{"id":91141,"date":"2021-03-24T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcity.org\/daily\/entry\/new-road-policies-two-states-people-cars-first"},"modified":"2021-03-24T13:42:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T13:42:00","slug":"new-road-policies-in-two-states-put-people-not-cars-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/24\/new-road-policies-in-two-states-put-people-not-cars-first\/","title":{"rendered":"New Road Policies in Two States Put People, Not Cars, First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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A bike lane in Boston. New Massachusetts standards require state road projects to include bikeways and pedestrian facilities. (Photo by Dylan Passmore<\/a> \/ CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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Welcome to \u201cThe Mobile City,\u201d our weekly roundup of newsworthy transportation developments.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n

Ever since the dawn of the Good Roads Movement, highway engineers have designed both rural roads and urban thoroughfares with one goal uppermost: moving as many cars as possible as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This is a fine goal if what you want to build is a freeway, and those should be designed exclusively for the safety and comfort of the motorist. But what works for a controlled-access highway actually makes things more dangerous for users of a city street or boulevard. Many of the crashes people blame on inattentive pedestrians or bike riders could be avoided by designing the road so cars don\u2019t go down it so fast, or designing it so that pedestrians and bicyclists get equal treatment with automobiles.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Two states are taking steps to implement this different approach to designing and managing roads. In Massachusetts, new rules require state highway engineers to incorporate facilities for pedestrians, wheelchair users, and mass transit patrons as basic components of highway construction projects, and Virginia legislators are considering a bill that would let the state\u2019s cities and counties set speed limits as low as 15 miles per hour in commercial and residential districts.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile, on the transit front, Los Angeles has become the first big city to completely restore bus service to pre-pandemic levels after rider advocacy groups petitioned the local transit authority to undo cuts in the wake of unexpectedly good revenue news.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

New Road Design Rules in Massachusetts Put People First<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The reason your local state highway looks like it does is because it\u2019s designed in accordance with a set of \u201ccontrolling criteria\u201d \u2014 specifications that set minimum standards for things like lane widths, curvature, changes in grade, and the like. In effect at the federal level since 1985, these criteria produce roads that are safe \u2014 for motorists traveling rapidly down them. (To be fair, some of the criteria apply only to high-speed highways.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n

What these rules don\u2019t take into account, however, are the needs and safety of the non-motorized traffic on them \u2014 that is, people riding bikes, on scooters, in wheelchairs or on foot. Streetsblog Mass <\/span>reports<\/a> that for a year now, that\u2019s not been the case in Massachusetts. New rules adopted in January 2020 by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) require state road reconstruction projects to include high-quality bikeways and ADA-accessible pedestrian facilities. In addition, projects affecting transit routes must also include bus shelters, crosswalks and transit-priority infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n

Specifically, the criteria require:<\/span><\/p>\n\n