Why Mobility Matters

 

Motorist behavior plus city policy determine our traffic mobility plan. For 2024 what is the plan Laguna?

-LS

eBike Adoption by Older Riders

As a population ages, individuals face phys­ical constraints and health issues that restrict their ability to travel. Limited mobility poses challenges to maintaining a residence in one’s own home or neighborhood often resulting in an undesired relocation to assisted communities.  Unfortunately, these limitations can lead to secondary health issues, and marginalization within society.

eBikes are exploding in popularity among younger riders around Laguna yet face barriers to adoption by city policy makers, older riders and riders with varying (dis)abilities. Given the variety of topography inaccessible by bicycles and the gentrification of its residents (median age 50) unable to master a bicycle, ebikes are the enabler in Laguna Beach. 

eBikes also meet target criteria set in the Laguna Beach General Plan:

• preserve a small scale village community
• reduce traffic congestion from a car-centric mobility policy
• remove the need for parking, expensive structures and enforcement
• Meets GHG emission reduction goals
• Consistent with National DOT strategy for street accessibility.

The body of research knowledge on eBikes continues to grow but the lack of research on marginalized groups like older riders, persists. In a new study at Texas A&M and The Unversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign funded by the US Department of Transportation studied eBikes for these marginalized groups to achieve greater eBike adoption in our mobility plan. The study aimed to fill this knowledge gap and help realize the potential of eBikes for all users. From the study:

The findings suggested that disabilities and advanced age negatively affected the way people perceive e-bikes. Conversely, positive perceptions were shaped by various factors including e-bike experience, personal cycling history, and openness to innovative technology.

Significant concerns about e-bikes included safety, security, social stigma imposed on electric assistance, and loss of disability benefits. Along with these concerns, lack of knowledge, misperceptions, limited access, high purchase costs, and inadequate infrastructure were identified as major deterrents to adopting e-bikes. 

The same findings ring true for adoption Complete Street Policy; highlighting the need for programs, policies, and public education to promote the acceptance of e-bikes as mobility aids. The study directs further research to prioritize older adults and those with challenged abilities who lack eBike experience. The study recommends exploring the perceptions of key community stakeholders whose perspectives directly influence the wider adoption of e-bikes, including mobility planners, health pro­fessionals, families and caregivers.

-LS

The MUTCD Gets a Makeover

After 14-year delay, neglect, and a surge in pedestrian deaths, the nation's highway and road building manual got a make-over and was published yesterday Tuesday 12/19.

 What is a MUTCD?   The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is a guide for road building across the US, it is a recipe book for making our roads and traffic control on those roads uniform and consistent across the United States. It sets down the standards for design of street signage, markings to make driving as uniform and familiar as possible whether a motorist is in New York City, Los Angeles or Laguna Beach.    

So What?  Given the change in vehicle types, micromobility vehicles, electric cars bikes and autonomous cars the nation's highway and road building manual got a make-over to set a new standard for accommodating different types of vehicles on our roadways.

For more details see Bloomberg CityLab here

-LS

The CalBike Resident Survey on CALTRANS

The short answer by the numbers:

• 83% Feel Uncomfortable/Very Uncomfortable walking/biking on Caltrans streets
• 99% Would be Uncomfortable with a child walking/biking on Caltrans streets 
• 99.86% Would be likely to walk or bike if Caltrans implements Complete Streets components

Many of California's major roadways are CALTRANS highways, operated and maintained by under CALTRANS jurisdiction, two of them trisect Laguna Beach and dominate where the majority of injuries and fatalities in Laguna occur. This fall the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) surveyed Californians how comfortable they felt on Caltrans-controled highways that like Laguna, serve as surface streets and roads (Stroads) in local neighborhoods around the state. The survey confirmed that Californians are desperate for solutions to CALTRANS road safety; a majority of respondents felt uncomfortable walking or biking on CALTRANS Stroads, and nearly unanimous that the roadways are hazardous for children even with supervision.

CalBike is reviewing how well CALTRANS implements its own mandate for Complete Streets Policy (DD-64) and whether it meets the needs of people who travel by walking, biking, or using transit. The survey strives to bring meaningful change to a state agency focused too long on moving cars and trucks while neglecting active transportation.

Each year 4000 Californians die statewide from traffic violence, one quarter of those are pedestrians (Calbike). The California Office of Traffic Safety collects traffic collision data from various sources including the CHP, the most recent collision data shows how Laguna Beach ranks among 103 similar California cities. 

LATEST UPDATE: 2020 CRASH RANKINGS FOR LAGUNA BEACH
   Pedestrians : 14
   Bicyclists : 8
   Motorcycles : 2
   Alcohol involved : 2
   Speed involved: 1.

CalBike conducted the survey to understand how Californian's viewed road safety on CALTRANS nearby roads, and whether they would view the roads differently if CALTRANS adopted and installed Complete Streets safety measures on those roads. 

"The Caltrans’ historic failure to consider the needs of active transportation when building or maintaining roadways has built barriers that prevent communities from creating the connected, protected bikeways and walking routes their residents need to replace car trips with bicycling or walking. And it often fails to respond to safety concerns, even after deaths and injuries of people biking and walking."

The survey asked respondents how comfortable they were with the nearby Caltrans route and assign a score from 1 to 4, where '1' is most comfortable and '4' least comfortable. The scores were assigned to a color map by Caltrans highway route and by County. The average score for road safety was 3.28 or 'somewhat uncomfortable'. The results colorized on a map surrounding Laguna Beach look like this.

The survey then asked how likely respondents would feel if CALTRANS adopted and implemented their complete street changes to their highway, on a scale of '1' to '3' the average score is 2.67 or 'very likely'. For a nifty user-friendly zoom map of results for the entire state of California, see the complete results at Felt.

From the CalBike report:

"Our user survey clearly shows that Caltrans is doing too little and moving too slowly to build Complete Streets infrastructure on its State Highway System. CalBike will continue to hold the agency to account and push for more funding for Complete Streets and prioritization of active transportation at the state level."

-LS