

Since sidewalks (particularly those in good repair) are a critical piece of the walkability puzzle, they're obviously adding something to the mix, and cities are benefiting from those sidewalks in the form of higher revenues from sales and property taxes. Add that to the decreased legal fees from trip and fall lawsuits, and it's hard to understand why any city would hesitate to fix its sidewalks sooner rather than later. 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

March Webinars

March 6, 10 am -12 pm (PST)
Innovative Transportation Stormwater Management: Green Infrastructure in Road Projects

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Wastewater Management and the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Project Development and Environmental Review are teaming up to co-sponsor the webcast “Innovative Transportation Stormwater Management: Green Infrastructure in Road Projects.” 

Roads can convey a variety of pollutants into our waterways and can increase the volume and velocity of stormwater generated. Green infrastructure techniques are one solution that can be used to reduce and treat stormwater runoff. This webcast will include brief overviews about green infrastructure from FHWA and USEPA and showcase two state transportation organizations committed to innovative initiatives to improve water quality and manage the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff from road surfaces. The speakers will highlight collaborative projects, policy recommendations to strategically incorporate green infrastructure into the roadway funding and approval process, and describe a programmatic approach to the design and construction of stormwater BMPs along with a chloride offset program.


March 14, 10 am- 11:30 am (PST)
Pedestrian Safety and the Highway Safety Improvement Program

This webinar will provide an overview of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and its applications for addressing pedestrian safety.

Karen Scurry (Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety) will provide an overview of the program and discuss the relationships between the different HSIP programs, eligibility requirements, resources for additional information, and examples of pedestrian focused projects that have used HSIP funds.

The webinar will also feature presentations from two states – Arizona and California – to focus on how HSIP is applied on the state and local levels.  Providing these presentations will be Kohinoor Kar (Arizona Department of Transportation) and David Cohen (FHWA California Division).
The presenters will also participate in a question and answer session to answer questions from the attendees.


March 20, 11 am - 12:30 pm (PST)
Keeping Pedestrians Safe in Urban and Suburban Settings

Pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise over the past couple of years. By attending this free webinar, you will find out more about how we can reverse this unsettling trend and make our urban and suburban communities safer for pedestrians. Walking is the mode of choice for some, and the only choice for many. It is imperative that pedestrian safety becomes a priority for and incorporated into all planning and design processes. 

This webinar, Walking Shouldn't Be Hazardous to Your Health, Part 1: Keeping Pedestrians Safe in Urban and Suburban Settings, will provide an overview of tools, campaigns and strategies you can use to work toward a positive impact on pedestrian safety and help reverse pedestrian fatalities and injuries. Our featured speakers, Noah Budnick and Michael King, are experts in the field of pedestrian safety and the built environment. They will walk you through addressing pedestrian safety in both urban and suburban settings, tackling these issues through campaigns and design.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Speed Reduction Case Studies: Portland, Seattle, Washington, DC

Three more case studies showing how cities across the country have used a variety of measures to reduce speeds and increase biking and walking.

Portland, Oregon: Neighborhood Greenway Initiative 
Portland, already known for its commitment to cycling and pedestrian mobility, created its Neighborhood Greenways plan to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and further encourage biking and walking. The plan converted and expanded existing Bicycle Boulevards into a network of Neighborhood Greenways, residential streets designed to prioritize bicycles and pedestrians over automobile traffic. Typically, greenway speed limits are 20 mph and traffic volume is 250–1,000 cars per day.The Neighborhood Greenways initiative uses speed bumps to achieve the desired 20 mph operating speed.
Photo courtesy of HRIA
The City has already created a network of greenways that reaches a quarter of residents in Portland, and hopes to expand that number to 80 percent by 2015. Creation costs for each mile of greenway are about $150,000 per mile, in part because the city was able to use existing trail connections and routes with signals. Funding for Portland’s Neighborhood Greenways comes from a variety of sources, including general transportation revenue and transportation grant-funding, as well as Safe Routes to Schools grants. 



While there is not yet enough data to measure a reduction in injuries and fatalities associated with Neighborhood Greenways, bicycle volumes increased by approximately 6.4 percent between 2010 and 2011 and within the same timeframe, 61 percent more bicycles were counted at 11 locations on newly developed neighborhood greenways.


Seattle, Washington: A Multi-Faceted Approach To Speed Reduction
As part of its 2012 Road Safety Action Plan, the City of Seattle set a goal of zero traffic-related fatalities by 2030 and identified speed reduction as one of six priority areas to help achieve that goal. A key reason for this was to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety: while the number of collisions in Seattle dropped from 2000 to 2010, collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists did not.

Seattle addressed speeding in four broad ways: 



  1. Policy: Pending state legislation would allow the City of Seattle to reduce speed limits on low-volume, low-speed residential roads more easily.
  2. Education: The City promotes safe driving through its Be Super Safe campaign, which targets males ages 16-24.
  3. Environment: Seattle makes physical changes to the road, such as road diets and upgrading signage, to make drivers aware of speed limits and encourage reduced speeds. As part of the City's Arterial and Neighborhood Traffic Calming program, Seattle has implemented over 30 road diets and implemented an automated enforcement program
  4. Enforcement: The City increases police and automated enforcement of speed limits

The City allocated $200,000 from the General Fund in 2013 and 2014 with emphasis on speed reduction measures, as well as $2.1 million for pedestrian and bicycle enhancement and $1.5 million for pedestrian, bicycle, and greenway additions. The work is also funded through state grants. 



    Photo courtesy of HRIA
    In 2001, nearly 60 percent of traffic fatalities in Washington, DC were speed-related. Based on evidence that consistent enforcement of traffic laws effectively changed driver behavior, the City created a Photo Enforcement Program to address speeding problems. The program uses 
    stationary and portable photo radar cameras, cameras in vehicles, and intersection safety cameras to enforce speed limits. Currently there are 10 permanent sites and 15 portable sites within the city, in addition to up to 18 vehicles with photo enforcement deployed six days a week. 


    The City typically sees a 60 to 80 percent reduction in speeding violations within a few 
    months of cameras being deployed at a site. Overall, the number of traffic fatalities in DC has dropped from 68 in 2003 to 19 in 2012, average speeds among all vehicles in DC have been reduced, and the rate of speeding over 10 mph above the speed limit has dropped from one in three drivers to just one in 40.

    To build community support for the program, the City worked hard to communicate its goals and intended outcomes to the community by speaking at citizen meetings and soliciting input on where to place cameras. As a result, the program enjoys strong community support, with 76 percent of those surveyed favored speed cameras.

    Monday, February 17, 2014

    Speed Reduction Case Studies: Chicago, Columbia, New York

    As part of a new set of resources on neighborhood speed reduction, Health Resources in Action has provided six case studies describing what cities across the country are doing to lower speeds on their streets. Here is a brief summary of the first three:

    Chicago, Illinois: Child Safety Zones 
    In Chicago, speed was a significant factor in the 3,000 annual crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians, with children ages 5–18 most likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes. In response, City leaders made a commitment to reduce serious pedestrian injuries by 50 percent every five years and eliminate pedestrian fatalities within 10 years.

    Photo courtesy of HRIA
    Key to this strategy was the Child Safety Zone Initiative, which designates the areas within 1/8 mile of all 1,500 schools and parks across the city as “safe zones.” Within these safe zones, the Chicago Department of Transportation used multiple measures to reduce vehicle speeds, including:

    • High-visibility crosswalks
    • Median “refuge islands” for pedestrians crossing streets
    • Curb extensions
    • Speed feedback signs 
    • Automated speed enforcement cameras
    • Speed limits reductions (speeds lowered from 30 mph to 20 mph between 7 am and 7 pm near schools)

    Columbia, Missouri: Lowering The Posted Speed Limit On Residential Streets 
    In Columbia, speeding on local roads was consistently a top issue for area residents. Based on the success of similar efforts in other Missouri cities, in 2009 Columbia ran a pilot program reducing the default speed limit on residential roads from 30 mph to 25 mph. In some neighborhoods, enhanced posted speed limit signs were placed at the entrances of the neighborhood, indicating the lowered speed limit of 25 mph. An educational campaign to promote the slower speeds was also included as part of the program.

    Speed data from both neighborhoods showed reductions in average speeds, reductions that ranged from roughly 1 mph to over 6 mph on roads where speed limits were changed from 30 mph to 25 mph. The new, kid-friendly signage and the educational campaign did not have a greater impact on lowering speeds than merely lowering the posted speed limit and replacing the standard sign, but residents in the neighborhood that received education reported feeling safer riding bikes and walking on their neighborhood streets than residents in the neighborhood without the educational outreach.

    The pilot study to evaluate the effect of the speed reduction cost $9,935, and the City used  used $128,000 of its traffic safety funds to cover the cost of installation equipment and temporary salaries for two staffers.

    New York City: Neighborhood Slow Zones
    Pedestrian crashes in New York City are a serious issue, with crashes the second-most common cause of injury deaths among children 5 to 14 years old and among adults over 45. Many of these crashes (21 percent in 2010) can be attributed to speeding. To address this problem, the City began the the pilot Neighborhood Slow Zones program to slow vehicle speeds on residential streets.
    Photo courtesy of HRIA
    Improvements in the Neighborhood Slow Zones include:

    • Blue “gateways,”including signs and markings at an intersection to announce the entrance to a Neighborhood Slow Zone
    • Signs and pavement markings to indicate a 20 mph speed limit (reduced from 30 mph) 
    • Additional safety measures such as speed bumps, street markings, and other traffic calming treatments

    The creation of Neighborhood Slow Zones is led by residents themselves, who must identify a 5-block area for the zone and gather community support in order to apply. While the City received over 100 applications for its first round of funding, requiring broad community support (though helps once application accepted) may hinder the creation of Slow Zones in neighborhoods without community associations or a strong consensus surrounding speeding.