Public Workshop - New Castle Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements

William Penn High School, 713 East Basin Road, New Castle
Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM

DELDOT is holding a Public Workshop to obtain opinions and insight from surrounding businesses and the general public for the proposed sidewalk and roadway improvements along Washington Street, West Seventh Street, and South Street. The workshop will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at William Penn High School, 713 East Basin Road in New Castle. The public is invited to attend any time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The purpose of the project is to improve pedestrian and bicycle facilities on several roads in the City of New Castle. This project involves providing continuous sidewalk and bicycle lanes along Washington Street. This will also include the rehabilitation of Washington Street. Sidewalks and bicycle lanes will be added along West Seventh Street from Washington Street to South Street. The project will insure full sidewalk connection along South Street from West Seventh Street to Battery Park. The project will also include intersection improvements at Washington Street and 141 and intersection improvements at Washington Street and West Seventh Street.

Interested persons are invited to express their views in writing, giving reasons for support of or in opposition to, the proposed project. Comments will be received during the workshop or can be mailed to DelDOT Public Relations, P.O. Box 778, Dover, DE 19903.

For further information contact Public Relations at 1-800-652-5600 (in DE) or 302-760-2080 or write to the above address.

Tell Bike Delaware what it's like: Take the survey!

Now is your chance to reveal the truth, what it's really like riding Delaware's roads and dealing with motorists. As we approach the signing of a state-wide Complete Streets policy, we are asking cyclists to report on the current state of affairs. A simple 12 question, multiple-choice survey is all it takes, and it's totally anonymous. Everything from deficient infrastructure and lack of facilities to motorist attitudes and behavior. Results will be reported on Bike Delaware's home page and used in future efforts as supporting data. Begin the survey HERE.

Tell Delaware State Parks: Equal level of service for bicyclists!

Former roads and abandoned railroad beds in White Clay Creek State Park - excellent paths for non-technical off road riding - are growing more and more uninviting and dangerous. One major cause is DNREC's choice of maintenance and surfacing materials - or lack thereof. While other trail systems use crushed limestone or cinders for an almost road-like feel, cyclists here are left with a virtually unridable golfball or marble-size ballast stone. At the same time, muddy bogs, often created by cyclists attempting to circumvent park gates instead of bollards, are another hazard. While plenty of stone dust patchwork is provided on adjacent vehicular access roads, little or no attention is given to park visitors who choose to bike or use other wheeled conveyance, including wheelchairs and strollers. Contact Delaware State Parks and let them know your feelings on this matter. Or email Chaz Salkin, Director, at: Charles.Salkin@state.de.us

Bike Delaware partners with Campaign for Active Transportation

The Campaign for Active Transportation is an effort to elevate active travel and recreation - walking and biking - by targeting investment in communities to shift automobile trips to walking, biking and transit. The campaign builds off of the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) of the 2005 federal transportation bill SAFETEA-LU. The NTPP funded four communities nationally with $25 million each to promote walking and biking. The campaign aims to expand the NTPP into a full-fledged program with dozens of communities each receiving $50 million for their active transportation programs through a competitive grant program.

Bike Delaware will be teaming up with Nemours Health & Prevention Services, Cities of Newark and Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware Greenways, DelDOT, Delaware State Parks, TMA Delaware, and WILMAPCO to promote healthy transportation choices for the greater Wilmington area. See Making the Case HERE (pdf).

Women cyclists almost extinct in some states - Delaware included

The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau has been out for about two weeks, and if you can figure out how to look at the tables, it tells an interesting story about bike commuting. The Census doesn't collect bike use data per se, but it does periodically survey which type of vehicle or method people use to get to their jobs, and as biking is one of those methods, we can get a snapshot of how many dedicated bike commuters there are in the U.S. The good news? Dedicated bike commuting is grew about 38% in the last eight years. But if women are truly the indicator species for a successful bike infrastructure, lots of states aren't getting it right.

The most dismal U.S. states to bike in, if we count simply by the number of women declaring to the census that they use a bike to get to work, are Mississippi, Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas. Puerto Rico, also surveyed on the question, was similarly quite dismal. Mississippi had just 209 declared female cycling commuters, Delaware just 210, while West Virginia had 326, Alabama had 431, and Arkansas had 461. More . . .