Voice

Drop this one into the ‘duh’ category, but research is now supporting the long-held notion that biking is good for individual and community health. Last week, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published findings from a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin on the economic and health benefits of switching from a car to a bike for trips shorter than five miles long in 11 metropolitan areas around the upper Midwest.

Researchers found that if inhabitants of the sample region switched to bikes for half of their short trips, they’d create a net societal health benefit of $3.5 billion per year from the increase in air quality and $3.8 billion in savings from smaller health care costs associated with better fitness and fewer mortalities from a decreased rate of car accidents.

Thanks to the good people at GOOD for highlighting the study.

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…a meeting (yes, another meeting) to help the City of Omaha plan how it approaches its transportation planning efforts. While your initial reaction might be, “look, it’s easy to get around in Omaha and the bus system will never work”, this is about much more than buses, streetcars, vehicles, bikes and rickshaws. When it comes down to it, it’s about how our City develops and whether or not we’re creating the kind of city that lends itself towards a mix of transportation modes rather than one (the car).

Details of this important discussion about how we’ll prioritize our money going forward:
Thursday, September 15, 2011
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine Street

You should get your toosh to this meeting if you:

• are you interested in promoting a city that is walkable, affordable, clean, sustainable and breathable
• feel that how we allocate money to transportation these days is way out of whack and a little more should go towards bikers, bus riders and walkers.
• have ever paid for gas, expensive gas, and thought, “man I wish I didn’t have to drive so much”.
• would like to see Omaha show up on the list of the 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation
• appreciate neighborhoods like Dundee, Benson, South 24th Street and Midtown Crossing and would like to see more of them develop
• have a pulse

In addition to setting the City’s transportation priorities, planners will also preview their first street design guidelines.

Come check it out. Seriously. It’s sort of an important meeting. And you just might catch a glimpse of our favorite council member or the coolest aspiring U.S. senator.

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We partnered with Mode>Shift>Omaha on this op-ed that ran today. Here’s to smart planning for all Omahans…even those without a car!

The Omaha World Herald’s Editors missed an opportunity to productively participate in Omaha’s on-going transportation dialog with its July 15 editorial, “Be careful, Big Brother”. Rather than thoughtfully weighing in on the issue of Omaha’s transportation future, the Herald unnecessarily based its position on what cities across an ocean have done; an unfair comparison. We would have wanted to see the editorial address the facts facing Omaha rather than setting a European strawman ablaze.

While the editorial was correct in identifying that the Bill of Rights protects individuals from government intruding on private decisions, transportation is an issue of public concern, requiring public investment. The 2010 Nebraska Driver’s Manual refers to driving as a privilege, not a right, over a dozen times.  In truth, our continued focus on car-only streets limits a non-driving citizens’ freedom to travel, to work, or to engage in commerce. Our current car-centric transportation system is a greater infringement upon individual rights and private choice than complete street designs or congestion fees ever could be.

Smart transportation and urban planning seek to provide a broader array of choices, and not issue mandates. Currently, the only way to effectively get around most of Omaha is by car, and many Omahans can’t afford one, let alone the insurance, gas and maintenance that accompany car ownership. According to AAA, the average annual cost of car ownership is more than $8,000. Without viable alternative modes of transportation, that cost of ownership becomes a de facto tax. Under our present-day transportation system, these citizens, along with many others who would prefer effective mass transit, are compelled to own a car or suffer limited access to opportunities.

The role of the car in the United States’ transportation system has expanded for decades. Expanding roads demand more and more space and make it harder for walkers, bikers and bus-riders to safely and conveniently move about. Consequently, pollution has increased, obesity rates have skyrocketed, sprawl has dominated, and citizens and cities alike are poorer because of it.

If we continue to cater our planning efforts towards the car, we may be subject to the same struggles many poorly planned urban cities are experiencing: a dwindling population and giant swaths of vacant land. Now, we see the pendulum swinging back with urban developments like Aksarben Village, North Downtown, and Midtown Crossing. This type of density is critical to an active transportation network in which all Omahans are free to choose among many transportation options.

An active and diversified transportation network will mean healthier and wealthier Omahans. It will mean cleaner air and more green space. It will mean stronger local businesses with more sustainable regional economic growth. And our city will be safer and more accessible for children, the elderly, disabled, and anyone that leaves their home. It will mean citizens can still drive a car, but they can also choose other safe, convenient, and healthier ways to get around.

Undoubtedly this is an important discussion for our community; we are all stakeholders. We encourage all Omahans to learn about and get involved in the process. The decisions being made today will impact several generations to come. They are not decisions to be taken lightly and require the involvement of all citizens and the Omaha World Herald.

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The City’s process for updating the transportation master plan (TMP) is continuing to truck along, and there are two key opportunities for those interested to get engaged.

First, the goals for the plan have been proposed and planners are looking for citizen feedback.  If you have thoughts, please visit click on the links below to share your thoughts.  They are looking for all thoughts and comments by this Friday, 2/11.  From our perspective, we have strongly encouraged planners to explicitly list a goal surrounding social equity.  We have seen far too many examples of the City’s disadvantaged populations essentially unable to move about our great city because they don’t own or have access to an automobile.

Here are the goals as they currently stand:

• Enhance Mobility
• Safe and Balanced Options
• Facilitate Public Health
• Maintain Fiscal Sustainability
• Strive for Enviornmental Stability
• Connect Neighborhoods
• Create Livable Places for all Citizens
• Vote for your top two TMP Goals

Please click on each goal above to provide comments. A new window will open to Google Moderator and you can click on ”Submit an idea” or “View Ideas”.  The last link will also bring you to Google Moderator. Please click on that link and vote for your top two goals.

Secondly,  there is a Transportation Master Plan Stakeholder Committee Meeting (Representing the Citizens of Omaha) on Wednesday February 9^th, 2011 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the Neighborhood Center (115 South 49th Avenue).  If you are free and willing, please consider attending.  Apologies on the short notice.

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The City of Omaha kicked off its effort to update the transportation element of its master plan today (Tuesday, 11/16).  We were pretty impressed with the turnout at the kickoff meeting at Mammel Hall and were equally excited about the kinds of ideas that were being discussed.  The best quote we heard from the consultant during the evening: ”There’s one city that’s solved their traffic congestion problem entirely…Detroit.  Everyone moved out and there’s no problem with traffic in Detroit anymore.”

Those leading the initiative are in search of more folks that will be involved on a more intimate level throughout the process.  The most important opportunity for further involvement is as a “stakeholder”.  Stakeholders will be engaged in more detailed discussions throughout 4 – 6 meetings over the course of the next year and are asked to commit to engaged involvement. If you’re passionate about making Omaha a more pedestrian-friendly city, sign up to be a stakeholder.

This is an initiative with a lot of potential.  We’ll stay closely involved as it unfolds (two VOICE steering committee members are on the steering committee) and will keep you all abreast of developments.

But don’t wait on us.  Get involved today.  And don’t say nobody has asked you.

More information can be found at the City’s newly released website:  http://www.cityofomaha.org/tmplan/home

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Several months ago VOICE led a petition drive that asked planners to reconsider the beltway.  You will be pleased to know that we haven’t lost all those signatures.  Better yet, now is the perfect time to dust them off and drop them in front of Omaha’s planners.

The next step for the beltway was its inclusion in the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency’s (MAPA) 2035 long range transportation plan.  MAPA is currently working its way through a series of public participation meetings that are intended to solicit public feedback on their 2035 plan.  And we bet our bottom dollar that these sessions are sparsely attended, which provides us an opportunity to influence the direction of the plan.

We’re pulling together our petition information as we speak and will be sharing that with MAPA and several other entities that can impact the City’s urban development.  As it comes together, we’ll let you know.

But we encourage everyone to attend one of MAPA’s public participation meetings.  If you can’t make it to a meeting, please send MAPA your thoughts via email at LRTP@mapacog.org.

Remaining public meetings (all are from 4:30 – 6:30 pm) on the 2035 plan are as follows:

November 16 – Neighborhood Center at 115 S 49th Ave
November 17 – Council Bluffs Public Library at 400 Willow Ave
December 2 – South Omaha Metropolitan Community College Campus, Library conference room

For more information, see the DRAFT 2035 Transportation Plan and MAPA’s informational brochure.

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The two-year effort to create an environmental element to the City of Omaha’s master plan has passed its first test.  On a 7 – 0 vote, the Omaha Planning Board recommended approval of the Environment Omaha final document on October 6.  Next up will be a visit to the Omaha City Council later this year.  We’ll be keeping an eye out and will let you know when it’s time to start contacting your City Council representatives.

To learn more about the Environment Omaha initiative, visit their website.  Pressed for time?  Here’s a two-pager that gives a great overview.

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If asked some of your favorite cities to visit, many of you will mention places like New York, D.C. or Chicago. One of the common threads that links those cities is good, safe, functional public transportation. When you’re in New York, hopping on a bus or the subway is commonplace; you often find yourself traveling comfortably with the masses from to one location to the next. But when you return home to Omaha, how often do you consider using anything other than your vehicle to get around town?

Omaha is a city that is almost entirely dependent on personal vehicles. Not only do we rely on our four wheels to take us everywhere around town, we are almost always alone in them. The next time you’re standing at a major intersection, especially during rush hour, take a few moments to see how many drivers are alone. The answer, you’ll find, is pretty much everyone.

Despite the number of Omahans who currently get around town in personal vehicles, demand for better public transportation is increasing. On a national level, the Obama Administration has placed a high priority on complete streets and public transportation. Locally, $7.8 million in national stimulus funds was used to purchase 24 new buses for Omaha’s fleet, all of which were rolled out this past Monday.  In conjunction with that rollout, the Metro Area Transit also announced an exciting new branding campaign, complete with a more user-friendly website and plans to incorporate wi-fi into many of its buses.

While a new brand and an updated website might be seen like an empty a gesture towards making concrete improvements to Omaha’s public transportation system, it’s a significant symbolic step and a great starting point. When the Young Professionals Council conducted the YP Bus Challenge in the spring/summer of 2009, they found that many people who had intentions of using the system were thwarted from doing so because the “on-boarding” process was so archaic and cumbersome.  By streamlining the process and making it more user-friendly, new users will hopefully take the actual step of hopping on a bus for the first time.

Is Omaha’s Metro bus system perfect?  Absolutely not. There are undoubtedly ways to improve the system both in the short and long-term.  Unfortunately public transportation funding at a state level in Nebraska is among the worst. After all, we are the only state with a “Department of Roads” — rather than a “Department of Transportation.” And given the state’s current fiscal crunch, we shouldn’t anticipate an influx of funding to Metro anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean improvements can’t occur.

Improving Omaha’s transportation system starts with increased ridership. Increased demand will require increased attention from local authorities. That means those of us who commonly complain about bus service, but never use it, should buy a bus ticket, get on, and give it a try. Yes, it takes some planning. And yes, it might increase the length of your trip. But the benefits outweigh the costs in most cases.

Let’s stop having the chicken/egg conversation and waiting for the system to “be fixed” before trying it out.  Visit www.ometro.com, plan a trip and take it.  It won’t hurt, we promise.  In fact, you might actually enjoy it.

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Have you been to www.passthepotatoes.com yet?  If not, you’re missing out on an excellent opportunity to help make Omaha a cleaner, greener and healthier city.

Passthepotatoes is the online town hall venue soliciting, vetting and prioritizing ideas to green Omaha.  Idea generation has already occurred in two of five categories.  Natural Environment kicked off the process and voting has since closed with a a 5 cent plastic bag tax garnering the most votes.  Good idea?  Bad idea?

Voting is currently underway in the Urban Form & Transportation category with several cool ideas on the table.  Buses and bikes and trains, oh my!  And while you’re there voting, share an idea related to Building Construction, the most recent category seeking your ideas.

It’s time to stop complaining and start participating.

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On Wednesday, August 4th at 5:30 pm, join the organizers from Omaha by Design at Slowdown as they present information on the outreach and development of the Environment Omaha document. Among other things, Omaha by Design is responsible for Environment Omaha efforts as well as Pass the Potatoes. Environment Omaha is the initiative to add an environmental element to the City of Omaha Master Plan. Pass the Potatoes is a great way to get involved (from the comfort of your couch) in Omaha’s efforts to become a more sustainable community.  You can chime in with your original ideas, or show support for ideas that others have submitted. Please join Omaha by Design on Wednesday night to learn more!

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