Except for New Albany, "Making cities more walkable (means) understanding how other people influence our journeys."

Just try to imagine Team Gahan reading, digesting and acting on these thoughts.

Can't do it, can you?

Maybe after another HWC Engineering study rendered the findings completely unrecognizable ...

Making cities more walkable by understanding how other people influence our journeys, by Ruth Dalton (The Conversation)

Cities around the world are changing to become more “walkable”. As more and more people move to cities, the benefits of encouraging people to walk are clear. Aside from making the urban environment more pleasant, safer and less polluted, improving a city’s walkability can also ease traffic congestion and improve public health.

This is a particular challenge in cities built for cars, so there’s been lots of research to find out what sort of features make a city more attractive to pedestrians, and encourage them to walk further and more often: whether it’s the size of urban blocks, the quality of the pavement, the presence of trees or street furniture or initiatives such as car-free zones.

But while planners and researchers strive to work out what makes urban spaces enticing to pedestrians, they often overlook the fact that people’s decisions about where to walk, and when, are not only determined by the physical qualities of the environment. In fact, new research suggests that these choices are strongly influenced by other people ...

In New Albany and Florida, bicyclists and pedestrians remain at risk when planners refuse the change car-centric nature of the street grid.

Read this sentence.

Florida's complete streets law led officials to tack on bike and pedestrian infrastructure without changing the car-centric nature of the state's transportation planning.

Allow me to fix it.

Jeff Gahan's de-Specked two-way street reversion led HWC Engineering to tack on bike and pedestrian infrastructure without changing the car-centric nature of the state's transportation planning.

Actually, almost all the biking infrastructure suggested by Speck was removed amid gleeful cheering by the irresolute likes of CM Greg Phipps (has he ever actually been on a bicycle?), but the analogy holds.

The two-way street grid project has not been transformative because Gahan didn't allow it to be. Speck saw the larger picture, but Gahan made adulterated sausage from it, rendering potential boons to walkability and bikeability into yet another omnibus paving project to appease speeding drivers, and now we're left with paltry returns from what might have been genuinely meaningful, and without the political will to make the necessary changes. Phipps himself already has surrendered -- not that this is unusual.

Yep.

Told you so. Now can we all join together and do the right thing?

#FireGahan2019

Florida’s Complete Streets Law Saved Thousands of Lives, and That Wasn’t Enough, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog)

A new study highlights the successes and shortcomings of the state's 1984 law that mandated consideration of walking and biking routes in transportation projects.

Florida epitomizes Sun Belt autosprawl and all its attendant dangers for people on foot. The state routinely ranks among the deadliest for walking.

But it could have been worse, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Florida adopted a statewide complete streets policy in 1984. The law stated that routes for biking and walking must be considered in road construction projects, with a few limited exceptions. It also charged the state with developing a statewide “integrated system of bicycle and pedestrian ways.”

The law, now 34 years old, did not transform car-centric transportation planning in Florida, and the state’s streets remain unacceptably dangerous for walking. But even this incremental step saved lives, according University of Georgia researcher Jamila Porter.

Porter and her team compared changes in Florida’s pedestrian fatality rate to national trends, as well as to other Sun Belt states without complete streets policies. They found that pedestrian deaths fell faster in Florida after the complete streets law was adopted than they would have if the state had tracked trends in peer states or the U.S. as a whole. The difference added up to between 3,500 and 4,000 lives saved over a 30-year period.

While Florida’s per capita pedestrian fatality rate fell 60 percent, from 6.36 fatalities per 100,000 people to 2.56, it remains among the most dangerous in the nation for walking. In 2015, only Delaware had a higher rate.

In interviews with 10 Florida DOT officials, each with at least 15 years of experience, Porter and her team also highlight how the law was not sufficient on its own to change the cars-first culture at the agency. While infrastructure for walking and biking was tacked on to projects, the state still focused on moving motor vehicles, not creating safe bike and pedestrian networks.

“We did well what we thought we knew to do well. We provided a 5-foot sidewalk… that was it. Or we provided a bit of bike lane,” said one staffer. But the state was still “consumed with the requirements — that we have adequate capacity for cars on roadways — and part of that was based on the ability of a car to get from location A to B in a timely manner and fast.”

Other state policies worked against the goals of the complete streets law. One staffer pointed out that Florida still places too much emphasis on metrics of motor vehicle throughput, like level of service, that undermine pedestrian safety. Some said that while the state’s policies were better than most, Florida should have made more progress.

It's the snazzy new bike repair station at the Farmers Market. What will lead to it, lanes or sharrows?

They're nice features and all, though as yet we don't know exactly how much bicycling infrastructure was stripped from Jeff Speck's original grid plan owing to City Hall cowardice.

Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog)

Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure — the scraps cities hand out when they can’t muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don’t ...

HWC Engineering's two-way "street sausage" (where's the meat?) debuts at BOW on Tuesday, September 13 at 10:00 a.m.

All apologies to the News and Tribune.

When Jeff Gahan ran for mayor in 2011, he promised me (privately, of course) that two-way streets would be on the front burner.

Five YEARS later, tepid public statements finally are appearing. Will any of it amount to anything palpable? Note that even now, the word "possibility" always is deployed by Team Gahan as an institutional cowardice disclaimer.

Board of Works Set to Hear Proposal on Reverting Key Downtown Streets to 2-way (Down Low Bunker News Service)

"What once was old is new again" as the Board of Public Works and Safety prepares to hear a proposal from HWC Engineering regarding the possibility of reverting some key downtown streets from 1-way traffic to 2-way traffic at next Tuesday's meeting (9/13, 10am). Here are some interesting historic photos of how traffic flowed on certain streets in the past.

I said it during last year's mayoral campaign, and I'll repeat it today: Until Gahan does SOMETHING, he's done NOTHING.

Greg Phipps and other erstwhile progressives trust Gahan.

I don't. Do you?

ON THE AVENUES: Complete ventriloquism, or the stagecraft of "throwing" your two-way streets.

.. For a year and a half, the impression I've consistently gotten from erstwhile complete streets advocates is that the down-low is all good; we must have faith and remain loyal party troopers because Big Daddy Jeff is going to make everything all right in the end, even if it means having a ready-made two-way "plan" handed to us, adulterated and desiccated, without any community involvement whatever.

The Green Mouse's two-way streets poll at the drive-thru window.

The Green Mouse posted himself at the MacDonald's drive-thru window and took a man-in-a-car poll.

How should city streets work?

Irv Stumler, Silver Hills

Bob Caesar, Silver Hills

Crane Padgett, Industrial Boulevard 

Jeff Gahan, Suburban City Hall

Back at the office, the Green Mouse asked me. Here's what I said.

Roger Baylor. Spring Street

RQAW, HWC Engineering, municipal cowardice, Jeff Speck, and reading the tea leaves through dry heaves.

While we're on the topic of RQAW, a useful digression.

RQAW's letter to property owners: The "street improvements" project that dare not speak its name.

RQAW has been hired as a sub-consultant to HWC Engineering who is hired by the City of New Albany for designing the above referenced project.

The "above referenced project" now is being referred to a generic/euphemistic/Orwellian sense as New Albany Downtown Street Improvements.

HWC Engineering most recently oozed to the surface last November, just days after the election, when City Hall circulated a press release. We looked into it, and offered context not found in the local newspaper.

NAC's posting follows, verbatim, from November 9, 2015.

---

N and T reprints the press release, we provide context.

Where have you heard this name before?

Indy-based HWC Engineering to open office in New Albany

NEW ALBANY – HWC Engineering, a full service consulting engineering firm, is expanding its services with a new office in New Albany to open in early 2016.

HWC will occupy one floor of the historic, newly-renovated Tribune Building at 303 Scribner Drive ... The office will be led by Jim Rice, a partner at HWC with more than 35 years of experience working on a wide range of municipal and county projects in New Albany, Clarksville, Jeffersonville, Floyd County and Clark County.

As HWC continues to expand in southern Indiana, Rice will oversee several landmark projects for the region including the redevelopment of a 400-acre riverfront mixed-use property in Clarksville.

HWC is also improving downtown New Albany’s streetscape to increase pedestrian access and bicycle mobility with construction to be completed by spring 2017.

Wait -- HWC is improving our streetscape?

Don't be confused. Back in April, HWC got the contract to make sausage out of Speck. With the primary looming, Jeff Gahan was able to push street grid reform 18 months into the future, so as to construct his Phipps gambit:

"No re-election, no Speck ... and if re-elected, no promises. Now sign on the dotted line."

As a reminder of how it went down, here's an extended excerpt from April, followed by a fascinating fact you may not have known.

Firm hired to provide options for changing New Albany street grid: HWC Engineering to review Jeff Speck's proposal for downtown, by Daniel Suddeath

NEW ALBANY — A firm will weigh the financial feasibility of planner Jeff Speck’s downtown streets proposal and analyze design alternatives before the city makes substantial changes to the road network.

Though the additional work could mean that implementing suggestions made by Speck — including converting one-way streets to two-way traffic — may be delayed for 18 months, city officials said attracting federal dollars for a project is typically a long process.

The city is relying on federal funding that’s dedicated to match 80 percent of design and construction costs for projects to improve traffic flow and safety in downtown New Albany.

The city will be responsible for 20 percent of the $307,450 contract the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety approved Tuesday in hiring Hannum, Wagle & Cline Engineering, or HWC, of Scottsburg.

The firm’s task will be two-fold, as it will with review the Speck plan in terms of cost-analysis as part of a concept design phase. The phase, which is expected to take about six months, will also entail a review of public input collected mostly during the three hearings held by the city this year on the Speck report.

HWC will also provide up to three alternatives to the Speck study based on “financial feasibility, resident interests, business deliveries, and large trucking concerns.”

The second phase, if the city elects to make changes, would be an engineering design for construction projects. The second phase could take up to a year to complete, but is covered in the contract approved by the board of works Tuesday.

As an aside, it's interesting to note that according to LinkedIn, among the local employees of HWC Engineering is Sally Hughes, who is married to David Duggins, the city of New Albany's economic development director.

You know, the same one who never finished reading Speck's book.

HWC Engineering, municipal cowardice, Jeff Speck and reading the tea leaves through dry heaves.

N and T reprints the press release, we provide context.

Where have you heard this name before?

Indy-based HWC Engineering to open office in New Albany

NEW ALBANY – HWC Engineering, a full service consulting engineering firm, is expanding its services with a new office in New Albany to open in early 2016.

HWC will occupy one floor of the historic, newly-renovated Tribune Building at 303 Scribner Drive ... The office will be led by Jim Rice, a partner at HWC with more than 35 years of experience working on a wide range of municipal and county projects in New Albany, Clarksville, Jeffersonville, Floyd County and Clark County.

As HWC continues to expand in southern Indiana, Rice will oversee several landmark projects for the region including the redevelopment of a 400-acre riverfront mixed-use property in Clarksville.

HWC is also improving downtown New Albany’s streetscape to increase pedestrian access and bicycle mobility with construction to be completed by spring 2017.

Wait -- HWC is improving our streetscape?

Don't be confused. Back in April, HWC got the contract to make sausage out of Speck. With the primary looming, Jeff Gahan was able to push street grid reform 18 months into the future, so as to construct his Phipps gambit:

"No re-election, no Speck ... and if re-elected, no promises. Now sign on the dotted line."

As a reminder of how it went down, here's an extended excerpt from April, followed by a fascinating fact you may not have known.

Firm hired to provide options for changing New Albany street grid: HWC Engineering to review Jeff Speck's proposal for downtown, by Daniel Suddeath

NEW ALBANY — A firm will weigh the financial feasibility of planner Jeff Speck’s downtown streets proposal and analyze design alternatives before the city makes substantial changes to the road network.

Though the additional work could mean that implementing suggestions made by Speck — including converting one-way streets to two-way traffic — may be delayed for 18 months, city officials said attracting federal dollars for a project is typically a long process.

The city is relying on federal funding that’s dedicated to match 80 percent of design and construction costs for projects to improve traffic flow and safety in downtown New Albany.

The city will be responsible for 20 percent of the $307,450 contract the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety approved Tuesday in hiring Hannum, Wagle & Cline Engineering, or HWC, of Scottsburg.

The firm’s task will be two-fold, as it will with review the Speck plan in terms of cost-analysis as part of a concept design phase. The phase, which is expected to take about six months, will also entail a review of public input collected mostly during the three hearings held by the city this year on the Speck report.

HWC will also provide up to three alternatives to the Speck study based on “financial feasibility, resident interests, business deliveries, and large trucking concerns.”

The second phase, if the city elects to make changes, would be an engineering design for construction projects. The second phase could take up to a year to complete, but is covered in the contract approved by the board of works Tuesday.

As an aside, it's interesting to note that according to LinkedIn, among the local employees of HWC Engineering is Sally Hughes, who is married to David Duggins, the city of New Albany's economic development director.

You know, the same one who never finished reading Speck's book.

Making sausage.

Yesterday I remarked to the Bookseller that I can see editorial cartoons in my head, but lack the ability to draw. But where there's a will, there's a way.