The race will kick off from PostOfficePlazaat 815 Locust St.in downtown St. Louisat 4:30 p.m. with a welcome from a representative of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s office who will give the official signal to start the race.  From there, the members of TEAM TRANSIT will board MetroLink at the 8^th and Pine station; TEAM CARSHARE will run to pick up its WeCar parked at 10^th andWashington, and TEAM BIKE will run to the Downtown Bike Station to pick up their bikes. Each of the teams will then travel via their respective modes to the finish line, which will be located at C.J. Muggs in downtown Clayton. At the finish line, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley will be on hand to present an award to the winning team and deliver closing remarks.

Members of all three teams will consist of local media personalities and other influential St. Louisans. Confirmed TEAM TRANSIT members are Kevin The Intern from the Phillips & Company Morning Show on Y98-FM; reporter Heidi Glaus from KSDK NewsChannel 5; reporter Nate Birt from the Clayton-Richmond Heights Patch online news publication and Kim Cella, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit. Members of TEAM BIKE will include anchor Kevin Steincross from KTVI FOX 2 News and Ann Mack, Executive Director of Trailnet; while TEAM CARSHARE will include Don Corrigan, editor-in-chief of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, South County Times and West End Word newspapers; Tony Moise, Vice President and General Manager of the Saint Louis Operating Group for Enterprise Holdings and Steve Salemi, Airport Market Manager for Enterprise Holdings.

“Regardless of who wins, our goal with this event is to promote the education and expanded use of the St. Louis Metro area’s transit system, as well as other viable alternative modes, and we think people just might be surprised to see which mode ends up coming out on top,” said Kim Cella, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit.

The public is invited and encouraged to rally behind their favorite team by “liking” the TEAM TRANSIT, TEAM BIKE or TEAM CARSHARE pages on Facebook. Links to the pages can be found on CMT’s website at www.cmt-stl.org or via CMT’s Facebook page.  Special team t-shirts will also be available for sale soon at http://stl-style.com.

In addition to supporting their favorite team on Facebook, the public is invited to wear their team colors and cheer on their favorite team at the race kick-off event at Post Office Plaza, or meet up with their favorite team at the finish line at C.J. Muggs. CMT, Trailnet and WeCar byEnterprisewill host a finish line party from  5 to 6:30 p.m. The event will feature food, refreshments and an appearance from the Y98 prize van and Y98 staffers who will be on hand with games and prizes. Those attending the finish line party in support of the winning team will also be entered into a raffle for the chance to win a special prize package featuring items specific to the winning transportation mode.

The Great Race and all of CMT’s “Make Your Move on Metro in May” events are supported by the St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership. To learn more about the Great Race and the other events scheduled for May, visit www.cmt-stl.org, find Citizens for Modern Transit on Facebook or follow them on Twitter @cmt_stl.

Citizens for Modern Transit is a not-for-profit organization in St. Louis whose mission is to expand the light rail system in order to build more sustainable, accessible communities in the region. 

Perez is the founder of ELP Advisors LLC, who previously served as the executive director of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Los Angeles District Council and the vice president of development for Forest City Development where she focused on transit oriented development. Her diverse background in private real estate development, transportation policy and urban planning, has enabled her to emerge as one of the most articulate and credible advocates promoting the responsible use of land and transportation.

“We are thrilled to have Katherine Perez joining us for an insightful discussion on a topic critical to moving transit oriented development forward in our region,” commented Kim Cella, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit. “This luncheon will kick off a series of events set for May designed to highlight the ways St. Louisans can make their move on Metro.”

Those interested in attending the “Let’s Build Around Light Rail” luncheon can register online at www.cmt-stl.org or mail their payment to CMT at 911 Washington Ave., Ste. 200, St. Louis, MO 63101. Seating is limited and reservations will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. CMT is hosting this event in partnership with the City of St. Louis and the Mayor’s Sustainability Summit II. Sponsors include HDR Engineering; Fred Weber, Inc.; Metro, and Musick Construction Company. All of CMT’s “Make Your Move on Metro in May” events are supported by the St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership.

To learn more about the upcoming luncheon and the other events scheduled for May, visit www.cmt-stl.org, find Citizens for Modern Transit on Facebook or follow them on Twitter @cmt_stl

Citizens for Modern Transit is a not-for-profit organization in St. Louis whose mission is to expand the light rail system in order to build more sustainable, accessible communities in the region. 

The rebuilding of the Grand Boulevard bridge over the Mill Creek Valley will be done soon. It is scheduled to reopen some time this summer, maybe as early as June. Roger Allison, chief engineer of the design division for the city’s Board of Public Service, emailed me the signing and striping plans for the new bridge (here is a second link to the road sections). The current plan is to stripe six-foot shoulders on the new bridge, which would someday become road-edge (or “gutter”) bike lanes. Bike lanes are not due to be striped immediately, because there are no bike lanes at either end of the new bridge.

Here’s hoping that the City of St. Louis will never put bike lanes on the bridge!  For a whole host of reasons, segregated bike lanes are not the best or safest solution to encourage cycling on arterial roadways. Earlier this week I sent Roger a letter, explaining why, and offering ideas for alternatives:

Thank you for forwarding the signing and striping plans for the Grand Viaduct reconstruction. After reviewing, my request is this: Rather than creating segregated infrastructure for bicyclists on the new Grand Viaduct, would the City of St. Louis consider using integrated solutions instead?

Before offering solutions, I’d like to review the issues with segregated, or curbside/”gutter” bike lanes on arterial roadways:

• On a road where vehicles typically travel 35 mph or faster, motor vehicles push trash and debris into road-edge bike lanes, making them dangerous to use
• Curbside bike lanes present conflicts at intersections between motorists and cyclists. For example, motorists may need to turn right while cyclists are going straight, or cyclists moving ahead in a bike lane may be screened by slower-moving motor vehicles and therefore may not be seen by oncoming left-turning motorists
• When bike lanes end, cyclists often do not know how to safely re-integrate with other traffic
• There is the cultural pressure of having to use a bike lane, even when it forces cyclists to ride dangerously close to fast-moving vehicles, or may be debris-strewn, or may not the best lane to serve one’s destination. Once a roadway is striped with a bike lane, fellow road users may not understand and may take offense when cyclists must leave that bike lane (to avoid an obstacle or intersection conflict, or to make a left turn)

Advocates mistakenly think that the mere presence of a bike lane on an arterial roadway will reduce motor vehicle speeds on that roadway. This is not true. Here is a link to an article with data from the Institute of Traffic Engineers reviewing this idea, as well as local “on the ground” experience. In fact, a bike lane on an arterial roadway is more likely to make cyclists in that bike lane irrelevant to motorists.

What to do? I am not an engineer—just a user!—so have copied Paul Wojciechowski, the engineer behind the St. Louis Bicycle Master Plan. We are fortunate in St. Louis to have Paul, because he understands the inherent flaws of on-road bike lane design (though he also must have the thankless position of hearing the loudest clamoring for such facilities).

It would be safest for all users if the City would discard the idea of striping bike lanes on the new Grand Viaduct, and instead stripe the bridge with one extra-wide lane in each direction. For example, where two lanes in each direction are proposed to be 12 feet wide each, with a six-foot bike lane on the edge of the road, stripe instead as 12/18 (with one lane that is 12 feet wide and one lane that is 18 feet wide). The section where there are to be “12/15″ lanes, stripe instead as “11/16.” This would allow sufficient passing clearance, and result in the collection of far less debris at the edge of the roadway.

It is my understanding that traffic engineers are reluctant to stripe 16′ and wider lanes, because they can end up functioning as two lanes. In reality, this does not happen. For visual evidence, see “Four Faces of Orange Avenue.” Orange Avenue is an arterial in Orlando, FL. (We have no streets that compare exactly, but Orange Avenue probably is best described as being similar to our Market Street if it somehow morphed into Kingshighway as it left Downtown.) A 19-foot-wide lane begins at 1:55 in the video. Motorists do not double up in wide lanes because they are not comfortable driving inches from each other’s vehicles, especially when large vehicles like trucks and busses use the road. Ironically, motorists have no problem driving that close to cyclists who are in a bike lane, as this video also shows.

I also understand that political pressure may be too great to *not* stripe special bicycle facilities on the new bridge. In this case, the best tools of which I am aware that would be appropriate for the Grand Viaduct are shared lane markings (“sharrows”) and the white information signs approved by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Design: “Bicycles Allowed Full Use of Lane – Changes Lanes To Pass.”

Perhaps Paul is aware of other solutions that will not violate what should be the First Commandment for 21st Century traffic engineers:

Thou Shalt Not Create Conflict Between Cyclists & Motorists.

Yesterday I was in the right of two “through” lanes riding across Vandeventer at Lindell. Once I crossed the intersection I moved right, to avoid going over the metal plate pictured here. These plates seem to be all over the Central West End right now, and they are no fun to ride over. But next time I will keep my place in traffic, and roll over the metal plate like everyone else. By moving right yesterday, I inadvertently became a gutter bunny, and this was a real shocker, as other traffic started whizzing by within a few feet of me.

Over the years I have become accustomed to using the lane that best serves my destination, like every other driver. I truly had forgotten what it is like to ride on the right edge of a roadway, “sharing” a lane with other vehicles. It’s terrifying! And revelatory: No wonder more people don’t use bikes for transportation, if they mistakenly think that’s where they should be on the road.

Tell me, do you really want to “share” this lane? I don’t!

When cyclists behave and are treated as equal users of our public roadways, it is both amazing and gratifying how well it works.

Congratulations to Martin Pion for a fine article in today’s St. Louis Beacon!

Martin Pion demonstrates cycling savvy on Lafayette Ave. at South Grand Boulevard

This is a delightful holiday gift: On-road bicycle infrastructure that conveys a message of equality for all. These regulation-sized sharrows are on every block of the Cherokee Street business district. Thank you, City of St. Louis! This is the only message that can work on the New South Grand…

Bill has amazing strength! Meanwhile, we weaker mortals should probably stick with panniers, trailers or Big Dummies.

My grocery bag panniers are ready for service

Why not extend this sidewalk to Bellerive Road for the dozens of people who use it daily?

While waiting for the train, I watched a woman push a baby carriage up the steep rocky hill to the sidewalk to the train platform. I wanted to take a photo of her doing it, but frankly didn’t know how she would respond if she saw a stranger taking a photo of her. So I took the photo above after she struggled up the hill. And then the train came.

Is this a good idea that nobody has proposed to UMSL‘s powers-that-be yet? I hope so!