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"There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is, 'You never know.'"
Tonight's city council action with regard to the width of the Monona Drive sidewalk put in my mind of the quote from former major league baseball pitcher Joaquin Andujar.
After hearing from a full house that was evenly split between support and opposition, the Monona city council voted to indefinitely postpone consideration of reducing the sidewalk width from the planned 8' to 6'. Alder Kugle made the motion and I seconded it. After some discussion the council voted 4-2 to indefinitely postpone the matter (Alders Wiswell and Veserat voted nay). The effect is that the matter is dead, the width stays at 8'.
(Theoretically, two alders could bring the matter back again, but it is hard to imagine anyone having the stomach for that.)
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The council quickly and unanimously adopted the 25X25 and energy independence resolution. Resolution 09-10-1655, Supporting "25 x 25" Energy Goal
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The proposals to consolidate the p[art-time fire chief and full-time EMS Director positions into one full-time position overseeing both departments was referred to the Public Safety Committee.
Resolution 09-10-1661, Eliminating the EMS Director and Transferring Duties to the Fire Chief and Developing Policies for the Fire Department and Ordinance 10-09-608, Relating to the Duties of the Fire Chief and the Fire Prevention/EMS Director
Wow. Yup, that about sums it up. A couple of points:
ReplyDelete1) I was *very* impressed by the fact that Ald. Kugle and Ald. Busse sat down and reviewed studies, research and historical precedence when making their decision. Aside from a comment or two about snow removal, every single other person in that room had safety as their main concern. Kugle and Busse based their decision on hard research and also looking at what has worked (and hasn't) in the past. Thank you.
2) Since we are going to be imposing an 8' sidewalk (and two lanes of snow) on the residents, would it be possible for the City to handle snow removal, at least for the individual houses?
3) Thank you to the gentleman from the planning committee who (I didn't catch your name), with 2 pie charts made my point far easier than I ever could.
4) I was also impressed by Ald. Kugle's remarks that we look at proven techniques for reducing cycling on the sidewalk. I still think that providing safe, alternative bike paths is going to work better than physical barriers to slow down people riding on the sidewalk, but it is refreshing to see that council members are actively seeking research and input on how to make this a safe corridor for all involved.
A couple more links for all involved:
NYC's report on the state of cycling, including physical barriers (or at a least semi-permanent solution instead of a curb) as well as pictures of how normal painted bike lanes are not sufficient:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/transportation/bike_share_part4.pdf
Proposal for protected bike lanes on the Upper West Side of NYC:
http://www.livablestreets.com/projects/uws/the-case-for-protected-bike-lanes/protected-bike-lanes-white-paper-final.pdf
and from that, here's an EXTREMELY in-depth U Texas study that discusses the actual behavior of both cyclists and motorists. Unfortunately, this only differentiates behavior between a bike lane and no bike lane, and doesn't get into the aspect of physical separation:
http://www.utexas.edu/research/ctr/pdf_reports/0_5157_1.pdf
And lastly, an EXCELLENT video on protected bike lanes (including a plethora of examples and possibilities):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONS2ptAR4mo
Granted, it is NYC and we won't have parked cars or trucks to worry about, but it does show why a decent number of bike riders are nervous about sharing the open roadway with cars.
Travis