Columbus pitches sidewalk program

Residents would pay bill over 10 years

Friday, July 28, 2006

Jodi Andes

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

 

The likelihood of older Columbus neighborhoods being able to add sidewalks has historically fallen between slim and none.

 

Residents could always pay to have sidewalks installed in front of their own homes, then pray their neighbors did the same. But there was no program or money for the city to do the work, Public Service Director Henry Guzman said.

 

An idea floating around City Hall, though, might change that.

 

Full story at:

 

http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/28/20060728-E1-06.html

Actually a pretty cool idea that apparently saves some $$$ and even saves some trees.

 

From the July 12, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0712/p01s03-usgn.html

 

Rubber sidewalks go where concrete fears to tread

By Matt Bradley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.

 

Every fall, Richard Valeriano spends all day, every day, staring at sidewalks that have been busted and broken by tree roots.

But the idea to build sidewalks of rubber didn't come to Mr. Valeriano during the day. It came to him at night - in a dream. "I went home and the image was lodged in my subconscious," says the senior public works inspector for Santa Monica, Calif. "But in my dream, the sidewalks were moving. They were twisting and turning like waves on the ocean."

 

Although making sidewalks out of rubber seemed "kind of preposterous," Valeriano acted on the idea in 1998. Thanks to some partnerships and public grants, his rubber reveries are now very much a reality. Some 130,000 square feet of rubberized sidewalks grace about 60 North American cities, giving local governments an alternative to concrete and its attendant pitfalls, such as rising prices, exorbitant trip-and-fall lawsuits, and a trail of chopped-down urban trees.

 

 

Wow - 40% of roads not having a sidewalk seems awfully high to me - am I just unaware of what's normal in most places?

 

"Even if it's $30 extra a month, that could be hard for some people," Holliman said.

 

$30/month over 10 years is $3600 (assuming they aren't charging interest).  If the sidewalks would be 36" wide (the Americans with Disabilities Act requires 36" sidewalks at a minimum...I can't find that text in the act itself, but this .pdf says it on page 4), that would mean you'd have to have 120 feet of frontage to be assessed $30/month.  I'd bet the average frontage for most residential city streets is maybe half that - though if anyone has data on that, I'd be thrilled to learn what that number actually is.

 

That's fantastic...let's hope it catches on!

Might be safer when someone's trying to walk home falling-down drunk, too.  :-D

^Why do you think I think it's such a great idea?

Funny, the sidewalks sure seemed rubbery when I was in college.  Then it suddenly hit me that I was the one with "rubbery" legs.  Yeah, rubber sidewalks would have prevented a lot of headaches the next morning.

 

But seriously, this is a very interesting idea.  We should all forweard the story on to the public works officials in our home towns.

In densely developed city like Lakewood, the frontage is typically 40 feet. In Bay Village, it's 50 feet, but that's not a "new" suburb. In the exurban area where I used to live in Geauga County, the frontage varied from 90 feet to a couple hundred feet.

I want them, it would be great on my knees when I'm running.

5-6 miles can just kill your body if your running on concreate.

 

 

I want them, it would be great on my knees when I'm running.

5-6 miles can just kill your body if your running on concreate.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I used to run cross country in high school, and we always had to mix up our runs between parks/gravel bike paths and hardtop.

 

Now I just do biking so I don't have to have any impact =) It's funny, off topic, but in the winter when it's cold, I tried to run to stay in shape and my legs hurt BAD, worse than they ever have before. I think it must have to do with the different muscles I've been using.

I personally would never want to living in a place that doesn't have sidewalks. That says something about a place. Mostly it says, "Get the hell out!"

 

I also feel bad for the really little kids who can't even ride their bikes into town safely. It's just not safe to have them walking/riding on the shoulder of a road where people are probably speeding at 45 mph

The fact that they are made out of scrap tires is great.  Although this isn't true recyling, it's downcycling, it's still a good way to use up the mountains of scrap tires this country has generated. 

 

Also, since there is a Peak Oil thread here, I'll add that it's important to remember how energy-intensive the concrete making process is.  You have to mine limestone and ship it to a concrete plant where its baked in a kiln at over 1000 degrees to turn it into lime.  Cement kilns burn anything from natural gas to used oil to ignitable hazardous waste (i.e. fossil fuels).  Then the lime is trucked to a concrete plant where it is mixed with aggregate and sand, both of which are mined and then trucked to the concrete plant too.  Then it's shipped on a cement truck to the location where it was poured. 

 

Since the tires are already manufactured and are a spent material, it's a lot less energy-intensive to grind up tires and mix them with a few petrochemicals and form them into the sidewalk blocks and ship them to the site where they will be used. 

 

With all the freeze-thaw problems we have with pavement in Ohio, rubber is probably a better material to use.

 

 

With all the freeze-thaw problems we have with pavement in Ohio, rubber is probably a better material to use.

 

 

Si, Gildone.

 

Imagine if they, or better yet we NEO folks, could formulate a rubber street that could expand and contract with the freeze/thaw cycles, yet be dense enough to support car and truck traffic.

 

then maybe ODOT or more appropriately, Oh Dept Of Autos, could spend their portion of the federal gas tax (approx $0.17/gallon) on something other than road widening and re-paving.

 

regardless, good thoughts on this rubberpaving - im all for saving our tree investments.

How will the rising cost of petroleum products effect the economics of concrete vs asphault vs brick for streets and sidewalks?

Is this anything like the stuff tey use on playground surfaces ?

Will the sidewalks catch fire ?

Will people steal the pavers ?

I don't think it's as soft as people think it is.

With all the freeze-thaw problems we have with pavement in Ohio, rubber is probably a better material to use.

 

 

Si, Gildone.

 

Imagine if they, or better yet we NEO folks, could formulate a rubber street that could expand and contract with the freeze/thaw cycles, yet be dense enough to support car and truck traffic.

 

then maybe ODOT or more appropriately, Oh Dept Of Autos, could spend their portion of the federal gas tax (approx $0.17/gallon) on something other than road widening and re-paving.

 

regardless, good thoughts on this rubberpaving - im all for saving our tree investments.

 

You would think akron would be all over this Ideal, with it being the rubber capitol and all.

I want them, it would be great on my knees when I'm running.

5-6 miles can just kill your body if your running on concreate.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I used to run cross country in high school, and we always had to mix up our runs between parks/gravel bike paths and hardtop.

 

Now I just do biking so I don't have to have any impact =) It's funny, off topic, but in the winter when it's cold, I tried to run to stay in shape and my legs hurt BAD, worse than they ever have before. I think it must have to do with the different muscles I've been using.

 

yep just the different muscles, cross training is really the best way to avoid the impact that running on sidewalks causes. now that i have a pass to the rec I'm trying to bike, and swim more.

I personally would never want to living in a place that doesn't have sidewalks. That says something about a place. Mostly it says, "Get the hell out!"

 

I also feel bad for the really little kids who can't even ride their bikes into town safely. It's just not safe to have them walking/riding on the shoulder of a road where people are probably speeding at 45 mph

 

It's not necessarily that bad.  More like a mixed bag.

I took the following photo back in 2003

 

This is the intersection of Grandin and Blenheim Rds in Clintonville (What is this, 10-15 blocks north of you Noozer?)

In the northern part of Clintonville (where I lived for 19 months) The east-west streets (connecting Indianola and High St) usually have sidewalks.  The north-south streets rarely have sidewalks. (Mind you, I'm just commenting on Northern Clintonville.  I can't speak for the rest of Columbus and its suburbs).

 

LOOK AT ATLANTA.  YOU CAN'T FIND A BUS STOP LET ALONE A SIDEWALK!

 

Quite true. Suburban DC has pretty good bus service....but I'd say close to half the residents in this area don't have sidewalks...there are no sidewalk roads as close in as Arlington, VA. All this clap-trap around here about how 'urban' we are is quite silly when I see these roads with no sidewalks all over.

Open wider

Fitting better roads into some areas is a tight squeeze

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Tim Doulin

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The view from the back deck of Gwen and Brad Stock’s home on the North Side hasn’t changed since they moved there seven years ago.

 

A ravine just steps from their Bluffview Drive home still gives the impression of isolation.

 

But that will change.

 

In the spring, the city of Columbus is scheduled to begin widening a stretch of nearby Hard Road between Linworth Road and Rt. 315 from two lanes to five.

 

More at:

http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/08/13/20060813-C1-01.html

Hmmmm...let's see. These guys have been doing things the same old way (build road=induce development=add to road=more development=widen road=sprawl) and we are no closer to solving traffic woes. Isn't the definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? :?

 

The other part of this is that these are established areas that have had these problems for years. That points up the failure of government to require adequate transportation (note I said transportation, not just more roads) BEFORE development is allowed to proceed. Now we have to retrofit these roads (and transit, if we ever get any) into these existing areas, an expensive proposition all paid for by taxpayers instead of being factored into the cost of what was built there years ago.

 

 

From the 8/15/06 Steubenville Herald Star:

 

 

Camera fight still developing

By MARK LAW, staff writer

 

STEUBENVILLE — A two-hour hearing on Monday in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court on the fate of the city’s second Traffipax traffic camera ordinance may have been moot if a referendum request is placed before the voters in the November general election.

 

Attorney Gary Stern called several witnesses during the hearing who said they won’t do business in the city if the traffic cameras return. Louis Tripodi, general manager of Steubenville Bakery at 525 South St., said his business had suffered during the time when the traffic cameras were up under the first ordinance.

 

More at:

 

http://www.heraldstaronline.com/articles.asp?articleID=5633

 

From the 8/16/06 Steubenville Herald Star:

 

City will submit camera petition

By JONATHAN FREI, staff writer

 

STEUBENVILLE — The city announced Tuesday plans to submit a traffic camera petition to the Jefferson County Board of Elections despite problems with the forms.

 

The board of elections returned the petition to the city Monday, and the city has until Aug. 24 to return the petition to the board with a letter saying the city validates the petition.

 

However, there are problems with the form that was used in the petition.

 

More at:

 

http://www.heraldstaronline.com/articles.asp?articleID=5650

 

That ravine is going to be wiped out.  :cry:

ODOT might as well turn that into a diamond interchange with slip ramps from I 270.  Destroy all pretense of rural/rustic appearances and make it a canyon of concrete.  :x

 

Women saved Shaker Lakes from freeways

Monday, September 25, 2006

Michael O'Malley

Plain Dealer Reporter

Catherine Fuller, who turns 88 next month, still shudders at the idea of a superhighway cutting through the heart of the Shaker Lakes nature preserve, destroying 200 acres of wildlife and wiping out hundreds of nearby homes.

 

She first got wind of the plan 43 years ago at a garden club meeting at the North Park Boulevard home of Mary Elizabeth Croxton, just across the street from the lower Shaker Lake.

 

"We were horrified," she said. "We immediately said, It's got to be stopped, no question about it.' "

 

The meeting of 11 women was a call to war, pitting ladies' garden clubs against a powerful, steam-rolling freeway industry and a forceful county engineer while sowing the seeds of a momentous grass-roots uprising that drew national media attention.

 

http://www.shakersquare.net/news/pd-sept25-shakerlakes.htm

An excerpt from the article by CNU:

 

"Back in the late 1980s, the idea of replacing elevated city freeways with at-grade boulevards was so unthinkable that it took an act of God — 1989’s Loma Prieta earthquake — for San Franciscans to get serious about tearing down the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway and restoring the city’s view of the Bay. San Francisco went on to remove the Central Freeway and build beautiful Octavia Boulevard in its place.

 

In the late 1990s, when I led a similar effort to replace the Park East freeway in Milwaukee with a boulevard, liftbridge, and other street improvements, the idea still seemed exotic and led to plenty of stupefied reactions among DOT engineers.

 

But now, with postfreeway neighborhoods in San Francisco, Milwaukee, New York, and Portland coming back to life and the street grid in these areas distributing traffic impressively, the idea of replacing grade-separated freeways with boulevards is gaining momentum in cities ranging from Seattle to Buffalo."

 

More here along with a nice graphic comparison of a freeway ripping the city apart vs a nicely integrated boulevard.

 

http://www.cnu.org/cnu_updates/CNUpageAprMay2006.pdf

Octavia Blvd is a very strange animal.  Due to its history,  the right-of-way is insanely wide, the chain link fences and the blank facades that face it (the buildings that would've addressed it have long been torn down) create a very inhospitable environment.  It's a great effort, don't get me wrong, but there are many configurations that could've had much more of an impact than the Parisian-style boulevard.

The Victoria Transport Institute did an analysis a couple years ago showing that well-designed arterials can move rush hour traffic as fluidly as an urban expressway, yet provide a much more attractive urban setting and neighborhood economic development. I don't have the link handy, but check around http://www.vtpi.org/

It's interesting because I didn't really know anything about arterials while I lived in Columbus, but here in LA they are a lifesaver.  If I had to take the freeways home in LA it would take me an hour and a half at least.  However, by mixing freeways and arterials it takes between 30-45 minutes. 

   Don't get me started on this one. It's too late already. Maybe another time. It's a good topic, though. Would love to discuss this when I have more time.

 

 

Hi all, I've been asked to look into design ideas for bridges that serve as gateways to neighborhoods.  I'm not talking Brooklyn or Golden Gate here...I'm talking about railroad and other overpass bridges like Cleveland's bridge at E. 55th & Euclid or the bridges that cross over Mayfield, Cedar & Euclid in University Circle.  If you've seen any, have any in your particular hood, or could refer me to interesting examples of how to do this the right way, let me know!

I don't think it gets much better than MLK Drive through Rockefeller Park - granted they aren't gateways to neighborhoods per se, but you get the idea.

<img src="http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/oh/hamilton/postcards/eden.jpg">

I definitely agree about MLK!  And I'd say the fact that it connects an off-ramp with University Circle qualifies it as a gateway.  :-)

This is a bad picture from a perspective standpoint (you can't see the neighborhood), but here is a bridge that is used as the gateway to Dayton's Oregon District from downtown.

 

<img src="http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/937872/2/istockphoto_937872_oregon_district.jpg">

Seattle's International District has the underside of the I-5 bridge painted in gold and red with dragons. They also have a few pieces of public art under other bridges.  One is the famous Fremont Troll, another one near UW is a small mockup of one of those round tracks that bicyclists would ride around real fast until they started up the walls because of centripedal forces.  Although those aren't gateways per se, they might inspire an alternative to the old "paint and light the bridge" idea.  Sorry I don't have any digital images.

I can't find a pic right now, but the overpass near the Jim Beam plant in Cincinnati (I-75) is really cool.  It has Cincinnati illuminated on it, and has a cool industrial look to it.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Cincinnati+Gateway+Bridge+I-75+&svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&safe=off

Miles Road, near Orange - going toward Chagrin Falls.

I'll hold back passing judgment on community - but the bridge is nice.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Cincinnati+Gateway+Bridge+I-75+&svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&safe=off

 

Or see here...

 

I thought I had a shot of the Miles bridge on Flickr and I found it.

Sorry for the size, but I want you to see the detail. It is stamped concrete.

 

There's a road overpass of I-77, coming into Akron from the northwest side. It was rebuilt with black-painted steel fencing (looks like wrought iron) with the word "Akron" on it. Simple, but classy looking.

 

Same thing with the Fleet Avenue bridge over I-77. Nice use of brick, decorative fencing and flags on it representing a number of Slavic nations.

 

Let me guess, you're working on design concepts for the railroad bridges over Euclid, Mayfield, Cedar and Fairhill in/near University Circle?

Thx for the help, with the pics, ColDay and Magyar!!!

There's a nice bridge over I-80/I-90/Indiana Toll Road on the west side of South Bend that really stands out.............kinda out in the middle of nowhere, so you can't miss it!  I can't find a pic of it online, sorry....................grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

the train bridge that welcomed you to east toledo is another example -- but i think they recently took it down.

  Areas such as Lindale, Brooklyn Hts, Newburgh Hts, Cuyahoga Hts, and Bratenahl are a joke in my opinion.  They should all be part of Cleveland proper!  What is even more disturbing is that Lindale and Bratenahl have no fire service, so the city of Cleveland provides the service for them.  I am allowed to risk life an limb in those communities, but not allowed to live there!  (Not that I could or would want to)  I wish Cleveland would try to put some pressure on these place to go the route Columbus does and annex.  It is a waste of services...police, fire, trash collection, etc etc...it is unfortunate.  I guess the biggest complaint that would come form all of this is being absorbed into the Cleveland school system.  (Brooklyn Hts, Cuyahoga Hts, Newburgh)

San Franciscans Hurl Their Rage at Parking Patrol

 

By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: New York Times January 6, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5 — It bears the hallmarks of a classic urban scourge: back-channel sales, assaults on enforcement officials and even death.

 

As the demand for parking spots grows, the city’s regulations become increasingly complex.

It is the price of parking in San Francisco.

 

Burdened with one of the densest downtowns in the country and a Californian love for moving vehicles, San Franciscans have been shocked in recent months by crimes related to finding places to park, including an attack in September in which a young man was killed trying to defend a spot he had found.

 

For remainder of article, see NYTimes [link unknown]

People need to chill out. I find a good way to do that is to leave the car at home and go for walk. Works every time.

reading a stroy like this makes you WANT to take public transportaton.  I didn't realize parking was at such a premium in San Fran.