This is a first in a possible series of cool-looking but underused urban buildings and settings in Fort Wayne.

Where is the above building located?

I’m a little late to the party, but I should add my voice to the Spaulding brothers’ and point out the recent study reported in the Portland Tribune that dedicated bike lanes help encourage people to try bicycling. As the story points out:

According to (Portland State University professor Jennifer) Dill, most regular bicyclists are young men. This means that if the city wants to substantially increase the number of people riding bikes on a regular basis, it needs to reach out to young women and older people. And, Dill said, that is what public spending on bike infrastructure can accomplish.

This is a good study to have in hand as Fort Wayne seeks feedback from local bicyclists.

Also, you can read commentary about the study at Streetsblog, including mention of “vehicular cycling” advocates who oppose such dedicated lanes, claiming that biking amid traffic reduces collisions.

It seems I don’t know enough about how Internet Explorer reads code. But TGC seems to be in working order again — for everyone.

It’s time to take the wraps off the new Web site!

I hope to be able to once again add to the general discussion about urban life in Fort Wayne, but as the subhead of this Web site says, I’llbe on the lookout for items on church and culture, too.

Thanks, and I’m looking forward to some great discussions.

Note: If you have any recommendations for additions to the blogroll, just leave me a comment. Thanks!

The new TGC blog will be up and going again soon! I have a couple more technical wrinkles to iron out — for example, setting up FeedBurner feed for RSS and email — but I’ll start posting in the near future.

I will soon move this whole blog over to my new hosting provider, so The Good City will actually live at thegoodcity.com. But until I do so, this blog will be a little ugly, since I didn’t pay the annual CSS prettifying fee to Wordpress.com.

Stay tuned for details!

Will our cities step up and improve our streets for non-car traffic for our seniors?

A new poll by AARP finds that while many Americans ages 50+ are trying to move away from car transportation as a result of high gas prices, their attempt to go “green” is challenged by inadequate sidewalks and bike lanes, as well as insufficient public transportation options. …

Almost one of every three people (29%) polled say they are now walking as a way to avoid high gas prices. But as those people set out to walk, almost 40% of the 50+ population say they do not have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhoods. Additionally, 44% say they do not have nearby public transportation that is accessible. Almost half (47%) of poll responders say they cannot cross the main roads safely — 4 in 10 pedestrian fatalities are over the age of 50. 

No wonder many older people are tempted to drive even as their reflexes slow and sight dims. There aren’t always sidewalks, but there are always streets.   

Read the whole article here.

This is North Clinton Street at Grove Street here in Fort Wayne. It’s a bit north of downtown, so the lack of pedestrian safety is unfortunately a given.

This intersection is close to a large number of apartments, down Grove to the left, and the last I heard, many new immigrants are placed there. I would guess a new immigrant living in an apartment would be more likely to want to use Citilink buses, especially since so many other cultures are more acclimated to using public transportation than the U.S.

But think about being a pedestrian trying to cross this five-lane road. I estimate it’s about 75 feet across. I have sometimes seen people standing in the center turn-left-both-ways lane, waiting to cross the next two lanes. It’s a natural place to want to stand, but it’s quite dangerous, since it’s a real lane used by vehicles.

Medians are used to good effect on Main Street downtown. Can’t we extend the hospitality to other areas of the city? These can’t be that expensive:

It’s a midblock median island, and something similar would be helpful to the real and perceived safety of pedestrians in the area trying to catch the bus. It seems placing one in the center lane just to the north of Grove Street would help pedestrians immensely without affecting traffic much at all.

But two other problems make this stretch hazardous for pedestrians. First, the sidewalks are rather narrow. Second, have you noticed how easy it is to go above the 35 mph speed limit in this stretch? That’s because the expressway width of the road makes even 50 mph feels safe.

Taking away a foot of roadway on both sides and giving that space to pedestrians or bike lanes would give motorists visual clues that would help keep speeds closer to the posted limit.

Are there other areas in town that could use a little love for pedestrians?

– bottom photo by Richard Drdul on Flickr

Is eminent domain not cleaning up your city fast enough? You could take a tip from Beijing and simply surround the offending non-glittery neighborhood with a giant brick wall.

As ranked by Forbes magazine. The Rust Belt is pretty much the entire list.

The big loser? Ohio, with four cities on the list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. Runner-up is Michigan, with Detroit and Flint.

Read the article and view the related photo package.

– Photo by abardwell on Flickr