Road Donuts Good for Diet?

Are donuts good for the diet?
When speaking about roadways the answer appears to be yes. Of course, in this case donuts refers to roundabouts such as we see in Orange or Irvine.
When seen from above, roundabouts look like donuts placed at intersections.

City of Orange

City of Orange “Road-Donut” with a park

City of Irvine – Twice as Good

Roundabouts are different than traffic circles in that there no signals or controls. Traffic in the circle has priority, or the right of way over traffic entering the circle forcing drivers to slow down and enter the circle as gaps in existing traffic permits. Because there are no traffic controls the flow is continuous, resulting in increasing the traffic throughput through the intersection.

Properly designed roundabouts don’t allow for tangential entries. All entries point to the center of the roundabout forcing vehicles to decrease their speed to navigate to the right, although some modern designs have flared entries by adding a lane for increased capacity. Pedestrian safety is improved by routing separate crosswalks away from the intersection so they only have to deal with traffic in one direction at a time.

The problem for traffic/ transportation engineers is maintaining the flow-rate to areas downstream of the roundabout so  a shift in congestion (and resulting delays) does not occur.

History

Roundabouts or gyratories were designed in 1877 by the Architect for the City of Paris, Eugène Hénard. In 1907 the Place de l’Etoile became the first French gyratory, followed by several others in the city. American architect William Phelps Eno designed New York City’s Columbus Circle which was built in 1905. The main difference in the two men’s designs lay in the diameter of the center island. Hénard favored an island of at least 8 meters (26 feet), while Eno favored a smaller diameter. Perhaps it is from here that we have the “Portland” and “Seattle” designs of today.  Regardless, the United States favored traffic circles and rotaries being controlled by signal devices for the rapidly growing automobile population which resulted in such traffic tie-ups that they fell out of favor by the 1950s.

Land values also contributed to the demise of circular intersections because eliminating land consumed by the safer free flowing roundabouts, or signalized traffic circles, meant that buildings could be built with greater density and greater profit.

Today and the Future

After recently taking a look at the intersection of Bayside and PCH, and every intersection along the way to Laguna Beach, the question arises, “could what was old become new again”? Therefore as a thought experiment we present the following ”

Proposed Makeover

Proposed Makeover in Newport Beach

Each blue dot represents an appropriately designed and implemented roundabout built to the highest safety standards and Complete Streets guidelines. Traffic would flow smoothly to and from the coast as well as up and down through Newport Beach, making this area not only a pleasure to travel through (as in commuting) but a pleasure to travel to (as in tourists).

Since this area was bought from the state by the City of Newport Beach, we suggest a serious consideration be made by city planners in their five year planning strategy to accommodate greater numbers of roadway users while increasing their safety on the City’s roads.

While we don’t have the hard numbers, some savings will result from decreased costs of city response to collisions, and elimination of electrical signals and their associated maintenance. With minimal reconfiguration of existing infrastructure, we are confident of the merits of this design. Maybe in a future post we’ll put up some soft numbers to quantify the potential return.

And there you have it, a brief introduction of roundabouts which if applied properly, will serve the County and City well in reducing speed, reducing air pollution, increasing traffic throughput, and most importantly increasing roadway safety for all road users far into the future.

Building The OC BikeBone

Last month in Fun With Maps we presented the following picture asking the question “what’s missing”?BikeBone Start

The dark blue lines indicate class1 bike paths, while the lighter blue lines indicate class2 bike lanes on surface streets.

The circles indicate towns along the way or at terminating points of the class1 trails.

The answer to the question is a safe route suitable for commuters to travel about the county utilizing as many class1 trails and connecting them with employment and transportation centers.

Since there weren’t many horizontal lines connecting the current class1 trails, without further ado, here is the latest addition to the BikeBone framework.BikeBone2

The green lines on this map indicate class2 surface streets that might be suitable to the purpose, and as we refine our original stick drawing to include more routes and destination centers, your input is requested to better define routes currently in use throughout the county. What routes are you using now, and what would you like to see? If you like we could build a survey with a list of questions; what do you the commuting cyclists of Orange want?  Is this it?:

Safe Ideal Trail?

Safe Ideal Trail?

Taken from Anaheim Outdoors, the picture above describes safety as being a major goal of the Connectivity Plan, while depicting trail hazards cycling commuters face every day. If you are the cyclist passing the wheel chair, what are your options?

Sometimes it’s just faster and safer to take the street, and with your help and our analysis of traffic data, we can identify the most desired and safest streets, identifying and remedying any roadway deficiencies to build a real commuter network. For example given the above picture, what if the trail was clear for the next 4 miles and by entering a block or two later you could bypass the most populated part of the trail, and make your train on time?

Let’s get the discussion started, because trains don’t wait for strollers!

OCTA Open House for Public Comment – Fare Increase

The OCTA is hosting a series of open houses seeking input from the public regarding a proposed increase to bus fares. Additionally they are conducting an online survey to get your input.

Apparently the state contributes money to run the bus system and the OCTA is obligated to collect  money in a ratio which looks like a minimum of 20% in order to maintain funding from the state as we learn from the OCTA notice:

“OCTA’s bus system is primarily funded by the state and in order to continue receiving this money, the agency is required to collect from passengers a minimum of 20 cents for every dollar spent on bus service. Called “farebox recovery,”  OCTA is in jeopardy of falling below this mark.”

The meetings will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the following locations:

  • Thursday, Sept. 20 at the Southwest Senior Center, 2201 W. McFadden Ave. in Santa Ana, accessible by routes 47, 66 and 145
  • Friday, Sept. 21 at the Laguna Hills Community Center, 25555 Alicia Parkway in Laguna Hills, accessible by route 91
  • Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Fullerton Public Library, 353 W. Commonwealth Ave. in Fullerton, accessible by routes 24, 26 and 43
  • Tuesday, Oct. 2 at St. Anselm’s Cultural Center, 3707 W. Garden Grove Blvd. in Orange, accessible by routes 56 and 57
  • Thursday, Oct. 4 at the Los Alamitos Community Center, 10911 Oak St. in Los Alamitos, accessible by routes 42 and 50

The last fare increase took place in January 2009. Since then, the cost to provide bus service has increased from $98 per service hour to $108.

The proposed fare changes are listed below:

  • Proposed cash fare: $1.50 to $2 (+$0.50 / trip)
  • Proposed day pass: $4 to $5 (+$1.00 / day)
  • Proposed 30-day pass: $55 to $69 (+$14.00 / month, or +.50 a day for a 28 day-month)

Following the public meetings, the OCTA board is expected to vote on the proposed fare increase on Nov. 24. If approved, the changes would take effect Feb. 10, 2013.

Walking Buses and Bike Trains

Another school year has started and with it a new batch of high schoolers driving to school, and schoolbuses carrying youngsters for their first year.

We suggest a better way to get to school and back.

Walk and Roll

Then and Now

Then and Now

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 1969 about 50 percent of all children walked or bicycled to school and about 87 percent of kids lived within a mile of their schools. Today fewer than 15 percent of schoolchildren walk or ride a bike to school. As a result, many kids today are less active, less independent and less fit than their parents and grandparents were at the same ages years ago.

Why the drastic decline?

Parents of schoolchildren commonly reported: distance to school, traffic danger, adverse weather conditions, fear of crimes against children, and crime in the neighborhood as barriers to active transport.

Barriers and Solutions

  1. Distance – Distance to school has increased over time due to school closings and school sitings further away from population centers. This does not explain the decrease in children living within 2 miles or less of a school.

    1969

    Distance to School for Youth 5 to 18 - NHTS 2001

    2001

  2. Changes in weather patterns were not found to be a significant contributing factor in the decline of active transport across four regions of the United States (North, South, Central, and West).
  3. Fear – While actual crime statistics indicate a decrease in crime over the 30 year period, parent’s fears trump reality. In 1973, violent crimes against youngsters 12-19 averaged 80 cases per 1,000. Thirty years later, in 2003 the rate dropped to approximately 50 per 1,000.
  4. Traffic – Congestion seems to play a major factor in decreased active transport. In just 20 years, (1982-2002) the national “total hours of delay” rose from 0.7 billion to 3.6 billion, representing over a 500% increase (Schrank & Lomax, 2005). The irony is that the congestion is compounded by more parents driving their kids to school! The following points are worth noting:
    • The use of motorized vehicles for transportation to/from school has increased from 16% in 1969 to 46% in 2001 (unpublished data from NPTS and NHTS)
    • The number of cars on the road between 7:15 and 8:15 a.m. increases 30% during the school year (Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting, 2003).
    • 20–25% of morning traffic during the school year is parents driving kids to school (Kallins, SR2S)

    While the CDC notes that pedestrian and bicycling injury/death rates have actually declined over time, it’s unclear whether the decrease is due to the increased use of cars (or passive transportation) to take kids to school. While we might suspect that to be the case, we cannot find supporting data and so will leave it at that. However, there are additional data points that need mention:

    • 50% of children hit by cars near schools are hit by cars driven by parents of students (Kallins, SR2S)
    • 2/3 of drivers exceeded the posted speed limit in school zones during the 30-minute period before and after school. (National Safe Kids Campaign, 2002)
    • many motorists at intersections in school zones and residential neighborhoods violated stop signs (national pedestrian injury fact sheet, 2004)
      • 45% by not coming to a complete stop
      • 37% by rolling through
      • 7% by not even slowing down

The two significant barriers to active transport are distance and traffic which have changed for the worse. Safe Routes to School (SR2S) puts forth the 5 “Es” as the key to a solution: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, Encouragement, and Evaluation; because without evaluating the other four Es, the effectiveness of the overall program cannot be measured or improved.

Short of moving schools closer to the people attending them,

  • For distances greater than 5 miles, move the drop-off / pick-up point to an established meeting place within a mile of school and create Walking School Buses where adults can accompany groups of children walking to school. Not only will this relieve traffic congestion around the school, having adult supervision addresses the barrier related to the fear of crime and allows for the teaching of pedestrian skills to children. In the 2010-11 school year, Minneapolis district staff estimate that students who used the Walking School Bus logged a combined 3,200 miles! How many tanks of gas would that be? How much air pollution and attendant noise was reduced as a result?
  • For distances less than 5 miles, establish a Bike Train where adults act as Engineers and Cabooses of the train starting from a given location and stopping along the way to gather additional riders. Bike trains are more involved than walking buses and thus require some considerations.
    Our future. Photo: Nicole Burgess

    Our future. Photo: Nicole Burgess

    Bike trains:

    • are best suited for older elementary children
    • require riders to wear bicycle helmets.
    • Before starting the program, providing children with practice and training on bicycle handling and rules of the road is highly recommended.
    • More adult supervision is needed than for walking. One adult for every three to six children is recommended.

    For a great interview of a Mom That Makes a Difference, read about Nicole Burgess from San Diego who single-handedly started a bike train of her own and not only saves time doing it, but saves other parent’s time as well as providing a fun and active way for kids to get to and from school.

For traffic related barriers to active transport, solutions could involve:

  • Enforced Speed Zones (Kallins, SR2S)
  • Lowered speed zones: Reduced child pedestrian casualties by 70%
  • Traffic Calming around the school:
    Speed humps: Speed humps were associated with a 53-60% reduction in the odds of injury or death among children struck by an automobile in their neighborhood. (Tester et al, 2004)
  • Increased sidewalks and bike paths to and around school areas
  • Police patrolling
  • School policy change;
    According to a survey conducted in 1999, 7% of schools have policies that restrict children from walking or biking to school.

For a list of resources, please see the Safe Routes to School (SR2S) Resources page, or the comprehensive CDC kidswalk resource page.
For a great true story on overcoming anti-bike school policy, see Why Johnny Can’t Ride.

“But It Can’t Be Done…”

Oh, would you like some cheese and crackers to go with your whine? Not only can active transport be done, it has been done well as seen in Marin County, which improved its walking rates by 64% after implementing Safe Routes To School (SR2S; Staunton 2003).

“What’s in it for me?”

Just some of the benefits of letting your child walk or bike to school:

  • It increases physical activity, which
  • Decreases risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease later in life
  • It Increases attentiveness and readiness to learn at school
  • It teaches responsibility, independence, and is empowering
  • It increases neighborhood safety by putting more “eyes on the street”
  • It saves you money on gas, wear and tear on your car, and wear and tear on your streets
  • It decreases traffic congestion at the school and the chance of traffic accidents
  • It’s fun for children
  • It’s good for the environment, and improves air quality in your neighborhood.

This October is International Walk to School Month, and features Walk to School Week: October 1-5, 2012, and Walk to School Day: October 3, 2012.

Are you ready with your Bike Train or Walking Bus?

Registration is now open for Walk to School Day 2012.

Did you know:

  • 74% of 2011 Walk to School Day events led to policy or engineering changes,according to Walk to School organizers.
    The top 3 changes were:

    • 35% of events prompted the addition of promotion of walking and bicycling to existing school policies.
    • 35% of events led to the addition of sidewalks, paths, crosswalks or crossing guards.
    • 22% of events led to the addition of signage near school.

New! – Route assistance for Walk/Ride to School is available for OCBC members. Send a note to us with your city, starting and ending point, and we will craft a route for you. Please specify .gpx or .tcx format. Thanks for your support!