Ray Atkinson started this blog in 2014 when he moved from his childhood home in Kannapolis, NC (Walk Score of 0) to get his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University (Walk Score of 100). He has never owned a car despite living in Memphis, TN. His email is gismap1@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayplans
Greetings from Memphis! I wanted to publish a post when I moved to Memphis during Labor Day weekend. I felt the need to postpone blogging because I have been busy with moving, unpacking, organizing, meeting neighbors, and preparing for my new job, which starts on Monday, September 11th.
Podcasts About Ray’s New Job
In case you are curious to learn more about my job, I recommend listening to the below podcasts where my predecessors and other people were interviewed about their active transportation work and the future work that I will be managing. Due to the history that is shared in each podcast, I recommend listening to Episode 3 first before proceeding to the next podcast. I copied the episode descriptions, so the descriptions were not created by me. As you will hear in the podcasts, my predecessors and other passionate champions did impressive work to help Memphis become known as a national active transportation leader!
Making bikes affordable to more people by founding Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop led Anthony Siracusa to bike advocacy work on the local, state, and national levels. In time, he saw the bike as only one lever to affect change among many. Anthony’s doctoral studies at Vanderbilt deepened that knowledge by showing him the many Champions and their causes within the Civil Rights Movement. That led him to his current work at Colorado College, where he helps students better champion their own causes.
Kyle Wagenschutz was a critical figure in growing and sustaining Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop in Memphis, alongside founder Anthony Siracusa. Together, the two shared a love for bikes and punk rock, and they found that each subculture played a role in helping them build a community around bikes. Kyle advocated for bike lanes in Memphis, first from his perch at Revolutions, but then as the City of Memphis’ first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator. Anthony and Kyle’s effective “inside-outside” game showed what can happen when government and grassroots work together. The two friends’ partnership helped move Memphis from a “worst city for biking” to “most improved” and on to being a national leader in just six years. Now the Director of Local Innovation at PeopleForBikes in Boulder, CO, what Kyle learned through trial and error in Memphis is benefiting people in other cities.
Episode 30: Nick Oyler is not on the Champions of the Lost Causes’ website, so you will need to access it through this Google Podcasts link. The episode 30 description is below:
Nick Oyler is the Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager for the City of Memphis. When the push for bike lanes in Memphis resulted in early victories for the bike/ped movement and then gave way to the city’s initial buildout, Nick was away at college, grad school, and then working in Germany. Following all that news from afar, Nick thought that he might have missed his moment to get involved. But as many multifaceted causes require, there was plenty of work left to be done when he got back to his hometown. Nick’s experience of riding a bike when he was young helped pave the way for his interest in city planning and to his current role, and helped him see the many benefits to cities and people of having a well-designed system of bike lanes and walkways. Memphis has come a long way, but it still has a lot of work ahead of it.
Champions of the Lost Causes
John Paul Shaffer from PeopleForBikes and Nick Oyler from the City of Memphis join us to talk about how Memphis has gone from 2 to 300 miles of off- and on-road bicycle facilities over a decade; which projects have been truly transformative, such as Shelby Farms Greenway and the Harahan Bridge Crossing; and how an intentional focus on equity and neighborhood-based programming has helped more Memphians get on bikes for recreation and transportation.
Later in the program, regular commentator Charlie Santo reflects on moving from transportation mecca Portland, OR to Memphis and trying to navigate the local system. Charlie and Emily also talk about how bike infrastructure and related improvements like traffic calming can potentially help increase access to public spaces such as Tom Lee Park and Riverside Park.
Nick Oyler, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis, makes a return visit to Memphis Metropolis to talk about pedestrian safety. This past week, Smart Growth America issued its Dangerous by Design 2021 study, which found that pedestrian deaths due to traffic accidents continue to increase nationally. Moreover, the study found that Memphis was the third most dangerous city for pedestrians, with pedestrian deaths up around 75 percent since 2019. In the show, Nick explains the connection between street design and pedestrian safety, why COVID and driver distraction have contributed to the rise in fatalities, and how dedicated funding for pedestrian infrastructure could help change the trajectory. And, why his team created a special map to help memorialize the lives of Memphis pedestrians that have been lost.
Pedestrian deaths in Memphis are at an all-time high and the city is one of the most dangerous in the U.S. for people who get around on foot. But while driver behavior and poor street design are the primary contributors to the problem, pedestrians themselves – the victims – are often blamed. Nick Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager in the city’s engineering department, pays a return visit to Memphis Metropolis to discuss what the law actually says about where pedestrians can and cannot cross the street, why pedestrian behavior that seems illogical often is quite rational, and how “windshield bias” – seeing the problem exclusively from the driver perspective – is inhibiting the development of solutions.
Nick Oyler has spent the last several years working in and with the community to improve the city’s active transportation systems, first with the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and most recently as bike and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. Nick is leaving Memphis to pursue new professional opportunities in Denver, and we asked him to return to Memphis Metropolis one last time to reflect on the successes, frustrations, and opportunities he has experienced during his tenure here.
A city’s ParkScore is a measure of how it compares to other places, using criteria such as access, acreage, equity, and investments. The ParkScore Index is prepared annually by the Trust for Public Land, a people-focused parks and public land advocacy organization. In this show, Noel Durant of the TPL’s Tennessee office visits Memphis Metropolis to talk about why ParkScores are so important and how Memphis ranked in their recent study. Memphis park advocates JoAnn Street also joins the conversation to provide a local perspective. JoAnn is the founder of HUG Park Friends, a support organization for three North Memphis parks, Hollywood, University, and Gooch.
Jackson McNeil, a longtime friend of Memphis Metropolis, recently joined Innovate Memphis as Director of Transportation and Mobility, overseeing the Commute Options program. In this show, we discuss the hard work of (and many obstacles to) getting Memphians out of their cars and onto alternate modes of transportation. Jackson and Emily also discuss the recently published Safe Speed Index, which ranks cities on the average vehicle speeds on streets used by pedestrians.
Ray’s New E-Bike Made His Car-Free Life Easier
Since my blog is focused on my car-free lifestyle, I wanted to share the most significant improvement to making my car-free lifestyle easier. As I shared in this 2022 post, my first e-bike did not fit on the bus bike rack because it was too heavy (58.4 pounds) and long (47″) to fit on the standard bike rack. Thank you to Brandie Macdonald for making me aware of the Wing Freedom ST.2 e-bike, which is light (39 pounds) and short (42.9″) enough to fit on the standard bike rack. I frequently had to leave my old e-bike at home in California because I knew it would not fit on the bus bike rack. I was excited to put my new e-bike on the bus bike rack when I went shopping in East Memphis last week!
I had to rush to get on and off the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) bus, so I did not have time to take a photo of my e-bike on the bus bike rack. Taking selfies with my bike was possible on the Big River Crossing, which is an impressive and wide active transportation bridge between Tennessee and Arkansas. The views are fantastic! My new Memphis friends, who were also born and raised in the Charlotte region (all three of us went to high school in Cabarrus County!) and graduated from UNC Charlotte around the same time as me, invited me to join them on a walk across the Big River Crossing. I am not an early bird, especially when I prefer to sleep in during the weekend, so I felt accomplished with waking up in time for the 8am walk today!
Biking on the Big River Crossing. Photo: Ray Atkinson
View of downtown Memphis from the Big River Crossing. Photo: Ray Atkinson
My new church, The Church of the River (First Unitarian Church of Memphis), is near the trailhead to the Big River Crossing. I honestly had difficulty focusing on the sermon because the church has such an impressive natural view! I felt like I was forest bathing during church!
View from The Church of the River (First Unitarian Church of Memphis). Photo: Ray Atkinson
Future Blog Post
I am trying to keep this post short, so I will share more about Memphis in a future post. Since I have never seen a bike ride combined with cooking and feeding low-income people living on the street, I am excited to experience the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry’s weekly bike rides on Wednesday night and Saturday morning!
I am riding transit on my way back to Petaluma from my first trip to San Jose, which is actually the largest city in the Bay Area. I carpooled with James Rojas to Oakland to reduce the trip time for my return trip. I rode transit for the full four-hour distance yesterday. I still cannot believe that San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area. I honestly think of San Francisco and Oakland before I think of San Jose. Since I surprised myself by seeing and hearing more of “The City at Eye Level” while walking and riding transit than biking, I wanted to focus on this aspect as I continue to share my perspective on the power of slowing down.
As Stephan remembers from our bike adventure in Minneapolis, using a bikeshare system is not always easy. Since I wanted to avoid the stress of constantly looking for the next bikeshare station to dock my bike, I decided to walk and ride transit in San Jose. My frugal approach to spending also pushed me to walk because the Bay Wheels system gets expensive very quickly. Unlike the Capital Bikeshare’s Day Pass that I worked on in the DC region, Bay Wheels does not offer a Day Pass option. I was unwilling to pay for each bikeshare trip separately!
Thankfully, I saw and heard more of “The City at Eye Level” by walking and riding transit. Since I am usually focused on not getting hit by cars when biking, I was able to focus on the below colorful art in San Jose while walking.
The main reason why I traveled to San Jose was to participate in Viva CalleSJ, which was an open-streets event. I appreciate James Rojas making me aware of this event. While I wish every day looked like the photo below, I enjoyed the rare open-streets event by watching how people interacted with streets that were almost absent of cars. I wrote “almost” because the intersections allowed cars to cross the route. As many American cities that have organized an open-streets event know, the car dependency of most Americans prevents Americans from experiencing a truly open-streets event. Do you think Americans will ever have the opportunity to experience a truly car-free open-streets event?
Photo: Ray Atkinson
Future Blog Post
I have to use about 40 hours of PTO before it expires at the end of June. While I do not like how some of my PTO hours do not roll over to the next fiscal year, the silver lining is that it forces me to take a vacation. Yes, I can be a workaholic. Since I have so much to explore in California, I am planning a car-free vacation through the Bay Area, Central Coast, Los Angeles, and possibly the Central Valley. While I depend on the Central Valley for food, I am more attracted to the scenery of the Central Coast. Hopefully, the rural areas in the Central Coast will have connected transit services to the Bay Area and Los Angeles. You will find out in a future blog post!
I was surprised to see that I have not published a “The City at Eye Level” post recently. The link to The City at Eye Level keeps changing, so you can longer download the free book in my previous posts. I will need to update the links. For laypeople reading my blog, I am hoping this post helps you to understand the connection between The City at Eye Level and my recent posts about the power of slowing down and its impact on creating robust in-person social networks. Does this connection make sense after reading this post?
Light Rain Cancels Bike Rental
I was planning to rent bikes from a Windsor bike shop to ride with a new friend who was raised in Windsor, which is an unincorporated town on the northern edge of the North Bay Area. This was my first time visiting Windsor. I have so many new places to explore just in Sonoma County let alone the rest of the Bay Area and California!
While my friend and I were prepared to bike in the light rain, the other renters canceled their rentals and bike tours due to the light rain. The bike shop ended up canceling all the rentals and closing for the day. I have never experienced a bike shop cancel rentals due to light rain. I guess this is a weird welcome to California!
Walk Through Windsor
My friend and I did not want the canceled bike rental to ruin our day. We decided to walk several miles through Windsor instead. Walking instead of driving allowed us to more easily see Windsor at eye level. As the below “MORE BIKES, LESS CARS” banner shows, Windsor is trying to reduce car usage and promote biking. I would include walking in with “MORE BIKES” because there is only so much space on the banner. Unfortunately, my friend and I had to walk single-file through downtown and many other parts of Windsor because the sidewalks are too narrow. Even when the sidewalk is wider, street trees and awning posts prevented us from walking side by side. I saw many people walk directly from their parked cars to their destinations. This does not encourage robust in-person outdoor social networking!
Source: Ray Atkinson
I should clarify that I do not want the street trees to be removed. As this Trees in the Curb Zone Pilot Project from the City of Portland shows, it is possible to replace on-street car parking spaces with trees. BikePortland also published this post about the City of Portland’s project. As my 2015 post from Rijswijk, Netherlands shows, I have been thinking about how to replace on-street car parking spaces with trees for several years. Since my Windsor friend said she does not want to lose car parking for her car and actually feels downtown needs more car parking, do you think rural towns like Windsor will ever have the public and political support to create a project like what Portland created?
Rembrandtkade in Rijswijk, Netherlands in August 2014. Source: Google
I wanted to share the below Spanish version of the above banner because I have never seen a banner with different languages on each side of the banner. I am still using Duolingo to improve my Spanish skills. I even bought a used Spanish textbook from the Windsor Public Library.
Source: Ray Atkinson
Another element that could improve Windsor’s eye-level walking experience and encourage the creation of robust outdoor in-person social networks is the planned SMART regional trail, which will someday connect all the way to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal that provides ferries to San Francisco. I would love to bike from Windsor to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal someday. The first signs of the planned trail and the associated Windsor SMART Station are in the below photo. The SMART Train does not currently serve Windsor, so I rode a Sonoma County bus from Santa Rosa to Windsor. I am excited to see the future of transit-oriented development (TOD) and trail-oriented development! Since trail-oriented development could also be shortened to TOD, I am curious to see what the acronym for trail-oriented development will be.
Source: Ray Atkinson
Future Blog Post
Do you understand the connection between The City at Eye Level and my recent posts about the power of slowing down and its impact on creating robust outdoor in-person social networks? If not, I will keep thinking about how to more clearly write about and show this connection in future blog posts. If so, what other topics do you want me to write about?
Since I am feeling triggered by seeing my last post, I feel the need to add a more pleasant post sooner than I normally would. I am writing this post on my phone, so this will be a short post. I may expand on the post when I am back on my laptop. I was reviewing my 50 draft posts when I found this post about food deserts. Before I share a Petaluma-specific example, do you agree with this article that advocates for people to stop using “food desert”?
Due to how important food deserts and transportation access to grocery stores were to my housing search, I was planning to show maps of what I believe are Petaluma’s food deserts. I decided not to add the maps because I do not want my former roommate to stalk me again. I ended up avoiding a slightly cheaper studio apartment near Casa Grande High School because there are no healthy grocery stores within walking or biking distance of the studio apartment. The slightly more expensive studio apartment that I moved to in February is within walking and biking distance of healthy grocery stores.
Finding Ways To Relax During Mental Health Recovery
I wanted to share a few ways that I am relaxing during my mental health recovery. I went to my first kirtan concert on Saturday night. The video below shows what a kirtan concert is. While I usually prefer to bike because biking is faster than walking, I have been walking more recently to relax. Due to how loud automobiles are, I wish Petaluma was quieter to take walks in. I may have to bike to a nearby rural park to access a quiet enough place to walk. Do you also struggle with finding a quiet place to walk and relax? If so, how have you tried to find a quiet place?
In addition to what I am planning to do from my last post, I also want to write about my next car-free vacation plan. While this plan is not set yet, I need a vacation after my recent stressful experience. Since I do not want to wait until my next vacation to explore more of California, I have been planning and enjoying daycations and weekend getaways with friends in California.
As I kept thinking about the distance needed to create a healthy work-life balance, I realized that being further from work may not matter if the neighborhood where I live provides a robust social network when I am not at work. Since social network in 2023 usually means an online network, I need to clarify that I am referring to an in-person social network. I have also learned through chatting with friends that my thought evaluation process for determining a robust in-person social network may not be obvious to lay people. While I plan to share research studies to try to support my evaluation process, I am trying a new approach to share my thought process. I welcome your feedback.
Donald Appleyard’s 1969 Livable Streets Research
I think the below Streetfilms video, which is in Matt Turner’s blog post, about Donald Appleyard’s 1969 Livable Streets research in San Francisco should help readers understand my evaluation process for determining a robust in-person social network. Readers can learn even more by reading Donald Appleyard’s 1981 book titled Livable Streets. His son, Bruce, published Livable Streets 2.0 in 2020. I find it depressing that livable street issues still exist in 2023. Do motorists even realize (they may need to start by even thinking about the problem) how they are impacting in-person social networks when they are driving on neighborhood streets?
A few friends have asked me what I find “depressing” in the previous paragraph. Due to how American society usually does not openly discuss mental health issues like physical health issues and people with mental health issues do not always feel comfortable discussing their issues, I am thankful to have family and friends who are comfortable enough with me to ask about my mental health issues. Regarding what I find depressing about livable street issues still existing in 2023, I am depressed that not much has been done to resolve the known issues. While these issues are known to many planners, the issues may not be known to the general public. Since the general public likely is not aware of the issues, I believe planners like myself have the tough responsibility to educate them about the issues. I believe the needle will not be moved quickly to resolve the issues until the general public is aware that these issues exist.
I am hopeful that finding a neighborhood with a robust in-person social network will also help improve my mental health issues, which includes creating a healthier work-life balance. While some people may believe that a healthy work-life balance is created by just being in a living space when not at work, I believe being home is more than just a living space. As I will discuss further during the topic on “home territory”, access to people near my living space also contributes to creating a healthy work-life balance. Since I find it challenging to stop thinking about planning issues when not at work, I am hopeful that living in a neighborhood that has a vibrant in-person social network will help me to stop thinking about planning issues when not at work. I realize my vision of the perfect neighborhood does not exist. I can at least try to find a better neighborhood to live in.
In case readers do not watch the video, I want readers to focus on the below figure from Donald Appleyard’s 1969 research in San Francisco because it shows how light, moderate, and heavy traffic impact in-person social networks along one block on each street. The below quotes show the quotes that meant the most to me. What quotes mean the most to you? Do you relate to any of the quotes?
I feel it’s home. There are warm people on this street. I don’t feel alone.
Resident on street with light traffic
It’s not a friendly street — no one offers to help.
Resident on street with heavy traffic
Source: Donald Appleyard’s 1969 diagram of intra-street social connections. Lines represent specific social connections and dots identify where people were reported to gather.
While I am not sure why the below figure is not black and white like the other figures, the figure was still created by Donald Appleyard. I found the figure in Jason Kottke’s blog post. According to Donald Appleyard in his 1981 book, the home territory is defined as the “area over which you feel you have a sense of personal responsibility or stewardship”. Do you see how none of the home territories drawn by residents on the heavy traffic street actually crosses the street? Now let’s compare this with the home territories drawn by residents on the light traffic street. It’s awesome to see how many home territories on the light traffic street actually cross the street!
Source: Donald Appleyard
2011 Livable Streets Research
Research conducted in 2011 on three Bristol streets found similar results. As someone who is depressed when my neighbors just go from their cars to their homes without talking with me, I can relate to the below quote. Surprisingly, I do not live on a street with heavy traffic. Due to Bristol being more walkable than Petaluma, walkability may matter more in this context than how much traffic exists on the street.
people just go from their cars to their houses
Resident on street with heavy traffic
Source: Hart, J. and Parkhurst, G. (2011) Community interaction on three Bristol streets.
The Bristol study also researched each resident’s perspective on their “home territory”. The below figure shows very similar results to what Donald Appleyard found in his San Francisco study. Do you notice how residents living on the street with light traffic drew larger home territories than the residents living on the street with heavy traffic? Do you also notice that many of the home territories drawn by residents living on the street with light traffic actually cross the street? On the other hand, do you see how only one of the home territories drawn by residents living on the street with heavy traffic actually crosses the street?
“During the interviews, residents were asked to draw their ‘home territories’. Home territory was defined as the “area over which you feel you have a sense of personal responsibility or stewardship” (Appleyard, 1981). The results confirmed Appleyard’s findings about the relationship between traffic level and the range of home territories.”
I am adding Hayden Clarkin’s tweet about this 2021 German study because it relates to the above “home territory” drawing results or mind mapping. I believe the home territories were drawn by adults, so I am more heartbroken by seeing children that are negatively impacted by cars. I know many of my readers have children. What do you think your children would draw about their trip to school? Do you drive your children to school, or do they have the freedom to walk or bike to school? If you drive them to school, did you consider providing them with the freedom to walk or bike to school?
When asked to draw their trip to school, children who walk to school drew a more vibrant picture than those driven in a car. Every student should have the option to walk or bike to school in a safe manner, full stop. (via Margrit Stamm) pic.twitter.com/dlKEtrTRYJ
Before I discuss applying the research, I am aware that Petaluma is not San Francisco or Bristol. The land use context is important when applying real-world research. Due to Petaluma’s suburban land use, results from San Francisco’s urban land use may be too different to apply the research when reviewing suburban neighborhoods. One way that the land use difference could be resolved is by comparing the vehicles per day or per peak hour on each street. I plan to write more about this topic, so I could do this comparison in a future blog post.
With the above land use caveat and the understanding that my blog is not going through an academic peer-review process, I have not experienced any Petaluma neighborhoods that have a robust in-person social network. While I may not have enough time to research this further before my roommate finds someone to replace me on the lease, I am hopeful that I will find a Petaluma neighborhood with a robust in-person social network before deciding where to buy my first home within the next year or so. I try to look for silver linings, so I wanted to share the photo below that I took today in Downtown Petaluma. Despite the rain (yes, California has a wet season like Oregon), I enjoyed talking with this artist as she painted a downtown scene. This experience gave me hope that Petaluma has some in-person social networks.
Source: Ray Atkinson
In case livable street researchers read my blog, I want to challenge you to do further research using Donald Appleyard’s research by studying how in-person social networks change before and after a street has automobile traffic completely removed. This tweet helped me think of this challenge. Are you willing to accept the challenge?
Less through-traffic in a streets means: ⬆👫 more social interaction ⬆👩👩👧👧 more friends ⬆🏖 more places to gather. ⬆🏠 larger home territory (Appleyard, 1981)
I could not figure out a way to fit this 2019 Cairo research study into the above discussions of other research studies because the Cairo research did not compare automobile congestion on different streets. However, I wanted to share the Cairo results because robust in-person social networks along street blocks were studied. Even with many cars parked along the streets, I am impressed by the level of in-person social interactions. The map key shows how these interactions vary on Friday from 3-5pm and 8-10pm. What do you notice from the research results?
Behavior mapping of staying activities on the sidewalk segments of Ibrahim Street in Cairo
Future Blog Post
Since I desperately want to live in a home again that feels comfortable, I hope my next post will be about my new living situation. I wish I did not have to wait for my roommate to find someone she wants to live with before I can be removed from the lease. As I have done with previous moves, I plan to write about my commute. I may decide to stay in the same apartment complex, so I may not have a new commute. Either way, I plan to discuss further about whether my neighborhood and any other neighborhood in Petaluma has a robust in-person social network. While I am struggling to learn Spanish using Duolingo, I realize that I may need to improve my Spanish skills in order to join certain in-person social networks in Petaluma and elsewhere in California.
Tomorrow, September 19, is my birthday. September 19 also happens to be the start of Disability Rights Washington’s Week Without Driving. While Ian Davidson is in Oregon, it appears Week Without Driving is only organized in Washington. World Car Free Day also happens to be this week on September 22. As someone who lives a car-free lifestyle, these challenges feel weird to me. However, I hope they convince other people to temporarily experience car-free living. Will you be participating in Week Without Driving or World Car Free Day?
This week, I am participating in #WeekWithoutDriving to better understand the barriers non-drivers (for example people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas) experience in accessing our community. https://t.co/TYfWhLGgS5 1/x #orpol
Ray’s Birthday Wish Is To Feel Safe and Comfortable When Biking, Walking, Hiking, and Riding Transit
As I was biking, walking, and riding the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) train from Petaluma yesterday to attend the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, I was thinking about my birthday wish. While birthday wishes are probably supposed to be cheap like when I was excited to get a bike as a child, I now desperately want to see the world be improved by creating expensive 8-80 Cities. I should clarify that constructing these 8-80 places will be costly, but humans are already planning to construct expensive places. Behavior change to human-scale transportation planning will be key to successfully constructing 8-80 places.
Since my post includes suburban and rural areas, I wish 8-80 Cities included suburban and rural areas. I believe they are focused on large urban areas. Yes, I realize the 8-80 Cities non-profit organization has limited bandwidth. I am thankful that this organization exists at all to help places with their transformations. While 8-80 Cities may not be involved in the following efforts, I got excited and hopeful as I researched more about all of the regional efforts to create safe and comfortable routes to bike, walk, hike, and ride transit in the Bay Area and Northern California. Since you may not understand the significance of these efforts if you have not experienced the unsafe and uncomfortable existing routes, I want to show you one of these routes that I took yesterday.
Even though I am sharing the below experience from my perspective, 8-80 Cities is focused on making places usable by people from 8 to 80 years old. Due to this, please think about whether an 8-year-old or 80-year-old would feel safe and comfortable biking the route. I have noticed that many experienced adult cyclists say “I” statements when discussing whether a route is safe and comfortable. Yes, the route feels safe and comfortable to an experienced adult cyclist. I want to encourage these cyclists to think about the route from the indicator species’ perspective, which is discussed in the below video. Even better, I would love for these cyclists to invite an 8-year-old or an 80-year-old to ride along the route with them. How much do you want to bet that they will not feel safe and comfortable enough to even accept the ride-along invite?
Biking From Petaluma To SMART’s Novato San Marin Station
The below section of Petaluma Blvd S made me feel so uncomfortable that I ended up getting off my bike and walking. Yes, I have an extreme fear of heights but I may have been able to stay on my bike if there was a trail here. Due to how uncomfortable biking next to automobiles is, I prefer to stay closer to the grass when biking. As the below photo shows, the bike lane was narrowed to provide space for the guardrail and concrete barrier. I decided to cross the road and walk my bike against traffic next to the grass.
I was surprised by how many road cyclists wearing lycra and having no rack for panniers were riding the same route. They kept passing me because I prefer to ride slowly on a hybrid bike that has a rack and panniers. Since they had no bike lock and were only carrying a water bottle, I do not understand their approach to bike touring. I guess they were just biking fast and not planning to lock their bike somewhere to stop for a meal. While I frequently see this approach to biking, it is hard for me to imagine not carrying a lock and planning where to stop for a meal. As I walked my bike down the steep hill (yes, it’s not a very steep hill), two road cyclists asked if I was doing okay. At least they were friendly even when they were biking fast!
Source: Google Maps
I felt much more comfortable at the bottom of the hill when I saw the bike trail, which is the green line south of Mickelson Pumpkin Patch to cross Highway 101. As you compare the zoomed-in map to the overview map, pay attention to the green line south of Mickelson Pumpkin Patch. Since Fire Road is a dead-end road, I would have had to bike back to Petaluma to use a different route to continue south. I Street, which goes by Tara Firma Farms, is a much hillier route than biking on Petaluma Blvd S. The 14.5 miles goes to SMART’s Novato San Marin Station. Since I was out of shape, I took a break from biking and rode the SMART train to the San Rafael Station.
Source: Google Maps
Source: Google Maps
Disappointing Park(ing) Day Weekend in San Rafael
Due to this weekend being Park(ing) Day weekend, I was hoping to see a Park(ing) Day event in Downtown San Rafael’s unused parking spaces. According to the Park(ing) Day website, Hope Housing Of Marin previously participated in Park(ing) Day. It appears there is no Park(ing) Day event in San Rafael this weekend.
Yes, I was excited to see parklets! I just wish there was more bike parking. The only nearby bike rack, which is on the sidewalk, is hidden and blocked by the clothing display. Should I have moved the clothing display and used the bike rack?
The rest of my journey to almost Mill Valley was much better than the beginning of my journey. I wrote “almost” because I actually did not make it all the way to the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival. Since the festival closed at 5pm and I started my journey too late in the morning, I ended up turning around in Corte Madera. While the SMART Pathway does not reach Corte Madera, I biked along it from San Rafael to Larkspur. As the below photo shows, there are plans to extend the SMART Pathway and make it part of the 320-mile, world-class, multi-use rail-to-trail Great Redwood Trail. Yes, Kathy Fitzpatrick, this trail effort appears to be similar to the Columbia River Gorge’s Towns to Trails effort, which I wrote about in this 2021 post.
The Great Redwood Trail, which includes the SMART Pathway, is not the only regional trail planning effort in the Bay Area and Northern California. The planned 550-mile (400 miles are already complete) Bay Area Ridge Trail covers some of the route used for the Great Redwood Trail. The Bay Trail is a planned 500-mile walking and cycling path around the entire San Francisco Bay, running through all nine Bay Area counties, 47 cities, and safely across seven toll bridges. Stephan, we should take a future canoe or kayak trip on the San Francisco Bay Water Trail. I still want to explore Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with you!
Last and in this case least impressive, Sonoma County Regional Parks created the North Coast Access Trails. I wanted to share this trail system because I want to bike from Petaluma to and along the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, this trail system is short and not well connected. Despite this less impressive regional trail system, I am excited to experience and write more about all of these efforts in future posts! Since I want to make my blog interesting to read, is there anything in particular that you want to read about?
Thanks to Kathy Fitzpatrick for helping me decide what to write about in this post. I have been enjoying my new 1.3-mile commute. Yes, I decided where to live based on having a short commute. Due to how many people cannot afford to live near where they work, I am fortunate to have this opportunity. Since I want to avoid sharing exactly where my home is due to this being a public blog, I will share a general overview of my commute.
California Does Not Have Stop As Yield for Cyclists Law
I avoid biking on McDowell Blvd because it is stressful. I wish the parking lane was a bike lane because I feel somewhat comfortable biking in the parking lane. Unfortunately, there are frequently vehicles parked in this lane so I have had to swerve into the travel lane. I doubt the residents would support converting the parking lane to a bike lane. While biking on Maria Dr is less stressful, the stop signs have been annoying.
Biking on N McDowell Blvd (left) is more stressful than biking on Maria Dr
As I wrote in this 2019 post, Oregon Senate Bill 998 allowed cyclists starting in 2020 to yield at stop signs under certain circumstances. Unfortunately, California does not have this law so I have been nervous about getting ticketed when not fully stopping at stop signs. Despite rarely seeing other people biking on the road (many people bike on the sidewalk) in Petaluma, most people do not fully stop at stop signs. I find it annoying to fully stop when I can see no cross traffic. While Governor Newsom had a chance last year to allow cyclists to yield at stop signs under certain circumstances, he vetoed Assembly Bill 122. He wrote the following in his veto message:
While I share the author’s intent to increase bicyclist safety, I am concerned this bill will have the opposite effect. The approach in AB 122 may be especially concerning for children, who may not know how to judge vehicle speeds or exercise the necessary caution to yield to traffic when appropriate.
I realize that I will not have children anytime soon. I am single and have not gone on a date recently. I can still dream about providing my future children with a great education. I bike past Loma Vista Immersion Academy, which is on Maria Dr, during my commute. Loma Vista’s Dual Immersion Program emphasizes a bilingual, biliterate and bicultural community with positive cross-cultural attitudes and skills resulting in an enriched experience for all learners as well as the community. Students begin school in transitional kindergarten classes, where they are taught using only Spanish. In kindergarten and first grade, students are taught 90 percent in Spanish and 10 percent in English. As they move through the grades, they are gradually taught more in English until, by the time they are in the fourth grade, they are taught half in English and half in Spanish.
Loma Vista’s Dual Immersion Program is awesome! I wish I had this during elementary school because learning a language is easier as a child. I am slowly using Duolingo to learn Spanish as an adult. While I knew being fluent in Spanish is a valuable skill to have in California, I got to see and hear firsthand how valuable this skill is when my coworkers and I were doing outreach at middle and high schools. The only coworker who is fluent in Spanish was the only person able to communicate with Spanish-speaking parents about their child’s transit needs. She also translated all of the online and paper marketing materials into Spanish. While I am excited that she got a new job in Colorado Springs, I will miss working with her. I am not sure how long it will take me to become fluent in Spanish, but I want to be able to help my team by providing us with a fluent Spanish person again. Being fluent in Spanish would also make it easier to date Spanish-speaking women.
California’s Freedom to Walk Act
Yes, I jaywalk where I feel safe doing so. As with not coming to a complete stop at stop signs, I also get nervous about possibly getting ticketed for jaywalking. In case you think that jaywalking laws exist in every country, my 2019 post explains how the Netherlands has no jaywalking laws. Pedestrians in the Netherlands can legally cross the street anywhere. I recommend this 2015 Vox article to learn the forgotten history of how US automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” in the 1920s to sell automobiles. I am curious whether this history is truly forgotten. Every layperson (non-transportation planner or engineer) who I have discussed jaywalking with has told me they do not know the history of jaywalking. Did you know the history of jaywalking before I shared the Vox article?
Governor Newsom had a chance last year to end jaywalking tickets for safe mid-block crossings. Assembly Bill 1238 would have allowed police to still issue tickets for unsafe pedestrian behavior, but they could no longer use jaywalking as a pretext to stop people. Unfortunately, Governor Newsom vetoed this bill. Hopefully, he will sign Assembly Bill 2147 in the current session.
The governor’s veto rests on the belief that police enforcement or the threat of jaywalking tickets will somehow prevent pedestrian fatalities in the future when that has consistently failed in the past. Continuing to criminalize people’s rational, predictable responses to poor infrastructure is simply unjust.
This post is getting long, so I am going to finish with what arrested mobility means and how it relates to jaywalking. In order to learn about and stay engaged with the national jaywalking movement, I recommend following Charles T. Brown. His Arrested Mobility podcast and Arrested Mobility Book Club have been helpful for me to learn more about and stay engaged in transportation justice issues. The book club sign-up link is from 2021, so I am not sure whether the link still works. While this Arrested Mobility Book Club Facebook group is private, which likely means you cannot access it, I wanted to reassure you that the book club still exists.
I am thankful to have a variety of ideas to write about. I could share another aspect of my commute by writing about how the Rainier Avenue Demonstration Project improved my bike commute. While I am not surprised by the many negative Nextdoor comments about this project from angry motorists, who do not like change in their neighborhood and believe no one bikes in Petaluma, I am concerned that the temporary project may not become permanent when Rainier Avenue is repaved and restriped in 2023. Since I am new to Petaluma and the Bay Area, I could also write about my car-free trips in Petaluma and the Bay Area. I am open to suggestions. What do you want to read?
I have been thinking about ways to change traffic signal timing in order to improve safety. While I see the value in making changes to traffic signal timing, I would need to work with a traffic engineer to actually implement my ideas. Due to how retiming traffic signals can produce a high return on investment, I am surprised that I have not blogged about this topic before. Since motorists almost hit me daily when I am walking through a Highway 213 intersection near my home, I should contact the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) about programming Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPI) within the signal timing of this intersection.
What is a Leading Pedestrian Interval?
The below graphics from this page in the Urban Street Design Guide, which is produced by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), show what an LPI is and how it improves safety. Yes, I realize that motorists would be forced to wait for pedestrians to cross the intersection. Legally, motorists are already supposed to yield to pedestrians. While motorists may not support adding an LPI because many motorists are impatient, I hope they see the value of improving intersection safety.
LPIs have been shown to reduce pedestrian-vehicle collisions as much as 60% at treated intersections.
NACTO
Source: NACTO
What is Transit Signal Priority?
Due to how Transit Signal Priority (TSP) has been proven to reduce traffic congestion, I believe this is beneficial to all road users. The below graphic, which can be found here, from the Chicago region’s Regional Transportation Authority shows what TSP is and its benefits. While the Portland region does not have a cool infographic like the Chicago region, I am still excited about Portland’s Rose Lane Project. As someone who works in Clackamas County, which is south of the main area of Portland (a small section of Portland extends into Clackamas County), I wish the Rose Lane Project did not end at Portland’s city boundary. My main concern is how the jurisdictional transfer of 82nd Avenue from ODOT only includes Portland’s section of 82nd Avenue. Clackamas County’s section of 82nd Avenue is still owned by ODOT, which means that ODOT has to agree to any changes.
One element missing from the RTA graphic is a bus-only lane. Thankfully, NACTO includes bus-only lanes on this page about Active Transit Signal Priority within the Transit Street Design Guide. In case you are wondering, painted bus-only lanes are not good enough to create world-class Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). I refer to painted bus-only lanes as BRT-lite mostly because single-occupancy vehicles often end up in painted bus-only lanes. World-class BRT requires physical separation from single-occupancy vehicles. I recommend reading about world-class BRT in other countries.
Source: NACTO
Bike Signal Countdown Timer
While few people bike where I live, I still want to include my wish for bike signal countdown timers in Oregon City. As I wrote in this 2015 post, Portland has one wacht signal (wacht is Dutch for “wait”).
Next Blog Post
The topic of my next blog post is a surprise. Since I usually go on a vacation during the summer, could the surprise be about a future vacation?
I finally decided how I plan to celebrate passing the AICP exam! While I wanted to take a vacation in January or February, I decided to postpone visiting Tucson until March 26-April 3 because I want to participate in Cyclovia Tucson. Cyclovia Tucson is an open streets event, which creates a safe and fun place for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy the streets without being concerned about automobiles dominating the streets.
Yes, I am frustrated by how automobiles usually dominate most US streets. While I do not want to embarrass the Living Streets Alliance, especially when I am volunteering to help them organize Cyclovia Tucson, I wish US non-profit organizations and cities would think beyond organizing a temporary open streets event. It feels weird to be celebrating ten years of temporary open streets events when the streets are still dominated by automobiles when the event ends. People deserve to be able to use their local streets safely and for fun all of the time!
I want to encourage US non-profit organizations and cities to think about creating permanent change in automobile-dominated streets. I am not referring to constructing protected bike lanes and intersections, which are great for roads with higher speed limits and traffic volumes. I am referring to creating woonerfs, which were developed by the Dutch in the 1960s. My 2017 post about oasis greenways includes an even more radical approach to creating permanent change in automobile-dominated streets. I realize woonerfs or oasis greenways need very low speed limits and traffic volumes. Due to this, I am not suggesting that Tucson create a woonerf or oasis greenway on every street.
I am still excited about my vacation. I am not going to let my frustration regarding the lack of permanent changes prevent me from enjoying Cyclovia Tucson. I may even learn about some permanent street changes while I am exploring Tucson that occurred as a result of a previous Cyclovia Tucson. Since I have participated in open streets events in other cities like Portland and Milwaukie (yes, Oregon has a city that is spelled almost identical to the Wisconsin city), I am curious to see what unique activities the Living Streets Alliance has planned for 2022 Cyclovia Tucson. The below photo shows people during the 2018 Cyclovia Tucson zip lining in the middle of South Church Avenue!
Even before I learned about Cyclovia Tucson, I originally chose to visit Tucson because I want to explore 131-mile The Loop. Yes, 131 miles! I may not bike the entire distance during my first trip to Tucson. Due to how long The Loop is and my desire to explore Tucson beyond the tourist traps, I have actually been struggling to decide where to stay in Tucson. Do you think I should sleep in one place the whole time or move to different places throughout Tucson every few nights? If you think it is feasible to move to different places throughout Tucson every few nights, how would you approach transporting luggage during the day without using a car?
As I wrote these questions, I realized that I need to consider the feasibility of transporting my luggage between places. I have used Radical Storage (formerly Bagbnb) to store my luggage during the day before I could check in to an Airbnb. Unfortunately, Radical Storage has no locations available in Tucson. Since I do not plan to pack everything in panniers and will not have my bike in Tucson, I likely need to sleep in one place the whole time. I mention my bike because it has a rack to carry panniers. Tugo Bike Share, which is Tucson’s bikeshare system, does not have a rack capable of carrying panniers. I could research whether a Tucson bike shop has a rental bike with a rack capable of carrying panniers. Assuming I need to stay in one place the whole time, where do you think I should stay in Tucson?
The final thing that I am currently focused on doing in Tucson is attending the Tucson Folk Festival before flying back to Portland on April 3. I actually would not have been in Tucson for this festival if I proceeded with purchasing flights during Clackamas Community College’s spring break, which is March 21-25. I was trying to schedule my vacation during spring break to reduce the impact of my vacation on my coworkers. Since I am the only staff person who manages certain student transportation benefits, I am planning to train some of my coworkers on how to enroll students in these benefits during my vacation. While I may need to stop being frugal, the cheapest flight from Tucson to Portland after Cyclovia Tucson on March 27 was almost $1,000 one way!
My Tucson vacation is about two months away, so I may blog about something else before my vacation. Either way, I plan to blog more about my Tucson vacation at some point. Since I spend too much time looking at screens during the COVID restrictions, I may actually not publish daily posts about Tucson until after my vacation is over. I am concerned about writing posts when I want to be experiencing Tucson. Yes, this feels weird to write because I enjoy blogging. I want to make sure I return to work refreshed after my vacation. Reducing screen time is very important for me to return to work refreshed. In case you were hoping to see daily posts during my vacation, I hope you will understand my need to prioritize my health over blogging.
I happened to be in Erie during the Lake Erie Cycle Fest: Downtown Slow Roll on Friday, July 30. I was in Erie to visit my grandma with my family. The ride showed some of the recommendations from Active Erie. Since I do not consider Erie to have a strong bike culture, I was surprised by how many people participated in the Downtown Slow Roll. With police officers corking the intersections, we covered the entire road as far as the eye can see. I felt like I was on Portland’s Pedalpalooza ride!
Should pathways be included in Level of Traffic Stress analysis for roads?
As an active transportation planner, I wanted to learn more about the planning process for Active Erie. Kathy Wyrosdick, who is the City of Erie Planning Director and Project Manager for Active Erie, agreed to be interviewed through Zoom on Thursday, August 12. As the below side-by-side maps shows, the pathways were excluded from the Level of Traffic Stress analysis. Bayfront Parkway would have had a lower stress level than level 4 if the pathways would have been included. Kathy said the pathways were excluded because the focus was on Bayfront Parkway and not the pathway alongside it. I usually include pathways or trails when I do Level of Traffic Stress analysis, so I found Erie’s approach surprising. Would you have included or excluded pathways in the analysis?
Erie did not include pathways in Level of Traffic Stress analysis. Source: activeerie.com
Alternative Pedestrian Walkway
While my grandma does not live within the city limits of Erie, her retirement home has an Erie address. As I wrote in this post, her retirement home is surrounded by streets that do not have sidewalks. This limits her ability to venture beyond her retirement home. Thankfully, Active Erie recommends establishing a comprehensive sidewalk completion and repair program. Since it will be expensive to complete the sidewalk network, I recommended to Kathy to explore the feasibility of creating alternative pedestrian walkways like Portland is doing.
Alternative pedestrian walkway in Portland’s Cully neighborhood. Source: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland
Erie could use participatory budgeting
Regardless of how Erie decides to proceed with completing its sidewalk network, I found it fascinating to learn that Kathy is exploring how to use participatory budgeting to give community members more control over how the city’s budget is distributed. Due to how many other cities are doing participatory budgeting, I am hopeful that Kathy will be successful in her quest.
Houselessness and policing are missing from Active Erie
Active Erie likely is not the only plan that does not discuss houselessness and policing. I am not trying to embarrass Erie for not including these topics in Active Erie. My goal is to raise awareness about the intersectionality of these topics with active transportation. Kathy agreed with me that houselessness and policing need to be discussed more when discussing active transportation.
One way that Oregon has approached discussing tough policy questions is through organizing Lottery-Selected Panels. My friend, Linn Davis, is Program Co-Director at Healthy Democracy. He has worked on Lottery-Selected Panels in Milwaukie and Eugene. While the below four episodes are long, I recommend watching them to fully understand how the process works. What do you think of the process?
As Kathy and I discussed creative processes for Erie’s future, Kathy surprised me with the fact that she became Erie’s first Planning Director in 2018. Plus, the Planning Department was formed when she was hired. Since Erie was incorporated in 1851, this means Erie did not have a Planning Department and Planning Director for 167 years!
Future Blog Post
I would love to write more blog posts but I need to keep studying for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam, which I am taking on November 21. I am tired of writing how I am studying for the exam. I never imagined I would still be studying for the exam in 2021. While I am thankful that I have not had COVID, I am concerned that Oregon’s new COVID restrictions will cancel my exam again. As I reach 100 posts, which I wasn’t sure would happen, what do you think my 100th post should be about?
0 to 100 