West Windsor Bike Ped Alliance - Local, Focused and Successful

One of our toughest challenges at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is how can we replicate the (modest) success that we have had in the City of Philadelphia in the 300+ municipalities that make up the 9 county region (NJ and PA).

Maybe the West Windsor Bike Ped Alliance has the answer: Go local.

WWBPA a 501(c) Bicycle and Pedestrian Advocacy Organization focuses on mostly on West Windsor Township, NJ (Includes Princeton Junction and Grovers Mill the setting of the 1938 War of the Worlds radio play).

A scan of their annual report shows that they have 250 paid members most of them among the Township's 26,000 residents. Compare that to 1500 BCGP members in a region with a population of over 4 million. WWBPA's annual budget is a respectable $10,000 with a net surplus of nearly $4,000.

Bike Lanes, yep not too many of those in the burbs, but West Windsor has several miles of them.
Traffic calming - check, improved intersections for pedestrians - ditto.














Southfield Rd in West Windsor, Mercer County, NJ

WWBPA President Ken Carlson notes that the most effective tool is actually getting people out to see the hazards themselves. WWBPA takes out residents, elected officials, planners and engineers on West Windsor Walks and creates a list safety recommendations, many of the solutions have been implemented while others are in the pipeline.

West Windsor Township has applied for Bicycle Friendly Community Status, they are the first community in NJ to apply and we eagerly await the results.

Each municipality is different, trying to educate small town councils the nuances of bicycle and pedestrian safety and comfort is a monumental task. It just shows those of us who live outside of the city that we are the face of the Bicycle Coalition in places as diverse Narberth, Medford and Norristown.

The Weekend Pedestrian Carnage

3/30 Glassboro NJ - A 20 Year Old Rowan U Student was critically injured as she was struck by a truck on US 322 in the borough. No charges have been filed although speed may have been a factor.

3/29 Tioga Nicetown - A pedestrian was killed crossing the 1600 Block of Hunting Park Avenue. Driver has been charged. There was another pedestrian killed in Nicetown on March 19th on Fox St.

3/28 Northeast Philadelphia - Hit and Run Rhawn St at Lexington, 15 Year Old Killed as she was crossing the street. As of March 30th a truck was found and is undergoing tests.

Philadelphia Bike Map Wiki

Are you annoyed by a bad intersection? Is there exceptional bike parking at your office? Secret cut through? You can share your knowledge by mapping it here on the Philadelphia Bike Map Wiki.


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Key:
Bicycle Crash - Red Cross
Road Hazard - Red Caution Marker
Bike Route - Blue line
Exceptional Bike Amenity - Green Bicycle
Regluation Issue - Police Officer
Bike Friendly Eatery - Food and Drink
High Rail Platform - Train

You need a gmail account to add data. Google also has some tutorials if you don't know how to add information.

Philadelphia Bike Month Tentative Schedule

Month of May - PhillyCarShare's Walk Ride Share Challenge

Saturday 5/10: Volunteer Kickoff Party for Bike Philly

May 12th to May 16th Bike to Work Week

Monday 5/12: BCGP Bike Parking study release

Tuesday 5/13: Commuter Race between a car, transit rider and bicyclist (rain date Thursday)

Wednesday 5/14: Bike Film Night at International House - http://www.ihousephilly.org/

Friday 5/16: National Bike to Work Day

Saturday 5/17: Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby - www.kinetickensington.org

Wednesday 5/21: Ride of Silence 7PM - Philadelphia Art Museum Steps

There are other events planned that will be added once confirmed.

Chester County Cycling Coalition Minutes Now Online

The minutes from the February 20th meeting are here. Highlights included update on the Chester Valley Trail as well as two new proposed trails, the Patriots Trail between Valley Forge and Paoli an upgrade of the faintly visible White Clay Creek State Park path.

There Is No Such Thing As A "Stupid Bike Lane"

Although Slate Magazine might beg to differ:



We don't think there are stupid bike lanes, in fact BCGP loves all 210 miles of them. But there are few that we think are "connectively challenged" with the rest of the network.

Help Clear The Trails During Philly Spring Clean Up

On Saturday April 5th, from 9am-2pm Mayor Nutter is attempting the largest neighborhood spring cleanup in city history and we hope that you'll join us in the effort. In one day, the mayor hopes to recruit 10,000 volunteers to cleanup 5,000 city blocks and pick up over 1 million pounds of trash across Philadelphia.











Three key parks that form the spine of our trail network - Schuylkill Banks, Wissahickon Park and the Manayunk Canal are slated to be part of the cleanup. As will East and West Fairmount Park, Cobbs Creek Park and the Pennypack. For more details and to sign up go to http://www.phillycleanup.com/.

Schuylkill River Trail Extension Opening Ceremony

MONTGOMERY COUNTY'S NEW SCHUYLKILL RIVER TRAIL DEDICATION

Monday, April 14, 2008

1:00 p.m.

At the Longford Road Trailhead (at the Schuylkill Canal)

Take Egypt Road to Longford Road (just west of Oaks), Turn West toward the Schuylkill River and see the Trail head parking lot on your left just after crossing the railroad tracks. This is a 2 MILE first phase construction of the Trail from Oaks to Mont Clare (Rt. 29).

This segment dedication is for the area between Longford Road and Oaks where the Trail connects to the existing Schuylkill River Trail AND Perkiomen Trail.

Bring your walking shoes or bikes and join us! ! ! !


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Geico's Safe Routes To School

Not only is walking to school to pick up your child dangerous, it's embarrassing.

PhillyCarShare To Host Walk Ride Share - May 2008

Still own a car? Using a company car or private car during business hours? Take PhillyCarShare’s “Walk Ride Share” challenge, to put it in “park”, reduce your carbon footprint, and have your shot at Philly fame. During the entire month of May, PhillyCarShare will be challenging local residents and businesses to give up their car keys – and to rely on walking, biking, transit, and PhillyCarShare.

To help them along, we will provide every participant with a special Mobility Package, which will include free PhillyCarShare driving, a SEPTA pass, a free bicycle safety check, a chance to win a new Fuji bike, and even a free pair of running shoes with a personal fitting.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia will be supporting "Walk Ride Share" challenge by hosting several events during bike week May 12-16th.

Google Maps and Virtual Earth Can Bring A Better Perspective

I love every advance that developers are creating with Google Maps. Now there is a great one that combines Google + Virtual Earth Mashup called Dual Maps which can give you a satellite, map, street or Birds Eye view. Like this one of Independence Hall.

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Authority Closes Bridge To Bicycles and Pedestrians

The Montague Milford Bridge which carries Route 206 between Sussex County NJ and Pike County PA is undergoing construction and the DRJTBC promptly closed the pedestrian walkway while keeping the car travel lanes open.

This has not gone unnoticed by the locals. The Pike County Planning Commission requested that the walkway remain open during construction. DRJTBC quickly and emphatically said no.

Which I think explains the reluctance of adding a walkway to the Scudder Falls Bridge. This in despite of extensive public support and the fact that the current design would cost about 7% of the entire project, far below the FHWA's recommendation of a 20% cap.

Bicycle Parking in LEED Certification

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) created LEED as a rating system for green buildings. The LEED standards application is actually a checklist with points awarded for green amenities. The council then looks at the application and awards a certified, silver, gold or platinum standard for the building.










The Comcast Center is LEED Certified which is the minimum standard, it is the tallest buiding in the world to have this designation. But one LEED amenity that it is currently lacking is Bicycle Parking (unless someone can tell me where the bike racks are located). Perhaps if they included bicycle amenities the Comcast Center could have been awarded Silver status.

According to the documentation One point is awarded for bicycle parking:

Alternative Transportation:
Bicycle Storage & Changing Rooms Intent

Reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use.
Requirements

For commercial or institutional buildings, provide secure bicycle storage with
convenient changing/shower facilities (within 200 yards of the building) for
5% or more of regular building occupants. For residential buildings, provide
covered storage facilities for securing bicycles for 15% or more of building
occupants in lieu of changing/shower facilities.

Submittals

❏ For commercial projects: provide the LEED Letter Template, signed by
the Architect or responsible party, declaring the distance to bicycle storage
and showers from the building entrance and demonstrating that these
facilities can accommodate at least 5% of building occupants.

OR

For residential projects: provide the LEED Letter Template, signed by the
architect or responsible party, declaring the design occupancy for the
buildings, number of covered bicycle storage facilities for securing bicycles,
and demonstrating that these facilities can accommodate at least
15% of building occupants.

Potential Technologies & Strategies
Design the building with transportation amenities such as bicycle racks and
showering/changing facilities.

Bicycling Past the I-95 Mess

Yes I-95 between Girard and Betsy Ross Bridge will be closed tomorrow and probably on Thursday due to emergency construction. These motorists on I-95 at the Vine Street Expressway Ramp decided that driving backwards on an interstate was a better idea than sitting for hours on the highway.

SEPTA added longer trains on the R7 and R3 but included this warning for bus riders in the vicinity of closed highway.

Passengers should be aware that SEPTA bus Routes 1, 3, 5, 14, 20, 25,
39, 43, 50, 54, 60, 66, 73, 84 and 89 operate in the vicinity of I-95.
Riders who use these routes should expect delays as traffic from I-95 is
diverted onto area roads.

But as the Center City Congestion Study proves, bicycles can maneuver through the worst traffic.


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Red Lines show bike lanes on streets parallel to the closed section of I-95

This Is An Awareness Test

Comment on the South Street Bridge

From Free the River Park:

South Street Bridge
Send Your Letters Now!The South Street Bridge Coalition wants you to send letters asking that the Streets Department make the new South Street Bridge more suitable to the surrounding neighborhoods and bike/pedestrian users!

As an outcome of the two community meetings held earlier this month, the Coalition wants letters and emails sent to Mayor Nutter, Council President Anna Verna and other elected officials. Send the email letter now.

The Coalition would like you to send both an email letter and hardcopy letter (a copy of the letter can be downloaded from the South Street Bridge Coalition page). This is your opportunity to give your input on how the Bridge's design accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists.

You can add your own personal message to the letter (email and hardcopy) drafted by the South Street Bridge Coalition. See the letter here.

Bike Freedom Valley Registration Opens!

Bike Freedom Valley Registration is now open. Register by April 15 and save over the member price. New this year: 17 and Under registers for $5, and a $15 student price.

Bike Freedom Valley now also has a blog that you should check from time to time for good info about the event:

BikeFreedomValley.blogspot.com

National Bike Summit Wrap Up

Along with first-timers Freedom Valley event planner Jill Minick, Philadelphia Advocacy Consultant Sarah Clark Stuart, Delco Chair David Bennett and Walk Bike Berks founder Michele Barrett, veterans Hans, Alex, Fuji's Pat Cunnane and Yours Truly attended the entire three-day National Bike Summit.

Rep. Earl Blumenaur and House Transportation Chair James Oberstar led the Congressional charge with their uplifting speeches. No Floyd Landis, Linda Armstrong or Greg Lemond to wow the crowd but we got along with record attendance (500 participants).

This year's summit focused on laying the groundwork for the 2009 Transportation Reauthorization Bill (GREENTEA?). Sarah Clark Stuart attended the Rails to Trails 2010 campaign for active transportation session. The most exciting component of the campaign is the expansion of the non-motorized pilot program which injects $25 million dollars per community to upgrade bicycle and pedestrian networks and shift towards bicycling and walking. Currently four cities are involved and RTC plans to push this for more than 50 communities.

Two bills were introduced on Capitol Hill specific to bicycling before the Summit. In the Senate a Complete Streets Bill that will require Complete Streets Policies for all MPO's was introduced by Senator's Tom Harkin and Delaware's Tom Carper. Rep. Blumenaur has also put a resolution to the floor supporting the importance of bicycling. A Wheels For Wellness Bike Sharing Program was also announced at the AM Capitol Hill rally by Dan Beard, the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Alex, John and Sarah attended a big cities bike coalition meeting to discuss common goals among our peers in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Washington, DC Seattle and New York. Like BCGP, these organizations are well established and have respectable membership numbers. Discussion was preliminary but an urban bicycling agenda will be developed at conference in June of 2008.

The BCGP mobilized an impressive team on Capitol Hill Day, with representatives from all of our Pennsylvania districts and three of our New Jersey Districts gave us better coverage than ever. We were armed with leave behind sheets from the National Summit as well as local issues, such as the East Coast Greenway and Ben Franklin Bridge. We will be following up with each representative over the next few weeks.


The Bike Portland Blog provided full coverage of the 2008 Bike Summit

Finally as usual Sarah Clark Stuart took some excellent photos

Please consider joining us next year - it's the year of the transportation bill plus Washington DC's and Capitol Hill's Bike Sharing programs will be in full swing.

John Boyle, Advocacy Director

Residents Revolt And Defeat Upper Providence Trail Plan

The Establishment strikes back, Upper Providence Township council votes down the adoption of their Trail Plan.

Email Communication from DVBC member and Bicycle Coalition Volunteer Woody Kotch:

I attended the Upper Providence Township Council meeting tonight. It was the biggest crowd ever at a township meeting. I'd say three hundred residents came out to rant at the council on the poor job they did on communicating with the community on this project and urged them to vote down the entire proposal, which they did.

The speakers from the audience called the report by the consultants a waste of $80,000.00 that was poorly done (Note: this was federal money). The arguments of higher taxes, undisclosed expenses, security issues, and eminant domain concerns, that the township would take land from property owners highlighted the opponents points. Only three people spoke out in favor of the proposal. 30 or so against.

A lot of work went into this plan and it is a shame that it seems to have been killed by the inclusion of trails that would have been built on or behind private property many years in the future. In this case it might have been better to start small with just some designated streets and extended sidewalks. That might have been downed too. The venom in the room was that thick.
















Sounds like another populist revolt in the burbs, apparently the reality of $4 a gallon gas, an obesity epidemic and climate change doesn't translate to support for bicycling and walking.

Danish Urban Planning Guru Jan Gehl noted similar opposition in the 1960's when Copenhagen decided to prioritize bicycling and walking over motor vehicles. The city's solution? Take baby steps every year. Now 1/3 of all commuter trips taken in Copenhagen are by bicycle.

NJ TRANSIT now on Google Transit-Meanwhile Silence on Bike There

I've been waiting a long time for this, NJ TRANSIT Rail is now on Google Transit!

The route on this map is a sample trip from the Cooper St Rutgers Station (near the Ben Franklin Bridge) to the north section of the Henry Hudson Bikeway along the bayshore in Matawan.



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As you also may be aware there is a campaign to encourage Google to establish a bicycle trip planner. Over 23,000 signatures to date. Google has not commented on the subject, but they haven't said NO, hmmm. One major problem is that there is no standard for bicycle mapping. Different governments have different ways to rate roads. Half the battle is trying to establish uniform criteria.

The Glossary Is Back

Don't know your VMT from AADT? What's the difference between DVRPC and DRJTBC? We have it in our glossary. A must for wannabe bicycle transportation policy wonks.

Help Us Promote Bike Sharing on College Campuses

The Bicycle Coalition is reaching out to potential partners to bring bike sharing to Philadelphia, including local colleges and universities. To strengthen our message, we would like to bring to a meeting students or faculty who are interested in bike sharing.

If you are a student or faculty member at a Philadelphia college or university and would be willing meet with school officials to promote bike sharingplease contact Alex Doty BCGP Advocacy Director via email alex@bicyclecoalition.org.

Tracking NJ Bicycle and Pedestrian News Reports

We have created a map that is compiling 2008 bicycle and pedestrian crash newspaper reports. Our information comes from the hard work of the interns at the NJ Bicycle and Pedestrian Information Center at Rutgers University who scour the internet for bicycle and pedestrian news in New Jersey (good news as well as the bad).


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Many crashes especially non fatal crashes are rarely reported in the media. This compilation hopefully will enable us to shed some light as to where some of the crashes are occurring and, more importantly how the media is reporting them.

While most of the reports are "police blotter" reports there are some try to go more in depth with personal stories. This is especially true when children are involved.

Conversely you can read other stories that clearly pin the blame on the victim. It will be often be noted that the victim was wearing dark clothing, swerved into traffic, not wearing a helmet, stepping into the roadway etc. And only a small percentage of the crashes involve citations. So far this year reported citations for cyclists are nearly on par with motorists.

It's Official - Bikes Are Fastest In Center City!

Contrary to yesterday's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, bicycles are the fastest way around Center City. This is according to a newly released report from the Center City District: Managing Success in Center City: Reducing Congestion, Enhancing Public Spaces.




Among the recommendations proposed in the report there are several that benefit bicyclists such as:

• Exploring options for on-street bike parking and
• Bike parking in parking garages
• Adding sharrows to Sansom St
• Looking at the feasibility of physically separated bike on wider streets

McGettigan's Night Light Courtesy Tips

Commentary from Michael McGettigan, owner of Trophy Bikes

Greets...
finally got out for an evening ride (first in months)... and began to
wonder if Philly was remaking "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"...

Most every oncoming biker had his/her headlights set to flash, except
for those who had one headlight blazing into my eyes (rather than the
road) and the other one strobing away...

Ditto for tail lights... one unintended side effect is that unlit
cyclists and runners nearly vanished, especially while my cones and rods were
sorting themselves out... All in all, a retina-wrenching experience....!

As an effective cycling instructor and bike shop owner (initials TB),
I'm all for conspicuity--out on the road--with cars... On the path, maybe we
could tone it down a bit...

1) set lights to steady on paths and trails
2) check alignement and make sure your headlight is aimed at the path, not
into the eyes of oncoming cyclists.
3) set rear blinky lights to steady, especially when riding in a
group, so those behind you are not aggravated or epilepisized. (to coin a
phrase) Consider setting lights to a lower setting, esp. if you're not going 22 mph
(which maybe you like shouldn't be going on the path anyways, eh)
4) pause a moment before retaking the road to set your lights back to
flash, if you wish.
5) enjoy a bike path that looks less like a police raid

cheers
mcget/trophy bikes