Omaha's Active Transportation Discussion

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Thanks for the tips. I might just see what they can do for me in-store at Home Depot or something, as far as any potential welding and whatnot.

[Brad]

You don't need a welder to build stuff out of metal. You can do find with a drill and a box of nuts and bolts.

[Garrett]

Here's some new research from UMass - Amherst that shows that bicycle and pedestrian road projects create more jobs per $1 million expended than other road projects - an important economic impact that is often ignored or overlooked.

http://networkedblogs.com/cIf5Z

Here's a brief abstract from the post:

Investment in transportation infrastructure of all types will generate employment in various industries throughout Baltimore and the State of Maryland. In this case study we find that investments in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure create the most employment for a given level of expenditure. While road construction projects create approximately 7 jobs per $1 million spending, pedestrian projects create over 11 jobs for the same level of spending, and bicycle projects create up to 14 jobs. Other studies have shown that investments in bicycle and pedestrian facilities can reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life. Here we find that these investments bring an additional benefit to the community: they are an important source of job creation.

Well, if you think about it, you seem to be ignoring the factor that Road projects cost more. So, Bike and Pedestrian road projects don't necessarily create more jobs, they just cost less and thus have a higher ratio.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Well, yeah, absolutely. Nobody is ignoring it--that's precisely the point! :yes:

Actually, I think you're ignoring the fact that the installation of bicycle facilities is much less labor-intensive.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

This concerns Nebraska as a whole, but:

Americans drove nearly 3,000,000,000,000 miles in 2010; Nebraskans have highest increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled

Nebraskan drivers lead the pack, when it comes to driving much longer distances. The DOT reports vehicles in the cornhusker state traveled over 1.56 trillion miles in December 2010—an estimated 11.1% increase. The state with the greatest drop in vehicle miles traveled: West Virginia with a 3.3% drop from the nearly 1.7 trillion miles tallied in December 2009.

I'm thinking they mean "billion" and not "trillion", otherwise Nebraska racked up half of all VMT recorded in the entire nation.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2 ... umeristRSS

[iamjacobm]

I am curious if this just includes personal vehicles or trucking as well. It is pretty interesting though b/c that is quite the jump in a single calender year.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

‘I Was A Teenage Cyclist,’ or How Anti-Bike-Lane Arguments Echo the Tea Party
By ADAM STERNBERGH

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... y/?partner

If you’re itching to write an anti-bike-lane argument (and, if so, line up, because it’s a burgeoning literary genre), you could do no better than to follow the template laid out yesterday by The New Yorker’s John Cassidy in his blog post, “Battle of the Bike Lanes.”

Cassidy’s post — which has already been called “a seminal document of New York City’s bike lane backlash era” — helpfully includes all the requisite rhetorical tactics, thus providing an excellent blueprint. (You might even say “boilerplate.”) These include:

Then Sternbergh proceeds with a craftily pointed list of these tactics with examples from Cassidy's piece such as:

Reference to ominous encroachment of cycling-based anti-Americanism: “City Hall … sometimes seems intent on turning New York into Amsterdam, or perhaps Beijing.” (You know, Beijing: where the communists live!)

Invocation of personal cycling bona fides: “As a student, I lived in the middle of Oxford, where cycling is the predominant mode of transport, and I cycled everywhere.”

Very witty, and a fun look at the "other side" of the rhetorical coin, as many of you love to talk about my pro-cycling "rhetoric." Did you realize your "side" is rife with rhetoric, as well? :;):

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Man, people are really going to town on this Cassidy guy. Here's another clever piece.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexch ... es_commons

[TechnicalDisaster]

Troll.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Even Los Angeles, the car-loving city of all car-loving cities, is going "two-wheel"!!!

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=5243

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Michelle Obama inspires head White House chefs to get healthier, and, for one chef, that involved switching from a car commute, to a bicycle commute. Man, bike commuting to the White House... good things have to be just around the corner, right?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/ ... 3#45161973

[cdub]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-a ... cheme/242/

Interesting stuff. How do you make such a message less hostile? Can it be boiled down to the facts only and still take hold?

[Seth]

Michelle Obama inspires head White House chefs to get healthier, and, for one chef, that involved switching from a car commute, to a bicycle commute. Man, bike commuting to the White House... good things have to be just around the corner, right?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/ ... 3#45161973

Since I haven't listened to him since I was an uninformed backwoods teenager, I can't say for sure, but I'd bet money Limbaugh was all over this one. If not him, Glenn Beck or somebody! I mean, we can't let this kind of socialism creep into American society!

[StreetsOfOmaha]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-a ... cheme/242/

Interesting stuff. How do you make such a message less hostile? Can it be boiled down to the facts only and still take hold?

I've looked into this a bit since you posted it (though I'm not quite sure what it has to do with this thread...), and I think comparing suburban sprawl to a ponzi scheme is pretty much right on. I'm not sure what you mean when you ask how the message can be made "less hostile."

[cdub]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-a ... cheme/242/

Interesting stuff. How do you make such a message less hostile? Can it be boiled down to the facts only and still take hold?

I've looked into this a bit since you posted it (though I'm not quite sure what it has to do with this thread...), and I think comparing suburban sprawl to a ponzi scheme is pretty much right on. I'm not sure what you mean when you ask how the message can be made "less hostile."

It may be slightly misplaced but it relates to the present TMP issue because the streets are tied to land use. Part of our transportation problem is because of the way we build, so how do we stop building that way. 'Hostile' because for anyone whos gotten rich developing west O, and for many who live out there, saying that suburbia is a problem upsets them off.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

'Hostile' because for anyone whos gotten rich developing west O, and for many who live out there, saying that suburbia is a problem upsets them off.

Right. So where's the problem? :;):

Seriously, as a culture, we have to be OK with pis*ing a few people (even a LOT of people) off by saying what needs to be said. I guess we're sort of in the midst of a societal intervention. We'll see if America listens to reason and reality, or storms out of the room and attempts to get back to its old, destructive behavior.

[almighty_tuna]

Omaha transportation planners are considering a makeover of Harney Street through downtown and midtown to turn it into a useful route for pedestrians and bicyclists. Plans call for giving over one lane of automobile traffic to a trail, which would have its own designated lanes for walking and biking. The concept is more involved than the on-street bike lanes installed on some city streets. Instead of just striping a bike lane, Harney Street would have a trail set off by a landscaped median.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20111128/N ... bicyclists

[iamjacobm]

Yes, this should happen ASAP.

[Brad]

Omaha transportation planners are considering a makeover of Harney Street through downtown and midtown to turn it into a useful route for pedestrians and bicyclists. Plans call for giving over one lane of automobile traffic to a trail, which would have its own designated lanes for walking and biking. The concept is more involved than the on-street bike lanes installed on some city streets. Instead of just striping a bike lane, Harney Street would have a trail set off by a landscaped median.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20111128/N ... bicyclists

I think a Picture is woth 1000 words on this one:

[ShawJ]

Yeah, this would be nice. Harney is way too wide for how much traffic it gets on a daily basis.

[Zilla]

Looks pretty nice to me!