Conference Held
Recently the NYSDOT sponsored a two day mini course which featured Dan Burden a specialist in transportation planning and research for bicycling and walking. Mr. Burden was the Statewide Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator for the Florida Department of Transportation for 15 years, and is a former National Geographic photographer.

Hardships Imposed
Like many other planners, architects, and community activists Dan Burden has come to the conclusion that modern America was built more for cars than for people, and that this inescapable fact has resulted in the degradation of our communities. “Almost everyone is affected by increased costs of building and paying for transport, the loss of business opportunities, the reduction of public space, and the mobility hardships imposed on children, seniors, and those with disabilities.” stated Burden.

Sidewalks and Bikelanes Build Communities
Burden stressed, for his audience made up mostly of engineers; “When you build sidewalks and bike lanes, you are not just building slabs of concrete, or narrow ribbons of asphalt, you are building communities. The purpose of communities is of course not to isolate, but to enhance interaction, whether such interaction consists of the exchange of goods, services, friendship, culture, or knowledge. Significantly, in well functioning communities the space one needs to travel to engage in such interaction is minimized. According to Burden the automobile has replaced much of our turn of the century public space. “Piece after piece of quality space has been whittled away.” Street designers have forgotten the full function and value of public space. “They need to be reminded that these little sacrifices to the automobile build up until one day a community is not a community at all.”

Connections Enhanced, Congestion Reduced
Creating bikeable, walkable communities enhances connections, and serves to tie communities together. Effective pedestrian and bicycle networks also serve to substantially reduce congestion by reducing trip generation.

A Journey to the Best Places
In his two day mini course Burden took participants on a journey across America, and Europe in search of places which are friendly for walking, and biking. To bring this course together Burden traveled to more than 600 cities in 13 nations, over a period of 6 years. He found that the the recipe for successful streets repeated throughout Europe and the United States is not complicated.

Simple Ingredients for Successful Streets
To build successful streets several components must be accommodated. Quite simply engineers must provide for Safety, Comfort, and Access. To accomplish the first two goals engineers must realize that walking, biking, and driving each requires their own space. “Separation of cars, bikes and people is essential in most places.” stated Burden. This separation requires a car place, a bike place and a pedestrian place.

The Car Place
The car place should encourage drivers to drive at no more than 30 mph. (Burden is talking about roadways which pass through our communities, not roads like the L.I. Expressway.) “Bad highways create bad behavior.” stated Burden. Multilane highways with few intersections, and wide lanes encourage drivers to drive fast. Burden reviewed a whole host of traffic calming devices which promote slower speeds and good driving behavior. These devises included, the construction of planted medians and the elimination of the traffic scramble, the narrowing of traffic lanes, through the use of crosshatching or other means, well marked crosswalks, the planting of street trees, the construction of blubouts, and the replacement of some traffic lights with roundabouts. All of these devises are designed to get all of us to behave better when we are behind the wheel. Burden also quoted an interesting study conducted by Walter Kulash, P.E. which found that although these traffic calming devices slow traffic down, motorists actually perceive that they took less time to get to where they were going when they drove on attractive, traffic calmed streets.

The Bike Place
The specific needs of the bike place was covered by both Burden and Jeff Olsen the NYSDOT Bicycle, & Pedestrian Program Manager. Mr. Olsen pointed out that the bike place or the establishment of bike lanes on highways benefit not only the cyclist, but both the pedestrian, and motorist as well. “Bike lanes provide for needed separation between the roadway and the pedestrian, and they provide for a clear demarcation of lanes for the motorist. The clearer they are marked the more effective they are at enhancing the components of safety, comfort, and access.” stated Olsen. Engineers around the country have come up with some inventive ways to clearly mark bike lanes. In some places a pigment is simply added to the asphalt which colors the lane. Thus, a red colored lane clearly jumps out at motorists and they understand both, that this is an area that they are not supposed to be, and that they should be alert for cyclists. A second marking being used more frequently is the stenciling of a simple arrow on the lane. The arrow both marks the lane and informs inexperienced cyclists that they are to drive in that direction only. The size requirements of bike lanes was also discussed. Bike lanes should be no less than 4 ft. wide and in many cases, where traffic volume is high, and where lanes will be used by causal riders and children, the lanes should be wider, 5 or 6 ft in width.

The Pedestrian Place
Mr. Burden stressed that because of the slower speeds of pedestrians the pedestrian place should be a comfortable, interesting place to be. In commercial areas sidewalks should be 8 ft. in width, and should be separated from the street by street trees, bike lanes, or on street parking. Burden sees our streets as potential linear parks, that welcome people and encourage them to linger. “Streets should provide leisure points. They should include benches, and opportunities to window shop, or stop for a snack.” stated Burden. Such details are essential to the creation of a successful pedestrian environment, and are dependent on the establishment of good land use plans.

We Need Sidewalks and Bikelanes
Burden emphasizes that in suburban America, where cars are encouraged to travel over 30 mph by the design of the roadway, the great majority of our streets should have sidewalks, and many should have well marked bike lanes. Unfortunately, in some communities residents who favor a “rural” look oppose sidewalks, and bikelanes. “Many residents wish to preserve the community as it was when they grew up. Unfortunately, for these insensitive voting adults their children are now mixed in higher volume and speed traffic than existed when they were children.” stated Burden. To be successful communities which are safe and comfortable for all residents, communities should press for the inclusion of sidewalks in all new subdivisions, and should begin the process of selecting and mapping priority areas where pedestrian, and bicycling amenities are missing, and need to be added. Burden concluded, “No town emerges as a successful place until designers and decision makers are pushed to create public streets for people.”

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