Williston Road in South Burlington, Vermont, is a quintessential car-centric conundrum: four vehicle lanes with no space for bikes and no sidewalk, yet it\u2019s one of the city\u2019s central links. Indeed, the thruway needs a full redesign, but money shortages, politics and red tape can quickly throw that vision into limbo.<\/p>\n\n

Is there a way around these roadblocks?<\/p>\n\n<\/p>Jason Van Driesche, Director of \u00a0Director of Advocacy & Education at\u00a0Local Motion<\/a>, a statewide transportation advocacy group,\u00a0shared promising opportunities in his presentation, \u201cBetter Biking Now: Quick and Easy Wins Using Nothing but Paint\u201d at The New England Bike Walk Summit<\/b><\/a> hosted by the <\/b>East Coast Greenway Alliance<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>on Thursday, September 24^{th<\/sup> at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.<\/b><\/p>\n\n}

Here\u2019s what the folks at Local Motion figured out: Vehicle lanes on many Vermont roads are 13 to 14 feet wide. In reality, 10 or 11 feet is sufficient. Since restriping happens regularly, the organization is working with public works departments to ensure the lines land a few feet closer to the center of the road. The result is a substantially wider shoulder that serves as a temporary bike lane.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no policy or ordinance or standard that stands in the way of what we\u2019re promoting,\u201d Van Driesche says. \u201cIt\u2019s simply a matter of compiling a list and getting the department of public works to make its implementation a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The approach isn\u2019t confined to restriping. At intersections, where critical markings usually disappear, streets departments have been encouraged to extend green paint and add bike boxes and sharrows.<\/p>\n\n

Of course changing the markings is not the same as building separated bike lanes, street bump outs, and the other physical elements. But it\u2019s a step. Alongside these efforts, Local Motion is working on several social campaigns, including one that tags lawmakers with direct citizen concerns. In the process they\u2019re proving effective advocacy doesn\u2019t have to follow a formula.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe see it as a continuum of support.” Van Driesche says. “You get people engaged on the small term stuff that you can deliver on, people get excited, and then you build momentum towards the bigger tougher stuff that\u2019s a heavier lift.\u201d<\/p>\n\nImage Credit: Grand Canyon National Park on Flickr<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williston Road in South Burlington, Vermont, is a quintessential car-centric conundrum: four vehicle lanes with no space for bikes and no sidewalk, yet it\u2019s one of the city\u2019s central links. Indeed, the thruway needs a full redesign, but money shortages, politics and red tape can quickly throw that vision into limbo. Is there a way around these roadblocks? Jason Van … Continue reading “The Simple Way This Organization Makes Streets More Bike Friendly”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle-advocacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}