Tag: active transportation

The Chapel Hill Inventory of Resources for Bicycles (CHIRB)

March 11, 2021 / odrozd

By Eli Powell

In May 2020, my supervisors on the Transportation Planning Team at the Town of Chapel Hill approached me about updating their bicycle parking inventory. It had not been touched since 2011 and the Planning Department wanted more current bicycle parking data in order to more thoroughly analyze how well developers were adhering to bicycle parking capacity requirements and design guidelines outlined in the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance. I offered them one better: I wanted to create an interactive, Town-wide inventory of not only bicycle parking units (bike racks, bike lockers, etc.), but also bicycle maintenance units such as fix-it stations and air pumps, so cyclists who live, work, and play in Chapel Hill could more easily locate bicycle parking at their destinations.

Eight months of fieldwork later, I present the result: the Chapel Hill Inventory of Resources for Bicycles (CHIRB)!

To create this map, I personally scoured every reachable, public area within the Town of Chapel Hill’s limits for bicycle parking and maintenance units. I took a picture of every such unit and recorded the following attributes:

Type of resource: Is the unit a bike rack? Bike locker? Fix-it station? Air pump?
Type of parking: If this is a bike rack, what shape of bike rack is it? Grid? Wave? Inverted U?
Capacity
Condition
Lighting?: Is the unit located near a light? I was unable to return to the units at night to verify whether the lights worked, but the assumption was that most or all of them do.
Weather protection?: Would the unit stay dry during a rainstorm?
Accessibility: How many public building/street entrances are within 200 feet walking distance of the unit? Generalized on a scale from “Low” to “Super high”.
Visibility: From how many windows is the unit clearly visible? I defined “clear visibility” as that to the extent at which someone watching from the window would be able to identify someone stealing a bicycle from the unit, so some estimation was required. Generalized on a scale from “Low” to “Super high”.
Land use type
Distance to nearest bus stop: Measured by routing along the Town’s sidewalk network so the output was walking distance, not distance as the crow flies.

As of this writing, a few developments are missing from the inventory because they were unreachable while I was completing my fieldwork. Most notably, Chapel Hill High School was being renovated and the new Wegman’s was still under construction. I plan on adding these to the inventory in the near future!

My hope is that this interactive inventory will foster a more bicycle-friendly environment for the Town of Chapel Hill. Happy biking!

Find the map here: https://arcg.is/1WCKCe

Featured image courtesy of the Town of Chapel Hill

Eli is a second-year master’s student specializing in transportation at the Department of City and Regional Planning. Prior to arriving at Carolina Planning, he earned a B.A. in Geography with minors in Urban Studies and GIS from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. His professional interests include non-automotive transportation, traffic modeling, and planning for environmental protection. When he’s not planning, he can be found running, listening to indie music, or watching anything that could possibly be considered a sport.

Bike on a Budget: Affordable Solutions to Improve the Bicycling Experience

October 2, 2020 / odrozd

By: Pierce Holloway

Making your bike more comfortable can shift your biking experience from granny to great – And many of these solutions can be done for $20, or even free!

First step: bicycle fit. Perhaps the easiest way to improve your riding experience is to make sure your saddle (seat) is at the right height. To check the height, enlist a friend to stand over your front tire and hold the bicycle steady as you sit on it with your feet resting on the pedals, with one pedal rotating one of at the 6 o’clock position (closest to the floor). Ideally, your knee should be slightly bent in this position. This may feel too high, but actually puts you in a position to achieve maximum force when pedaling while also avoiding knee and hip pain from a too-low seat. Feel free to lower your seat slightly to feel comfortable getting on and off your bike, but keep in mind that this will comprise some of your pedaling efficiency.

Setting up your bicycle fit
*Image Source: BikeGremlin*

Along with saddle height, another important aspect of bicycle fit is the position of that saddle. Some bicycle seats allow for a few inches of adjustment forward or backward in order to improve the fit. If you find yourself feeling stretched out over the bike, check to see if you can shift your saddle forward an inch or so to help you feel more confident and comfortable while also as avoiding back and shoulder discomfort! Preferably you will be able to sit leaning slightly forward with some bend in your elbows when gripping the handlebars.

Next: bicycle multitools. Investing in these small gadgets can empower you to perform nearly all the maintenance you’ll want to do. While you can find multitools priced upwards of 60 or 70 dollars, you can also spend 20 dollars and have a solid tool for life (I’ve had the same one for 10 years). Additionally, a small bottle of bicycle chain lube and a tube of grease can greatly extend the life of your bike and help you avoid squeaks and creaks.

Also: tire pressure. If you have access to a pump, keeping your bike inflated to the recommended pressure can instantly change how your bicycle ride feels. If the pressure is too low, you will be working much harder than you need to and might be more susceptible to getting a flat tire. The recommended pressure is printed on the sidewall of your tire, but often in fine print so take your time locating it.

And finally: education. Another great way to improve your cycling experience is to spend some time watching basic bicycle maintenance videos on YouTube. You’ll be amazed at how much of a confidence boost you can get from a 15 minute video for fixing bike issues if they arise!

Now that you have some knowledge on bike fit and basic maintenance, go forth and enjoy the beauty of biking! While this post attempts to provide a brief overview on these concepts, I encourage you to seek out more information and experiment with what works and feels right for you! Below is a short list of recommended tools and gear to get you started:

Helmet
Bike Multi tool
2 Tire Levers
Chain Lube
Bicycle Grease
Rag for Cleaning
Extra Bicycle Tube
Tire Pump

Pierce Holloway is a first-year master’s student at the Department of City and Regional Planning with a focus on Climate Change Adaptation. Before coming to Chapel Hill he worked as a geospatial analyst for Urban3, working on visualizing economic productivity of communities and states. Through his coursework he hopes to explore the nexus between adaptation for climate change and community equitability. In his free time, he enjoys long bike rides, trail running, and any excuse to play outside.

Edited by Emma Vinella-Brusher

Advocating for Bicycle Boulevards: A Process in Durham, NC

September 7, 2017 / odrozd

How do community groups participate in transportation planning? Durham Bicycle Boulevards, an advocacy organization based in Durham, North Carolina, seeks to raise awareness for better bicycle infrastructure in the Bull City. Working in collaboration with Durham Area Designers, the group hosted a design charrette. The event brought together city planners, community members, and design professionals to create an outline for how Bicycle Boulevards could make Durham the most bikeable city in the South.

[vimeo 199890071 w=640 h=360]

Durham Bicycle Boulevards Concept from Brian Vaughn on Vimeo.

In late August, the City of Durham announced that it won a grant to implement Bicycle Boulevards from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The city is matching the state expenditure with local funds.

If you would like to learn more about Bicycle Boulevards, consider attending the next Street Design Series meeting on Tuesday, September 12, 2017.

About the Author: Brian Vaughn is an undergraduate and minors in Urban Studies and Planning. This summer, he spent three weeks in South Florida, Charlotte, and Atlanta conducting a public life study around transit stations. His favorite transit oriented development is Union Station in Washington, DC.

Video Source: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Featured Image: Photo via Visual Hunt

An Ode to Planners without Bicycles

January 31, 2017 / odrozd

A Poem by a Bikeless Planning Student

First day of classes
For Planning masters students
No space on bike rack!

Typical planners
Riding bicycle to class
Is it required?

Cyclists everywhere!
Zooming along in their lanes
Cycling heaven

The transpo students
Love their bicycles a lot
They even build them

Studying is hard
But can do work on the bus
Transit advantage

Though I love walking
Do I buy bike to fit in?
The pressure is on

Then one day in class
I meet a kindred spirit
A planner, no bike!

“Did you bike to class?”
Because planners often do
“No?? I’m just like you!”

Our alliance is
Planners Without Bicycles
Few and far between

But planners unite
In transit, walking, and yes,
Cycling — in being green.

Featured Image: Bicycle locked up to bike rack. Photo Credit: Creative Commons.

About the Author: Katy is a Masters student in the Department of City & Regional Planning specializing in transportation and land use. She spent seven years in the Washington, DC area and as a result, she has a love-love relationship with DC’s Metrorail and all things urban. She is passionate about pedestrian safety and the pedestrian’s right to the city and the street. Prior to coming to UNC, Katy worked in change management. She likes long runs on Carrboro’s short bike trails and eating popcorn.

Bridging the Distance

August 4, 2016 / odrozd

Supporting Physical Activity and Active Transportation in Rural Communities

A version of this piece was originally published at the Safe Routes to School Partnership website.

The majority of Americans live in urban or suburban areas, though around 15 percent of Americans live in nonmetropolitan regions, which make up 72 percent of US land. Although the proportion of Americans who are rural residents has recently declined, these communities still comprise 46.1 million Americans (USDA, 2015). When it comes to health outcomes, researchers have identified inequities in rural areas, including higher rates of obesity compared with urban residents and differing levels of physical activity by geographic region (Yousefian et al., 2009; Hansen and Harley, 2015).

Concepts of walkability and neighborhood do apply to rural areas, but residents may define some characteristics differently than in urban and suburban areas (Kegler et al., 2015). For example, participants across four rural communities in a qualitative study using PhotoVoice identified specific barriers like lack of sidewalks or shoulders, heavy commercial truck traffic, unpaved roads, and lack of indoor recreational centers (Hennessy et al., 2010). Rural schools have also been found to be 73 percent less likely to implement a WSB program than urban schools (Turner et al., 2013). Longer commute distance is a key factor that must be addressed by context-specific strategies (Dalton et al., 2011).

This year, several key advocates have acknowledged different needs and context-sensitive strategies for supporting physical activity and active transportation in rural settings by publishing new resources for these communities.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership published a series of three fact sheets (1, 2, 3) that include case studies for overcoming challenges to supporting active transportation and implementing Safe Routes to School programs specifically.

ChangeLab Solutions also shared rural community profiles that highlight stories of success in promoting physical activity.

Active Living Research published a research brief on active living in rural communities that includes a list of tools well-suited for assessing the built environment and walkability in rural areas.

Do you have more resources or a success story to share? Contact us to join the conversation about how to support active transportation and physical activity across rural and urban settings and help us show what Safe Routes to School can look like in rural communities.

About the Author

Christina Galardi, MPH/MCRP ’16, served as research advisor for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership while completing her graduate studies. She is currently a Harvard Government Performance Lab Fellow working at the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

References

Dalton, M.A., Longacre, M.R., Drake, K.M., et al. (2011). Built Environment Predictors of Active Travel to School among Rural Adolescents. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 40 (3), 312–319.

Hansen, A.Y. and Harley, D. (2015). Promoting Active Living in Rural Communities. [Research Brief.] Active Living Research.

Hennessy, E., Kraak, VI., Hyatt, RR., Bloom, J., Fenton, M., Wagoner, C., and Economos, C.D. (2010). Active Living for Rural Children: Community Perspectives Using PhotoVoice. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 39 (6), 537-545.

Kegler, M. C., Alcantara, I., Haardörfer, R., Gemma, A., Ballard, D., & Gazmararian, J. (2015). Rural Neighborhood Walkability : Implications for Assessment. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 12(Suppl 1), 40–45.

Turner, L., Chriqui, J.F., & Chaloupka, F.J. (2013).Walking School Bus Programs in U.S. Public Elementary Schools. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 10, 641-645.

USDA. (2015). Population and Migration. Economic Research Service. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/population-migration.aspx

Yousefian, A, Ziller, E, Swartz, J, and Hartley, D. (2009). Active living for rural youth: addressing physical inactivity in rural communities. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice 15(3), 223-231.