Perils For Pedestrians 192

Perils For Pedestrians Episode 192

-We talk with the BMW Vice President of Vehicle Safety about innovations to keep pedestrians safe.

-We look at public health partnerships and walking in Worcester, Massachusetts.

-We visit Fairfield, Connecticut, where a public workshop brings in ideas to make the city more walkable and bikeable.

Perils For Pedestrians 191: New England

Perils For Pedestrians Episode 191

--We learn about the Safe Streets Coalition in New Haven, Connecticut,

--Then we look at sustainable transportation at Yale University,

--We learn about Danvers Bi-Peds in Danvers, Massachusetts,

--We look at rails with trails in Rhode Island.

An Eclectic List of Conferences in 2015

2015 Conference List  v.  1.1

An eclectic list of meetings that have come to my attention.  Please let me know of any additions or corrections.

Thank you.

John Z Wetmore

john@pedestrians.org

www.pedestrians.org

January

11-15  Transportation Research Board (TRB); Washington, DC

15-16  Transforming Transportation (EMBARQ); Washington, DC

19-21  International Low Impact Development Conference; Houston, TX

20-24  National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference; Washington, DC

21-23  Conference of Mayors;  Washington, DC

23-25  Global Fat Bike Summit; Jackson, WY

26-27  ASTM F13 Pedestrian/Walkway Safety and Footwear; New Orleans, LA

27-29  Nat'l Conf on Science, Policy and the Environment: Energy and Climate Change; Washington, DC

28-30  Winter Cities Shake Up, Edmonton AB

29-31  New Partners For Smart Growth; Baltimore, MD

29-31  National Rural Transportation Conference; Cincinnati, OH

February

2-5  16th International Conference of Urban Transport (CODATU); Istanbul, Turkey

2-6  World of Concrete; Las Vegas, NV

3-5  Distributech (utilities); San Diego, CA

6-10  ATSSA - American Traffic Safety Services Assn. Convention and Traffic Expo; Tampa, FL

8-10  National Conference of Regions; Washington, DC

10-12  International Disaster Conference and Expo (IDCE); New Orleans, LA

10-12  Winter Cycling Conference; Leeuwarden, Netherlands

13-15  Youth Bike Summit; Seattle, WA

15-18  Conference on the Value of Play; Clemson, SC

15-18  National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Winter Committee Meetings; Washington, DC

16-18  Energy, Utility, and Environment Conference; San Diego, CA

16-20  Partners for Public Lands; Atlanta, GA

19-20  Media That Matters; Washington, DC

19-20  CNU Florida Summit; Orlando & Winter Park, FL

21  Alumni Day; Princeton, NJ

21-25  National Association of Counties Legislative Conference (NACO); Washington, DC

22-25  Active Living Research; San Diego, CA

23-24  National Physical Activity Plan; Washington, DC

26-3/1  World Bicycle Forum; Medellin, Columbia

March

2-3  Montana Bike-Walk Summit; Helena, MT

6-8  North American Handmade Bicycle Show; Louisville, KY

7-11  Congressional City Conference; Washington, DC

8-10  American Public Transportation Assn. Legislative Conference (APTA); Washington, DC

10-12  National Bike Summit; Washington, DC

15-17  Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities; Chicago, IL

17-19  Rail-Tech; Utrecht, Netherlands

17-21  Society of Health And Physical Educators (SHAPE); Seattle, WA

19-20  Indiana Bike Summit, Indianapolis, IN

23-27  Aging in America;  Chicago, IL

26-28  International Public Markets Conference; Barcelona, Spain

28-29  Global Health And Innovation Conference; New Haven, CT

29-31  International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association (IBTTA);  Washington, DC

30-4/2  National Main Streets Conference; Atlanta, GA

31-4/1  Ontario Bike Summit, Toronto ON

April

2  Walkable Washington Symposium; Redmond, WA

8-11  Urban Affairs Association;  Miami, FL

12-15  American Public Works Assn. (APWA) North American Snow Conference; Grand Rapids, MI

12-16  National Outdoor Recreation Conference; Annapolis, MD

12-16  The Concrete Convention; Kansas City, MO

13  Good Jobs, Green Jobs; Washington, DC

13-14  Assessment of Health Impacts (TRB); Washington, DC

16-17  Streets as Places (PPS); New York, NY

18-21  American Planning Association (APA); Seattle, WA

19-24  National Association of County Engineers;  Daytona Beach, FL

20-21  Critical Infrastructure Symposium; Linthicum, MD

20-23  International Association for Impact Assessment;  Florence, Italy

21-23  International Highway Technology Summit; Shanghai, China

21-25  Association of American Geographers (AAG); Chicago, IL

23-24  Tennessee Bike Summit; Knoxville, TN

29-5/2  Congress For The New Urbanism (CNU); Dallas, TX

May

1-2  ITE Quad Conference, Vancouver BC

3-6  APTA Bus and Paratransit Conference; Fort Worth, TX

3-6  Electric Vehicle Symposium (ESV28); Goyang, Korea

4-10  Global Road Safety Week

6  National Bike To School Day

6-8  Placemaking:  Making It Happen (PPS); New York, NY

7-8  Transportation for Sustainability (TRB); Washington, DC

14-16  American Institute of Architects (AIA); Atlanta, GA

14-16  AARP - Life@50+; Miami, FL

17-20  International Trails Symposium (American Trails); Portland, OR

17-21  Transportation Planning Applications (TRB); Washington, DC

20-22  Eastern Region Communication and Technology Conference; Morristown, NJ

20-23  Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA), Mexico City, Mexico

25-28  World Forum on Energy Regulation; Istanbul, Turkey

26-29  International Conference on Public-Private Partnerships; Austin, TX

27-29  International Transport Forum (ITF); Leipzig, Germany

27-31  American Society of Highway Engineers;  Baltimore, MD

28-31  Reunions; Princeton, NJ

30-6/3  Canadian Urban Transit Association, Winnipeg MB

31-6/2  Transportation Systems Performance Measurement (TRB); Denver, CO

31-6/5  Community Transportation Association; Tampa, FL

June

2-4  Urban Transport and the Environment; Valencia, Spain

2-5  Velo-City; Nantes, France

6  National Trails Day

7-8  ICTI - International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure;  San Francisco, CA

7-10  National Association of Regional Councils; Raleigh, NC

7-10  Canadian ITE, Regina SK

7-11  International Bridge Conference; Pittsburgh, PA

8-10  International Association of Public Transit (UITP) World Congress;  Milan, Italy

9-10  Towards Zero; Goteborg, Sweden

13-21  American Volkssport Association (AVA); Salem, OR

16-18  National Health Impact Assessment; Washington, DC

18-19  Barrier Free Cities; Lisbon, Portugal

19-22  Conference of Mayors; San Francisco, CA

21-24  APTA Rail Conference; Salt Lake City, UT

22-24  International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design; Vancouver, BC

24-27  Snow and Ice Management Association;  Schaumburg, IL

26-7/1  National Sheriffs Association; Baltimore, MD

27-30  Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), Saskatoon, SK

28-7/1  National Scenic and Historic Trails Conference; Franklin, TN

29-7/3  International Making Cities Livable (IMCL);  Bristol, United Kingdom

30-7/1  Mobility and Transport: ITS; Munich, Germany

July

6-7  Making Cities Liveable; Melbourne, Australia

6-8  International Conference on Transport and Health; London, England

7-9  NACCHO - Nat'l Ass'n of County and City Health Officials; Kansas City, MO

10-13  National Association of Counties (NACO); Charlotte, NC

14-19  National Society of Professional Engineers;  Seattle, WA

28-31  TRANSED  14th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons; Lisbon, Portugal

August

2-5  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE);  Hollywood, FL

3-6  NSCL - Nat'l Conference of State Legislatures - Legislative Summit; Seattle, WA

9-14  Trafinz; Dunedin, New Zealand

12-14  Alliance for Community Media (ACM); Pasadena, CA

22-25  International Municipal Signal Association;  New Orleans, LA

24-27  International Cycling History Conference; Entraigues-sur-la-Sorgue, France

29-9/2  Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA); Nashville, TN

30-9/2  American Public Works Association (APWA); Phoenix, AZ

30-9/2  IBTTA International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association; Dublin, Ireland

September

7  Mackinac Bridge Walk; Mackinaw City, MI

15-17  NRPA - National Recreation and Park Association; Las Vegas, NV

20-24  International Conference on Ecology and Transportation; Raleigh, NC

27-29  ARTBA - American Road and Transportation Builders Association; Philadelphia, PA

27-30  ICMA - International City/County Management Association; Seattle, WA

27-30  Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), Charlottetown, PEI

28-30  European Transport Conference; Frankfurt, Germany

28-10/1  APBP Pedestrian Development Seminar; St. Louis, MO

October

4-7  American Public Transportation Association (APTA); San Francisco, CA

5-9  ITS - Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress; Bordeaux, France

6-8  Road Safety and Simulation (TRB); Orlando, FL

6-8  Urban Land Institute (ULI); San Francisco, CA

7  International Walk To School Day

8-10  National Land Conservation Conference; Sacramento, CA

11-14  ASCE -- 143rd Annual Civil Engineering Conference; New York, NY

18-21  Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change; Sacramento, CA

20-23  Walk21; Vienna, Austria

20-23  AMPO - Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations; Las Vegas, NV

25-28 Rail~Volution; Dallas, TX

25-28  Traffic Records Forum;  Costa Mesa, CA

28-30  National Walking Summit; Washington, DC

28-31  Institute of Transportation Engineers Technical Conference; Tucson, AZ

31-11/4  American Public Health Association (APHA); Chicago, IL

November

2-6  World Road Congress; Seoul, Korea

3-6  National Preservation Conference; Washington, DC

4-7  National League of Cities; Nashville, TN

6-9  ASLA - American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA); Chicago, IL

8-11  National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC); Austin, TX

18-22  Gerontological Society of America; Orlando, FL

December

10-13  Council of State Governments; Nashville, TN

Date not yet set:

2015 White House Conference on Aging; Washington, DC

Gas Taxes and MPG

Some people say that the gasoline tax is no longer a viable source of revenue for the highway trust fund because cars are getting better gas mileage.  What is the evidence?

Let's play around with statistics on historic gas mileage trends from the EPA:

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fetrends-complete.htm

Appendix B

Car mileage changes over the decade from 1975 to 1985:

1975  13.5 MPG

1985  23.0 MPG

For a 70 % increase in MPG

Car mileage changes over the decade from 2003 to 2013:

2003  23.0 MPG

2013  27.4 MPG

For a 19% increase in MPG

Things to note:

The 1990s were the lost decade for MPG improvement.  Cars in 2003 had the same 23.0 MPG as cars in 1985.

The increase of 17% in the most recent decade was substantially smaller than the increase of 70% in the earlier decade.

So why is it that the gas tax will no longer work because of recent increases in MPG, but the gas tax was still able to work after the much larger increases in MPG from 1975-1985?

Repeating the exercise for Light Trucks:

Light truck mileage changes over the decade from 1975 to 1985:

1975  11.6  MPG

1985  17.5  MPG

For a 51% increase in MPG

Light truck mileage changes over the decade from 2003 to 2013:

2003  16.7  MPG

2013  19.7  MPG

For a 18% increase in MPG

Light truck MPG actually fell over the lost decade of the 1990s.

An increase of 18% in the recent decade, vs. a much larger increase of 51% in the earlier decade.

Once again, the problem is not the technical feasibility of the gas tax after the relatively modest increases in gas mileage over the last two decades compared to the 1975-1985 period.  The problem is political will.

Finally, since the last time the Federal gas tax was increased in 1993, inflation has had 3 times the impact on the purchasing power of gas tax revenue as changes in mileage have had.  Any revenue source will fail over time if it is not adjusted (automatically or manually) to keep up with inflation.

Consumer Price Index:
1993  144
2013  233
An increase of 62%

U.S. DOT Secretary Foxx at ProWalk ProBike ProPlace

U.S. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx speaking at the ProWalk/ProBike/ProPlace conference in Pittsburgh on September 10, 2014.

Perils For Pedestrians 63

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-BeNDa1RE

--We look at climate change and personal transportation choices.
--A new pedestrian bridge crosses a rail yard in Missoula, Montana.
--We examine the process it took to get the pedestrian bridge built.
--We talk with the mayor of Houghton, Michigan, about better pedestrian access.
--We learn about the Liveable Winter Cities Association.
--We look at civil engineering and pedestrians.
--A neighborhood association works to make Houghton more liveable and walkable.
. . . . . . . . "Perils For Pedestrians" can be seen on public access cable channels in 150 cities. Help us get it on the public access channel where you live. www.pedestrians.org

Move from Blip to YouTube

The old "Perils For Pedestrians" account on Blip.TV will be erased on September 1.  The new home for "Perils For Pedestrians" is on YouTube at http://www.YouTube.com/PedAdvocate

If you have any links to P4P on Blip, or any really old links to P4P on Google Video, please update them to YouTube so that they will still work.

Thank you.