Way to Go NASHVILLE

Each new round of Bicycle Friendly Community awards is exciting, but today’s announcement is big. With the addition of major urban centers — including Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville — two-thirds of America’s largest cities are now BFCs. Click here for more info.

NACTO Urban bikeway design guide available online

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has released online a design guide for the design of non-standard and creative bike facilities. The guide shows a variety of setups such as bike boulevards, bike-specific traffic signals, intersection treatments, and the like. NACTO member cities are
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Detroit
Houston
Los Angeles
Minneapolis
New York
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington DC,
and Austin, TX is an associate member. Are there places in Tennessee that can benefit from some of their ideas?

Thermoplastic Edge Lines

Bike/Walk Tennessee directors Bruce Day and Tom Evans on January 15 tested how compatible grooved thermoplastic edge lines are with cycling, using road bikes with 700x25 tires on a stretch of US 246. The grooved lines presented no problem whatsoever, and they rode on and across them numerous times. Although the lines can be felt, they did not present anything other than the ordinary for a road cyclist.

Grooved thermoplastic road markings may present a more bike-friendly alternative to rumble strips in terms of reducing run-off road crashes. The markings gently alert drivers to reaching the line, and they're not as loud. As an additional benefit, pavement longevity is not adversely affected by them, unlike the case with rumble strips. Bike/Walk Tennessee is proud to have assisted TDOT with this assessment.
Click here for copy of the report.

New Virginia anti-cul-de-sac policy

This artcle from the Washington Post describes Virginia's new rule on cul-de-sacs; any new subdivision must have "through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping areas." The article goes into quite a bit of detail on the pros and cons of the cul-de-sac setup. Basically the pros are a quieter environment for those living on it, and possibly some increase in safety since anyone who's not from a neighborhood will look out of place within it. The cons are increased traffic, which leads to increased paving costs, not to mention the isolation and car dependence such setups foster. The increased traffic gets jammed onto arterial roads, which then become unsafe and/or gridlocked. In addition, they tend to isolate neighborhoods from each other, leading to a loss of a sense of community.

Congratulations Knoxville for Becoming a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly Community!

The League of American Bicyclists has just awarded Knoxville it's bronze level award for being a bike-friendly city. The award was earned in large part due to the hard work of the Knoxville Regional TPO and its wonderful transportation planner Kelley Segars, along with the local bike advisory committee and hundreds of area cyclists. To date, the only other city in the state that has earned the award is Chattanooga since 2003. A complete list of bike friendly communities is available here (PDF).

The level of progress made in recent years is wonderful, but there is still much to be done both in Knoxville and elsewhere. Major projects are underway in Memphis under Mayor Wharton. Also, let's not forget smaller communities and towns such as Farragut and Oak Ridge, where bike lanes and sidewalks are parts of substantial construction taking place.

Bike-Path Crusaders: How They Roll - AARP Bulletin Article

The July/August 2010 edition of the AARP Bulletin's article entitled Biketopia, led me to the attached video. The article itself explains how Brunswick, Maine became a LAB designated Bike Friendly Community.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, which was formed over 10 years ago, diligently works to keep issues in front of the community officials and planning groups in the area.

I think the take home message for this article is in line with my theory of how to affect change in your community - Relationship building, education, persistence and patience.

Go here to read the article -http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/transportation/info-7-2010/brunswick_maine_bike_paths.html

Or look for your personal copy of AARP Bulletin in your mailbox...and I know you get it....

The Path Less Pedaled

Dear folks at Bike/Walk Tennessee,
. .We are two artists who have sold all our belongings to explore the US by bicycle.  We are currently in Nashville and are doing a presentation at Nashville Bicycle Lounge on the 26th.  We're hoping you can help promote it.
. . Russ was an active bicycle advocate in Long Beach, CA.  Along our journeys we've been visiting different bicycle communities to see what other parts of the country are doing.  We've been to cities with vibrant communities like Austin, Portland and Eugene to cities that are just developing like Fort Worth, Denton, Shreveport and Jackson, MS.  It has offered us an interesting perspective in what it takes for cities to be bike friendly.
. . Anyway, we hope you can attend and if not, please spread the word!

Here's the link to the Facebook Event page

Best, Russ and Laura
www.pathlesspedaled.com

Driver's License Manual

Good news- I spoke with TDOS today and the revised driver's license manuals with the 'Share the Road' section are currently at the print shop.  They should be printed and released in approx. 2 to three months.  A test question is being prepared to be added after the new comprehensive manual is released.

Also- TDOS operates a motor vehicle network displayed on big-screens in the regional driver service stations.  The network features safety messages targeted towards drivers and, as of April, they now have a '3 foot rule' spot AND a Share the Road spot playing on the network!  Unfortunately these can only be viewed at the driver service stations so there's no link for me to forward to you, but I was able to view it at the station over on Hart Lane near my house.  Very cool! 

Jessica.L.Wilson@tn.gov
TDOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator

Is it ALL, NOTHING, or CO-EXISTENCE?

"We still want to minimize the impact on traffic. We're looking for a way to make more room for the cars," says Jim Sebastian, DDOT's bicycle program manager.
.
That comment is being met with fierce criticism from some bike advocates.
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"That floors me. Those words (about returning space to cars) should never come out of the mouth of a bike coordinator," said one city bicycle official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.  
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Can bikers and drivers coexist peacefully?

Education - Tennessee's greatest failing

We have all said the three most important priorities for Tennessee are Education, Education, and more Education.  Whereas, Tennessee did okay in LAB's Bike Friendly State assessment. We ranked so low in education that we were almost off the chart.  May be this is another "less talk" more "action."  Philip found a great series by League of Illinois Bicyclists. (Click here for info)

Planning for bike-friendly communities is becoming more common in major cities, suburbs, and small towns across the country.  Everyday decisions by planners, engineers, and others affect how safe and convenient it is to bike for recreation or transportation.  However, most of these officials have had little to no training on these issues.

So how does Bike Walk Tennessee want to get started at this?

Congratulations to Tennessee

The Bicycle Friendly State (BFS) program links the League of American Bicyclist’s work with federal level and community advocacy throughout the nation and recognizes states that actively support bicycling. The state rankings were first conducted in 2008 and are conducted annually, with all questions and methodology remaining consistent to track states’ progress. The BFS rankings are based on a 95-item questionnaire that evaluates a state’s commitment to bicycling and covers six key areas: legislation, policies and programs, infrastructure, education and encouragement, evaluation and planning, and enforcement.

Tennessee’s 43’rd ranking last year disappointed those working to promote bicycling in our State. In response a lot was accomplished this year both at the State and Municipal level and both in government and advocacy. It was a joint effort of all parties. The improvement was unprecedented click here to find how Tennessee did.

Jessica Wilson (TDOT) took a lot of time and effort this year to complete the survey accurately.  It was reviewed by Pat Clements, Bruce Day, and Tom Evans.  Copies of it are here.  For a quick summary as to how Tennessee ranked in the individual categories click here.

America Bikes Releases New State Fact Sheets

Working with America Bikes (the national coalition of bicycling organizations and leaders working on the federal transportation bill), the Alliance for Biking and Walking has a key new resource for local advocates and decision makers. These 2-page fact sheets distill the Alliance's nearly 200-page Benchmarking Report into a very user-friendly format for each of the 50 states, comparing key benchmarks at the state level against the national average. This is a great tool to share with decision makers at the local, regional, state, and federal level. Click here to check out how Tennessee compares

Bicycle Friendly Cities

According to Bicycle.com

Motor City to embrace Bicycling?

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press "The bike lanes are part of a larger greenways effort in southeast Michigan, supported by groups including the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Kresge Foundation, to create a system of non-motorized community links that tie together neighborhoods, parks and other amenities through pedestrian and bike paths."

Click here to read more of the Detroit Free Press article.

It seems a lot of unlikely places are dragging out their outdated long range tranportation plans and reworking them to include bike lanes.

Click here to read about Dallas.

And even Abu Dhabi is getting in on the act:

I guess we all want to be cool like NYC...