A new version of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has been released, with a lot of new bike-specific signage and road markings — especially sharrows. Thanks to Elijah Sharp from the New River Valley Planning District Commission, we have the MUTCD bicycle section (PDF) available for download.

Rails with trails: San Francisco Bay Trail (photo: Rails to Trails Conservancy)

The Rails to Trails Conservancy has just released a new report, titled, “California Rails-with-Trails: A Survey of Trails Along Active Rail Lines.” This report was designed to update data collected for the RTC’s 2000 rail with trail report.

Some conclusions from the 2009 California survey:

• Safety:  there were no incidents between a trail user and a train.  In fact, using a rail-with-trail may well be significantly safer than walking or cycling next to a busy main road and it may serve to keep people from walking on active rail tracks.
• Growth:  California now has 21 RWT projects, up from 7 in the 2000 study.
• Dual benefit:  constructing a trail along an active railroad doubles the value a community derives from the rail corridor and provides citizens with an extra transportation choice.
• Liability: the survey revealed the vast majority of rails-with-trails are insured by existing city or transit district insurance coverage in a similar manner to other trails.

Despite opponents’ rhetoric against rails with trails, this study seems to reinforce what many already know: rails with trails make safe and practical bike and pedestrian trails, and communities across the United States should include rails with trails as part of their comprehensive transportation infrastructure.

The New York Times has named Virginia’s cul-de-sac ban one of their design ideas of the year for 2009. We agree! While cul-de-sac neighbornoods are perceived as safer, they force cyclists and pedestrians onto busy arterial roads, and make trips within the neighborhood much longer — undoubtedly contributing to the decline in biking and walking over the last 30 years. We’re very pleased that Virginia is taking the lead with this issue.

Where cul-de-sacs already exist, cut-through paths can greatly improve bike and pedestrian connectivity.

Note that bicycle highways was also named as an idea of the year. We’re very pleased with that, too.

Update: Tom Bowden’s editorial explains why rethinking the cul-de-sac is such a good idea.

A Sharrow - Shared Lane Arrow or Shared Lane Marking

The Federal Highway Administration has released the 2009 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), the national standard for traffic signs and road markings.

Cyclists can rejoice at the inclusion of sharrows, or shared lane markings, along with “bikes may use full lane” signs. Now that they’re in the manual, local engineers can feel comfortable using them.

Cyclelicious has a great write-up, with pictures.

Establishing national standards is a slow process (nearly 10 years to get sharrows included). Many thanks to Richard Moeur for sticking with it, and advocating for cyclists in committee.

Update: more from BikePortland, with info and pictures about the new bike route signs. Also from Bike Pittsburgh, and BikingBis.

“How many people, right now, are stuck in traffic on their way to ride a stationary bike in a health club?”

Congressman Earl Blumenaur posed this question to a packed room at the launch party for Cities for Cycling, a new project of the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Conceived by former Portland city bike planner Mia Burk, and current city traffic engineer Rob Burchfield, the purpose of the new project is to highlight and promote the world’s best bicycle transportation practices for American municipalities.

BikePortland and Streetsblog have great write-ups, along with WashCycle’s excellent report from the launch party. Check ‘em out.

A local bike club and some researchers at Virginia Tech have teamed up to build a web-based mapping survey to gather data on cyclists’ trips. Cyclists are being asked to enter their everyday routes. The data collected will be used by the Town of Blacksburg to plan bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements.

The survey website was created by the Center for Geospatial Information Technology, with strong encouragement and support by the New River Valley Bicycle Association, who will help rally cyclists to enter their data.

VT News has the full story, “Geospatial researchers assist local planners through participatory mapping surveys.”

Heavy trucks obviously cause more road damage than cars, but how much more? According to a GAO study, Excessive Truck Weight: An Expensive Burden We Can No Longer Afford, road damage from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to 9600 cars (p.23 of study, p.36 of PDF).

The study assumed a fully loaded tractor-trailer at 80,000 pounds, and a typical passenger car at 4,000 pounds. That’s 20 times difference in weight, but the wear and tear caused by the truck is exponentially greater.

Food for thought: a bicycle and rider at 200 pounds is the same 20 times less heavy than a 4000 pound passenger car. Similarly, the wear and tear caused by that bike and rider would be exponentially less than a passenger car’s.

Virginia has already figured out that it’s cheaper to move trucks off our highways and onto trains, than to support those trucks on our roads. Let’s also think about getting motorists out of their cars. Wide shoulders, wide outer lanes and bike lanes, and off-road paths and trails for bicyclists may seem like extra expense, but they’re cheaper than supporting the car trips they can eliminate.

Recently we reported on another crowdsourced mapping project in Blacksburg, but now some Virginia Tech students, and free culture enthusiasts, have a mapping project of their own — putting all the campus bike routes into Open Street Map. To make it more of a party, there will be a raffle with some nice prizes, including an Android G1 phone. Here are the details, from Christopher Covington:

In order to improve and publicize untethered community infrastructure, an OpenStreetMap mapping day is being held tomorrow (Saturday) from 11:00am to 4:00pm with 1020 Torgersen Hall as a base camp. We would love to see you there. An Android G1 phone and several *nix books will be raffled off amongst interested participants.

See http://vtluug.org/osm for details. Longer descriptions of OSM and
the event goals follow.

OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of maps. Everyone can freely use, copy^, add to, and edit OpenStreetMap. Furthermore, while OpenStreetMap began with just streets, it has grown to include almost everything map feature imaginable.

Specific goals for Saturday’s event include:

• Complete coverage of campus paths
• Complete coverage of University Mall
• Parking and addresses in major apartment complexes
• Additional bicycle and pedestrian ways and points of interest
• Additional street updates (new roads, closed roads)

If you cannot make the event but are still interested, we encourage you to make additions and edits to OpenStreetMap independently. It is an open project that anyone can edit at any time.

OpenStreetMap is “copyleft” meaning copies and derivative works (such as OpenCycleMap) must allow others to copy and make derivative works of them, too, under the same terms.

This event is hosted by Free Culture at Virginia Tech and the Linux and
Unix Users Group at Virginia Tech.

Blacksburg is abuzz with bike planning these days. The New River Valley Bicycle Association, Town of Blacksburg, and Geospatial IT Dept. at Virginia Tech have teamed up to create a web-based interactive bike map, where cyclists can document their everyday trips. The data collected will help identify which roads and other infrastructure should be improved to accommodate cyclists. Most needed are continuous, contiguous routes through downtown, to make commuting and errands by bike more appealing. The NRVBA has the story.

A strong bicyclist presence at this set of upcoming meetings can advance bicycling upgrades, such as wider smooth paved shoulders, along this vital Virginia travel corridor. Your participation can make a
difference!

Citizens are invited to attend and provide input on the preliminary
recommendations for the Route 29 Corridor Blueprint A Vision for the
Future. The Route 29 Corridor Blueprint recommendations will include the identification of achievable short, intermediate and long-range
improvements which will improve safety and enhance mobility within the 29 Corridor from the North Carolina state line to Gainesville, Virginia. The Blueprint will also include policy recommendations to ensure the continued viability of Route 29 as a major multi-modal transportation corridor in the commonwealth.

Five regional meetings will be held along the corridor at the locations
that are listed below. Please attend the meeting that is most convenient
for you.

All meetings are from 5:00 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Danville Community College Regional Center
for Advanced Technology and Training
121 Slayton Avenue
Danville, VA 24541

Thursday, September 24, 2009
VDOT Lynchburg District Office
Ramey Memorial Auditorium
4303 Campbell Avenue Lynchburg, VA 24501

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Virginia Department of Forestry
900 Natural Resources Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22903

Thursday, October 1, 2009
John Barton Payne Community Room
2 Courthouse Square
Warrenton, VA 22186

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Germanna Community College
Daniel Technology Center
18121 Technology Drive
Culpeper, VA 22701

*If you are unable to attend a meeting, you may email or mail your
comments to Joseph Springer at Parsons: Joseph.Springer@parsons.com or 3926 Pender Drive, Suite 100, Fairfax, VA 22030.

More information about the Route 29 Corridor Study is available at:
[http://www.virginiadot.org/route29] .

VDOT ensures nondiscrimination and equal employment in all programs and activities in accordance with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you need more information or special assistance for persons with disabilities or limited English proficiency, contact VDOTs Civil Rights Division at (888) 508-3737 (TDD/TTY users, call 711).)