Fort Worth Pedestrian Master Plan Public Meetings
January 25, 2012 at 9:32 am | Architecture & Urban Design, Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: Infrastructure, transportation, urban design, Walk Fort Worth
The city is currently working on a pedestrian master plan, Walk! Fort Worth, to join the Bike Fort Worth plan. They’re going to be holding a series of public meetings about the plan, and here’s the lineup:
- Jan. 25 (tonight) – Northwest Regional Library, 6228 Crystal Drive
- Jan. 26 – TCC Opportunity Center, 5901 Fitzhugh Ave., Room 1300
- Jan. 30 – Greenbriar Community Center, 5200 Hemphill St.
- Feb. 6 – Ella Mae Shamblee Branch Library, 1062 Evans Ave.
- Feb. 8 – Southwest Community Center, 6300 Welch Ave.
- Feb. 9 – Summerglen Library, 4205 Basswood Blvd.
- Feb. 13 – Diamond Hill/Jarvis, 1300 NE 35th St.
- Feb. 16 – Southwest Regional Library, 4001 Library Lane
Fort Worth – Two Years of Bike Progress
January 24, 2012 at 12:36 pm | Arts & Culture, Bicycles, Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: 7th Street, Bicycling, complete streets, Cultural District, Downtown, events, Fairmount, Infrastructure, Magnolia Village, Near Southside, South Main Village, Sustainability, transportation
I couldn’t let the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking study remain so prominent – while Fort Worth has a long way to go toward becoming a truly world-class bike city, the timing of that study was very unfortunate. The data used came from 2007-2009, which means virtually none of Fort Worth’s bike progress was included – things really started rolling just after that data was compiled. So, I thought I’d take a look back at the last couple of years of bike progress in Fort Worth.
We had one noteworthy bike infrastructure project during that study period – the complete streets re-striping of Magnolia Avenue between 8th and Hemphill in the Near Southside, converting the street from four lanes (two each direction) to two lanes (one each direction w/ center turn lane) and bike lanes. This small project helped open the door for more and started proving how bike infrastructure could benefit our neighborhoods.
In February 2010, Fort Worth’s city council unanimously approved the ambitious Bike Fort Worth plan, a bold plan for guiding the city forward towards becoming truly bike-friendly. Bike Fort Worth calls for the addition of 480 miles of on-street bike lanes, 218 miles of on-street “sharrow” shared lane routes, and 224 miles of off-street trails, bringing the city’s bike infrastructure from the previous 102 miles to nearly 925 miles. Bike Fort Worth’s goals also include tripling the amount of daily bike commuters in Fort Worth by 2020 (from 645 people to over 2,000), reducing accidents by ten percent in the same timeframe, and earning a “Bicycle-Friendly Community” ranking from the League of American Bicyclists by 2015.
Since then, there has been a lot of visible progress on bike infrastructure, policy, and advocacy in Fort Worth. Here’s just a partial list:
- Many downtown streets have seen the addition of shared-lane markings, or “sharrows,” as can be seen in this map of 2011′s bike infrastructure projects
- Downtown’s first bike lanes, on 10th and Texas, were opened, kicking off a string of bike infrastructure additions downtown
- New bike lanes downtown linked to the UTA Fort Worth campus and the Intermodal Transportation Center
- The dedicated bus lanes on Houston and Throckmorton downtown were converted to bus & bike lanes
- Following Magnolia’s lead, West 7th Street got its own road diet and bike lanes, seeing the street convert from six lanes (three each direction, plus center turn lane) to four lanes (two each direction, plus center turn lane) and bike lanes, between Norwood and the Trinity River.
- In October 2010, Fort Worthology joined a team of volunteers to create the Fort Worth Better Block for the Fall 2010 Arts Goggle event in the Near Southside. Working, unauthorized, on a budget of less than $500 under cover of darkness, we executed some “guerrilla urbanism” and pulled off a homemade conversion of a block of South Main from four lanes to two lanes with bike lanes, installed street plants and sidewalk cafes, and saw a real neighborhood block party form in what was previously a barren, desolate street.
- Bike lanes continued to roll out in the Near Southside as South Main and Jennings between Magnolia and Vickery, Vickery between Jennings and South Main, and the remainder of Magnolia between Hemphill and South Main got on-street bike lanes. What’s more, in South Main’s case, the city took the Better Block success and made it official, giving the entirety of South Main from Vickery to Magnolia a two-lane road diet w/ bike lanes.
- Bike lanes and road diets started showing up on the east side, with East 4th and East Vickery both getting traffic lane reductions and bike lane additions.
- Fort Worthology teamed up with Fort Worth South, Inc. and Trinity Bicycles to design and execute the first phase of the Near Southside Bike Parking Improvement Project, adding 80 new bike racks at locations on Magnolia, Jennings, and South Main. Here’s a two-part field guide: Part One, Part Two.
- Fort Worthology, Fort Worth South, and Trinity Bicycles once again got together, this time with Avoca Coffee and a team of volunteers, to convert a former car parking lot curb cut into a dedicated bike parking area
- A couple of hundred new city-installed bike racks began showing up in downtown and 7th Street
- The Fort Worth City Council unanimously approved a safe-passing ordinance, requiring motorists to give at least three feet of clearance when passing bicycles or other such road users.
- The City Council also unanimously approved a bicycle parking ordinance requiring new development to include safe, easy-to-use, convenient bike parking.
- The Near Southside held not one, but two car-free street festivals in the vein of Bogota’s Ciclovia and Portland’s Sunday Parkways, one centered around Magnolia Avenue and one around South Main and Jennings.
- Fort Worth’s bike advocacy rides have grown, from Critical Mass to the beloved Night Riders and the Bicycle Betties.
- New bike businesses are beginning to take hold, like Fairmount Bike Taxi.
Sure, Fort Worth still has a ways to go to compete with places like Portland, Minneapolis, and Chicago, but the ABW study doesn’t paint a fair picture of the present state of the city, either. Fort Worth’s working on it, and it’s getting better.
I’m really glad to see it, and be a part of it.
It’s the Infrastructure, Stupid
Posted in the Fort Worthology Linklog
Christine Grant on spending six months living in Copenhagen:
It’s the infrastructure, stupid! Amazing infrastructure makes cycling normal and safe in bike meccas, but not yet in the Northwest. For example, parked cars to the left of the bike lane not only provide a barrier between motorized traffic and cyclists, they also minimize a cyclist’s chance of getting “doored.” Most cars in Denmark (pictured) only have one occupant, the driver, and drivers get out on the left. Same goes for the Northwest.
Bikes move at different speeds than cars or pedestrians, so intersections are safer for cyclists if they have their own traffic signal rhythm. Cyclists in Copenhagen generally get a slight head start over cars so that they’ll be more visible as they cross the intersection. In the picture below, the light is red for cars, but the smaller light for cyclists is green.
Lots of great examples from the world’s bike nirvana.
(Hat tip to Elly Blue.)
Alliance for Bicycling and Walking Ranks Fort Worth Dead Last Among 51 American Cities
January 24, 2012 at 10:20 am | Bicycles, Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: Bicycling, complete streets, Infrastructure, transportation
The Alliance for Bicycling and Walking has released their 2012 Benchmarking Report, ranking American cities on their levels of (and safety of) bicycling and walking and making the case for improving both in American cities:
The report compiles persuasive evidence that bicycle and pedestrian projects create more jobs than highway projects, and provide at least three dollars of benefit for every dollar invested. The report also highlights the health benefits of active transportation, showing that states with the highest rates of bicycling and walking are also among those with the lowest rates of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. “The data points to one conclusion: Investing in biking and walking projects creates jobs, leads to more people biking and walking, and improves safety and public health,” Miller says.
John Pucher, a professor at Rutgers University, emphasizes: “The wide range of environmental, social, and economic benefits of walking and bicycling, so clearly documented in this report, justify greatly increased investment in facilities and programs to encourage more walking and cycling, and to improve the safety of these most sustainable of all transportation modes.”
Of particular interest are the report’s rankings of American cities by bicycling and walking levels and bicycling and walking fatality rates. The bottom three for bicycling and walking levels reads:
- Dallas (49th out of 51)
- Oklahoma City (50th out of 51)
- Fort Worth (51st out of 51)
(The top ten in this category are Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Honolulu, and New Orleans.)
While for fatality rates (lower is worse, slightly confusingly – the cities with the lowest rates are ranked higher):
- Dallas (49th out of 51)
- Jacksonville (50th out of 51)
- Fort Worth (51st out of 51)
(This category’s top ten reads Boston, Minneapolis, Omaha, Seattle, Portland, Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Honolulu.)
Now, it’s important to note that these rankings are based on data recorded from 2007 to 2009, which means it predates the city’s pretty ambitious Bike Fort Worth master plan, as well as all the new bike lanes and such which have been showing up since. I can’t help but notice that since the city passed the Bike Fort Worth plan and began laying out lanes on the pavement and racks for parking, I’m seeing more and more people on bikes than I ever have in Fort Worth. And of course, the usual caveats apply about any study.
Still, it goes to show just how far Fort Worth has to go to make itself into a truly bike-friendly city – this sort of performance should be seen as unacceptable by our government officials and policy makers. I know I see it that way, and I hope a lot of my fellow residents do, too. Fort Worth needs safe, appealing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure – and plenty of it.
(It’d be interesting to see what, if any, impact on this ranking our recent bike infrastructure moves have made.)
Victorian Inn Burns
January 24, 2012 at 9:52 am | Architecture & Urban Design, Preservation | Tags: Architecture, Fairmount, Historic Preservation, Victorian Inn
Photo courtesy of Todd Camp
If you were wondering what all the flames and activity were on the southeastern edge of the Fairmount neighborhood last night were all about, it’s this – the Victorian Inn caught fire.
The Victorian Inn, of course, was the once-beautiful old apartment building at Hemphill & Jefferson that had been living on hard times in recent years as a trashy flophouse/drug den, and was finally shut down by the city not so very long ago. Since then, the building’s been sitting boarded up.
Last night’s fire really seems to have done a number on the poor old building (initial reports indicate nobody was hurt, thankfully). It’ll be interesting to see if anything gets saved – my gut says the building’s a goner at this point, but it’s conceivable that the structure could be gutted and a new one built inside the original exterior walls. Even if that’s possible, I’d be surprised if anybody stepped up to do so.
Streetfilms on Chicago’s Physically-Separated Bike Lanes
January 24, 2012 at 8:46 am | Bicycles, Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: Bicycling, complete streets, Infrastructure, peer cities, streetfilms, transportation, video
Streetfilms looks at the Kinzie Street bike lane in Chicago, the first of many new physically-separated bike lanes there:
In his campaign for mayor, Rahm Emanuel pledged to make Chicago a more bike-friendly city. And in office, he set his sights high, aiming to construct 100 miles of protected bike lanes in his first term.
His team wasted no time. Chicago DOT installed the city’s first protected bike lane on Kinzie Street before Emanuel’s first 30 days in office were over. Leading Emanuel’s DOT is former Washington, DC DOT Commissioner Gabe Klein, who clearly understands the connection between safe streets and the health of a city.
There are plenty of locations in Fort Worth where these sorts of physically-separated bike lanes would be beneficial (imagine if some of these design touches had been used on 7th Street) – I hope that one day, we’ll be bold enough as a city to install some.
Copenhagen’s Green Sheen
Posted in the Fort Worthology Linklog
The environmental benefits of convincing commuters to choose bikes over cars – avoided carbon emissions and localized air pollutants such as soot – are obvious. The City of Copenhagen took the analysis one step further by comparing the money saved in the shift from cars to bikes.
Researchers found that for every kilometer traveled by bike instead of by car taxpayers saved 7.8 cents (DKK 0.45) in avoided air pollution, accidents, congestion, noise and wear and tear on infrastructure. Cyclists in Copenhagen cover an estimated 1.2 million kilometers each day – saving the city a little over $34 million each year.
Getting more of our residents on bikes by investing in good and appealing infrastructure makes our city better – reducing traffic, making our neighborhoods more appealing, improving health…and saving money.
TCU Installs First Bike Repair Station
January 20, 2012 at 3:19 pm | Bicycles, Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: Bicycling, Infrastructure, TCU/Berry Street/Bluebonnet Circle, transportation
TCU has recently installed its first-ever bike repair station. The purple (of course) station is designed to hold a bicycle off the ground by the seat while adjustments are made. The station includes a set of tethered tools for repair and maintenance activities, and a built-in air pump and pressure gauge on the right side.
This is a really great move by TCU, as bikes grow in popularity on their campus and city-wide as a means of transportation. Now…what do we need to do to get similar repair stations installed in various places in central city neighborhoods?
The repair station is located on the east side of the TCU Recreation Center. Below are some more photos of the station.
(Hat tip to reader Jonathan M.)
The Forces Behind the Market Forces
Posted in the Fort Worthology Linklog
Patrick over at Walkable D/FW has some thoughts on a recent interview the Dallas Morning News did with Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments:
What I find concerning is two-fold. First, his mentioning of consumer preference seems to imply that the living arrangement in DFW and the Sun Belt in general is one of consumer preference. It horribly underestimates the role of transportation (planning, design, and ESPECIALLY funding) plays in manipulating the market. If market preference is the invisible hand, government policy provides the invisible arm.
Second, his lament about congestion suggests his mindset is straight out of the flawed and rigged formulaic thinking from the Texas Transportation Institute, that believes velocity of movement is the only goal of any road. Not energy efficiency. Not cost efficiency. Not safety.
The walkable, livable neighborhoods Patrick and I cover and promote are still considered an abnormality, not the goal for the norm, by a huge swath of D/FW metroplex government officials and policymakers.
Design Talk – Fort Worthology Talks Neighborhood Design on Valentine’s Day
January 20, 2012 at 8:52 am | Architecture & Urban Design | Tags: Architecture, Cultural District, Design Talk, events, urban design
On Valentine’s Day, Tuesday the 14th of February from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM, I’m excited to be the speaker for the next installment of Design Talk, the presentation series hosted by Firm 817 at the American Institute of Architects Fort Worth Center for Architecture on 7th Street.
I’ll be talking about neighborhood design – specifically, and appropriately for the date, creating livable neighborhoods people can love. I’ll give a presentation that’ll attempt to be fun, informative, and upbeat, and we’ll have some Q&A afterward.
The AIA Fort Worth Center for Architecture is at 3425 West 7th, with the presentation starting at 7:00. Admission is free.