ASCE Human Powered Transportation Committee August 1996 Update

(First Update since March 1996)

From: Mac Elliott, Vice-Chair, mac.elliott@home.com
6616 North 14th St. Phoenix, AZ 85014 Tel & Fax 602/265-6712
or 2530 San Elijo Ave., Cardiff, CA 92007 Tel 760/944-7324

August 20, 1996

To: All ASCE Human Powered Transportation Committee (HPT Com) Members & Friends.

1. Mac Elliott temporarily out of HPT loop since April. Sorry for delayed communications. Hopefully, Internet, e-mail, & individual initiative filled most of gaps.

2. HPT Com Chair Jeff Davis reports authorization of ASCE funding for 2 HPT projects, (March Update items 3 & 4). (a) ASCE Bike Transp Video for use in college ed, ($6,000), and (b) Nat'l Survey of Adult Bicyclists (update of 1975 Kaplan Study), ($2,500 from ASCE plus additional $ from Cascade Bike Club & from League of American Bicyclists.) Professor Bill Moritz of Univ of Washington, moritz@u.washington.edu, is lead engineer for both projects. Davis forming Advisory Review Panel for Video project from ASCE & other organizations. Video release aimed at early 1997. Survey to send out 8,000 questionnaires in Jan 97. (Delay to Jan 97 is to match Kaplan's 1975 timing). 60 day window for response. Complete Survey report in Aug 97 & present to TRB Jan 98.

3. Bill Moritz is analyzing his accident study of 2374 bike commuters across the U.S. Preliminary results indicate bike lane streets had only 50% of the average rate for all accidents, per bike mile traveled. Mixed use trails had 67% of the average rate. Minor streets had 104% of the average rate, and major streets had 126% of the average rate. "Other" locations (sidewalks, etc) had 500% of the average rate per mile traveled.

Accidents included caused at least $50 property damage or required medical treatment.

4. John Waltz reports New Jersey DOT updated their already excellent "Bicycle Compatible Roadways & Bikeways Planning & Design Guidelines". Also have a new Ped Compatible Guidelines. NJDOT incorporates these into Instruction Manual used with their Training Video in statewide training sessions on planning & design for bike & ped facilities. Contact NJDOT at (609) 530-8051, Bill Feldman for info.

5. City of Seattle has produced video & manual on Streets that Work. Video is free. Manual is $10.00. Contact Pete Lagerwey at (206) 684-5108.

6. Oregon DOT has updated their Bike/Ped Plan. A large, 245 pg well printed document full of pictures & diagrams. Good coverage of all planning & design elements.

Generally stands alone but uses AASHTO for misc design criteria. Should be very useful. $20.00 per copy. Make checks to Oregon DOT & send to Oregon DOT, Bike/Ped Program, Rm 210 Transp Bldg, Salem, OR 97310. Can contact Mike Ronkin at (503) 986-3555, or michael.p.ronkin@state.or.us.

7. Re. proposed revision of AASHTO Bike Facility Guide, (March Update item 2): Comments from State Bike Coordinators group to AASHTO Bike Facility Guide Task Force Chair, Alan Glen are not in yet. Working with Bike Coordinators' comments is Jennifer Toole of Greenways Inc, Cary NC, (919) 380-0127. Results of her work will be discussed & voted upon by Bike Coordinators at Pro Bike Conference in Portland Me, Sept 3-6. Glen (or his successor), proposes to take their recommendations and combine with those from several other sources (including ASCE HPT Com) to arrive at a Task Force recommendation in early '97 to be considered by AASHTO governing body.

8. Bill Hunter's Univ of NC study of relative safety of striped bike lanes vs. shared wide curb lanes for FHWA is in data collection stage now until early '97. (2 hr video studies at each intersection, week days, week ends, watching for movements of bikes & motor vehicles, conflicts, etc). Then 6 months for coding, etc, plus more for analyzing. March '98 for final report. Bill still looking for study sites with "innovative bicycling treatments on roads" e.g. advanced stop bars for bikes at traffic signals, speed humps, various traffic calming measures, anything innovative. Before & after installation if possible. If you have or know of any such sites deserving study please contact Bill at (919) 962-2202 or bill_hunter@unc.edu .ASAP.

9. HPT Com is addressing problem of incorrect or outdated bike & ped facility design standards included in new or revised transp & roadway textbooks. With design of bike/ped facilities often on periphery of transp engrg texts, less effort is typically placed on researching & updating bike/ped facility info. Plan is to contact extensive list of textbook & reference book authors, to inform them that when updating their publications, current bike facility design info is available thru ASCE HPT Com. A letter offering HPT Com assistance in sourcing bike & ped facility design info will be mailed out along with several representative technical attachments from current AASHTO, FHWA, & state publications.

Impetus for this action came from letters to ASCE by John Williams, Editor of Bicycle Forum, and James Mackay, Bike/Ped Coordinator for City of Denver, calling attention to outdated bike facility design info contained in ASCE publication "RESIDENTIAL STREETS", 2nd Ed 1990, Chair Jeff Davis took the initial lead in HPT Com action. Dr. Essam Radwan of Univ of Central Fla provided a partial list of authors. David Loutzenheiser of UC Berkeley is supplementing the list of authors. Michelle DeRobertis shares the lead for HPT Com.

10. Ralph B.Hirsch has long seen need to overcome foreign language research barrier hindering access of American transp professionals to research in languages other than English. In 1991, thru TRB Committee on Bicycling, Hirsch began to reduce the barrier. Over the last 5 years, he has encouraged foreign members of the TRB Committee to prepare abstracts in English of outstanding HPT research papers, and report significant HPT events that take place in their countries. (Contact Elliott for copies of 10 pgs of 1994-1995 materials from Denmark, France, Germany, & Netherlands, submitted to TRB Jan '96 meeting.) Without Hirsch's action, most of the material would never have appeared in English. What did appear would have been delayed for years.

However, the efforts of Hirsch's group, which are entirely voluntary & unfunded, are limited. Much foreign research is still not covered. Only a modest improvement since 1991. Hirsch looking for ways in which his Subcommittee's efforts might serve as basis for publicly funded project to overcome foreign language barrier. Send comments & suggestions to: Ralph B. Hirsch & Associates. Urban & Transp Planning. 3500 Race St. Philadelphia PA 19104-4925 Tel/fax (215) 386-1270. (Ed note. Possible university project for those with language skills & HPT interests?)

10a. TRB member from France noted that despite snow & fog, air pollution & heavy traffic, Dec 1995 Paris streets had "incredible numbers" of cyclists. A bicycle success story caused by a public transport strike. The member posed the question. Is the bicycle a sustainable means of transportation or just a provisional solution for crises?

11. Bill Stein sent his excellent Master's thesis paper, "Pedestrian & Bicycle Modeling in North America's Urban Areas: A Survey of Emerging Methodologies & MPO Practices". A useful 32 pg report. Contact Elliott for loaner.

11a. Stein's report included Michael Replogle hypothesis that when bike & walk trips fall below 20-25% mode share (per most American cities), they become marginalized to extent that walking & cycling are no longer an option for large numbers of people. Important to look at strategies that have increased HPT in other countries, traffic calming, bike connections to transit, etc.

12. Dr. N. Murthy sent info on new Bikestation providing bike parking, rentals, & service in connection with Rapid Transit station in Long Beach CA. Contact Elliott.

13. Todd Litman offers a Transportation Cost Analyzer Software package to, "help determine true costs of savings & distribution of impacts from a specific policy, plan, or program." Also a 230 pg report on Transp Cost Analysis: Techniques, Estimates, & Implications. Contact Litman at Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 1250 Rudin St, Victoria, BC V8V 3R7 Canada, Tel & fax (604) 360-1560.

14. Upcoming Conferences:
Sept 3-6, 96. Pro Bike Pro Walk. Portland Me. BFA @ (202) 463-6622.
Sept 17, 96 TRB Ped Comm Mtg @ ITE Annual Mtg in Minneapolis. (602) 495-0336 Oct 27-Nov 1, 96. Velo Australis. Freemantle, Western Australia.
Promaca Conventions PYT Ltd, ACN 008 784 585 P.O. Box 890, Canning Bridge, Western Australia 6153. Tel. 61 9 364-8311 promaco@cleo.murdoch.edu.au
Oct 5-9, 97. ASCE Annual Convention. Minneapolis. Convention theme is "Innovative Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development" HPT is Sustainable Development. Need some papers.

15. Thought for the day. Walk Boston & Transp Alternatives report that Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR's "Car Talk," bikes to work. "Sure, cars give us freedom" he says, "but as Ben Franklin said, "There's no such thing as freedom without responsibility".

Mac Elliott

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