Our Life on TheBus

We love riding TheBus in Hawaii. It gets us to work, the store, wherever we need to go. One can get most anywhere on the island using public transportation. It is a great transit option because it gives its riders flexibility that cars can not (on top of being environmentally friendly). We can read a book, play on our phones, take a nap, and after a few drinks it gets us home safely. Best of all it costs just $60 per month for an adult. Studies have shown that young professionals today are not as interested in buying cars as their parents in favor of public transit. However, TheBus has some pitfalls that is limiting its attractiveness to new riders.

TheBus
picture courtesy of wikipedia.org

Suggestions to make TheBus even better

GPS/Timing: One of the biggest complaints about riding the bus is the time schedule and how inconsistent buses are. TheBus has been proactive by initiating a GPS phone application and digital signs at a few bus stops. The app could be more user-friendly and only caters to those with smart phones and the digital time boards have displayed “standby” ever since installation. Some routes are long and traffic is unpredictable, so having a working display board and GPS app can help us riders. Additionally, if a bus is at a stop early then it should wait until it is back on schedule.

Comfort: When the bus is full it is too hot, but when it is half empty it is freezing. When its 80 degrees outside people are probably wearing shorts and t-shirts and do not want to carry around sweaters, but the bus seems to want to blast the air conditioner and make it uncomfortable for all of us. WiFi access would be a nice amenity, I know Greyhound and other charter busses do it. Overcrowding is another comfort issue, more busses on busy routes and during peak times can help.

Stops: In order to make express busses truly “express” they must have fewer stops only at the main transfer stops. All other busses need planned stops at major destinations, a stop is not needed every at block (people can walk a block to catch the bus, it is good for them).

For more ideas to improve upon public transportation check out this article.

Planning for Pollution

 

We talk a lot about pedestrians and cyclists being the victims of motor vehicle accidents but have not yet touched on the effects of car pollution. According to the World Health Organization, in some countries more people are dying as a result of air pollution from vehicles than being killed in accidents. Emissions from motor vehicles have several health effects on the people who breathe it in including, allergies, asthma, and heart failure. This is a serious problem that continues to rise  as people become more dependent on motorized transportation. Fortunately this public health problem can also be solved through policies and planning.

LA Smog caused by heavy pollution
Photo courtesy of: http://oceanworld.tamu.edu

In 2009, 1 in 12 people in the U.S. suffered from asthma up from 1 in 14 just eight years earlier. The group that saw the biggest increases of lung diseases were inner city kids as they are more susceptible to acute and chronic respiratory effects from pollution. Children with higher exposure to pollutants such as tobacco smoke and vehicle emissions have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America asthma is the most common chronic condition among children, and is also very costly with an annual cost of nearly 18 billion dollars in healthcare costs and days lost from work and school.

During the two weeks of the 1996 summer olympic games, Atlanta restricted private vehicles from being used in the downtown area. The CDC took this unique opportunity to measure the impact of motor vehicle use and asthma. Research shows that over this time hospital visit for acute asthma attacks reduces over 40% and the ozone levels reduces 27%. This shows that efforts to cut motor vehicle use has a dramatically positive impact on pollution levels and help keep us all healthy. To learn more about sprawl and its effects on air quality check out Public Health and Urban Sprawl.

 

Pedestrians and Intersections

“This (intersection) has caused a death. That one will, too, unless they do something.”
–Gregory Wilson

As pedestrian safety becomes a major issue across American cities  and states we explore how to improve safety standards where many accidents occur: intersections. Creating safer intersections is not rocket science though, it is just difficult to convince city officials and traffic engineers to change their old auto-centric way of thought to make things safer.

Curb Radius Design
Courtesy of: http://www.fabb-bikes.org/guide/commonissues2.html

We apologize but things are about to get a bit technical. The greatest threat to pedestrian safety at an intersection is the radius of the curb. This determines how sharp any given corner is and effects the travel speed of vehicles and the width of the street (see diagram below). Unfortunately, a wide curb radius has become the norm in today’s design standards. Traffic engineers advocate for them because their design manta is “to move cars quickly” so they want traffic to not have to slow down for a tight corner because traffic will clog up behind them. Another advocate for the use of a wide curb radius are emergency response vehicles. They believe that a wider curb will help them to respond to emergencies quicker. However, this has a catch 22 effect because the wide curbs to get to emergencies faster but what is actually happening is creating more accidents due to unsafe intersections. You can read more about this in Suburban Nation.

There are several design elements to improve crosswalks. The goal is to make pedestrian crossings as visible as possible by ladder stripes and signage. The safer it is for pedestrians because it is more visible it will be for vehicles. Some communities are taking an initiate and being creative with crosswalks markings to make them unique to a community and more visible. Some communities are learning the benefit of installing roundabouts at intersections to improve traffic flow and enhance pedestrian safety. While there is some opposition to roundabouts they are proven to help control traffic flow and be safer for pedestrians.

Textured and colored crosswalk
Photo courtesy of: http://grandlakeguardian.org

Fast cars and poor planning is not the only thing to blame though. Pedestrians need to take responsibility for their own actions. Jaywalking sounds like a minor offense but it is the same as running a red light. Pedestrians should  cross the street only at a crosswalk and if a signal is available only go ahead when it is your turn. If there is no walk signal be sure no cars are coming before you cross. Always remember what your mom and dad always said, “look both ways before you cross the street.”

Communities That Walk

Every city and community has unique destinations and sights for visitors while citizens have daily needs like shops, schools and services. For many of us when we have somewhere to go we just automatically hop in our car, but what if cities actually promoted walking? Walking is one of the easiest, cheapest, and safest form of exercise. It has many health benefits including managing your weight and improving your mood, and is a great socializing activity. While each city is unique, they all benefit from a healthy community that walks to nearby destinations and not drive. Just like walking itself, promoting it is cheap and relatively easy.

A dedicated group in Boston has created pedestrian maps to combat the myth that “driving is easier”. These maps show how easy it is to get to points of interest (landmarks, grocery stores, transit centers, etc.) on foot. With so much traffic congestion and parking problems in big cities it is often easier to walk. Other cities can encourage this through the use of way-finding signs, like the one pictured below from Winnipeg.

Winnipeg City Maps
Image courtesy of http://www.informingdesign.com/winnipeg

Many cities have historic sites, points of interest, and unique local businesses that people in cars will miss as they are driving by. As means to encourage walking and promote local venues El Paso, Texas created city walking trails. These walking trails use existing sidewalks and point out routes and points of interest making this change relatively low-cost. The program also includes brochures and trail maps. Its success led to expanding routes to multiple sections of the city.

Programs to encourage walking are as unique to each city and implemented at any size. We used to live in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, a small northern city of about 15,000. Here, a committed community group that included Michelle, developed a downtown walking lunch loop. This “lunch loop” is a designated route where workers and other community members can go on a mapped walk to get some fresh air and exercise during their lunch hour. This community group worked with the city to make sure that this route will remain plowed in the winter when Sault Sainte Marie often receives hefty snowfalls. One of the best ways to encourage others to walk is by walking yourself, so get out there and walk.

Mega Schools, Mega Problems

With dwindling budgets many schools are attempting to cut costs by consolidating schools. But what effect does this have on the community and the children who attend these schools? Historically schools played a major role in communities, in  neighborhood centers. But now with school consolidation, communities are closing schools in favor of mega-schools located on the edge of cities. Larger schools have been proven to have lower graduation rates and higher crime rates than smaller neighborhood schools. Attendance rates are also lower due to the long distances that kids need to travel which eliminates their ability to walk or bike.

Suburban Mega School with lots of parking but no nearby houses
Image courtesy of http://www.jmrengineering.com

Parent surveys have shown that they do not want their kids to walk or bike to school because of distance and safety concerns resulting in current school planning designed to discourage walking while other schools have banned biking. However these policies lead to increased traffic and traveling speeds which is the cause these safety concerns, further compounding the problem. A school in Seattle has made efforts to increase biking and has seen the opposite result, an increase in safety due to decreased traffic. These planning guidelines can help reverse this trend, detailing the needs of schools, from site selection to size.

Another paradox within school planning is the need for busing. While schools consolidate to save money they are spending their savings on an increased demand for busing, or pass the financially/time burden to parents to drive their kids to school each day. Smaller, neighborhood schools can cut cost by eliminating busing within one mile. Students who live within a mile are able to walk or bike to school. Surveys have shown that kids prefer walking and biking to school because it gives them an opportunity to socialize outside of school with their friends. Students also do better academically if they get some physical activity in the mornings. Safe Routes to School is a national program that aims to promote walking and biking to school to increase health and safety within the community.

Hawaii’s Bike Plan

Why drive when you can bike? Biking offers a number of health benefits including increased physical activity and lessened environmental impact from automobile emissions. Having proper bike facilities, such as marked bike lanes and bike parking, encourage biking and is safer for all users of the road. Some communities are investing in bike sharing programs that are proven to save transportation dollars as well as offer an environmentally friendly, healthy transportation option. The best bike sharing programs offer competitive rates and are easily accessible. Others communities are looking into new types of bike lanes to expand their network. Bike lanes are the safest way for bikers to travel, on the road and in the same direction as traffic, the only exception being young children who belong on the sidewalk.

Biking in Hawaii
Image courtesy of http://www.justjared.com

Just as every city has a Master Plan for development, it is important to combine other plans including a parks and recreation plan, transportation plan, and non-motorized transportation plan. If a city has a plan in place it is easier to see which direction the city is headed, allowing for more funding opportunities to make projects a reality. As these types of plans will affect everyone in the community, public input is a valuable step in the process. Another specific type of plan the communities are beginning to include are bike plans.

The State of Hawaii enacted a Bike Plan in 2003. Citizen participation was key  to development of the plan, by holding public input meetings, workshops, and surveys. Important stakeholders, such as bike groups, schools, and other community action groups, were invited to give specific input for the plan. The plan deals with issues such as bike facilities, public education on bicycling, construction of new bike lanes, bike maps, connectivity and more. A bike plan is a great way for a city to evaluate needs of bikers and make plans for the future. In cities where traffic congestion is an issue, offering an alternate safe biking routes may help to ease congestion.

If we spend more money building more roads the only outcome will be more traffic, so why not spend the money to create biking infrastructure which can reduce traffic and make all of our lives easier.

Scoring Your Community

When people imagine an ideal neighborhood or community for their families they envision a place that has a cozy downtown, they can walk to parks, has mass transit, and is bike friendly. This neighborhood feels safe and friendly, with high social capital. But how does one find such a community in this age of urban sprawl? We summarize some user-friendly online tools to help you check your current community or prospective home.

Walkscore.com is a great resource that evaluates the walkability of a neighborhood. Walkscore has collected data around the United States (and some international locations) and scored neighborhoods based on their walkability from 0 to 100. Community members of cities a with higher walking scores are happier, weigh 6-10 lbs less, and have less stress. Not only is walking good for you and the environment, it also increases land value. According to this recent report one walkscore point adds $3,000 to a homes value, think about that next time you wonder why certain neighborhoods cost so much.

Community with a high walkscore
image courtesy of http://www.walklive.org

Walkscore was such a huge success they created two other databases, for bikeability and transit. Bikescore.com scores communities based on their bike lanes, hills, destinations and road connectivity, and bike commuting mode share. Currently bikescore only evaluates the top 10 most bikeable large cities in the U.S. and Canada, they encourage you to “Tweet” to ask for a bikescore of your city. Transitscore.com grades the largest 25 cities in the United States on their transportation network. It values things like frequency, types of transit available, and distance between stops. This is a great tool for people in larger cities looking for a new apartment wanting access to public transit.

The Trust for Public Land created Parkscore and has info about the 40 largest cities in the United States and promises more to come. Parkscore evaluates a city’s entire park system and grades it on acreage, services, and access. They also rate each aspect of the park system to show where the city needs improvement.

Using these tools in your community can help to show areas that are lacking and help to create sustainable, healthy, complete streets. Although these tools offer guidance and a starting point for evaluation there are certain qualitative aspects of a community that are unquantifiable, such as place-making, social capital, and its citizens.

Is Your Street Complete?

So just when is a street “complete”? Streets are complete when the design gives access for all users, regardless of mode of transportation, age, or ability. The street is more than just a road for cars. Legally, they extend from one property line to another, this is what is known as the “public right of way.” This is an area the city as set aside as public space for everyone to use, not just cars, but the design sometimes limits use for non-motorized users.

Typical Section of a complete street
Image courtesy of http://www.kauai.gov

While all streets look different, the above section shows the public right of way, when designed correctly, gives even access to all modes of transportation. The width of each lane is key to the overall success of the street. If the travel lane is too wide cars will speed and bikers and pedestrians will feel unsafe. Using trees serve as a buffer between the travel lanes for cars and the pedestrian walkways causing cars to slow down, making everyone safer, they also are a great way to beautify the community.

Complete streets offer economic benefits for the community. A recent report documented added economic benefit to communities that are more “walkable.” With this new data developers are trying to push for walkable neighborhoods so that both they and the community will profit from their development.

Complete streets also have many health benefits including increased safety for pedestrians and cyclist, increased access to free and safe physical activity in the way of cycling, walking, and public parks, plus it decreases automobile use which is better for the environment and air quality. According to Richard Jackson, M.D., Director of the National Center for Environmental Health, “It is dishonest to tell our citizens to walk, jog, or bicycle when there is no safe or welcoming place to pursue these life-saving activities.” Complete streets gives the community the option to have a safe routes to school program which aims to reduce obesity in children as it has in Alabama. It is important for public health professionals and community members to understand and advocate for complete streets, especially in low-income neighborhoods, where people are more likely to depend on non-motorized and public transportation.

Completed Street
Image courtesy of http://www.completestreets.org

Public Health and Urban Sprawl

In addition to our weekly posts we will also occasionally submit book reviews that deal with our subject matter. The purpose of these reviews is simply to share with you what we have read and give recommendations to guide your own reading choices. Instead of giving a traditional rating (4 stars out of 5) we’ll give you one of three recommendations: “Buy”, “Read”, or “Leave.” For us book reviews have been helpful for us to decide what books we want to read next and hopefully we can do that for you. Please note that these reviews are only our opinion and we do not benefit in any way from them or any purchase of a book. Our first book review is Urban Sprawl and Public Health, an obvious place for us to start.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl:
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
By: Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Dr. Richard J. Jackson

Public Health and Urban Sprawl: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, the title says it all. This book is a must read for anyone in public health or urban planning and is a good read for everyone else. Public health officials want to create healthy communities and this book shows that collaboration with Urban Planning can do this. The book starts out by explaining what urban sprawl is, how, and why it started. It then goes into the effects that urban sprawl has on our communities and how that in turn has affected our health and well-being. It is relatively easy to read and understand and is full of research and studies on each topic making the authors’ arguments evidence based. The book covers a variety of topics including: air quality, physical activity, water quality and more. The book is a little lengthy but only because it covers so many diverse and important topics. The authors’ conclude the book by suggesting answers to the problem of urban sprawl. This book is full of research and studies and serves as a good reference to have on hand. Our official recommendation is BUY.