May 2006 Wheels & Heels

Email news from MoDOT Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator Caryn Giarratano

Greetings Windbenders,

The winds of change have been blowing hard in my workgroup! The Scenic Byways Program has been reassigned to Bill Stone, my former supervisor. I have a new supervisor, Eric Curtit, and a new work group in the same division, Transportation Planning. My new group is called Planning and Policy. These changes will help us better serve our customers by aligning our expertise with our planning initiatives.


Pilot Project - The Nonmotorized Pilot Project has been making progress. The Citizen's Advisory Committee has split into four subcommittees (Existing Facilities, New Facilities, Promotion/Education and Executive). The MoDOT agreement to allow the flow of funding to reimburse the city of Columbia has been written, and the Columbia Transportation Improvement Program has been amended to allow the city to accept the funds. The Existing Facilities Subcommittee has begun evaluating four intersections for improvement: Stewart & Providence, Business 70 & Providence, Garth & Business 70 and Rogers & College. The first round of proposed projects would cost about $2.6 million and include proposed improvements to 12 major intersections, signs and striping for bicycle lanes, the replacement of Para transit software and the hiring of a project manager to oversee the program (a bike/ped coordinator!). See link link

Bridge Attachment - Plans are still in the works to create a bike/ped bridge attachment on the Missouri River bridge at Jefferson City with fund-raising beginning in earnest.

MoDOT Policy - The most recent draft of the MoDOT policy on bicycle and pedestrian accommodations is more friendly than anything we have ever had. See pdf link

Pro Bike Race - Governor Matt Blunt and Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder have offered support for our state to host a professional bicycle race next year (perhaps in September). Tentative plans are to hold a six-day race that crosses much of the state west to east, similar to the Tour de Georgia.

Trailmap - Missouri's Trailmap for Nonmotorized Transportation is no longer a draft and is being implemented and made more attractive with the addition of photos. The Enforcement Subcommittee, lead by Chair Aaron Bartlett, is working on a plan to host a law enforcement training on bicycling practices and law. The Engineering Subcommittee, lead by Chair Larry Welty, has offered advice on how to change MoDOT policy to be more bike/ped friendly. The Education and Encouragement Subcommittees merged to focus on finding a way to promote bicycling and walking in our state. See link (Word doc)

Scoping Process - Work has begun to evaluate MoDOT's scoping process. This is the point in the planning process when bike/ped accommodations are considered.

MRT - We continue to evaluate the Missouri portion of the Mississippi River Trail. I met with the MRT Board in St. Louis in May to share our progress. We need to ground truth Missouri's part to identify the best route that is currently in existence. Ted Curtis, former director of St. Louis Trailnet, has agreed to lead this project.

Bike Month a Success - Missouri's celebration of Bike Month (in May) was a success again this year. An estimated 2,452 Columbians took part in the Fifth Annual Mayor's Challenge: Bike, Walk, and Wheel Week (May 6-13) -- a 41 percent increase over last year. Springfield's Bike, Bus and Walk week encouraged citizens to try alternative ways of getting to work or running errands. Kansas City had its biggest and best ever bike to work week with daily events coordinated by Bridging the Gap in cooperation with many local area bicycle organizations. The Bicycle Commuter Challenge had more participants than last year. St. Louis organizations, TrailNet and the St. Louis Bicycle Federation, encouraged bicycle transportation with daily events during Bike-to-Work Week. See link

Trail Guide - Missouri Department of Conservation maintains more than 700 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails. See http://mdc.mo.gov/trails/.


OTHER NEWS

Run Across America - To raise money for the Free Wheelchair Mission, William Hibbard plans to run 52 miles per day from Central Park's Strawberry Field in New York City to Newport Beach, California, 60 days later. His route crosses Missouri from St Louis to Joplin. Readers' Digest will be covering the story. See link.

Senior Games Race Info - Caryn Giarratano, state bicycle and pedestrian coordinator in Transportation Planning, served as the Senior Games commissioner for the five bicycle races held June 24-25 in Callaway County. About 50 participants vied for the top two spots in the 40K road race, 20K road race, 10K time trial and 5K time trial to qualify for the National Senior Games scheduled for June 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. Caryn was able to race two races to qualify for the National Senior Games herself! Her average speed was 19 mph for the 20K (12.4) and 19.5 mph for the 5K (3.1 miles).


INTERESTING WEB SITES

Missouri Hiking Trail Finder - Missouri has more marked miles of hiking trails than any other state east of Texas. See broad prairies, wild rivers, sandstone canyons, rugged hills and diverse forests. See - link.

Race Across America (RAAM) - The bicycle race across the entire country that passed through Missouri. See http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/ and link.

New Bike Guide - Pedal Pioneers: A Guide to Bicycle Travel with Kids is now available. See link.

Low Fitness Predicts Morbidity and Mortality - Inactivity, overweight and health are intertwined. See link (PowerPoint) .

SRTS Study - A new Safe Routes to School Study has been released. See link (PDF).

New Study Supports Activity - Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle not only reduces the risk of heart disease, it actually expands the total life expectancy by up to four years. See link.


SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Access Board - http://www.access-board.gov
Adventure Cycling - https://www.adventurecycling.org/
American Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals - http://www.apbp.org/
Bikes Belong Coalition - https://peopleforbikes.org/
BPC Contact Info -
http://www.bikewalk.org/contacts_links/state_bikeped_coord.htm
Channing-Bete Company - www.channing-bete.com
Columbia PedNet Coalition - http://pednet.org/
Complete the Streets - www.completestreets.org
Institute of Transportation Engineers - http://www.ite.org/
League of American Bicyclists - http://www.bikeleague.org,
bill[at]bikeleague.org
MRT Listserv - https://groups.yahoo.com/group/mississippirivertrail/ and
http://mississippirivertrail.org
Missouri Bicycle Federation - /, brent[at]brenthugh.com
National Center for Bicycling & Walking - http://www.bikewalk.org,
info@bikewalk.org
Perils for Pedestrians -
link
Rails to Trails Conservancy - https://www.railstotrails.org/,
membership -at- railtrails.org
Traffic Safety Center - https://safetrec.berkeley.edu/
Transportation Research Board - http://www.trb.org, rhouston -at- nas.edu
Victoria Transport Policy Institute - litman[ at ]vtpi.org, http://www.vtpi.org
Institute of Transportation Engineers on context sensitive solutions for
Walkable Communities - http://www.ite.org/bookstore/index.asp


CALENDAR

July 22-23 - Jefferson City Double Header. Try a circuit race on the Highway Patrol Emergency Vehicle track on Saturday and do a time trial on Highway 94 on Sunday. See - link.

September 5-8 - ProWalk/ProBike, the 14th International Conference on Bicycling and Walking in Madison, WI. See - http://www.mononaterrace.com/ or http://www.bikewalk.org/conference/. Register at - link.

September 16 - Ride the Tour of the Ozarks (12, 25, 50 or 100 miles) to benefit the Diabetes Education Fund. See - link.

October 14 - Ride BikeMO 2006 (32, 62 or 100 miles), MoBikeFed's Fall Foliage Extravaganza from Holt's Summit, five miles north of Jefferson City on Highway 54. See - link.

November 28-30 - The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety is host for the Blueprint for Safer Roadways Conference at the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis. See - link.

Please forward this newsletter to anyone you feel may be interested. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be added, please tell me!


Tailwinds, Caryn


Caryn Giarratano, Ph.D.
MoDOT Transportation Planning Specialist
Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Coordinator
573-522-9297, caryn.giarratano -a-t- modot.mo.gov
P.O.Box 270, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0270, 573-526-8052 (fax)
MoDOT Bicycle-Pedestrian web site