It looks like Denver has made a lot of positive changes for safer biking and for walkers getting across the streets. Keep up these positive changes in the neighborhoods.
Superb discussion in final segmant, enforcement vs design: a 30mph speed limit where people are driving 45 and up. Design wins the argument. I need to (en)force the planners in cities where my family lives to watch this video.
Some little known trivia. I almost got to meet and work with Wes Marshall back in 2019. I was a graduate of Lakewood's Citizens Planning Academy - a program to proactively engage citizens with involvement and some basic knowledge. I was invited back to be a co-presenter on the transportation session of the 6 week long academy along with transportation consultant Carlos Hernandez, formerly of the consulting firm Fox Tuttle Hernandez. Carlos was a fabulous presenter with his sense of humor, by the way. I was his opening act with my 15 minute PowerPoint presentation. In 2019, Carlos was not available and Wes Marshall was invited to do the transportation session. I was invited to be his opening act but had a previously scheduled bicycling vacation to Copenhagen and the Netherlands. On the plus side I was able to experience Copenhagen and the Netherlands first hand by bicycle. On the minus side I missed the opportunity to meet Wes. I had really appreciated the research Professor Marshall had previously published. Hopefully, Wes and I will cross paths in the future.
Oh man, we should definitely make this happen. I'm sure he'd be delighted to meet you, and I'd be happy to facilitate it, perhaps on my next trip there. He is not on any social media, so there will be no tagging him. Hehe 🤣 Cheers! John
You are quite welcome! Thank you for watching. Please feel free to pass them along. Let's continue to grow this movement to create safer, more livable communities for All Ages & Abilities. Cheers! John
You were so right about that intersection with the devider and the mainstreet with 30 miles. It is realy unbelievable that they made it like this. It's a disaster waiting to happen, there will be deadly accidents at that spot. So how can that be in a country were everybody is suing eachother? Don't they sue the city for that?
Great video! What manuals are now saying not to use 85th percentile? The traffic calming guide for Virginia where I live unfortunately tells the locality to do a speed study using it, and the roads are not eligible for traffic calling unless the 85th percentile is TEN mph or higher over the posted limit. I think in practice it may not be that strict because my locality was saying 7, but that is still way too high. I need more ammunition to fight this!!
Thanks! As I understand it, there is no official current federal guidance that says cities or states must use the 85th percentile guidance, but as Prof Marshall mentioned, some states and municipalities have codified it into their laws, which must be challenged and changed because it is literally killing people unnecessarily. Then again, if the design speed of the street is appropriately slow, then it is a moot point because it will be self-enforcing. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
Thanks so much for watching. You bring up a very good point about the Motordom corporate influence on government. It is a very difficult challenge that can only be overcome by voters coming together to demand structural changes that make such influence and the subsidies that come with the influence illegal. I really you tuning in and contributing to the conversation, and I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
My (Dutch) reply would be: don’t chase the cars away, enable bikes. We actually need cars (there’s tons of them in The Netherlands) and we especially need drivers. Because they are cyclists as well. The main aim should be to raise the percentage of people NOT taken the car on sub 3 mile trips. That’s where the biggest gain lies. And make cars legally financially responsible for accidents, no matter who causes it. Behaviour needs to have consequences.
The basic problem of all these roads is too much asphalt. The roads are far too wide at any place, even at the points were the road is narrowed. And yes the absurd growing size of the vehicles is the other side of the same coin.
Yes! Precisely. And predictably, because of the vehicle size bloat, drivers complain about any attempts to narrow the overly wide roads. It's a vicious cycle.🙄 Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
I find the lack of sidewalks and crosswalks disturbing. If your going to do mid-block traffic calming, why isn't there a ped crossing where the traffic is slowest?
22:45 wow. Effective, but seriously? Make a little mount, plant some grass with flowers, find a local gardener to maintain it in return for some free advertising and get rid of those really ugly signs. Just use a lower placed blue roundabout signs. The mount and grass/flowers will function as the black/yellow signs
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if neighbors don't adopt some of these and dress them up with some potted plants, at the very least. I have an interview with one of Boulder's Pine Street traffic calming traffic circle volunteers, I think I'll turn that into a short. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns yep, I do enjoy the channel. And I hope you can gain traction for your ideas, as really they make life better for everyone. Even if drivers won't believe you.
@@rmyikzelf5604 Cool, that's great to hear. The movement to create safer, more inviting places for everyone, all ages & abilities, is growing quickly, and since I also drive on occasion (mostly longer road trips to places without transit or train access), I'm hoping drivers can see that this isn't an attack on them, but rather an effort to create more freedom of choice for everyone, including for those who can't or choose not to drive for all those short to medium distance trips. And ultimately, fewer people driving will result in less stress for those who must or just choose to drive. Thanks again. Cheers! John
Yes! Great point about that parking lot. Hehe, 🤣 I'm sure the Professor is quite aware of the Dutch infrastructure; as I'm sure you know, our point here in this video is to highlight what Denver is doing, much like The Netherlands started to do beginning in the 1970s, to reverse the trend of car dependency and make the streets safer for everyone. Thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John
GO ahead and pick on sharrows. Any lane that is for cars and bikes together is a lane just for cars. We have a narrow two lane road with a 40 mph speed limit and sharrows in the middle to show where they actually think bicycles should ride. Bureaucrats should not be allowed to do anything involving thinking.
This is an absolutely inappropriate use of a sharrow and a speed limit that sounds suspiciously like traffic engineering malpractice. What's the context and setting?
@@ActiveTowns If you want to see it, it's Graves street in El Cajon, between Broadway and Pepper, just on the east side of the 67 highway. It looks like a city street but it's actually a county road, and they're pretty clueless. El Cajon is trying to do better but they're also bureaucrats, so . . . My east-west corridor is Greenfield. It's in the category of "less bad." The city limits wander, so I'm constantly going between city and county territory, so I don't expect much improvement unless they form a joint committee to coordinate the work.
@@JustClaude13 Yeah, that's pretty nasty. The immediate thing that comes to mind is that this entire set up smacks of running a freeway through a community that doesn't have the wherewithal to fight for mitigation measures. For instance if this was a wealthy community at the very least there would be a sound wall and trees or other vegetation planted in a buffer between the highway and this "frontage" road masquerading as a residential access road. The good news is that there is actually more than enough room to completely redesign this space into a much more people oriented environment. Ultimately speeds will probably realistically be north of 30 kph (17 mph) so protected and/or separated active mobility facilities are a must. As far as what is will take to make this happen there has to be an overwhelming call from the community to the politicians to address these unsafe, unethical, discriminatory designs. Every public street that is not a freeway should provide safe and inviting all ages & abilities across all mobility modes, thus we the people must hold our elected officials accountable to this expectation... which, means we must grow the movement and spread the word about is possible. It's really hard work, but it is precisely what must happen. In my interview with Carter Lavin we talked about how this happens: ruclips.net/video/7t_ZesLgSoo/видео.html
@@ActiveTowns That was a good video. Well worth rewatching. The highways strike me more as not thinking things through to their long term conclusions. They are where they are because that's mostly where the old wagon trails used to be. It was all open country back then; some ranches and farms, but the people were mostly along the Main Street corridor, which became part of Highway 80 when the road to Yuma was upgraded. When the 80 became I-8 it was pushed out of town and ran along the orchards on the north edge of El Cajon and then through the dairy farms in Mission Valley. Easy access to the freeway then encouraged a lot of development in the northern reaches and in Mission Valley, pushing out the agriculture. I-15 was different. The bay area was already well developed and San Diego didn't want a freeway through the CBD, so they pushed it through Little Italy and Balboa Park, then south west of the Naval bases and port facilities. They displaced a lot of Hispanics in the Barrio, but they didn't have any political power so they were expendable.
21:06 they are ugly. Why not place two nice flower beds there? Or just some low maintenance shrubbery in a concrete box. Have the neighbourhood adopt them to maintain them and hey presto! No longer ugly!
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
It looks like Denver has made a lot of positive changes for safer biking and for walkers getting across the streets. Keep up these positive changes in the neighborhoods.
Yes, they are making progress. Thanks so much for tuning in today for the Premiere. Cheers! John
I'm seeing those positive changes with every ride into Denver that we take. Lot more to do but great to see the changes.
nice to hear by a local :D@@garyharty1902
Superb discussion in final segmant, enforcement vs design: a 30mph speed limit where people are driving 45 and up. Design wins the argument. I need to (en)force the planners in cities where my family lives to watch this video.
Thanks so much, Mark! Yes, share with them all, hehe 🤣
Thank you, Wes, for all you do. Duplicate yourself abundantly.
Thanks so much for watching. Agree 💯 Cheers! 😀
Some little known trivia. I almost got to meet and work with Wes Marshall back in 2019. I was a graduate of Lakewood's Citizens Planning Academy - a program to proactively engage citizens with involvement and some basic knowledge. I was invited back to be a co-presenter on the transportation session of the 6 week long academy along with transportation consultant Carlos Hernandez, formerly of the consulting firm Fox Tuttle Hernandez. Carlos was a fabulous presenter with his sense of humor, by the way. I was his opening act with my 15 minute PowerPoint presentation. In 2019, Carlos was not available and Wes Marshall was invited to do the transportation session. I was invited to be his opening act but had a previously scheduled bicycling vacation to Copenhagen and the Netherlands. On the plus side I was able to experience Copenhagen and the Netherlands first hand by bicycle. On the minus side I missed the opportunity to meet Wes. I had really appreciated the research Professor Marshall had previously published. Hopefully, Wes and I will cross paths in the future.
Oh man, we should definitely make this happen. I'm sure he'd be delighted to meet you, and I'd be happy to facilitate it, perhaps on my next trip there. He is not on any social media, so there will be no tagging him. Hehe 🤣 Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Thanks, John. I would love for that to happen.
Love seeing discussions around making Denver a more bikeable/walkable place. Thank you for making these Videos on Denver.
You are quite welcome! Thank you for watching. Please feel free to pass them along. Let's continue to grow this movement to create safer, more livable communities for All Ages & Abilities. Cheers! John
You were so right about that intersection with the devider and the mainstreet with 30 miles. It is realy unbelievable that they made it like this. It's a disaster waiting to happen, there will be deadly accidents at that spot. So how can that be in a country were everybody is suing eachother? Don't they sue the city for that?
Thanks! No doubt, there will be serious collisions here. Typically cities in the United States are protected from lawsuits.
Great video! What manuals are now saying not to use 85th percentile? The traffic calming guide for Virginia where I live unfortunately tells the locality to do a speed study using it, and the roads are not eligible for traffic calling unless the 85th percentile is TEN mph or higher over the posted limit. I think in practice it may not be that strict because my locality was saying 7, but that is still way too high. I need more ammunition to fight this!!
Thanks! As I understand it, there is no official current federal guidance that says cities or states must use the 85th percentile guidance, but as Prof Marshall mentioned, some states and municipalities have codified it into their laws, which must be challenged and changed because it is literally killing people unnecessarily. Then again, if the design speed of the street is appropriately slow, then it is a moot point because it will be self-enforcing. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
All politicians from Germany drive sponsored BMW cars for decades...!
-yep, there infra is still 1990-ish...
-Love from Amsterdam 🤗
Thanks so much for watching. You bring up a very good point about the Motordom corporate influence on government. It is a very difficult challenge that can only be overcome by voters coming together to demand structural changes that make such influence and the subsidies that come with the influence illegal. I really you tuning in and contributing to the conversation, and I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
My (Dutch) reply would be: don’t chase the cars away, enable bikes. We actually need cars (there’s tons of them in The Netherlands) and we especially need drivers. Because they are cyclists as well. The main aim should be to raise the percentage of people NOT taken the car on sub 3 mile trips. That’s where the biggest gain lies. And make cars legally financially responsible for accidents, no matter who causes it. Behaviour needs to have consequences.
The basic problem of all these roads is too much asphalt. The roads are far too wide at any place, even at the points were the road is narrowed. And yes the absurd growing size of the vehicles is the other side of the same coin.
Yes! Precisely. And predictably, because of the vehicle size bloat, drivers complain about any attempts to narrow the overly wide roads. It's a vicious cycle.🙄 Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
I find the lack of sidewalks and crosswalks disturbing. If your going to do mid-block traffic calming, why isn't there a ped crossing where the traffic is slowest?
Yeah, less than ideal, for sure. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
22:45 wow. Effective, but seriously? Make a little mount, plant some grass with flowers, find a local gardener to maintain it in return for some free advertising and get rid of those really ugly signs. Just use a lower placed blue roundabout signs. The mount and grass/flowers will function as the black/yellow signs
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if neighbors don't adopt some of these and dress them up with some potted plants, at the very least. I have an interview with one of Boulder's Pine Street traffic calming traffic circle volunteers, I think I'll turn that into a short. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you are enjoying the Channel. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns yep, I do enjoy the channel. And I hope you can gain traction for your ideas, as really they make life better for everyone. Even if drivers won't believe you.
@@rmyikzelf5604 Cool, that's great to hear. The movement to create safer, more inviting places for everyone, all ages & abilities, is growing quickly, and since I also drive on occasion (mostly longer road trips to places without transit or train access), I'm hoping drivers can see that this isn't an attack on them, but rather an effort to create more freedom of choice for everyone, including for those who can't or choose not to drive for all those short to medium distance trips. And ultimately, fewer people driving will result in less stress for those who must or just choose to drive. Thanks again. Cheers! John
not did u talk about that empty parking lot. And let the man give a tour in the Netherlands. So he sees really good urban planning
Yes! Great point about that parking lot. Hehe, 🤣 I'm sure the Professor is quite aware of the Dutch infrastructure; as I'm sure you know, our point here in this video is to highlight what Denver is doing, much like The Netherlands started to do beginning in the 1970s, to reverse the trend of car dependency and make the streets safer for everyone. Thanks so much for watching. I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the Active Towns Channel. Cheers! John
GO ahead and pick on sharrows. Any lane that is for cars and bikes together is a lane just for cars.
We have a narrow two lane road with a 40 mph speed limit and sharrows in the middle to show where they actually think bicycles should ride.
Bureaucrats should not be allowed to do anything involving thinking.
This is an absolutely inappropriate use of a sharrow and a speed limit that sounds suspiciously like traffic engineering malpractice. What's the context and setting?
@@ActiveTowns
If you want to see it, it's Graves street in El Cajon, between Broadway and Pepper, just on the east side of the 67 highway.
It looks like a city street but it's actually a county road, and they're pretty clueless. El Cajon is trying to do better but they're also bureaucrats, so . . .
My east-west corridor is Greenfield. It's in the category of "less bad." The city limits wander, so I'm constantly going between city and county territory, so I don't expect much improvement unless they form a joint committee to coordinate the work.
@@JustClaude13 Yeah, that's pretty nasty. The immediate thing that comes to mind is that this entire set up smacks of running a freeway through a community that doesn't have the wherewithal to fight for mitigation measures. For instance if this was a wealthy community at the very least there would be a sound wall and trees or other vegetation planted in a buffer between the highway and this "frontage" road masquerading as a residential access road. The good news is that there is actually more than enough room to completely redesign this space into a much more people oriented environment. Ultimately speeds will probably realistically be north of 30 kph (17 mph) so protected and/or separated active mobility facilities are a must. As far as what is will take to make this happen there has to be an overwhelming call from the community to the politicians to address these unsafe, unethical, discriminatory designs. Every public street that is not a freeway should provide safe and inviting all ages & abilities across all mobility modes, thus we the people must hold our elected officials accountable to this expectation... which, means we must grow the movement and spread the word about is possible. It's really hard work, but it is precisely what must happen. In my interview with Carter Lavin we talked about how this happens: ruclips.net/video/7t_ZesLgSoo/видео.html
@@ActiveTowns
That was a good video. Well worth rewatching.
The highways strike me more as not thinking things through to their long term conclusions. They are where they are because that's mostly where the old wagon trails used to be. It was all open country back then; some ranches and farms, but the people were mostly along the Main Street corridor, which became part of Highway 80 when the road to Yuma was upgraded.
When the 80 became I-8 it was pushed out of town and ran along the orchards on the north edge of El Cajon and then through the dairy farms in Mission Valley.
Easy access to the freeway then encouraged a lot of development in the northern reaches and in Mission Valley, pushing out the agriculture.
I-15 was different. The bay area was already well developed and San Diego didn't want a freeway through the CBD, so they pushed it through Little Italy and Balboa Park, then south west of the Naval bases and port facilities.
They displaced a lot of Hispanics in the Barrio, but they didn't have any political power so they were expendable.
21:06 they are ugly. Why not place two nice flower beds there? Or just some low maintenance shrubbery in a concrete box. Have the neighbourhood adopt them to maintain them and hey presto! No longer ugly!
Yeah, that is often precisely what happens once the permanent installation is built.