MORE: CHANGING STATE OF STATES TRANSPORTATION FUNDING

MORE: CHANGING STATE OF STATES TRANSPORTATION FUNDING

     …..applying the Massachusetts general fund transport projects principle to Vermont

The Boston Globe reported the announcement last week by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick of likely first set of transportation investments since his Legislature the first yearly shift of $800 million from general fund revenue for transportation projects.

The $800 shift from general fund revenues to transportation--about half of what Gov. Deval Patrick sought from his Legislature--goes primarily to many years overdue replacement of the subway fleets on two Boston lines, statewide electric tolling and straightening a Turnpike section, and very possibly new commuter rail service to he “South Coast” with services to long economically depressed Cities of Fall River and New Bedford.  Final details of Gov. Patrick’s transportation project list will be released by Thanksgiving.  Gov. Patrick says funding emphasis will be placed on improved transportation outside of Greater Boston.

Massachusetts and Virginia this year were the first states to disconnect highway, gasoline, and car-related taxes from their past singular role in transportation finance at the state levels.   Translating $800 million a year to Vermont—with a tenth of the population of Massachusetts—leads an $80 million a year equivalent as a minimum starting point.  And, $80 million in Vermont in just two years would enable, for examples: (1) capital and some operating support for commuter rail from Burlington to Montpelier, Middlebury and St. Albans; (2) additional intercity rail service along a circular corridor from Burlington-White River Junction-Bellows Falls-Rutland-Burlington; and (3) a light rail service from the Burlington waterfront to Fletcher Allen Health Care and University of Vermont campus via the Church Street Marketplace.   As important, Vermont could begin the critically needed investments to make downtowns, urban neighborhoods and town centers walkable and bikable for the first time though investments in cycle track (protected bike lanes) and at key intersections pathed roundabouts designed to serve both the walking and bicycle modes. 

At some point, a major gasoline tax at the federal level—in dollars not the nickels and dimes of the past—must be imposed (phased in over several years) to provide the kind of resources to states enabling the U.S. to join the first tier of nations whose transportation systems which are defined by either high-speed rail networks and/or walkable and bikable urban areas.  (Most Western European nations qualify on both criteria.)  Consider the fact that nations like Taiwan, South Korea and China already nations boast a basic network of high-speed rail countrywide.  In the United States and Canada there is not a single walkable or bikable urban area—investing in infrastructure to achieve walkable and bikable urban nodes, corridors and areas poses the greatest urban transportation challenge today.   (A tip of the hat though to Canada where both Montreal and Toronto extensive underground areas and corridors remain the only ones in North America and two of the few of such extensive enclosed car-free environments worldwide.)

CONFESSIONS OF A BURLINGTON, VT BICYCLIST “SIDER”

CONFESSIONS OF A BURLINGTON, VT BICYCLIST “SIDER”

While those favoring walking and bicycling daily add converts, the bulk of the population knows well the lack of walkable and bikable infrastructure still rules the real world of American urban and town center streets—truly incomplete streets.  For walkers this means endless waits at high-injury-rate signalized intersections and for bicyclists it means being relegated to the “sider” class. 

The “sider” bicyclist by necessity only travels by carefully negotiating trips along sidewalks, side streets and “backways.”  When you bicycle at my advanced age or very young, less skilled on two wheelers, or wish to avoid the risk of mixing on streets with at most unprotected bike lanes with hordes of traffic—you become a sider by default or just put the bicycle away.  We do not partake of bike parties, bike rides, and other group activities taking place and bikable busy streets--these remain to us the dream of the future.  We do not fool ourselves—American bike infrastructure development trails Amsterdam or Copenhagen by decades (well, yes, the Burlington Marketplace is the one walkable corridor in Burlington but no bikes allowed !).

Being a sider means the shortest distance between two points has nothing to do with the shortest distance between two points—one is more like a thief on foot taking every which way to avoid capture.  A sider can end up taking a dozen different streets and backways just to go a few blocks to a favorite coffee shop less than a mile away.  Even after a dozen trips or so you have to take a moment to recall the sider route which on paper looks like a treasure hunt through a maze.   

Thanks to churches, parks, and housing developments all kinds short cuts abound.  (And without the alleyway behind Macys from Cherry Street in Burlington connecting with a left, right left through the People’s Bank to Pine Street it would be impossible to move north to south in downtown for the Burlington bicycle sider.)

Now for a long time also was a salmon—biking the wrong way on a street with a one way bike lane the wrong way (yes, during light traffic times I will use a bike lane for a block or two).  But after hearing that this is really not safe (and experiencing wrong way bicyclists from the opposite, correct, direction, must agree) gave up salmoning on my bicycle for life, something far easier than quitting smoking.

On sidewalks I follow some simple rules.  First, travel no more than a few miles an hour as you never know what will suddenly appear from a driveway.  Second, one travels across crosswalks at about walking speed (four miles an hour) and with the same attention to traffic as one would on foot—and be prepared to dismount at any point.  Generally, I for one never pass a walker on the sidewalk- period!  When a walker is approaching towards me I dismount about 50 feet away and walk my bike until past the walker traffic.   A person walking has a right not to be bothered by bicyclist—nothing irritates a person walking more than bicyclists rushing past from behind or approaching in front regardless of the speed. 

Some day us siders will get the new protected bike lanes and roundabouts with paths which together promise to put our sider days into history—like life without safety belts.   Our major urban streets—like Amsterdam and Copenhagen—some day will become places for all to walk and bike in safety and comfort. 

FORMER VT WALKING/BICYCLING STAR FOCUSES ON CYCLE TRACK

FORMER VERMONT WALKING AND BICYCLING STAR FOCUSES ON CYCLE TRACK

A landmark study published in the July American Journal of Public Health finds the installation of cycle track—protected bike lanes—promises for town centers and urban areas infrastructure enabling all regardless of age, sex, or ability the opportunity to travel by bicycle in comfort and safety. 

A former Vermont walking and bicycling leader, Dr. Anne Lusk, now at the Harvard School of Public Health, was a lead researcher on the study team.  The study examines: (1) state and federal highway guidance for bicycling in regard to cycle track; (2) 19 U.S. cycle tracks (including one in South Burlington, VT) with determination their safety far surpasses on-street bicycling; and (3) European experience where a large proportion of the population--all ages, all skills and both male and female—ride bicycles regularly.  U.S. urban trips by bicycle are about one percent and walking six percent while Germany and the Netherlands average about 20 percent each—more than 40% of all urban trips there are on foot and bicycle in those two nations. The paper, “Bicycle guidelines and crash rates on cycle track in the United States,” can be found at:     

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301043

Dr. Lusk--named by President George H.W. Bush as his 119^th Point of Light, a designation for notable volunteer community leaders in a variety of fields--left Vermont a few years ago as a true legend in the field of walking and bicycling.  Lusk almost single-handedly built the Stowe Bikepath, lead a volunteer group of State and private members to create, promote and develop walking and bicycling initiatives culminating in an $11 million State funded bikepath program even before federal program began, and facilitated the formation of the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition which now in its third decade continues fostering programs, policies and investments in what is now a burgeoning field of walking and bicycling growth in virtually every town in Vermont.  Vermont’s early leadership in roundabout development in the Northeast also resulted directly from the initiatives Lusk led.  Lusk also was involved in a study finding the safety superiority of cycle track in Montreal (built in 2007) over on-street cycling.

Cycle track is rapidly developing in the U.S--100 miles are under development in Chicago, announcement occurred this month that Boston will build 20 miles of cycle track by 2018, and cycle tracks plans and initiatives can be found bubbling up throughout the U.S. and Canada.   The study reports only 0.5% those aged 16 over population home-to-work trips by bike in the United States—and only 24% of those trips by women.  While male bicycle trips have increased recently, female bicycling has not changed and trips by children has decreased.

The study shows U.S. cycle track  experience far lower injury rates per mile of travel than on highways or streets with unprotected bike lanes or no lanes.  Cycle track in the United States totaled 40 miles at the time of the research while Dutch cycle track miles totaled 18,000 miles in a nation with the population about that of New England.  

There exists strong interest in safe routes to schools (until recently a federal program funded projects in this area) and European experience indicates that levels of walking and bicycling to school is closely associated with the presence of cycle track networks.   The study notes a survey of research indicating “cyclists are safer on roundabouts with cycle track.”

Finally, the study takes aim at U.S. bicycle guidance—particularly the American Association of Highway Officials (AASHTO) bicycle and highway guides from 1974 to 1999 prepared by committees dominated by males  (over 90 percent males for the two publications for which gender data could be found), publications which do not address in any way the value, benefits, etc. of cycle track—with much of the bicycle guidance given without foundation in research.

A "TERRIBLE THING" IN SIX WORDS?

A "TERRIBLE THING"?


An entertaining relationship movie (R rating) rattled along until six words of dialogue spoken by the character played by Julianne Moore struck almost like a lightning bolt as she spoke with sincerity and reflection, "the car is a terrible thing."

Brought up in New Hampshire where the Manchester Union Leader, the State's dominant statewide newspaper, for several years showing the latest gruesome fatal car crash scene emblazoned in large front page photos came to mind--and the still 30,000 plus Americans dying from car crashes each year (plus uncounted injuries as well as fatalities from road rage).   Gun deaths and car deaths now appear to be in a yearly contest from state to state as to which gets the lead.

But to hear "the car is a terrible thing" in a Hollywood production which also featured as a key element a lead actor who prided himself  in his Mustang SS and agressive driving including a scene of his own road rage breaking the window of the car whose owner yelled back at him--made this "terrible thing" all the more surprising.  The movie, Don Jon, does have Julianne Moore playing a character who near the end of the movie disloses the death of her son and husband 14-months prior as the result of that "terrible thing."

A ROUNDABOUT IS NOT A TRAFFIC CIRCLE OR ROTARY--HERE'S THE DIFFERENCE

"Roundabout" often gets a bad rap around the Burlington, VT area as it is equated with the failed traffic circle design in nearby downtown Winooski--a traffic circle which roundabouts cure.  Here is the example of a roundabout curing a traffic circle--New York's first roundabout built in 2000 in Kingston.  You could fit two of them inside the Winooski circle,or three of Vermont's two-laner in Brattleboro.  

Check out this Alaska DOT website showing before and after of the Kingston roundie, plus a simple directory covering how the roundabout safely handles walkers and bicyclists approaching from cycle track/bike lanes. roundabout history, U.S. examples 

http://www.alaskaroundabouts.com/mythfact1.html

The Kingston 660 foot (more than two football fields) diameter circle is now

a 220 foot diameter roundabout.  The Winooski circle--really an oval--is about 500 feet by 200 feet.   

(Note Montpelier's first roundabout (1995) is pictured in the section "Roundabout Links" subsection "Roundabouts around the world" as it is the first north of Maryland and east of Las Vegas, the 19th in the U.S).

Still noteworthy, there has yet to be a single walker fatality at the 3,000 or so U.S. roundabouts.

TRAFFIC SIGNALS KILL IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE--TRAFFIC LIGHT RAGE VICTIM

The Burlington Free Press today bottom page 1 headline said a woman was shot and killed in St. Albans.  The story inside told of an incident at busy signalized intersection at Lower Newton Road and Main Street where the victim turning north on Main Street was almost hit by a car driving north on Main Street reported as running a red light.  The woman then followed the offender about four hundred yards, apparently accosted the driver, they both got out of the car and after some words he shot her several times and she died at the local hospital.

This was not midnight incident--it happened in daylight during the afternoon drive time, about 5:30 p.m.  The weather was fair and sunny, a beautiful early fall afternoon.

The newspaper report termed it a "road rage" incident, but the truth is a roundabout at the intersection would have avoided this fatality--it was clearly a case of a "signal rage" killing. The fatality will never show up on the highway fatality list--as did the death of a young father crossing on a crosswalk some years before and being hit and killed while with his young son.  Both the victim and the alleged shooter yesterday were relatively young adults.  A highway fatality is rated by the Federal Highway Administration as a $6.1 million in total social costs (1999 dollars).  

Roundabouts are a traffic calming treatment, but as a slow speed intersection it creates a social interaction between users--the positive kind of social interactions not the rage and killing kind.

So when the question of whether to roundabout or not to roundabout, keep in mind the kind of killing that takes place at signals, the kind that never gets reported in the road fatality reports.

RESEARCH SHOWS SINGLE-LANE ROUNDABOUTS SHARPLY CUT WALKER AND BICYCLIST INJURY RATES

The following is part of a monograph completed earlier this month.  It attempts to explain based on two key research studies of "before and after" injury rates at intersections converted to single lane roundabouts the sharp reduction in injury rates the single lane roundabout--the predominant type--accomplish. 

The basic safety by the numbers for roundabouts—car occupants,

walkers and bicyclists

First and foremost one must consider the incontrovertible evidence that roundabouts substantially reduce injury rates for the principle modes: walking, bicycling and car travel. For overall safety, the authoritative U.S. study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (2000) found anything but a roundabout generated serious and fatal injuries at a rate about 800 percent higher than the average of signals and stop control level.  (The study language that roundabouts reduce serious and fatal injuries about 90% translates—using arithmetic—one roundabout [injury] to [ten] non-roundabout injuries, so one calculates non-roundabout injuries occur at an 900% greater rate.) The roundabouts surveyed in the before and after analysis were both single and multi-lane—and the statistical measures compared the “after” performance against typical intersections thereby avoiding the “reduction to the mean” issue.   Results did to a great extent reflect car travel as the U.S. walking mode share still remains below those of many developed nations, and very far below the bicycle mode share—with American bicyclists primarily younger adult males.

But two studies—one Dutch and the other Swedish—examining single lane

roundabouts clearly show the safety benefits to those who walk and bike reach near the same levels of safety gain as the overall numbers in the U.S. study. And secondary findings of both those studies point to a major breakthrough for bicycle facility design and the pivotal role roundabouts play in that breakthrough…[provision of separate .]paths for both bicyclists and walkers]…

In the U.S. any discussion of the walking and bicycling mode takes place during a time when car occupant fatalities in recent years have decreased, walking fatalities increased, and while bicycle fatalities have decreased the decrease is slower so that overall bicycle fatality numbers represent a slow increase in the overall percentage of U.S. highway fatalities.

Single lane roundabouts will be evaluated—they are roughly about 75% of all

roundabouts built. In Vermont to date 10 of 11 roundabouts are single lane. While studies of two lane roundabout have been produced, recent design practice involvesminimizing roundabout sizes when serving walkers and bicyclists since their safety depends in great part from lower speeds—and smaller roundabouts constrain speeds to a lower level than do larger roundabouts. For example, the Swedish study cited here two-lane data found roughly no change in bicyclist crash rates and possibly a slight increase. However that study reported in 2001 involved roundabouts with about

a 200 foot diameter typically versus the current practice of 150 to 180 foot diameter two-lane roundabouts where serving bicyclists and walkers.

Still, with the knowledge of the sizes of the study roundabouts, it can be concluded that there is a small increment of bicyclist safety at two-lane roundabouts in view of current designs which are smaller and employ on/off ramping or pathing so bicyclists do not have [to] “take the lane”…

Walker and bicyclist safety at one lane roundabouts—anything but a

Roundabout on average generates injuries at rate 200% greater for

bicyclists and 500% greater for walkers

The two best studies to date determining a safety gain for walkers and bicyclists at one lane roundabouts are: (1) “What roundabout design provides the highest level of safety?”, The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) (2000)

http://www.alaskaroundabouts.com/Nordic2safety.pdf and (2) “The safety of roundabouts in the Netherlands” by Chris Schoon and Jaap van Minnen, Traffic

Engineering and Control, March 1994.

The VTI study of 58 conversions of intersections to single lane roundabouts predicted “after” injuries and fatalities based on standard Swedish formulas, formulas applicable to either signals or sign control as Swedish research determined crash experience for both signals and signs were the same. The Dutch study produced before and after

crash data on the conversion of 181 intersections to roundabouts. Most conversions were from sign control though a small number were signal to roundabout conversions.  No such similar studies are possible in the U.S.—even today—for a key reason: Western European nations modal shares of those who walk and bike in urban areas average upwards of third of all trips compared less than a tenth of U.S. urban trips on foot and bicycle. A cross section of Western European walkers and bicyclists represent a cross section of population by age and skills. In the U.S. small proportion of the populace who bicycle tend to be young adults and male. One needs to keep in mind when the Dutch and Swedish study reveal high reductions in either bicycle or walker injuries following converting intersections to roundabouts, those benefitting from the injury reductions are all ages for those who walk, and for bicyclists a cross section of all ages and skills. From another standpoint, the two studies reflect what the United States and other nations with low walking and bicycling levels can expect in terms of safety as walking and bicycling modal shares rise along with the addition of “non-traditional” populations of riders and walkers. The reduction of walker injuries were: (1) Swedish study 78% and (2) Dutch study 89%--an average of 84% reduced incidence of walker injuries, or any intersection other than a single lane roundabout generates, on average, a 740% greater rate of walker injuries. For bicyclists the reductions: (1) Swedish study 75% and (2) Dutch study 30%--an average of 52% reduction, or any intersection other than a single laner roundabout generates, on average, a 108% greater rate of bicyclist injuries.

Because the Dutch study revealed use of a bike lane within the roundabout generated a low percentage improvement in bicyclist safety (about a third of the conversions) that design subsequently was dropped, and other results of that Dutch study indicate that excluding laned roundabouts resulted in a bicyclist injury reduction in line with the Swedish study findings. In turn, the Swedish study—and likewise the Dutch study--found “take the lane” bicycle injuries at roughly 2.5 times the rate of roundabouts with paths which give the bicyclist the choice of taking a path through separate or shared crossings.

So, the Swedish and Dutch studies indicate the true bicyclist injury reduction may reach far closer to the 90%reduction for walkers.  One can expect further studies in this regard in the near future.  In sum, both the Swedish and Dutch studies clearly show a far higher level of safety single lane roundabout versus an alternative—an average reduction of 84% for walkers and at a minimum and likely higher than the 52% reported for bicyclists with users of all ages and skills. The quick adoption of the roundabout by some states and Canadian provinces as the standard intersection rests perhaps as much on the safety performance for walkers and bicyclists compared to signaled and signed approaches of the past as it does for the unquestioned benefits to car occupants.