Treehugger recently posted an interesting set of ideas for how to make your City more bike and ped friendly.

Their suggestions (in sum):

1. Take away right on red turns for cars
2. Install more red light enforcement cameras
3. Have more parties (e.g. excuses to close the roads)
4. Rein in distracted driving (e.g. drivers with cell phones)
5. Support limited speed limits to 20 mph
6. Go on a Tweed Ride (you’ll have to read the post to see what this is)
7. Look to New York City for inspiration

The interesting part about many of these ideas is that Ann Arbor is already doing many of them.  The idea of no turn on red was suggested in the Ann Arbor Non-motorized plan.  We have lots of parties downtown (Art Fair, Green Fair, the Car Show, etc), which I think definitely makes it more pedestrian friendly.  Downtown people can’t really go more than 20 mph and I know the City as a whole has struggled with speed limits.  We might not have a Tweed Ride but we do have the Ride Around Town (RAT–thanks WBWC!).  Especially downtown, I think we are moving in the right direction on many of these items.

What do you think is missing from this list?  What else could we do downtown and elsewhere to create a better environment for peds and cyclists in Ann Arbor?

The AATA has a couple of service alerts out because of the snow.  If you want to get these send directly to your email inbox, subscribe to MyRide.  Many AATA buses are running about 10 minutes behind.

To check on the status of your bus, you can go to AATA’s Routes and Schedules page and select a route, or you can go to the Mobile RideTrak, which works better for mobile devices.

Here are the alerts that most impact downtown Ann Arbor Commuters:

• Route 17: Due to road conditions, Route 17 cannot serve Fifth Ave from Beakes to Depot via the Blake Transit Center.
• Route 13: Due to road conditions, there is no service north of Sunset.
• Route 14: Due to road conditions, Route 14 cannot serve Overridge.

Keep in mind that all AATA buses are still running, despite the bad weather.

Some benefits for choosing to ride the bus instead of driving your car on days like this:

• If you take the bus, you don’t have to shovel your car out and deal with residential streets.
• If you take the bus, you don’t have to warm your car up.   AATA buses are heated already.
• Buses are a lot bigger than small cars, which can feel comforting on a snowy day when your car might not handle as well.
• You don’t have to stress out about driving in the snow–leave the driving to an experienced bus driver.
• You can enjoy the snow rather than cursing it.
• Rides are free on all AATA buses with your go!pass.