== Bike-Walk Alliance of NH ==

February 2012: All Federally-funded bike-ped programs in trouble

If you bike or walk in New Hampshire, there is something on this Bike-Walk Alliance of NH web site that should be of interest to you! There is so much activity here in the Granite State involving biking and walking it is difficult to write about all of it. However, let's get started!

Highlights of February 2012 news follow:

"It's so much worse than we thought."

(by Jeff Miller, President and CEO, Alliance for Biking and Walking;
edits by Dave Topham, BWA-NH Director)

On January 31, the US House of Representatives released its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. We expected the bill to be bad news for biking and walking, but we didn't think it would go so far as to reverse all progress we've made over the past 20 years.

House leadership is exerting pressure to completely cut bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have gone through the bill, line-by-line, to gut programs that make streets safer. The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act:

-- Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
-- Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
-- Removes requirements for states to build bridges with safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
-- Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
-- Ensures rail trails will not qualify for any TE funds

Representative Tom Petri (R-WI) plans to stand up to leadership by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Rep. Petri can only be successful if everyone with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks, bikeways, and bike-ped programs contacts his or her Representative.

Even if we win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress. The "final showdown" will be in March, right after the LAB National Bike Summit. We will keep you posted with the latest developments. For live updates from the House floor and a summary including a video recording of each day, visit http://houselive.gov

February 7 update on transportation bill amendment: Thanks to DC politics, the amendment to restore bike-ped programs was defeated on a vote of 29 to 27. All Democratic representatives wanted the bike-ped programs while all but three Republican representatives wanted them deleted. We also heard the pressure applied to the three Republicans who "broke rank" and actually sponsored the favorable amendment took "a lot of heat" from the Republican House Leadership. This vote was not based on facts or what constituents wanted, loud and clear, but rather just another vote along party lines. We also read the House Leadership wants to tie passage of the entire transportation bill to approval of the Keystone XL $13 billion dollar pipeline planned to bring "sand oil" from Canada to Texas. (How does that work??)

Distracted driving awareness efforts continue with planning between BWA-NH, the Dartmouth Hospital Injury Prevention Center, and the Safety & Health Council of Northern New England. The program started last April when two distracted driving simulators were purchased via the NH Highway Safety Agency then loaned to various schools and driver education programs by the Dartmouth IPC. The feedback from users was so positive that two more simulators are expected to be purchased for IPC use this spring. Meanwhile, BWA-NH now owns a simulator which will be used for demos and training. The NH Department of Motor Vehicles has expressed an interest in having BWA-NH conduct demos at the annual Drivers Education Instructor's Conference in March. The simulators fit nicely into the National Safety Council driver training program. Additional public displays and demos are being planned as we do what we can to increase awareness proving that no one can safely drive and be playing with their electronic gadgets at the same time. Distracted drivers are one of the most serious hazards to bicyclists and pedestrians. Crashes are reported almost every week here in northern New England. Minor fines associated with anti-texting laws are usually only issued after a crash resulting in a serious injury or fatality. We need drivers to "hang up and drive" before the crash.

Did you know a driver just talking on a cell phone (hand-held or hands-free) is twice as impaired as someone legally drunk at the 0.8 level? And texting while driving equals four times the impairment of a drunk driver? Let's do what we can to stop the crashes caused by distracted driving before they happen, not just analyze cell phone records after a crash when someone, usually a bicyclist or pedestrian, is seriously injured or killed.

For more info about the Distracted Driver Simulator from Virtual Driver Interactive, please contact Dave Topham at the BWA-NH office, dave@bwanh.org, 603.898.9926. For an on-line overview of the V-Touch model simulator and the "One Simple Decision" software, please visit http://www.driverinteractive.com/osdtrailer.shtml .



Bike-ped access between Portsmouth NH and Kittery ME with the Memorial Bridge out of service for at least 18 months remains a "hot topic". Many bicycling organizations including BWA-NH are exploring the possibility of using the next-closest bridge, the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge on US Route 1 By-Pass, as the "relief valve" when in-season bike traffic along the seacoast is heavy. The bridge is 0.7 mile long between entrance/exit points, is 30-feet wide, has a smooth concrete deck including the lift span, has a posted 35 MPH speed limit, and is currently signed to restrict access by bicycles. Starting on January 9, a 12-passenger shuttle capable of carrying seven standard bikes was placed into service when the Memorial Bridge was permanently closed to bike-ped traffic. The hourly round trip, daily 5 am to 1 am, is presently meeting the local needs but certainly will be totally inadequate in-season when over 1,000 bicyclists per weekend day normally cross the river. Many ideas, concerns, and plans are being discussed between NH-DOT, Maine DOT, BWA-NH, Bicycle Coalition of Maine, East Coast Greenway Alliance, Seacoast Area Bike Routes, Eastern Trail Alliance, local Chambers of Commerce - and the list goes on. If the Sarah Long Bridge is deemed safe for bicyclists who know how to ride on the road (the bridge is not a playground for kids on bikes), then the shuttle service should be adequate for pedestrians, the disabled, and cyclists too inexperienced to ride in traffic. Several high-level meetings on this topic are scheduled for February - and BWA-NH will be there.

Details about the Memorial Bridge project may be viewed on the NH-DOT web site.

.

Left photo shows the 88-year-old Memorial Bridge to be dismantled
in January 2012. Right photo shows an engineering rendition of the new bridge
due to open in June 2013. Compare the lane widths of the new bridge
to the existing Sarah Long Bridge below.

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Views of the Sarah Long Bridge traveling south from Kittery to
Portsmouth. Note the 14-foot travel lanes and smooth pavement.
Bicyclists are presently restricted from using this bridge. Why?

Let's not forget about progress on rail trails!

Construction started on Methuen Rail Trail - Salem next! After years of working in the background to clear paperwork hurdles, on December 19 President Joyce Godsey and other members of the Methuen Rail Trail Alliance welcomed the Iron Horse Preservation Society (IHPS) to start construction of the rail trail along the old Boston and Maine Manchester-Lawrence corridor. The crew started at the Salem NH/Methuen MA town line and will develop the trail to Lawrence MA - and at no cost to the City of Methuen or anyone else. The rails will be "re-purposed" for distant projects, the ties trucked for safe disposal in Pennsylvania, the rail bed will be graded, a trestle will be decked, and a surface of "T-Pack" (recycled asphalt) will be applied. Work will continue through the winter as weather allows. Once this project is complete, the Salem Bike-Ped Corridor Committee working with the Southern NH Rail Trail Alliance hopes to obtain approval of NH-DOT to have IHPS start in Salem. Details are being resolved but the estimated start date in Salem is April 2012.

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Iron Horse Preservation Society starts work on the Methuen Rail Trail
along the Manchester & Lawrence corridor, December 19, 2011.

A new bridge under the Windham Rail Trail about 3/4 mile south of the Windham Depot parking lot was completed in December so the popular trail is now open for winter activities. Connectivity of two Spruce Pond housing developments required the new bridge construction which severed the trail for about two months.

With the Derry Rail Trail being paved from Bowers Road to Windham Depot, biking and walking on a paved surface is possible from downtown Derry at Hood Park to Roulston Road, Windham (behind Cyr Lumber Co.). The remaining unfinished 0.6 mile in Windham crosses the Route 111 bike-ped bridge and ends at the Salem line behind the Cycles Etc. bike shop where a new trail-side parking lot will be developed beside Route 28.

Londonderry Trailways is seeking to continue development of the Manchester-Lawrence rail trail corridor by having IHPS help build the very scenic section between Route 28 (Mammoth Road) and Harvey Road (adjacent to the Manchester Airport). Some obstacles must be addressed and overcome, most concerning paperwork and finances, not construction issues. While this section would not immediately connect to other paved sections of the M&L rail trail, it would serve as a useful trail unto itself for bike commuters living along Mammoth Road and Route 28 going to work on Harvey Road and other companies adjacent to the airport.

From Lawrence to Manchester, there is a lot of progress underway on rail trail development with the obvious goal of connecting all sections as envisioned in 2003 by the NH-DOT "Rizzo Study" for the Salem-Concord Bikeway.

Bicycling Education programs being scheduled

Classroom and on-bike training for elementary school students continues, mostly under local Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant programs. An adult-level "Train the Trainers" program offered by BWA-NH to train and certify school phys-ed teachers, coaches, nurses, and other staff members to become LAB "Bicycling 1-2-3 Youth Instructors" so they can conduct LAB-designed bike-ed courses year after year in their schools for grades 4 and 5 is being implemented. The most recent training sessions were held in Warner and Pembroke with Pittsfield and Concord scheduled for the spring. This "TTT" program is funded by a SRTS grant to BWA-NH therefore it is free for the schools on a first-come, first served basis. Please contact the BWA-NH office for details: info@bwanh.org, 603.898.9926.

Looking Ahead: We encourage all interested parties, cyclists or not, to speak up in favor of improved bike-ped policies, education, and facilities. GSW members can renew their membership for just $20.00 more than the basic GSW rate of $15.00 if they wish to help financially with a tax deductible donation as our organization is 501(c)(3) certified. To upgrade from GSW to BWA-NH status, please make checks payable to "BWA-NH" as this automatically includes your full GSW membership. Check out the membership page on this web site.

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