From The Eudora News:

In an effort to see more sidewalks throughout Eudora, officials from Eudora USD 491, the city of Eudora, citizens of Eudora and Safe Kids Douglas County have formed the Eudora Pedestrian Safety Committee.

The group first met early in the spring and met again May 23 to discuss grant applications for the areas of Eudora that most need sidewalks.

The committee would like to one day see a safe path for students to go over Kansas Highway 10 to the high school and middle school, but the construction of such a bridge currently is cost prohibitive. Dreese also said it would be difficult just to coordinate the required cooperation between the many organizations both private and public that would build the bridge.

Eudora Schools Interim Superintendent of Schools Don Grosdidier said it also would be unwise to build sidewalks along Church Street until there was a safer way for students to cross K-10.

“Until that bridge situation is taken care of, it’s not real feasible to put the sidewalks in there because you’re encouraging more kids to walk and it’s not really a safe place to walk and cross there,” he said.

After the May 23 meeting, the committee decided to pursue grant money that would go toward the installation of sidewalks along Elm Street between NES and the Eudora Community Center.

“We want to be as smart about this as possible and do what we can with the money we have,” Dreese said. “Our idea now is to get everybody together in Eudora and not only deal from a safety perspective, which is what most of this grant money is for, but also from a health and recreation perspective. The idea is that you’ve got a growing little town, so you plan ahead.”

Oct. 8 is International Walk to School Day for students in kindergarten through second grade, and the committee plans on having a communitywide summit sometime that month.

“We don’t want to just have a meeting, we want to make things happen and move forward,” Dreese said.

Read more from The Eudora News: Pedestrian safety committee formed

In an editorial in The Des Moines Register, Rox Laird writes:

With gasoline nudging $4 a gallon and people increasingly aware of the need to walk or bike more and drive less - for their health and the health of the planet - interest is growing in transportation alternatives to automobiles.

The trouble is, it is nearly impossible to navigate the modern city without an automobile. It’s time to rethink the way we design cities.

Transportation planners in the Des Moines metropolitan area are beginning work on a new transportation plan for the next three decades that will help determine how tax money will be spent on streets, highways, rails, trails and public transportation. For Des Moines, this is a perfect time to start thinking about how to modify the plan to make it easier for people to choose alternatives to driving. There is no reason a new Des Moines plan that would make it easier for people to get around without automobiles could not be a model for other cities in Iowa, and the nation.

In the 20th century, the mass production and mass consumption of automobiles liberated cities, and we have built a marvelous network of streets and highways that allow people to live far from work and to travel great distances with relative ease for shopping, entertainment and other activities.

The automobile not only changed cities, but the way we live by allowing us to work in one town, to shop in another and to transport kids to school, baseball practice or violin lessons in still another, all the while traveling distances that would have consumed a day or more in our ancestors’ time.

Today, the transportation system of greater Des Moines consists of a 2,700-mile network of streets and highways. According to a study by the Des Moines Metropolitan Planning Organization, 93 percent of all trips are made by automobile, 5 percent on foot and 1 percent each by bus or bicycle. The vast majority of driving trips are not commuting to work - which represent just 16 percent of the total - but for personal trips for church, recreation, shopping, running errands or going out to eat.

Making these trips by car is largely a personal choice, to be sure, but the choice is greatly influenced by a lack of alternatives. If people could walk to the corner store, or wander in and out of shops along Main Street, they might be encouraged to do so. But few urban residents have that option.

Laird writes that the movement toward making cities more walkable and bikeable is an effort to “turn back the city-planning clock to rediscover what worked in the past and what still works in most every small town in Iowa.”

But, he says, no changes will take place “until the public demonstrates that it is ready to embrace a new direction in how cities and communities are planned. So, citizens should let their elected officials know they are ready for urban planning and commercial and residential development that account for means of transportation other than just automobiles on four-lane streets.”

From an editorial in the Topeka Capital-Journal:

The Federal Highway Administration plans to recommend next year that states increase the time pedestrians have to finish crossing the street once they see the flashing orange signal in the box that tells them when it’s safe, supposedly, to walk. Reports are the highway administration wants states to increase the time the orange signal flashes by about 15 percent.

That might not sound like a long time, and it isn’t. But it might be enough to make our crosswalks safer for those on foot, and the extra time isn’t going to create any significant delay for motorists.

Some cities already are well ahead of the FHWA’s thinking in terms of making crosswalks safer. Denver and Knoxville, Tenn., are among cities that have gone to a system that stops all traffic at an intersection for about 30 seconds, during which time pedestrians can cross in any direction.

The number of vehicle/pedestrian accidents at crosswalks are behind the federal government’s plan to increase the required walking time. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that while pedestrian deaths have declined over the past 10 years, the numbers are still too high. In 2006, 4,784 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents and 471 of those accidents occurred at crosswalks.

Topeka Police Department records show the city had one fatal vehicle/pedestrian accident in 2006 and one in 2007, neither occurred at a crosswalk, however. Overall, there were 38 vehicle/pedestrian accidents in the city in 2007, with 18 of those occurring in crosswalks. For 2006, the numbers were 30 vehicle/pedestrian accidents, 15 of those in crosswalks. This year the city has recorded six vehicle/pedestrian accidents with no fatalities. The city’s reports don’t differentiate between crosswalks with traffic lights and those guarded only by stop signs.

That doesn’t sound like a lot of accidents when compared with the national numbers, but every vehicle/pedestrian accident has the potential to be fatal. If a couple more seconds means even one or two fewer accidents, we think it’s well worth the time.

Read more at Pedestrian crosswalks — Step up safety.

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser has a vision of KC becoming a platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community, and he has announced an action plan to make KC more bike-friendly, and to achieve the coveted designation, by 2020.

The Bicycle Friendly Community program is an awards program administered by the League of American Bicyclists that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling. A Bicycle-Friendly Community provides safe accommodation for cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transportation and recreation.

There are four levels of certification — bronze, silver, gold, and platinum — with platinum being the most bicycle-friendly of all. Only two US cities are currently at the platinum level, Davis, California, and Portland, Oregon.

Two Kansas communities have reached the bronze level: Lawrence and Shawnee. No cities in Missouri are currently listed, though several are moving toward achieving the designation in the next few years.

“Kansas City is a beautiful city, but we need to do more to make it an ideal place to bicycle so folks can better enjoy its beauty,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “Also, with the rising cost of gasoline, and an increased interest in ‘green’ solutions, more and more people are bicycling to and from work. Our city should provide an environment where this is a safe and viable choice.”

“We have lots of work to do to make Kansas City more bike-friendly,” said Councilman Russ Johnson, who rode to thr press conference in part to show how difficult it can be to navigate Kansas City on a bike. “We have bike trails and bike lanes that go for a mile or two and then abruptly stop, giving way to busy streets. But we’re taking steps to change all that and make Kansas City a much better place to bike.”

Complete coverage at KCBike.info, Kansas Cyclist.

What single silver bullet can simultaneously reduce air pollution and oil dependency, roll back urban congestion, and fight obesity?

It’s not a pill, nor a complicated formula concocted by the World Bank. People around the world are turning to bicycles by the millions, as governments rush to create incentives for the low-tech transport alternative to gas-glugging, smog-making, traffic jam-producing automobiles.

Some 130 million bikes were produced worldwide in 2007 — more than double the number of cars rolling off assembly lines (52 million). Bike production took off in the 1970s, and after a brief dip, has been soaring since 2001, according to an ”Eco-Economy Indicators” report issued by the Earth Policy Institute.

Although more than 80 percent of all bicycles produced today are made in China, rising wealth led many Chinese to set aside their bicycles in favor of cars. But in the face of rising urban pollution and congestion, Chinese authorities are insisting that bike lanes be re-established in major cities. In Beijing, bike rentals are being strongly promoted.

China is following a growing trend in Europe and developing country smog centers such as Mexico City, Bogota, and Seoul, South Korea. The latest master plan for New Delhi, India, for example, calls for fully segregated bicycle lanes on all main roads to reduce growth in fossil fuel consumption.

Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and the German city of Freiburg are all investing millions in infrastructure to encourage more people to bike to work. In Amsterdam more than 55 percent of those who travel five miles or less to work already ride bikes. The government plans to spend $160 million by 2010 on bicycle paths, parking, and safety, according to the Earth Policy report.

Paris now has some 20,000 bikes available for rental by credit card, scattered around the city at strategic sites. Six million people used the new rental program during the first three months after it was launched last year.

The United States lags far behind this emerging trend, with less than 1 percent of workers commuting by bicycle. Overall, bike ridership has dropped by 32 percent since the early 1990s.

But, the report notes, there are positive signs as well: “Aided by $900 million a year in federal funding for promotion of biking and walking for 2005 to 2009, the installation of bicycle facilities — including parking, bike-friendly roads, and designated lanes — is proceeding at a record pace” in the United States.

Several large cities, including New York, plan to double bike and pedestrian routes by 2030. Washington, DC is set to begin a bike-sharing program like that in Paris, and even hilly San Francisco is considering a similar program, according to the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental think tank.

Bicycle advocacy groups are expanding, and a “Complete Streets” movement has blossomed in recent years, bringing together a broad coalition of citizen and environmental groups demanding more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly roads. Six states and more than 50 cities, counties, and metro regions have now enacted some form of Complete Streets legislation.

With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, and given the steep health and economic costs of continuing reliance on oil-fueled cars, many analysts expect the lowly two-wheeler to continue to become more and more fashionable.

Written by Alison Raphael of OneWorld US.

The Iowa Bicycle Coalition’s Mark Wyatt has put together a presentation that he uses when talking with bike clubs, civic meetings, and special events.

The presentation is titled “More Iowans Biking”, and is used to promote bicycling as a safe and enjoyable recreation and transportation alternative, and to encourage improvements such as Complete Streets, Safe Routes to School, and motorist and cyclist education.

For a real eye-opener, view slides 17 through 37 to see obesity trends among U.S. adults, 1985-2005. The explosion of obesity is just incredible.

Nicely done, Mark!

The month of May is the official National Bike Month as designated by the League of American Bicyclists.

As part of National Bike Month, communities around the country sponsor activities and events to celebrate bicycling and get people riding. A focus of the month is Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16, and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16.

In addition, the League of American Bicyclists offers a list of 50 ways to celebrate Bike Month.