Thanks TO JING for finding and sharing the attached article. It is quite good. If all the Bicycle Board members, MPO members and Traffic Commission members read it, we could increase our understanding of cycling challenges and solution options for hilly areas such as Morgantown. What do you see in the article that we should add to the Greater Morgantown Bicycle Plan?
Following are some section-by-section minor comments.
Section heading: comments
Prioritize connections and routes without hills: Seems to be a sales pitch for more separated facilities. The advantages are extolled but the dangers, particularly at crossings are ignored. Except for exchanging "tow away" space for bike lane, no other motor vehicle traffic compromises, e.g. reduced motor speeds are presented.
Help people avoid hills: The SF Wiggle example is good. It stitched together routes that bicyclists were using and they signed it and provide maps of it. The Morgantown commuter map http://bikemorgantown.com/route_map.php was a start on that. I wonder if we could "crowd source" further development of the Morgantown commuter map.
Build the right facilities for hills: This is good except they show bike lanes in the car door zone. The graphic should show a door zone buffer. The text recognizes this but the graphic doesn't. Again, the discussion ignores issues at crossings: how to avoid cyclists getting right hooked however this becomes less of an issue when cyclists are traveling at walking speeds, say up >6% grades but it still exists.
Help people get up hills: Very good. Let's do it! Runnel discussion is excellent. It says since 2007 Seattle DOT includes runnels in their stairway standard. We should find their standard and see if we can adopt it in Morgantown. Hey, checkout the insert about the Oregon University 3,300 feet tram. Let's build a tram from Mountainlair to Law School! Not only would it be a real campus connector, it would be a touri$t attraction.
And, hey, Bike Pgh "Celebrates Hills" . Some of us do, too:)
Frank