Yesterday's Infrastructure and Pictures
As you all have probably gathered, yesterday's time in Davis included a Bicycle Tour in the morning, meeting with Bicycle Police Officers John Neeves, Peter Faeth, and Frank Tenedora, meeting school bike activists, Cristal Waters, Cliff Dimond and Sanne Fettinger, a meeting with Jonathan Woodley (and many others) at the Bike 4th Bicycle Collective, and a history lesson about Davis' bicycle history with Ted Beuhler (who traveled all the way from Portland OR to share his time with us!).
I could write a lot in individual posts about each meeting and related conversations our group had, but I will start with the Bicycle Tour during which I took lots of pictures of. You can see the pictures I took on my flickr website. I have done my best to add captions under many of the pictures to give viewers a sense of what they are looking at.
Davis' population is about 64,000 and its size is 10 square miles. The University of California Davis has a student population of about 30,000 which is plus or minus included in Davis' total population. Compared to Harrisonburg's population of about 45,000, a plus or minus James Madison University population of about 18,000 students , and 17 square miles.
Davis' motto is "The most bicycle friendly town in the world" and it was obvious how proud the citizens of Davis are about their community. They were very excited to share their story/ their experiences with us. However, they were also quick to point out that there was still much more that they wanted to do in Davis and shared with us their challenges and new ideas they had regarding planning and design for new infrastructure, education & encouragement in their community to promote safe and more walking and bicycling, building community, etc.
We all reflected on how the terrain here in Davis is significantly flatter than Harrisonburg, that the weather is "nicer" here in Davis, and that much of Davis was built with bicycles in mind (rather than retrofitts). But we were encouraged, inspired, and shown throughout the day that although we can't do things 1 for 1 in Harrisonburg like what was done in Davis, there were many things Davis has done that can be replicated in many other places including Harrisonburg.
Davis has a variety of underpasses, tunnels, bridges, etc. that accommodated bicycles and pedestrians with and without vehicular traffic. Many of these were "retrofits" constructed under or over the roadway or interstate costing significant money and requiring traffic to be rerouted temporarily through detours while they facilities were being built. The traffic circles at UC Davis, we were told, were tested by using old fire hose laid in a circle in the middle of the intersection before the yellow blocks were installed. Traffic calming measures for both vehicles and bicycles were observed. The traffic calming used to slow down bicyclists as the come off a shared use path and enter into a roadway with bicycle lanes was a great idea.
There is so much to be shared and a new day is ahead of us... Feel free to ask us questions by commenting on this blog or by sending us a message on Twitter via #hburgbikes!
posted by Unknown at
6:46 AM
3 Comments:
I wanted to clarify that UC Davis is not actually located within city limits but is in the County and buts right up to the city. So the 10 square miles of City of Davis does not include UC Davis.
March 5, 2010 at 9:56 PM
Kai,
Is biking on sidewalks illegal in the 'Burg? I notice that many sidewalks are unused around 90% of the time. If we could make them dual-use (with reasonable speed limits for bikes, right-of-way for pedestrians, etc.) this would make biking a lot easier in many parts of town.
March 9, 2010 at 5:44 AM
Hi Winston,
Here are a few answers to your questions. Hope this is helpful:
"Sec. 13-2-7. Bicycles and skateboards riding on sidewalks; ...
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to operate or ride a bicycle and/or skateboard upon any sidewalk or pedestrian walkway in the downtown area enclosed by the following streets; the west side of Liberty Street between Bruce Street and Elizabeth Street; the south side of Bruce Street between Liberty Street and Mason Street; the east side of Mason Street between Bruce Street and Elizabeth Street and the north side of Elizabeth Street between Mason Street and Liberty Street. Signs indicating such prohibition shall be conspicuously posted in the above area."
"Motorists are actually more likely to hit a bicyclist on the sidewalk than one they are passing in the street. Wrong-way riding and riding on the sidewalk are two of the biggest contributors to car/bike collisions." Source: http://www.bikeleague.org/action/trashtalk/getofftheroad.php
"Sidewalk riding is permitted in many, but not all, communities. Indeed, separated sidewalk bike paths, routinely used by both bicyclists and pedestrians, are sometimes used next to busy streets. If allowed on sidewalks, bicyclists need to basically travel at the speed that pedestrians walk, or about 5 to 8 km/h (3 to 5 mi/h). An inherent danger in sidewalk riding comes from the presence of driveways that cross the sidewalk. Motorists tend to drive across the sidewalk to get a better view of traffic, and this can lead to crashes with bicyclists riding on the sidewalk, especially those riding against the normal flow of traffic. The problem is similar to what is described above, where a motorist turning right from a driveway is looking primarily to the left for a gap in traffic. This same pattern is present at intersections, where bicyclists riding on the sidewalk may ride through the crosswalk, or bicyclists riding on a shared-use path or trail adjacent to the roadway may ride into the path of motor vehicles Motorists tend to expect pedestrians to emerge from sidewalks. When bicyclists make this maneuver and travel considerably faster than pedestrians, the potential for crashes is increased." Source: http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikesafe/crash_factors.cfm
March 11, 2010 at 3:05 PM
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