Robertson County Growth online survey

Online Survey Available for Input on Growth and Development Plan for Robertson County and the cities of Adams, Coopertown and Cross Plains
Survey is in Addition to Four Community Workshops Scheduled December 3-6

Springfield, TN – Residents now have the opportunity to provide needed input on the Robertson County Growth and Development Plan from the comfort of their home or office. Project officials have established an online survey to make the process as convenient as possible. The survey can be found under “Give Us Your Feedback” at www.RobertsonChamber.org/Growth.  There is also a series of workshops scheduled December 3-6, providing additional opportunities for feedback.

“We can’t stress enough how important the input of residents and business owners is for the success of this project,” said Jonathan Garner, chair of the project’s steering committee. “This plan will affect everyone in some way, so providing ample opportunity to have issues addressed is very important to us.”
               The survey provides a series of 13 questions that allows the participant to answer in his or her own words. Questions range from where new housing should be located to which new industries may be good additions to the local economy. There is also a feedback section to openly address any issue not presented in previous questions. 

Residents are also encouraged to attend one of four Community Workshops to learn more about the plan. The workshops are scheduled for Monday, December 3 through Thursday, December 6.  Consultants with Littlejohn Engineering Associates, Inc. will lead the discussions. See a complete listing of the dates, times, and locations for each workshop on the following page.

                                                                             

Knoxville - North Gay St Redevelopment

Metro Pulse is reporting that a plan to modify north Gay St so that it would have wider sidewalks and traffic lanes, but reduce the number of lanes from 4 to 2, is in its final stages of planning. The plans were started around 2009. Crossing 2 lanes of traffic will be easier than crossing 4 at the same time. Being a heavily biked area, the modifications would make that section of road much more of a complete street. Where else do we have streets that could use some similar sort of "diet?"

Report - Physical inactivity causes 10% of all worldwide deaths

CNN reports that a report series in The Lancet notes that physical inactivity is just as deadly as smoking or obesity. (Obviously the latter and physical inactivity are also linked.) If inactivity rates drop by 10-20%, then anything between one half to 1.3 million lives can be saved annually worldwide. The authors consider such inactivity to be equivalent to a pandemic.

In the third article of the series, Gregory Heath of the University of Tennessee wrote that "Because even moderate physical activity such as walking and cycling can have substantial health benefits, understanding strategies that can increase these behaviors in different regions and cultures has become a public health priority," and that improvements in mass transit and the walking and cycling environment can produce real benefits. As has been previously mentioned, we have engineered much physical activity out of our lives, but we can reverse the trend. Support for improved cycling and walking infrastructure in our communities have the following beneficial effects.

1. Improved health,
2. Decreased cost - I had mentioned that a car cost $11-$22 per day
3. Improved environment,
4. Decreased congestion,
5. Improved community, with people being more neighborly and social,
6. and Decreased dependence on foreign oil.

And all of these benefits take place at the same time making such investments a wise use of resources, provided that the money allocated for such is spent wisely.

Walking infrastructure - Transportation for America

A report by Transportation for America points to how there were 47,700 pedestrian fatalities during the decade 2000-2009. Such translates to around 13 deaths a day, 91 a week, or about 390 a month. As they put it, we would certainly not tolerate a jumbo jet crashing with no survivors each and every month of the year.

While it's true that many local streets are built with local money, the busier streets usually have a federal funding component, and they are the streets that tend to be busiest and most dangerous, as well as most often traveled. Currently, pedestrian funding composes a mere 1.5% of the federal transportation budget. But such is being targeted for elimination nevertheless. Eliminating that funding would only make matters worse for pedestrians, which would increase car dependency and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable. It would de facto make streets only for cars, rather than complete ones that are for all users.

Economics of Bike/Walk infrastructure followup: Portland's example

From a previous post, the $60 million figure that Portland, OR spent on cycling infrastructure over the years was mentioned, and that the cost was around the cost of a single mile of 4-lane urban freeway.

Question: strictly from an economic point-of-view, was the money well spent, especially when we consider the fact that even in Portland, cycling mode share is around 5% of all trips. The answer is a resounding yes. Here's why.

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?

Portland - "for the equivalent cost of a single mile of freeway, we have a bike infrastructure."

Politifact Oregon has rated the claim mostly true, with the note that the mile of freeway refers to urban freeway. Due to the tight budgets of government at all levels these days, it's important that bike/ped funds be spent wisely. Being able to build or convert streets to world-class complete streets without spending a lot is doable, as Portland shows. Its high modeshare (8% of the people there refer to their bike as their primary commute vehicle, versus ~1% elsewhere) shows that the demand is there, if the infrastructure gets built.

UnitedHealthcare - Half the Country to have diabetes or prediabetes by 2020

This report states that if current trends continue, half the United States population will have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes by the year 2020. Not only is such a life limiter, but it would also be a tremendous waste of money. In 2009, the average health-care cost of a diabetic person was $11,700 versus $4,400 for everyone else, and was $20,700 for diabetes with complications. The report notes that the overall monetary cost of the diabetes/prediabetes comes out to $3.35 trillion over ten years.

So, what do these facts have to do with biking and walking? Actually a lot. Often people with prediabetes can make their metabolism revert to healthy levels through increased physical activity, and the loss of excess weight. Walking and biking can be great ways to work in such physical activity, whether as part of an exercise routine or as part of everyday transportation. The construction of complete streets would make such a realistic option for more people, and isn't really so expensive when these health costs are considered. As mentioned previously on this blog, a representative once asked how many people are currently driving to a gym in order to ride a stationary bike?

Future Concord Rd expansion plans

A further development in terms of infrastructure construction in Knox County and the town of Farragut is detailed here. Basically, starting three years from now, Concord Rd will be widened from two lanes to five, with bike lanes and a sidewalk on one side and an extra wide trail on the other. The "median islands" mentioned are a recent development, in that studies have shown some downside to having a continuous center-turn lane. A new bridge will be built to feed into the roundabout at Northshore Drive. A greenway paralleling Northshore Drive will be built on its north side. (Since much of Northshore drive has few intersections, the greenway should be OK for cycling.)

For what it's worth, proposed Concord Rd expansion was previously held up as part of transportation spending rescissions. As such, it's difficult to project what the funding situation will be three years from now, which is the scheduled start of construction. To what extent traffic levels will require a five lane road is another question.

Campbell Station Rd expansion complete

The Farragut Press Enterprise is reporting that the widening of Campbell Station Rd is complete. This stretch of road has been widened to be 5 lanes, with bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. This project is an example of a road widening that also completed the street, in that all modes of travel are readily accommodated now. It is also located in such a way that quite a few neighborhoods have ready access to all the Farragut Schools (Primary, Intermediate, Middle, and High) in addition to the Farragut branch of the Knox County Libraries.

Putting more cyclists and pedestrians on the road is a good thing, even when there aren't special facilities for them in that drivers would tend to be more alert. One effect of bike lanes in areas is that people tend to venture beyond the areas with the lanes, putting more bikes on the road overall.

Reasons to support biking and walking for almost all political philosophies

With the recent article claiming that (paraphrasing) cyclists are part of a communist plot to turn the country into a third world country, I thought I would list the reasons why it makes sense from a variety of political sides to support cycling and walking. Sure, that article was extreme, but more moderate variants of such are not unheard of.

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.
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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?

Vote UP Complete Streets

We just posted a comment on the USDOT strategic plan website in support of their inclusion of complete streets as a safety performance measure. Please go and 'vote up' our comment! https://dotstrategicplan.ideascale.com/a/dtd/42937-8329

The deadline for comment is Jun 15th but USDOT staff are urging people to submit sooner.
Thanks! 
Stephanie Potts, Federal Policy Coordinator
National Complete Streets Coalition