2/16/10 - The Kodiak Daily Mirror
reports on a recent public meeting to gauge public interest and allow comment on the forthcoming
Kodiak, AK trail master plan. Winter and snow recreational users dominate the meeting with special interests unique to the Alaskan environment.
See the full article here.2/16/10 - The Waterbury, CT Republican-American ran
this story about Alta Principal Jeff Olson's presentation of the final plan for the Waterbury/Naugatuck River Greenway. The plan aims to convert 7-miles of riverfront property to a network of greenways between Derby and Torrington.
A later article goes on to explain the greenway study report in more detail. Among the benefits are public health and aesthetics as well as providing an opportunity to clean up contaminated post-industrial sites.
2/15/10 - Quick Release, bicycling newsletter for the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition,
released this article about Santa Maria City Council's approval of an updated city Bikeway Master Plan developed by Alta. The article mentions that while the city planning commission unanimously approved the updated plan it didn't receive full support from city council, citing certain conflicts of interest. The US Census Bureau show that the percentage of bicycle commuters to jobs in Santa Maria has doubled from 0.9% in 2000 to 1.8% in 2008. That's four times the US average, and twice the California average.
Read the full article here.2/15/10 - The City of Milwaukie, Oregon has initiated early phases of their
Bikeway Signage Plan by installing new bicycle wayfinding signs.
Bikeportland.org reports on the new signs going up around the small town and the story of how they came to be. The signage plan, adopted by Milwaukie city council in 2007, was developed by Alta. Benefits of such a bikeway identification system may include: helping to familiarize users with the bikeway system; helping users identify the best routes to significant destinations; helping to address misperceptions about time and distance when traveling by bicycle; and helping to overcome a “barrier to entry” for people who do not bicycle often, but who want to get started.
See the story here for more details about the Milwaukie plan and implementation.
2/15/10 - "Easley citizens approve of the city’s move toward becoming more bicycle friendly," says the Easley, South Carolina Progress
in an article about the city council's recent vote to hire Alta to develop their Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.
Alta Southeast Office Manager John Cock presented a range of possibilities for city transportation redesigns that could make the community more accessible to non-motorized travelers. Among the improvements are a citywide walkway and bikeway network and a major greenway to facilitate neighborhood to downtown connections. For more details about the city's goals and Alta's involvement, Greenville Online ran the story '
Easley to take small steps in bike, walking plan rollout' and Your Pickens County published '
Easley’s future could be built on pedestrian and bike paths.'
2/3/10 -
Alta Principal Mia Birk contributed
a column to The Oregonian on Portland, Oregon's 2030 Bicycle Master Plan Update. She recalls the reasons she believes strongly in promoting bicycling as a safe and healthy form of transportation in the city and describes her investment in the development of the plan as co-chair of the steering committee. In the article she states "With a goal of having a quarter of Portlanders using bicycles for daily transportation, it's a pro-livability, pro-health and pro-sustainability plan. It won't force anyone to change his or her transportation habits. It will simply make bicycling more irresistible."
Alta Programs Director Jessica Roberts joined Mia on February 2nd on Portland's
KBOO Radio Bike Show to discuss the forthcoming plan as well. You can
read the full Oregonian column here and
listen to the radio show on the Bike Show archive page.
1/26/10 -
The Missoulian reports that, for the first time since 2003, Missoula, Montana will resume counting bicycle and pedestrian travelers. This data is important in shaping the city's planning, especially as it affects updating the Missoula Active Transportation Plan. The data collected will be contributed to the
National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project operated by ITE and Alta. For more information on Missoula's counting approach,
check out the article. For information about the NBPDP, visit
http://bikepeddocumentation.org/
1/26/10 - On January 19th, Jeff Olson presented "Moving Buffalo Forward: The Value of Creating a Bicycle Friendly Community" to the Buffalo City Forum. The presentation was broadcast live on WNED-AM and a recording is
available on their website. You can also download Jeff's presentation slideshow from our
Presentations page or directly by
clicking here (2MB PDF).
1/11/10 - Alta planner and Boston office manager
Phil Goff contributed
this article to Bikeportland.org explaining the 12-year effort to improve bikeability and walkability across Portland, Oregon's Morrison Bridge. While Goff no longer lives in Portland, his Alta Portland based co-workers are excited to see this important connection between Southeast and Southwest Portland re-open to bicycles and pedestrians with a much safer and friendlier approach to moving people across the river on their daily commutes. Goff's passion for non-motorized transportation access continues today as part of
Alta's East Coast team of professionals.
1/7/10 -
Alta Principal Jeff Olson will address the Buffalo City Forum, a community speaker series produced by WNED-AM 970 and Leadership Buffalo, later this month. The hour-long program about enhancing community development and quality of life though bicycling will be broadcast live on WNED-AM at 1 p.m. EST on January 19th.
Buffalo Rising discusses Jeff's history in the area and what to expect from the presentation. Learn more at
WNED.org and listen live anywhere in the world by
streaming the program on here.
12/24/09 -
Greenville News reports on Alta's progress in developing the
Easley, South Caroline Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan. Read more on the report and how Alta project manager
John Cock is hoping to make Easley a safer place for people to walk and bike
in this article.
12/9/09 -
Cities for Cycling, a project to catalog, promote and implement the world’s best bicycle transportation practices in American municipalities has been launched by the
National Association of City Transportation Officials. We're excited about this effort by the nation's cities to make best practices a top priority. The City of Portland has features information on the formation of Cities for Cycling
in this article including the October 2009 meeting hosted by Alta that helped kick off this coalition. Learn more about the Cities for Cycling project on
their website and catch press
coverage of the announcement on StreetsBlog.
12/2/09 - Counts and surveys show a substantial increase in bicycle and pedestrian traffic in Marin County, California. The
Marin Independent Journal ran this story about results of the most recent report from the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Pilot Program encouraging non-motorized transportation in the area. Weekday bicycling rates have increased 118 in the past decade and the number of pedestrians has risen 51 percent in the same period. Alta is proud to be part of the pilot program by operating the
Way to Go personal travel planning campaign, connecting the community through events and
walkbikemarin.org, and conducting the counts and surveys to monitor these achievements.
See the article to learn more about our most recent report.
12/3/09 -
Alta Principal Mia Birk explains
Bicycle Boulevards to StreetFilms.
This short story introduces the concept of bike boulevards, explains how and why they're catching on in the United States, and features several unique boulevard designs from around the country. Mia explains a few of the features and best practices of successful boulevards, the same approaches discussed in the
Bicycle Boulevard Planning & Design Guidebook published earlier this year. Contrasted in the documentary are New York's bike routes which don't feature the same level of traffic calming and bicycle safety improvements and have seen less success in promoting comfortable cycling. See the video and read the full story at
StreetFilms' "Bicycle Boulevards for NYC".
