Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition
September/October 2004 E-News
Dedicated
to increasing the quality and quantity of bicycling and walking opportunities
in Washtenaw County through advocacy and education
| WBWC Board Meetings The next Board meetings of the WBWC will be held on Thursday, October 7th, at the Ecology Center, 117 N. Division in Ann Arbor (just north of Huron), starting at 7pm. The meeting will last for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Limited parking is available at the Ecology Center as well as next to Tios restaurant. WBWC meetings are generally held on the first Thursday of every month, 7pm, at the Ecology Center. WBWC Board and Officer Elections Ann Arbor Comprehensive Non-motorized Transportation
Plan Meeting The goal of the project is to create a comprehensive non-motorized plan for the City of Ann Arbor that will lead to a safe and interconnected system of bicycle and pedestrian facilities serving the people of the city. The measurements of success of the resulting system will include: An increase in the percentage of trips made by bicycling and walking, a reduction in the rates of bicycle and pedestrian crashes; and a healthier populace. Underlying the project are the goals of access, equity, and incentives for mutually beneficial modes of travel. Specifically, the City’s transportation system should support a variety of transportation choices and encourage transportation modes that lead to a healthier lifestyle and a better environment for the city. The project cost is $100,000 with the City of Ann Arbor contributing $60,000, the DDA $20,000 and the University of Michigan $20,00 For more information, visit http://www.greenwaycollab.com/AANoMo.htm#Public_Workshops Ypsilanti Taking Steps To Become A Walkable Cool
City A floating walkway, comfortable benches and flower pots may soon start springing up in Ypsilanti as part of the Cool City's efforts to become more "walkable." Several city and state officials, as well as interested citizens, took a walk through downtown Monday with Dan Burden, executive director of the Florida-based Walkable Communities, Inc., to find ways to make the city more friendly to pedestrians. The walk was sponsored by Gov. Jennifer Granholm's Cool Cities initiative to spur strong regional economies. Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority director Jennifer Goulet said the group examined why certain areas in Ypsilanti are comfortable to walk through and why other areas are less pleasant. Factors such as sidewalk width, traffic speeds and handicap accessibility were taken into consideration. Monday's audit kicked off at the Riverside Arts Center on Huron Street. The center received the majority of the $100,000 "catalyst grant" that Ypsilanti was awarded through the state's Cool Cities initiative. The tour concluded at Frenchie's restaurant in Depot Town. While walking through the city, Burden, who travels throughout the country evaluating the walkability of cities, showed the participants easy ways Ypsilanti could become more pedestrian friendly, including accommodating people with disabilities. "He pointed out ways to make the downtown neighborhoods safer and more convenient for people who have lost their sight," Goulet said. Transformer boxes that hang on posts two feet above the ground could be obstacles for blind people using canes to feel their way along the sidewalk. "A simple solution is to put a pot of flowers under it." New benches to provide a resting spot for pedestrians and adding wheelchair ramps are other small additions that the DDA will explore. Burden also suggested reducing Huron and Hamilton streets to two lanes by adding angle parking, thereby slowing traffic and encouraging people to park their cars and walk through the city. Another result of the tour was a suggestion to make Ypsilanti's $130 million Water Street project along the Huron River and south of Michigan Avenue accessible to pedestrians. "One of (Burden's) suggestions was to design a pontoon walkway system that can rise and fall with the water level," Goulet said. "It's a creative system to get people across Michigan Avenue or under the bridge." The Michigan Department of Transportation offered funding
for the walkable audits to all of Michigan's 20 "Cool Cities,"
and 11 communities in addition to Ypsilanti accepted the offer. The audits
included a walk-through of each city, a presentation of findings, suggestions
for improvements and training sessions for MDOT staff on including pedestrian
awareness in road planning. "Our department has been very forward-thinking.
Nationally there has been a trend toward transportation being more than
just cars," said MDOT nonmotorized coordinator Cindy Krupp. County Comprehensive Plan Public comments are still being sought. For more information, visit http://www.ewashtenaw.org/new/nw_comp_plan.html
A major section of Washtenaw County's fledgling border-to-border trail will be completed in the next two to three weeks, parks officials said. The two-mile segment, which runs from the Dixboro Road bridge along Huron River Drive past Washtenaw Community College and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, will be the first major section of the planned 35-mile trail to be completed outside of Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. If a few links are completed through Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, the trail may run uninterrupted from Ann Arbor's west side through much of Ypsilanti within a few years. "This, I think, is a really critical component of that trail," said Tom Freeman, superintendent of county parks planning, because it connects major population centers and is thus likely to be useful not only as a recreational trail but as a route for alternate transportation. And once a few obstacles, such as railroad crossings, are worked out and missing pieces added, a major portion of the trail will reach from the west side of Ann Arbor part way through Ypsilanti. The city of Ypsilanti will begin construction on a trail near the Eastern Michigan University campus in late summer or early fall, said Megan Gibb, director of the Ypsilanti planning and development department. The nearly 1-mile trail, on the south side of Huron River Drive between Cornell and Le Forge roads, will link to a route past the EMU president's house through campus, up Hewitt Road to the newly constructed segment. In the city of Ann Arbor, the biggest hurdles to completing the trail are primarily railroad crossings, said parks planner Amy Kuras. Otherwise, a trail alongside or close to the Huron River exists in most places. At Bandemer Park, the city parks and recreation department is conducting a feasibility study to determine whether a tunnel could be constructed beneath the railroad, Kuras said. Another problem railroad crossing connects Nichols Arboretum to Gallup Park, she said; there, it's unclear if a tunnel would be feasible because it would have to be constructed at or below the level of Geddes Pond. In both locations, people usually walk over the tracks. But since long-term plans call for high-speed rail on those lines, the parks department is interested in making safe crossings for people, she said. Near Argo Dam, a short, unofficial path hooks up two sections of trail, Kuras said. But that path may not be suitable for bicycles because it is narrow and steep.Parks officials also hope to establish a link with an easement that would allow for a bike trail between DTE Energy property and Broadway Park on the city's north side, near the Broadway Bridges. And there are other locations where alternate routes for bikes or improved trails need to be worked out, Kuras said. If those sites can be worked out, "that would pretty much allow you to traverse the city at or near the Huron River on paved trail," Kuras said. "I think we'll be able to accomplish the trail. You just have to take the long view on it." The next segments the county will focus on are near
Ford Lake and in the Dexter area with a trail connecting area metroparks.
The segment near Ford Lake is very short, but will connect an otherwise
difficult-to-navigate stretch of about a fifth of a mile with some existing
paths around the lake. Construction on that project will start soon and
may be complete by as early as next summer, Freeman said. The two-mile
segment, which Freeman said should be open in mid-August, was constructed
with two scenic loops closer to the river and overlooks for about $600,000.
Most of the money came from the state Department of Transportation and
the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan.
The AATA’s Mride Program is a five-year agreement between
the AATA and the University and will replace three current arrangements
between the two parties — the employee bus pass program, the Park and
Ride program and enhanced services on Route 36, along State Street. But the program will not include special services that the city offers seasonally — such as the shuttles that run from hotels to the Art Fair in the summer or football stadium on Saturdays in the fall. “If you would want a mental image of the bus systems in Ann Arbor for students, think of a wheel. The University buses form the hub of the wheel, running between Central, Hill, North and the medical campuses,” said Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the University’s facilities and operations. She added that the city’s buses act as the spokes of the figurative wheel, because they service areas outside of the University’s campuses.Some places that are on the AATA’s fixed bus routes include Briarwood Mall, the Kerrytown Farmer’s Market and Wolverine Towers. Brown said the AATA’s Mride Program will cost about $1.8 million, but with no added cost to the University, which will continue paying $700,000 per year to AATA. The additional $1.1 million per year to cover costs for the program will come from federal funds. According to AATA Executive Director Greg Cook, University officials have been gathering passenger statistics and financial information for the past couple of years. They then submitted this data to the National Transit Database program, and beginning in 2003, federal funds were made available through the Federal Transit Administration. “This is a win-win situation, for both the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority,” Cook said. “U of M is not paying anything extra, and we arebringing taxpayers’ dollars back to Washtenaw County to fund this project.” David Miller, the University’s director of parking and transportation services, said the program would help the entire campus community. “We expect this benefit will help our off-campus students travel to campus more easily, help our on-campus residents access retail and entertainment venues and reduce our parking demand by staff and faculty,” Miller said in a written statement. LSA senior Jacob Burress said he currently uses the Park and Ride program, which allows students who have parked in a commuter lot to ride the city buses to University campuses without charge. “I’m planning on coming here for grad school, and I think then I’d probably use the city buses more because I don’t like the parking situation in Ann Arbor,” Burress said. “I’ll probably use the buses tocome from home each day.” Brown said the University is planning to collect further data in the fall in regard to passenger feedback and patterns in usage. This information will be used to provide additional services. Plans for these services may include extending hours or routes or increasing the frequency of buses at stops. Cook said these enhanced services will begin in January 2005, after the data has been collected.
Every Road Should Be Walkable/Bikeable Says HHS
Secretary Thompson Thompson urged public health advocates 'to convince
city planners to provide safe streets for children to bicycle on and safe
streets for people to walk on' and won applause when he declared, 'Every
road being built - you should be able to walk on it or ride a bike on
it.' He added, 'Go to Congress and the city council and state legislatures
and start getting them to buy into' the idea of improving the 'built environment.'
Thompson noted that a huge transportation bill before Congress has 'hardly
anything in there regarding bicycle paths or walking paths' and said local
government should transform abandoned railroad rights-of-way into exercise
paths. 'It helps the economy, For more information, go to: http://www.cfah.org/hbns/news/hhssec05-24-04.cfm Congress Extends Transportation
Funding Again Meanwhile, America Bikes coalition encourages people
to take advantage of the summer "Let's take this opportunity to thank Congress
for including some good provisions for bicycling and walking in the two
bills, and make sure they know our priorities for the final version of
the legislation. Whether you invite your elected representatives to a
club ride or meeting, take them
The Senate Interior Appropriations LWCF funding
level for 2005 is approximately one-third of the program’s $900 million
authorization level. The House Interior Appropriations bill zeroes funding
for federal LWCF and appropriates only $92 million for state-side LWCF.
For more information and to participate in the AHR online petition campaign,
please visit International Walk To School Week: October 4-8 "Already participating in Walk to School events?
Thanks for your support. Please remind communities to register their events
online again this year. The information gathered through registration
helps us share ideas with other participants and expand efforts to promote For more information, contact Nancy Pullen, National
Coordinator for International Walk to School, The Pedestrian and Bicycle
Information Center, Highway Safety Research Center at University of North
Carolina. She can be reached at (919) 962-7419, or via email at
Anterior (Front) Knee Pain. Possible causes are having a saddle that is too low, too low of a cadence, using your quadriceps muscles too much in pedaling, misaligned bicycle cleat for those who use clipless pedals, and muscle imbalance in your legs (strong quadriceps and weak hamstrings). Neck Pain. Possible causes include poor handlebar or saddle position. A poorly placed handlebar might be too low, at too great a reach, or at too short a reach. A saddle with excessive downward tilt can be a source of neck pain. Lower Back Pain. Possible causes include inflexible hamstrings, low cadence, using your quadriceps muscles too much in pedaling, poor back strength, and too-long or too-low handlebars. Hand Numbness or Pain. Possible causes are short-reach handlebars, poorly placed brake levers, and a downward tilt of the saddle. More pains—and more solutions—on http://www.apta.org.
"We're also seeing a new push to redesign our communities
to get people out of their cars more often, walking and bicycling again.
And now we're hearing a demand for 'complete streets.' U.S. Health and
Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson recently joined that course, suggesting
'every road being built -- you should be able to walk on it or ride a
bike.' With 65 percent of the American people now overweight, 31 percent
obese, the obvious answer is that we need to start the reform measures
yesterday..."
"'We built communities with no sidewalks, and then we wonder why our kids don't walk to school. We live in gated communities where the garage faces the street and there's no connection with the neighbors, and we don't get out and walk. We drive to everything,' said James Hill, a weight researcher at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. 'We've created the perfect environment for creating obesity.' So far, many of the 'walkable' attributes of new neighborhoods such as King Farm have been unanticipated consequences of decisions that developers made largely to satisfy housing density requirements or to make their projects more marketable. But the nation's obesity crisis has spurred a new movement to purposefully build communities and retrofit existing ones to make it more natural for people to be physically active..."
"Transportation is one of the biggest worries for
older people living independently, according to David Certner, AARP's
Director of Federal Affairs. Barry Barker, speaking for APTA, discussed
some of the programs he and other transit agencies have undertaken to
improve mobility for the aging population. Mr. Barker is the Executive
Director of the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky.
The briefings were sponsored by Sen. Levin (D-MI), Sen. Smith (R-OR),
Rep. Shaw (R-FL), and Rep. Menendez (D-NJ)." For more information,
see:
“As it stands now, Drivers Education does not adequately
discuss how drivers should
To see if this group will be stopping in your town, find out how you can support Bike the Vote through donation or housing, or register yourself to vote, go to:http://www.BikeTheVote.org
ACTIVE LIVING LEADERSHIP CREATES INACTIVITY COST CALCULATOR “HIGHWAY HEALTH HAZARDS" "DETECTION OF BICYCLES BY QUADRUPOLE LOOPS" PEDESTRIAN RESOURCES
WBWC Volunteers Needed Sidewalk Inventory Continuing Mark Your Calendar....
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