Hello, pedestrian and bicycle advocates!
Below is the part of a recent CenterLines "from CenterLines, the e-newsletter 
of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking."  where you are invited to participate in updating the 2004 AASHTO Pedestrian Planning Guide (link To participate, go to: 
http://tinyurl.com/AASHTO-Ped-Guide also see paragraph introduction below).
Lancaster County has a copy of this 2004 Book in the Planning department.
The 2004 Guide became the source for the Pennsylvania Bicycle/Pedestrian Checklists's Facilities Guide, a few specifications of which I would like to change. Since the PA specs are taken directly from the AASHTO Guide, changing the AASHTO Guide would be the best way to improve the PA design recommendations.
My own recommendations to change are as follows:
AASHTO Section 3.2.4, page 63, recommends vertical barriers between pedestrians and motorists on bridges. However, this hinders the ability of pedestrians to cross the street containing the bridge, it hinders motorists who park or break down on the bridge and must walk the rest of the way, and it adds to the bridge cost. Blindly following this recommendation has led to barriers being built on small residential-area bridges, and to guard rails being built up to the barrier and blocking the walkway. Except possibly for superhighways, the vertical barrier recommendation should be deleted. Also, the recommendation for sidewalk width on a bridge can match the surrounding areas (5 feet), wider recommendations add to cost but not mobility on most bridges (the current manual does not differentiate between long and short bridges, or fast and slow traffic bridges). Five feet sidewalk is also adequate for arterials outside urban cores, but the 2004 Manual still recommends wider on "arterials" and this gets applied even to the suburban fringe, raising costs.
Another place where excessive recommendations add cost is the recommendation in Chapter 3, page 49, for a five foot buffer between sidewalk and roadway. Such a width makes it harder to cross from one sidewalk to another, and harder to move from a parked car to the sidewalk, especially when there is rain, mud, or snow. There have been places where new sidewalks with the recommended buffer have been created and the road right-of-way then has no room for cyclists and motorists to clear side-by-side, which movement is more important than having a wide buffer between road and sidewalk. Surely some scenic developers will have a buffer anyway, but it should not be an AASHTO recommendation to be applied across the board.
The 2004 manual asserts that curb extensions can slow traffic, yet in section 3.4.2 on page 93, it recommends that the remaining road width should still allow bicyclists and motorists to pass side-by-side. In section 3.3.2, page 74, the curb extension is directed to be designed not to interfere with a bicycle lane (which I would want to re-write to not interfere with bicycle clearance since clearance is useful whether a striped lane exists or not). But a curb extension which does not come into the street further than this can hardly be expected to slow motor traffic. In practice, curb extensions are built which are either small enough not to impede bicycle/motorist flow (which are too small to slow motor traffic), or else they are built large with the recommendations about interfering with bicycle movement ignored. A large curb extension takes the bicyclists' clearance away. 
Looking at America's pedestrian needs, I'd say we most need connections between the centers of population and job-, and commerce-producing areas on our town/city fringes which suffer from nonexistent or partial sidewalks. Investing heavily in curb extensions and other such barriers creates mobility problems for cyclists and for emergency vehicle passage, and every dollar spent there reduces the funds available to fill the gaps in sidewalk coverage which are a feature of almost every American town/suburb edge area, so the new manual should advocate for where the need is greatest rather than continue to dubiously claim more speed-slowing effectiveness for traffic calming methods such as curb extensions.
One suggestion I mentioned which could really improve sidewalk coverage in our hilly state would be if roads which now have a guard rail at the edge could have the guard rail replaced with curb and sidewalk. Unless the road is a superhighway or has superhighway speeds, a curb should delineate the edge of the road enough for drivers, and we would gain pedestrian connection as well. Sidewalks might even be cheaper to build than guard rails, and in many cases would not take up more area, either. 
Every document could use some improvement so if you have about 15 minutes and interest in these subjects please take the AASHTO survey and put your best ideas into the next improvement of pedestrian planning/design.
Richard Moyer
Subject: RE: CenterLines 229 | BikePed News You Can Use--AASHTO Survey



 
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From: Richard Moyer 

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Subject: FW: CenterLines 
229 | BikePed News You Can Use--AASHTO Survey


COPYING: We encourage you to copy our content as 
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Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:18:41 -0400
From: newsletters@...
To: 
moyerrpm@...
Subject: CenterLines 229 | BikePed News You Can 
Use



 


  
  
    
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                  Issue: 
                  229 
                
                  June 10, 2009
                
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                  News?
                
                  Optional Formats: Classic 508 or Web 
            Version
            
            CenterLines is the bi-weekly e-newsletter of the National 
      Center for Bicycling & Walking. CenterLines is our way of quickly 
      delivering news and information you can use to create more walkable and 
      bicycle-friendly communities. 

      

      
        
        
          

          

      
      OPINION SURVEY: NEXT 
      AASHTO PEDESTRIAN GUIDE EDITION

-> In a recent note, 
      Jennifer Toole asked, "What would you like to see in the next edition of 
      the AASHTO Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian 
      Facilities? A new opinion survey offers you the opportunity to weigh in on 
      new topics/changes in content that should be included in the next Guide. 
      The National Cooperative Highway Research Program of TRB has contracted 
      with Toole Design Group to develop an outline of the scope and content of 
      the next edition of the Guide. As a part of their research, Toole Design 
      Group is asking for opinions about what should change about the Pedestrian 
      Guide. Even if you are only an occasional user of the Guide, your opinions 
      are valuable and will ensure that the next Guide contains information that 
      is needed."

To participate, go to: 
http://tinyurl.com/AASHTO-Ped-Guide

For more info, 
      contact James Elliott at <jelliott@...>

      EDMONTON (AB) 
      FUNDING $17M IN PED/BIKE CONNECTIONS


      t
      Source: http://tinyurl.com/ncstdp

      COPYING: We encourage you to copy our 
      content as long as you identify the source in this way: "from CenterLines, 
      the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking."
      Contributors: John Williams, Sharon 
      Roerty, Gary MacFadden, Mark Plotz, Bob Chauncey, Chris Jordan, Linda 
      Tracy, Russell Houston, Christopher Douwes, Jon Kaplan, Anne Geraghty, 
      Darryl Jordan, Margo Pedroso, Khalil Spencer, Jeffrey Miller, Jennifer 
      Toole, Shawn Turner, Michelle Dibblee, Tony Hull, Katy Jones, Bryan Davis, 
      Wilson, Hubbell, John Cinatl, and Jaguares.
      Editor: John Williams
Send 
      news items to: <john@...>
Director: Sharon 
      Z. Roerty, ACIP/PP
      

      CONTACT US©2009 - NCBW | The National Center for 
      Bicycling & Walking is a program of the Bicycle Federation of America; 
      http://www.bikewalk.org/contact.php



  
  
    
      
        
        
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