A Feed Update

To folks out there who follow my feed or would like to, I just started using google reader and realized on accident that only a partial feed was being shown. As far as I am concerned pictures are very important and if folks don't want them using the "list" option to collapse is just as useful. So I changed to a full feed, mostly because I think it is much more useful when I am reading other sites.

If you have thoughts please let me know

also I am unable to get a share this or "like" option on each post, I am not sure why, I will keep working to try and figure it out, sorry about that.

Plattsburgh City Parks update

I had not looked at my Google Parks file I had created for Google Maps in awhile. If you remember, back earlier in the year, I had a post on the parks that I had digitized from the city parks website. Looking back a couple days ago I noted over 1200 views in that time, with little to no public mention of the parks. So with this new evidence, I took the time to update the file and re-edit the actual park locations, as well as clean it up a bit.

I then decided to contact the City Parks and Rec Department to see if they might be interested in putting a link to this file on the website.

Long story short, I now have my map linked from the main page of the parks section of the cities parks and rec website!

check out the map link Here
the Parks and Rec website Here
the previous post on the map Here

Update on Share The Road Survey

We (being Rockingham Planning Commission) just announced our public meeting dates where cyclists and drivers in the Seacoast and Rockingham county can come and work with RPC staff (and me) to provide mapped and detailed problem spots for potential Share the Road signs. These meetings are happening in Exeter, Portsmouth, and Windham. Please see the flyer for more details

Also we have a flyer(as mentioned) that we put together which gives information on accessing the survey as well as a brief overview and information on meeting times and places.

Download the pdf here.(1.2mb)

If you know any cyclists in Southern NH or have visited here to bicycle in the past or drive through this area and have come across cyclists where the road is very dangerous.

Please let them know about our survey or send them to the RPC home page, Here.

Thanks!

RPC Survey Launch

On Thursday we launched the survey I had been working on that is looking to identify problem spots on the seacoast NH road network. If there is a narrow shoulder that is following the road up a hill and into a turn that is a problem spot as sight lines are very limited and in this case would be a prime example for a "Share the Road" sign.

Now I am a partial subscriber to the dutch idea (and many others) that believe signs are not really needed and that if you take away all signs drivers will be much more cautious and thus safer. That is hard in the US due to many reasons but none the less I do feel that way. In particular "Share the Road" signs in many areas are not effective to raise awareness, and I agree with that, but in this case we are using them in a limited fashion to mark extreme hazard points so hopefully all users will act a bit more cautiously in these areas.

If you live in the Seacoast, or cycle through here and know of problem spots or areas that a "Share the Road" sign might be useful please go ahead and fill out the survey and input your information. It is greatly appreciated.

Hello Southeast NH Cyclists,

With a growing number of people riding bicycles for commuting, exercise, or just for fun and fresh air, the need for safe, respectful sharing of the road by cyclists, pedestrians and motorists is greater than ever.

Share the Road signs are one tool for promoting this message. They are used to mark particular hazard areas on our road networks: places where the shoulder narrows abruptly, blind corners, or narrow bridges. Places where cyclists and motorists both need to use extra caution.


The Rockingham Planning Commission is working to identify significant hazard spots on the region’s roadways, and particularly on designated State Bicycle Routes, where Share the Road signs could be installed to improve safety for cyclists and other road users. The RPC region includes 27 towns in southeastern New Hampshire, extending from the Seacoast westward to Salem and Windham in the I-93 corridor.


We're asking for your help to identify hazard spots that you've encountered while riding or driving. You can provide input in either of two ways:


1) On-line Survey - Fill out the Survey linked below, where you can describe hazard areas as well as pinpoint them on an online map
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F3PDRQR
Please respond by August 20th


2) Public Meetings - Come to one of three Public Meetings we'll be holding around the region in August. The dates and locations for these are listed below.

· Thursday, August 12th, 7:00-8:30pm at the Rockingham Planning Commission Offices, 156 Water Street, Exeter

· Monday, August 16th, 7:00-8:30pm at Portsmouth Public Library, 175 Parrott Avenue, Portsmouth (Directions)

· Tuesday, August 17th, 7:00-8:30pm, Nesmith Library, 8 Fellows Road in Windham (Directions)


If you have questions on the project, please feel free to contact the RPC at 778-0885 or sbogle@rpc-nh.org.


Thanks for your help!


John Pelletier, RPC Transportation Planning Intern

Scott Bogle, RPC Senior Transportation Planner

Thanks!

From, The Urbanophile on outsiders in a community

I was going through my draft posts the other day and came upon this article from April from The Urbanophile. The premise of the article is that outsiders, e.g. non-natives to a region or city, are key to that city surviving economic problems or other calamities. They help in driving the city toward positive change and make it better for everybody to live in. The conclusion was based on data from corporate problem solving studies that show that a group working independently on a problem will solve the problem slower, or not at all than a group where outside individuals are brought in part way through the process.

So extrapolated out, migration is key to societies survival as a whole and specifically in cities where outsiders can bring a new prospective to what is valuable in a community, what needs to be encouraged, and what needs to change.

It can be hard to understand where these "outsiders" are coming from but if we learn to embrace other migrants to our communities, we might just be able to overcome the looming problems over the next 100 years.

Check out the article at, The Urbanophile.

A review of the Yuba Mundo V3 cargo bike by EcoVelo

EcoVelo has a review of the new Yuba Mundo extended frame cargo bike. This is a beast of a bike, able to carry 440+ pounds plus rider in a highly configurable state. I recommend you check out the review and the gorgeous pictures over at EcoVelo. If you need a cargo bike I am pretty sure this is the best you are going to get factory built.

check it out here, EcoVelo

Canada on high-speed rail from NYC to Montreal

This is an article from the National Post on the Canadian take on high-speed rail from New York City up to Montreal. Plattsburgh features in it as one of the largest communities north of the capital district that would be on a direct line north, and there may be local support for such a project. It would still be problematic; the ADK Park would pose so many problems that it might be easier to divert the line through Burlington and up the Vermont coast. But getting high speed from Plattsburgh North and from Saratoga South as well as improving rail and signaling in the park could still make it viable and at least on par with a car trip if not preferable to flying.

Take a read over at the National Post

Via Infrastructurist

Streetfilms comes to Boston!

Streetfilms | NACTO’s “Cities for Cycling”

Streetfilms visits Boston for the Cities for Cycling event. I did know about it through my work for MassBike but I was unable to attend due to some reason or another. I was really glad that they came though and that Boston is part of the network of cities across the country. Too often Portland and NYC get the lime light in regards to cycling, but Boston has made drastic improvements over the past few years, the work MassBike has done alone is huge, from encouraging commuter rail trails, to working to get bikes on the T and commuter rails, to working on bus policy to state urban speed limits, to road widths. It is not glamorous all the time but we are doing the work and things are changing.

Please click through to the "Cities for Cycling" website to read more about who they are, which cities have joined, and what they are doing to improve cycling in the US

Enjoy another great video from Streetfilms!

New work and ongoing thoughts

Thanks to Tom Cochrane via Flickr

I am starting on my second working internship this summer with the Rockingham Planning Commission in Exeter, NH. This I am actually paid to do which is very very nice. My main project is working on designing implementing, logging and then fieldwork verifying locations for strategic share the road signs at problem spots around southern NH.

We will be implementing an online question survey for people to put in locations and problems as well as an option to plot the points live on a Google maps page. The goal is to give people as many options as possible to report problem areas. In August, we will also be doing a series of three live workshops where people can come and update problem spots live.

Once we start having some data filled out we are going to merge the maps into one layer file which will overlap the problem spots and create areas which (in theory) have a greater risk to more cyclists.

Once areas have been located I will be going out into the field with data sheets and a camera and take note of these locations for a final report to give to the state DOT for best areas for share the road signs.

Now true this is not an ideal option, share the road signs are very very limited and data about their effectiveness seems be inconclusive as far as I know.
But in this instance where there are only a handful of signs in the region and only 2 that I know about, perhaps some benefit can come of this, if only to let cyclists know about areas that are potential problem points.

I do hope this can help the current situation in some way. The roads are narrow, corners are tight, as well as speed being relatively high on many seacoast roads, it is dangerous for all but the most experienced riders.

We must never loose sight that these are only interim measures, share the road signs, sharrows, and bike lanes as means to provide safety, education, and connectivity about and for cyclists are very limited if successful at all. To provide for all cyclists and if we wish to encourage cycling as a true form of transportation and not just recreation, we must have separated infrastructure.

Now we do not need it everywhere, neighborhoods of 20mph can be safely shared spaces but when applied correctly and in their right context separated is the only proven way to get people to choose the bicycle for a majority of their trips.

The Netherlands (and Denmark) are really the only places that have a sustained level of cyclist mode share. We can do it too, but it starts by making everybody more aware of cyclists every day, and that I hope can start with increased pinpointed signage, at least the theory of it can.

Separated Facilities from EcoVelo and Slate

Tom Vanderbilt on Separated Facilities

From the folks over at EcoVelo and then onto the article from Slate. A simple concise pointer on why we need separated infrastructure if we truly want to see cycling as transportation in the US.

Also check out Tom's blog, How We Drive for more on this an other topics. Also check out his great book called "Traffic" most book stores should have it and your library might too!