Thursday, August 28, 2014

Sioux Falls Bicycling - Growth, But Who's Paying Attention?


Gentlemen:

When we met I made a claim that more people ride bicycles for transportation than ride public transportation. Knowing how much effort you have put into public transportation of late, I asked for a little more consideration for bicycling.

Councilor, as an MPO Urbanized Development Commission member you're familiar with the 2014 Sioux Falls Metropolitan Area LRTP Market Research Study.

Attached are two graphs from that study. Graph_1 shows 12% (compared to 2% for public transportation) of the surveyed "normally use [a bicycle] to get to/from work, school or other frequently traveled destinations." Graph_2 shows transportation modes to destinations from 1999 to 2014. Bicycling has increased from 3% to 12%. Public transportation has decreased from 4% to 2%.

I have supported my claim and suggest again that more dollars and time be provided to improve bicycling transportation.

Thank you.





Wednesday, August 20, 2014

McGovern Middle School - No Sidewalks

Sioux Falls' freshly minted middle school opened this week. With no sidewalks.

Let me say that again. No sidewalks.

And the comments from the principal are priceless.

"...in the meantime we're trying to problem solve and trying to figure out how to best bus 100% of our student population."

"Principal Emanuel wants all students to be safe and if anyone is walking to school, wants to find out why. We would definitely want to work with the family find out what's going on, did the child miss the bus? Just what's going on," she said"

I have a few thoughts about what's going on.

Here's a link to KDLT's article on the matter.

City Council 140805: Scott says...

After a fatal car/bike crash and some other car/bike & car/pedestrian crashes some in the bicycle riding community approached the city council about creating safer conditions on the roadway for everyone. Scott stepped up to the podium and said he's a traffic engineer & a rider and likes the things we're all saying...


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Play In the Street With Me!

Come out and play in the street with me this weekend! Thursday 6p to 9p, Friday 6p to 9p and Saturday 5p to 9p we're running through the entire League of American Bicyclists Traffic Skills 101 course.


Best of all, it's FREE thanks to our host Spoke-n-Sport.


Classroom sessions, two sets of parking lot practice, an evaluated in the city ride to put it all into practice and a test.


Come join us. Make a move toward being a confident rider of bicycles. Ride visibly, predictable, courteously and safely.


Contact Chris ((605) 275-2453 |chris@spoke-n-sport.com) to get on the the list of attendees. Tell him The MinusCar Project sent you.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

City Council 140805: Marilyn says...

After a fatal car/bike crash and some other car/bike & car/pedestrian crashes some in the bicycle riding community approached the city council about creating safer conditions on the roadway for everyone. Marilyn stepped up to the podium and said words...watch!


Sunday, August 10, 2014

City Council 140805 Part 3: Katie says...

After a fatal car/bike crash and some other car/bike & car/pedestrian crashes some in the bicycle riding community approached the city council about creating safer conditions on the roadway for everyone. A woman named Katie stepped up to the podium and made an argument for...watch!



Saturday, August 09, 2014

City Council 140805 Part 2: Chris says...

After a fatal car/bike crash and some other car/bike & car/pedestrian crashes some in the bicycle riding community approached the city council about creating safer conditions on the roadway for everyone. Chris Parsley stepped up to the podium and made a case for a bicycle dedicated bicycle planner. Watch...



Friday, August 08, 2014

City Council 140805 Part 1: An Atheist Invocation...

After a fatal car/bike crash and some other car/bike & car/pedestrian crashes some in the bicycle riding community approached the city council about creating safer conditions on the roadway for everyone. The council meeting was historic in that, for the first time in most people's memory, a freethinking person gave the invocation.


Tuesday, August 05, 2014

City Council: Public Input: 8/5/14

I claimed my 5 (or six) minutes of public input before the city council meeting tonight to give a message or two. The text I presented from is here...

---

Council. Mayor.  I’m Michael Christensen and I need help with bicycling in Sioux Falls. I have two messages for you tonight.

Message:

On street riding, if done predictably, visibly, safely and courteously is far safer than sidewalk riding. Sidewalk riding can be safe if the rider rides at pedestrian speeds so that it’s easier to meet the legal requirements to stop at all intersections and yield to all traffic in the intersection. At pedestrian speeds it’s also easier for the rider to acknowledge the reality that at every intersection and every driveway there could be cars coming from up to four directions with drivers that are looking on the road for cars not on the sidewalks.

City government must stop believing that sidewalk riding is safer than on-street riding. Any discomfort with this message, due to driver inconvenience, driver or rider incompetence, or anything else, is a fear you must resolve for yourselves. I pledge to you, I am here to help. But it must be resolved.

Message:

This city experiences a fatal car/bike crash roughly every three years. I'm sure every time this happens the question is raised, “what is the city doing to improve safety for bicycling?” Currently the response has been to defer the question to Sam the Planner. To be sure Sam is great and the information he provides about safe riding is solid. But Sam has done his job. This is the current bike plan. Seven years ago Sam wrote it and you approved it. You'll approve another later this year. It's time to open the plan...oh, here's my name -- I sit in a lot of transportation planning meetings. I’ve helped with a lot of plans. It's time to stop planning and start implementing.

I propose my city government do the hard work so that the question, “what is the city doing to improve bicycling safety?” can be answered like this…

We are educated.

• We have key traffic engineers, police officers, and planners that have been through training and understand what visible, predictable, safe and courteous riding looks like.
• We understand the predictable, repeatable and avoidable physical hazards of sidewalk riding and the legal hazard as well.
• This knowledge is reflected in the information we provide the public, the facilities we build on the streets, and the traffic and roadway plans we develop.

We educate.

• Together our police, planning, traffic engineering, health and parks department provide
  o three free opportunities each season through three different community centers
  o for adults to learn how to ride safely on the streets and on the sidewalks. *******
  o We have similar age appropriate classes for children.
• Also, we've produced a series of PSAs that we refresh annually and release each Bike Month showing our expectations for safe, law abiding riding, and safe law abiding driving.

We enforce.

• Each year since the previous fatality we’ve issued
• more tickets to drivers for crosswalk, sidewalk, stop sign, and texting violations and
• more tickets to riders for crosswalk, stop sign, and wrong way riding violations.
• This has contributed to less car/bike and car/pedestrian collisions.

We provide a safe and functioning on-street riding environment.

• All of our on street bicycle facilities (sharrows and bike lanes) take into consideration the very real danger of encouraging on-street riders to ride to the right of potentially right turning vehicles.
• We're three years into a 5 year program to convert all actuated traffic signals to a new technology that allow bicycles to be detected. When the program is complete, riders on low volume neighborhood roads can expect to be able to safely cross higher volume higher speed roads without exhibiting unpredictable (red light running) behavior to drivers.
• We make it clear through signage and other ways that predictable, visible, safe and courteous riders are welcome on our roadways.

Our Mayor is engaged.

• Our mayor understands that the pursuit of happiness has a lot to do with mobility, therefore…
• Once a month our mayor rides to work so that he better understands the roadway experiences of citizens that day after day use bicycles for transportation.
• Once a month our mayor walks to work 1.5 miles on Minnesota Ave so that he better understands the roadway experiences of citizens that day after day walk for transportation.

Finally, our money is where the growth is...

• We recognize that the 2014 Long Range Transportation Plan Market Research Survey shows a citywide increase from 1999 of 400% for bicycling and 500% for walking. Therefore, spending has risen accordingly for bicycling and walking related transportation needs: street, traffic engineering, planning, etc.

Thank you for your 5 minutes. I invite council to engage me further on these matters at any later date.