David,

Thanks for your thoughtful and clear input.  Do you mind if I forward your message to the Bicycle Board? Or, could you just resend it to bikeboard@cheat.org?

You make an excellent point that I never considered:  Engineering gives us a product that we can sell.  I've discounted engineering because I've thought of engineering, e.g. bike lanes, bike paths, etc. as ideas to either get cyclists off the roads or to compensate for their lack of education and skill in how to drive their bicycles as vehicles on the roadway.  I admit however, that I could not envision anything but an engineering solution namely, widening the curb lane, to the motor vehicle / bicycle speed difference on steep hills with narrow lanes.  I expect that your idea may change the Bicycle Board's paradigm about engineering and hopefully generate some synergy that could well result in at least an effective demo project.

Frank

David Bruffy wrote: 
Bike Board Members,
 
It seems to me the biggest obstacle is engineering.  It very much reminds me of the difficulty with bus shelters.  They were never considered when public spaces were designed and engineered, meaning there is no public property to locate them (no adequate public property for bike lanes), no accommodation for their use such as curb cuts (no consideration of how bikes and cars could interact in places with steep grades), and no awareness or interest on the part of designers and engineers to include them in new projects (the new streetscape in Downtown Morgantown gets us both I think).
 
Without engineering, we don't have a product.  Without a product to sell, we have little to offer, to market, to educate, or to encourage use.  Without a good initial product for show and tell, it is a hard sell.  Before there was any streetscape in downtown Morgantown, Wall Street was redone.  Although small, it spurred imagination, created interest, and demonstrated what was possible.  15 years later, downtown streets are being redone.  The first piece of the rail-trail was 150 feet long.  Again, it demonstrated to the community what "could be" and helped people to imagine more (Hazel Ruby-McQuain's interest and financial support certainly helped as well).
 
Perhaps we need a Demonstration Project?  Probably one of the best candidate locations is outside the City of Morgantown.  Granville is interested in re-developing their main streets and sidewalks and would serve as a great demonstration project.  Is there a similar opportunity in Morgantown? 
 
David A. Bruffy
General Manager
Mountain Line Transit Authority
420 DuPont Road
Morgantown, WV  26501
Bruffy@busride.org
(304) 296-3680 - Administrative Offices
(304) 291-RIDE (7433) - Bus Information
Fax (304) 291-7429
WWW.BUSRIDE.ORG

 


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