Provo Bicycle Study
13 November, 2011
Well, it has been almost a year since I posted here. Life has been busy, and a lot has happened in the past year, but time to blog has been hard to come by. I’m very involved with Bike Utah as a member of the Board, and it is taking an increasing amount of time. There are some great things happening in Utah Valley with regards to bikes right now, and I’ll make you all aware of them as details become available. The first is the Provo Bicycle Study. It is very similar to what we did in Orem last year, so I’m excited to see the same thing happening in Provo. Details on the first open house are in the image above. Go and let your voice be heard. Let’s make all of Utah Valley a great place to ride, one community at a time!
Conversation with an Engineer
7 December, 2010
Watch this. It is 8 minutes, but it says exactly what I hear constantly from engineers. Watch this. It is 8 minutes, but it says exactly what I hear constantly from engineers
Walk or Bike to School?
2 September, 2010
Image Courtesy of Streetsblog
Today someone encouraged kids to walk or ride their bikes to school, in Utah. It was a neighbor of mine. He is a politician. And it struck some people as nearly comical. The following is the transcript of the story found on KSL.
By Amanda ButterfieldSALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Gary Herbert started his day Wednesday with elementary school students, encouraging them to walk to school safely.he governor met as many students as he could while at Rosecrest Elementary School. He was there to kickoff the Walk More in Four program — a statewide safe walking and biking to school challenge.
“It starts with young people,” Herbert said. “Walking and biking to school is a good, healthy lifestyle.”
The challenge for all Utah students in elementary school and junior high is to walk or bike at least three times a week for four weeks during September — and to do it safely.
“They sometimes forget, especially when they’re with friends, and I think that this will help them remember to watch for cars and be aware of things around them,” said parent Jennifer Jessop.
Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputies were also there to teach and remind the kids to always be safe. The deputies gave the students a map of the best route to take.
“It is a very good program, especially around our school because we have busy streets. And if we know how to walk safely, the map in place, they know where to go; it’s a great program,” Jessop said.
The students will chart their progress during the month and have chanced to win prizes like helmets, bikes and scooters.
The governor hopes even after the four-week challenge is up, kids and parents will keep moving.
“It’s also about lifestyle. People need to think in terms of walking. We sometimes, as adults, park too close to Walmart. We ought to park out in the far side of the parking lot and walk in to do our shopping,” Herbert said.
The Walk More in Four challenge leads up to the International Walk To School Day in October.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
Now, I don’t know about you, but walking through the Wal-mart parking lot doesn’t strike me as a healthy thing to do. Also, and most importantly, I don’t understand the emphasis placed on children being safe around cars by watching for the cars. That seems more than a little backwards to me. Don’t get me wrong, I own and drive a car. But to my mind, it is those who are using the deadly weapon who should be watching for the vulnerable, not the other way around. We certainly need to do more to make things safer for our kids to enable them to walk or bike to school. My daughter rides to school and I get very nervous when we take her. I don’t worry so much about my daughter. I worry about all of the deadly weapons people are driving their kids to school in. How about you? Should the onus be on the kids, or the drivers and the government to make things safe? If you want some more to chew on, visit the National Center for Safe Routes to School, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, or the Safe Routes to School FHWA Safety Program.
Utah’s Own “4 Letter Word(s)”
1 September, 2010
Image Courtesy of michaelhyatt.com
Utah seems to have a couple of their own “4 letter words”. I’m not talking ones that you would typically think of. I’m talking about words like “transit” and “density”. This article today in the Salt Lake Tribune is a good example of this phenomenon. Why? What is so bad about other people? What is wrong with having a choice in how you move yourself around? Here in Utah Valley, things are much the same as in Centerville as described in the article. We love to talk about “preserving our neighborhoods”. What is it we are preserving them from? As near as I can tell, we seem to be preserving my neighborhood for more traffic and higher speeds. That doesn’t sound like neighborhood preservation to me. It sounds more like traffic preservation. JMD over at Transit In Utah did a post a few months ago on Density and how it relates to Transit, the other bad word. Personally, if I had the choice of a streetcar or light rail train running up and down my street, versus the thousands of cars a day that go past now, I would take the transit hands down. What do you think? Should we promote more dense and walkable development, or more sprawl? Let me know in the comments. I would love to start to foster some discussion on this major issue.
At the CORE of it.
6 May, 2010
As anyone who lives in the northern half of Utah County knows, I-15 is going to be rebuilt, starting now and going through the next two and a half years, into a modern super-freeway of 12 lanes. There are in fact many good things to come out of this. Many bridges and overpasses are being replaced and upgraded, and a lot of those include improvements for cyclists. This probably comes as no surprise to you, but there is one road that I am aware of and probably several others that I am not aware of, that include no such improvements, and actually have the opposite effect. They will be less safe. Since I am an Orem resident, it makes sense that the one that I am aware of is in Orem, and it is University Parkway. Now, many would say that you have to be insane to want to ride a bike over that bridge even today, and you would have a valid point, so I can say that I am insane as I used to do it every day. I actually found it to be quite safe. There is plenty of shoulder, and if you time it right, which takes nothing but patience, you can avoid any real danger. The redesign of that area will dramatically change that, and make the access across I-15 deadly. I am surprised UVU hasn’t complained. Their students are the ones who live on both sides and they have campus buildings on both sides of I-15. So, I think that we need to do something about this. I have personally talked to the City of Orem about this issue, and I’ve written to the UDOT public involvement person for the Orem area of this project, Dave Asay(you can write him at daveasay at utah dot gov) to express my concern. So far, nothing has happened, and I don’t really expect it to, unless we as a cycling community really make a fuss. So, please do one or several of the following. First, if you live in Orem, call the Mayor & City Manager’s office and let them know that you are concerned about this issue. Second, contact any and all of the City Council members. Third, email Dave Asay at the email address that I posted above. Fourth, contact your State Senator & or Representative. If you don’t know who that is, you can look it up on utah.gov, or contact me and I’ll look it up for you. We need to do something about this issue, in every city in the state. UDOT says they are not just an agency for cars. Lets see them prove it.
Meetings Meetings Meetings
4 May, 2010
Tonight was a night of meetings. I sit on the Orem City Transportation Advisory Commission, TAC for short. Our monthly meeting was tonight. It was focused almost entirely on the study going on right now for a Bike/Ped master plan for Orem. What a lot to do. One and a half hours talking bikes is a great way to spend an evening. Things are going well, and we have the next public meeting tentatively scheduled for August 31st. Stay tuned for updates as we get closer. I’ll try to be a bit more active in posting updates on the study as I have the ability to release things to the public.
Following the TAC meeting, I went to the Provo City Council meeting. The Provo Bike Committee was there in support of bike lanes being installed along with BRT in Provo. I applaud their efforts, and we’ll see what happens. The council sure got an earful from the Provo bicycle community tonight. There is a lot of work to do there, but the folks in Provo are on top of things so it should work out for the best. More to come, so stay tuned!
Bike Planning Charrette – January 19th!
2 December, 2009
The first public meeting for the Orem Bicycle & Pedestrian Study will be January 19th at 7:00 pm. It will be at the Orem Senior Friendship Center, located at 400 East & Center Street in Orem. If you want to make a difference for cycling in Orem, put it on your calender and plan to be there. It should be a good experience, and it will make a big difference.
Focus on Bicycles & Pedestrians for good Health
25 November, 2009
I’ve seen this come across my screen a few times today. An article in the British medical journal, The Lancet, is one of the first well respected publications to call “green cars” for what they are and to call for a focus on Bicycles & Pedestrians as the only healthy and best use of our transportation funding. Further, it calls for policy makers to focus primarily on those means of transportation, even to the detriment of those who chose to drive. Additionally, the director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, followed the article with a commentary voicing her unbridled support. To read a more eloquent account, visit Copenhagenize and read Mikael’s take on it. Ready the full article here. Keep riding, and have a great Thanksgiving.
Brad
Orem Bike/Ped Study
3 November, 2009
I’ve been very bad at posting lately. I am really ashamed actually, since I’ve had a lot to post about. This one is very important though, so here goes. Orem is conducting a study to determine how to make the city more friendly to people who walk or ride a bike. They want and need your help in doing this. Click on the big picture and fill out the survey. It WILL make a difference. Thanks
Brad
Plans
24 June, 2009
Orem is working on a big Bicycle Master Plan. They have some money from Mountainland that will allow them to hire a consultant. They need our help! In order to make Orem a more friendly place to ride, they want to hear from you. Comment on this post, or send me an email to get on a mailing list so you know when meetings and other events will be. You won’t get any spam, just good old knowledge. Ride on!
