This blog is now dead. Click here to see the new Traffic Talk (I’ve posted on the new one all of the posts for March). Bookmark the new one, because I won’t be posting here anymore.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Jared

I’ve been delaying the changeover long enough, and now our tech guy has given me an ultimatum, which I don’t really remember but I think was the end of this week (correct me if I’m wrong, Matt).

I’m going to start double posting posts from here onto the new blog. For you all, there won’t be a huge difference. It’ll still generally look like this, and it should be easy to use.

Government and Politics Reporter Sam Taylor is already using the new Word Press software for his new blog. Click here to see his.

What the changeover does mean is that you may have to dig to access some old posts. I’ll try to post back for a couple of months, at least. But I may have to set up a link in a post to access the old blog.

This new software should make it easier and quicker to post photos, video and other media.

What do you think?

Kona Bicycles, a bicycle manufacturer, won a silver prize and Logos won an honorable mention prize in the 2009 Bicycle Friendly Business awards from the League of American Bicyclists.

Click here to see more.

I don’t know much about Kona, but I know that Logos actually has its own bike shop where employees can take their bikes for repairs.

Here is a list of the local agency projects that are funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The list represents 147 projects covering communities across the state.

The state Department of Transportation has included a map of where the local street project are located that are being funded with federal economic stimulus money.

Click here to see details of these projects.

The roundabout opened in Sept. 2007.

I’m having a hard time drawing conclusions on what the data shows, because the circumstances of the crashes isn’t real clear. For example, one crash was included in the data that occured in the high school parking lot, and that wouldn’t be because of the roundabout. Other’s may have been near the roundabout but not necessarily because of it.

Anyway, here is the data I got today from Ferndale Police Department, with a couple of notes at the bottom:

Note: The crash in November 2007 that resulted in an injury was a drunken motorcycle rider who was wearing sunglasses at 2 a.m. Also, the December 2007 crash was the result of the driver losing consciousness because of a medical condition.

I just found a good Web site formed by partnership of the Washigton and Oregon transportation departments dedicated to the replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

It’s called ColumbiaRiverCrossing.org.

This is a massive project, expected to cost $3.4 billion to $3.9 billion, but they already have a draft environmental impact statement out studying several alternatives for replacing the bridge:

• Replacement bridge with bus rapid transit
• Replacement bridge with light rail
• Supplemental bridge with bus rapid transit
• Supplemental bridge with light rail

Here’s what the locally preferred bridge would look like:

Click here to see the Web site.

Staff has submitted for the council’s consideration on Tuesday, March 17, a request to hire the company for $2.6 million to replace the ailing Hampton Road bridge over Mormon Ditch, just south of Lynden city limits.

The county got a total of 14 bids for this project. Max. J. Kuney, the lowest bidder, was hired by the state Department of Transportation to widen Guide Meridian between Ten Mile Road and Lynden. Officials are the company previously told me they think the fact that they are experts in bridge construction helped their chances of winning. They built the Mount Baker Highway bridge over the Nooksack River, right at Nugents Corner.

Here are some details of funding for the project, which also involves improving the roadway near the bridge:

It’s been put on the consent agenda, which is for routine items and those not considered controversial. The council’s finance committee will go through the items starting at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17. The full council will consider approving at 7 p.m. The meetings are held at County Council Chambers, 311 Grand Ave.

Dude, this is one of the coolest things ever! That might be a little exaggeration, but these videos are very cool.

I did a records request to Whatcom Transportation Authority for a copy of video footage from one of their buses to see where the cameras are situated. They are only a few buses now, but 14 new buses that should be delivered this summer should have the cameras on them, along with 11 buses coming in about a year and a half.

Those purchases will expand their capability to watch the road and riders. I did a request of 10 minutes of random video from any bus on Friday, March 6. Turns out, there are seven videos running simultaneously on the bus, with four in the interior and three on the exterior. They include audio.

WTA can use these things for anything from crime investigations to ensuring employees and/or riders are behaving appropriately and proving who was at fault when a bus crashes. There is almost no where on the bus you can’t be seen, which means that if you’re a rider and you don’t feel comfortable sitting near another rider, remember that there is a video recording of that rider’s actions the whole time.

We complain when agencies don’t give us records they should under law, but I want to praise them when they do. WTA has been wonderful to work with when it comes to getting records. I sent a public disclosure request to Vicki Esser, clerk to the WTA board, on Tuesday. Today, the CD arrived in the mail with the video, which was exactly what I asked for. Because it cost the agency almost nothing, they even waived the fee.

I don’t think I could ever ask anything more from a public agency. They were friendly, open and followed perfectly the letter and spirit of the law.

I’ve uploaded the files to our server so you all can watch the video. The video player software is embedded in the file. The problem is it’s 392 MB, which is monsterous and will take AROUND 10 MINUTES TO DOWNLOAD, depending on your connection.

It’s definitely worth looking at, but I’d recommend starting the download and then walking away for a few minutes while it loads. Click the link below and choose “save” to save the files to your computer. Then open them. It’ll take a minute for them to load.

Double click any of the seven images to make it a full-screen image with sound.

Click here to download the software and view the video.

OK, I know that’s a fiery statement, and it’s overly generalized. But that’s what a poll of 2,000 people by online car lease trading Web site LeaseTrader.com indicates.

The online poll asked about 1,000 men and 1,000 women who are customers of the site questions about how clean their cars. It ignored people with minivans and SUV’s, reasoning that families with children are more likely to drive them and they’d thus be more susceptible to clutter. They also polled drivers of the 30 most popular vehicles on the Web site.

Here are some of the results:

How often do you wash the exterior of your car?

• Every other week: 35% men, 22% women
• Once a month: 39% men, 54% women
• Oce every three months: 12% men, 14% women
• Other/never: 14% men, 10% women

How would you describe the clutter on the inside of your car?

• Light (a few extra papers and limited household items): 45% men, 31% women
• Medium (multiple household items, makeup and paperwork): 28% men, 52% women
• Very cluttered (inside of my car is a disaster zone): 12% men, 12% women
• Other (I don’t pay attention): 15% men, 5% women

Now, it’s time for a quiz. The company came up with a top five list of the cleanest cars and a top five list of the dirtiest. (answers are at the bottom).

Of the following, which one car belongs in the dirtiest list?

• Audi A6
• Hyundai Sonata
• BMW 5 Series

Of the following, which one belongs in the cleanest list?

• Mercedes C-Class
• Honda Accord
• Volkswagen Jetta

Click here to see more about the methodolgy and results the company used in the poll. Click here to to go their Web site.

What do your cars look like right now? Mine is in the “disaster” category. I’ve got snow tires on it right now, so I’m carting around four other tires. One is sitting in the backseat. Combine that with fast-food wrappers and partially empty coffee cups, and it’s pretty gross.

Actually, maybe I should clean it pretty soon.

Oh, and here are the answers:

Question No. 1:

• Hyundai Sonata

Question No. 2:

• Mercedes C-Class

I’ve looked at the data for the two in Cordata, and the data showed that while the number of crashes went up, there were no injuries at any crashes. That wasn’t the case before the roundabouts.

I’ve got a call out to Ferndale Police Department to see if they have the stats on the Ferndale roundabout. It’ll be interesting to see what they show.

More to come …

It covers everything from the state of disrepair of highways and bridges to problems with the current funding formula and new ways to reduce costs.

Click here to read it.

What do you think?

Click here to read the USA Today article.

From the APTA:

Despite falling gas prices and an economic recession, increasing numbers of Americans took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008, the highest level of ridership in 52 years and a modern ridership record, according to a report released today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This represents a 4.0 percent increase over the number of trips taken in 2007 on public transportation, while at the same time, vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) on our nation’s roads declined by 3.6 percent in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Click here to see the APTA press release.

Whatcom Transportation Authority in 2008 saw a 32 percent ridership increase over 2007. In January, the increase was 21 percent. I’m still working to get February’s number.

Here, the increases are sustained, even while nationwide some agencies are seeing decreasing ridership now as unemployment increases. Often, commuters make up a majority of riders, so when they lose their jobs they lose the daily need for transit.

A bill that would give Whatcom Transportation Authority $1.9 million to replace aging buses has stalled in the U.S. Senate.

The WTA board’s executive committee will consider on Thursday, March 12, approving the purchase of 11 new buses using that money and $1.6 million WTA got in the federal economic stimulus bill. But, the decision is contingent upon passage of this Omnibus Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year ending Sept. 2009.

Click here to read about how the bill has been delayed.

There are several issues. Republicans and some Democrats argue the earmarks should be stripped out of the bill, which has 7,991 pet projects totaling $5.5 billion. Another issue is pay raises for members of Congress. The bill would authorize a pay boost next year, but some Senators want to remove that. CORRECTED AT 4:45 P.M. MARCH 10: Congress has already agreed to restrict its pay raise in 2010. Debate was whether to approve an amendment that would halt pay raises for members of Congress starting in 2011.

WTA is hoping the federal government will provide a total of $3.55 million out of the total $4.6 million needed to buy 11 new buses. WTA would dip into its savings to make up the rest.

WTA has already ordered 14 new buses from Gillig, the bus maker. WTA wants to replace a total of 38 aging buses.

The WTA executive committee meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. on Thursday at the main office, 4111 Bakerview Spur Road.

The full board meets next week to consider approving spending the money on the new buses.

How to spell “Idiot?” WSDOT.

Scenario: A small car and an 18 wheeler driving north on the Guide, side by side, truck in the right lane. They approach the roundabout at Pole Road. Car stays beside truck, truck overlaps into left lane in roundabout, dead small car and passengers.

Can we make a deal with WSDOT? Once 3 people are killed in each of the four Guide roundabouts, will they PLEASE take them out and put in regular traffic lights?

I live in Lynden and I feel far less safe with these traffic circles coming. I lived in Houston, TX for many years and saw the effects of a roundabout at a major intersection. Confusion at best, tempers flaring and accidents by the dozen. IT DOES NOT WORK!

The list was compiled by the Local Oversight and Accountability Panel, which looked at projects submitted by the local governments and recommended to elected leaders which ones should receive funding.

Whatcom County, which received a total of $4.5 million in federal money for streets, submitted its list, and it was approved. The panel classified many of those in Whatcom County as “high risk,” which means there’s a higher risk they won’t be ready to go within the federally required 120 days.

Click here to see the list. Whatcom County’s is under the WCOG tab at the bottom.

It includes projects for local governments outside the “federal transportation management areas,” which are more urbanized areas like Seattle, Spokane and the Vancouver-Portland area. These projects also exclude the state Department of Transportation projects, which total a lot more and are a separate list.

The largest single project is a $2 million project by Walla Walla to improve 13th Avenue, including installing signals. The federal government is expect to pay $1.98 million of the total.

This is just a bad idea, part of a redevelopment in France:

On the other hand, this is a modern roundabout:

The older traffic circles are driven differently than modern roundabouts. In circles, which are more common on the East Coast and in Europe, traffic inside the circle yields to traffic entering. They’re also meant for many lane changes within the circle, which makes them more dangerous. More crashes occur in those than in modern roundabouts, according to the KSU center.

Click here to see the Center for Transportation Research and Training Web site.

Click here to read the article.

By the way, the term “shovel ready” has been the buzzword around the country for the past few months. It means, of course, ready to go to construction, having completed planning, designs and permitting.

But here in the newsroom, some of us reporters have started telling the edtior our stories are “shovel ready” when we’ve turned them in and they’re ready to be edited.

Are you using the term for anything else? Perhaps: “Is dinner almost ready yet?” “Yep, it’s shovel ready.”

I was driving through the one at Kellogg Road and Cordata Parkway, making a left from the parkway onto Kellogg, when a man entered the roundabout in front of me and stopped in the middle of it. Meanwhile, cars were whipping through it behind me. Luckily they didn’t hit me.

I laid on the horn until he crept around the roundabout and I could get out.

The whole thing was kind of funny because I was on my way down to Guide Meridian to report a story about the new roundabouts the state Department of Transportation is planning to build out there. I met with two DOT officials at the Cordata office to talk about the project before driving the Guide to take a look at it and interview business owners near the planned roundabouts.

Construction starts on Monday on the first of the four roundabouts: the one at Ten Mile Road. Within about a month, it’s expected to open to traffic, and then one week later the Wiser Lake Road one should open. Roundabouts are also planned at River Road (just north of the Nooksack River) and Pole Road. Work on Pole Road will use Portland Cement Concrete, which needs better weather than asphalt to set correctly, so it’ll open later. The Pole Road one is dependent on construction of the new nearby river bridge, and it’ll also be delayed.

The DOT has videos showing how to drive roundabouts at the library, said spokesman Dustin Terpening, and they’re on YouTube. Here’s the YouTube videos:

Many people are worried that the Guide Meridian roundabouts won’t work because it’s a truck route. The key will be for people to not pass semi-trucks heading toward a roundabouts, because the truck will need both lanes while in it, Terpening said. Also, the truckdriver will drive down the middle and block both lanes when going into the roundabout to prevent cars from trying to pass on the inside.

What do you think about this stuff?

I’ll have to explain a couple of them:

• Everson: The city didn’t receive its request $35,000 to repave Everson Road from Robinson Street to Kale Street because Whatcom County may do that on behalf of the city. Federal money comes with tons of strings attached, and for small amounts and small cities, it’s not always worth the administrative burden to accept the federal money. Whatcom County’s amount of Lake Louise Road was increased to cover the cost of repaving for Everson. The county already has the administrative processes in place to provide the oversight the federal government demands. In the past, the county has signed a deal with the city and repaved for them. They don’t have a deal currently for this stretch of road, but they could come to one.
• Sumas and Blaine: The federal government must approve reclassifying roads in these cities before they’re eligible for federal money. I won’t go into the long, bureaucratic process that has to occur to reclassify these roads, but it has to go through a lot of steps. The project in Blaine would build a completely new segment of road over the airport runway.
• Bellingham repaving: The project to repave Bakerview and Hannegan roads in Bellingham was included at the end of the list in case the Sumas and Blaine streets don’t get reclassified in time. If they don’t, the money that’ll go to them will instead go toward this project.