I read a chapter from the book Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt, that has changed some of my views on traffic engineering methods. Chapter 7 of that book concerns  new approaches to urban design and traffic engineering that have been used in the Netherlands and elsewhere. In some cases the ideas and methods are counter-intuitive. The gist: engineering and design for the “traffic world” (vehicles moving at speeds above 20 mph or so) and the “social world” (the world of pedestrians and slow-moving cyclists) require different methods. The social world (such as a downtown area) can benefit from having less of the signs and signals of the traffic world; this can result in lower speeds and safer conditions.

We usually think of signs – such as a sign that tells us to watch for pedestrians – as making a road safer, but in many cases they don’t. What’s more important are design factors such as road width, closeness of buildings and objects to the road, the paving surface (such as bricks or asphalt), and many other elements of the social world that make it different from the traffic world. These can be used to signal drivers (fast-moving cyclists too!) that they’ve entered the social world and therefore must slow down.

I see Mr. Vanderbilt also has a blog titled “How We Drive,” which also looks like a good resource. And remember, we can “drive” nonmotorized vehicles too!

My wife and I attended the 21st Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum at St. Olaf College last Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14. In an arrangement with the Norwegian body that grants the prize, the forums are held at a group of Minnesota and Iowa colleges founded by Norwegian settlers. Since the 2007 Peace Prize was given to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the topic was, of course, climate change. Fortunately for me, the location for this year was St. Olaf.

It was a wonderful and inpsiring conference, and I wanted to share with you the two sessions that stood out the most for me:

The first was the opening keynote address by Dr. Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University. He gave an excellent and entertaining lecture about the scientific understanding of climate change. He also explained the process that the IPCC uses in making its reports, and in the question-and-answer session he made some informative comments about climate change skeptics, among other things (the questioner had asked about George Will and his views on climate change). I recommend watching the video of his talk. It’s worth the investment of time. (Alley starts at around 32 minutes into the video.)

The other particularly inspiring session was a presentation by college and high school students about their work on climate change. This gave me great hope for the future. The youth are taking action: forming groups, lobbying politicians, organizing their fellow youth, getting people to do energy audits, and more. Many of the students had just attended PowerShift, the big climate change student conference in Washington, D.C. the week before. Timoth Den Herder-Thomas of Macalester College was especially impressive in his comments, and he told about the upcoming Summer of Solutions event, in which youth will work on grassroots project related to climate change and also potentially lay the groundwork for careers in this burgeoning field. There is so much to do, and we need their leadership. Now the older folks just need to get out of the way.

Note: I wrote the post below as a guest blogger at Locally Grown Northfield (LGN). See the LGN post for comments because I’ve turned them off here. The photo above shows a crosswalk at a roundabout in Bend, Oregon. Note the landscaping and the island where pedestrians can stop in the crosswalk. (Photo credit: Bill Ostrem)

In a February 6 post Tracy Davis referred to a short essay by the Project for Public Spaces titled “A Revolution in Transportation Planning.” It’s an excellent piece that discusses the history of transportation planning in the United States – how planners and leaders focused almost solely  on the automobile for most of the twentieth century, often to the detriment of our cities and neighborhoods and our own health, and how they have recently begun to consider all modes of transportation, including transit, walking, and biking. Increasingly, our society is looking at streets as public spaces (it’s the public “right of way,” after all) – spaces that must provide access for all users, whether they are in a car, on foot, in a wheelchair, on a bike, or riding a bus or train. We are beginning to create what some would call “complete streets.”

As I see it, this change is significant enough to be called a “renaissance” of the American street. In this post I’d like to briefly describe some of the groups and organizations working on this renaissance, including those in Minnesota, as well as some of the resources for learning more about it. In doing so I draw on my experience as a pedestrian and bike advocate in Northfield, where I’ve served as chair of the city’s Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation for the last year and a half. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the Capitol Climate Action, a rally that will feature mass civil disobedience and protest at the Capitol Power Plant, the coal-fired power plant that provides electricity to the U.S. Capitol. One thousand college students are expected to participate. Among those who will risk being arrested are Bill McKibben, the climate change activist and author; James Hansen, noted climate scientist; Gus Speth, a Yale University professor and environmental advocate; and Wendell Berry, the author.

Could this possibly be a watershed moment in the climate change movement? It will be interesting to see how many will be there and how the media handle it.

Below is an excerpt from an email about the protest. It was signed by McKibben and sent by 350.org, the climate change action organization that he helped found:

Read the rest of this entry »