Moving Forward

Rest assured I am still here and still working on the various projects I am pushing. My time is limited, and what I am not using in class or to push projects, is being used to keep up to date on the latest happenings in the transportation community, and looking for internships for early next year. I simply do not have the energy to keep up here while doing everything else, even if I actually do have the time.

I will post here every once in a bit, and I appreciate folks checking back in every once in awhile. If you do not yet follow me on some type of reader, Google or otherwise, I highly recommend that you do, that way you will know when I start posting again.

• Bicycle racks have been ordered and shipped, Phase one is moving forward quickly. Meeting with facilities to determine final location prep next week, a couple sites have already been picked out for a ceremonial install, the next step is planning for that event and making it big.

• On the death that happened the other week, prosecution seems limited, even though it was a hit and run and the driver ran a red light, he apparently did not see the cyclist. The cyclist was on the sidewalk through this intersection, no it is not illegal to be on the sidewalk in the town of Plattsburgh (that I know of). However, sidewalk riding is incredibly dangerous for all road users, and until we have proper bicycle roads along auto roads, it is still best to be in a lane. He was new here and did not know the area well, and it is hard to take a lane when you are surrounded by 6 lanes of traffic moving at high speed.

• The bike group on campus is working to advocate for a bike lane for the road, I am working to have them change the goal to be increased bicycle safety on the road, not advocating for a specific infrastructure fix. There really is no easy fix for this road, a bike lane or a separate bike road(cycletrack, bike path etc) will make it worse, there are simply too many driveway cuts.

• The Campus Facilities Master Plan comes out in November, and is in final stages now. I am involved with asking questions regarding bike and ped improvements for a couple of the planned streets through campus, they have not answered many questions, and there are potential problems with what they are advocating we create, especially if they are leaving it up to the planners here to figure out the specifics.

• Finally on to the posted image, it is a map I created that marks all the designated public park space in the city of Plattsburgh, combined with a two different distance buffers showing accessibility and distribution of parks. Overall Plattsburgh is doing pretty darn well, with full accessibility for the entire city within about 1/2mile of a park. It is not a perfect map, there is no scale and while North is "up" it is not designated as such, anyway.

For now that is all, stay tuned, I will update when I can, Jim is busy as well but might try to get some posts in, he has some topics in the wings.