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fflint May 8, 2012 1:15 AM

I lived in Midtown Sacramento for a year, and biked everywhere. There's a very active bike culture in central Sacramento (and among younger Sacramentans generally), especially in summertime. The American River Trail is amazing, literally a regional highway for bike traffic with its own rest stops--but outside the region's pre-war neighborhoods, bicycling is much less popular and there is very little safe and effective bike infrastructure.

M II A II R II K May 8, 2012 3:30 PM

Ten Thousand Blue Citibikes to Hit New York Streets


May 7, 2012

By Branden Klayko

Read More: http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/38294

Quote:

Beginning this July, thousands of bright-blue Citibikes will begin swarming the streets of Manhattan and eventually Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan made the formal announcement today that Citibank has signed on as the official sponsor for the city’s new bike share system.

Ten thousand Citibikes located across 600 stations will be deployed across the city over the following year, making the system the largest in the United States. Citibank has committed $41 million over the next five years to jumpstart the program, with MasterCard chipping in another $6.5 million, meaning no public money will be required to launch the system. “We’re getting an entirely new transportation network without spending any taxpayer money,” Bloomberg said. “Who thought that could be done?”

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http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/...07-500x375.jpg

M II A II R II K May 9, 2012 9:34 PM

NY’s Rocky Road to a Bike Share Sponsor — or Why The Rollout Will Take Longer Than Planned


05/08/2012

By Andrea Bernstein

Read More: http://transportationnation.org/2012...-than-planned/

Quote:

.....

The system, it was explained, needed to be large to make it work — the more potential users could depend on finding bikes in a variety of locales, the more it would be an actual public transportation network — not some urban folly. But when the system was presented Monday under its brand new-name, Citibike, to be funded through a five-year, $41 million contract with Citibank and a $6.5 million Mastercard sponsorship, it was somewhat less extensive — at least at first. “It will be a phased-in deployment,” Sadik-Khan said at Monday’s press conference. “I mean we can’t just airdrop 10,000 bikes in. It will be between August and spring of 2013 that we’ll have the deployment of the full system.”

- The bike share program, it turned out, would NOT hit the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, or much of Brooklyn beyond Bergen Street until a year from now. Sadik-Khan wouldn’t explain why, or when, this decision was made. No other DOT officials would speak to this issue, implying that this was always the plan. When I asked Alta president Alison Cohen about delays in implementing the program, Sadik-Khan’s spokesman rushed over to prevent her from answering. But speaking to elected leaders, officials and several sources familiar with negotiations over the bike share contract, a story has emerged of a far more rocky road to a sponsor than yesterday’s happy news conference would suggest.

- “We’re getting an entirely new transportation network without spending any taxpayer money,” Bloomberg said at Monday’s press conference. “Who thought that could be done?” Apparently, there were a lot of doubters. Puma was approached, and Adidas (New Balance has sponsored Boston’s “Hubway.”) So was American Express. “All the usual suspects,” said one source familiar with the negotiations. “The list of companies who could spend this kind of money just isn’t that long. And it was unprecedented to raise that kind of capital for an unproven system – bike share on European scale, an order of magnitude larger than any system in existence in north America.” By February, officials were beginning to sweat. If New York didn’t find a sponsor, the city could be on the hook to Alta — but worse, many officials thought, the bike share program could be imperiled.

.....

M II A II R II K May 10, 2012 1:30 AM

New Survey Shows Overwhelming Support for Federal Investment in Bike-Ped

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/05/09...t-in-bike-ped/

http://dc.streetsblog.org/wp-content...raphic_570.jpg

M II A II R II K May 10, 2012 5:30 PM

What Bike Share Costs — A Comparative Chart


05/09/2012

By Andrea Bernstein

Read More: http://transportationnation.org/2012...arative-chart/

Quote:

There’s been not a little controversy about the cost of New York’s bike share since the program was unveiled this week — much huffing and puffing about how an afternoon’s ride would cost you a C-note. The city Department of Transportation notes that bike share is not intended for four-hour rides, any more than a taxi ride should last four hours. If you need a car for four hours, you can rent one. If you need a bike for four hours, you can rent one too — just not a bike share. Also responding to the critics: Matt Seaton takes a comparative look in the Guardian today. Their point is: this is transportation, not recreation.

- The New York bike share annual membership is still cheaper than a monthly MetroCard, as the NYC DOT likes to point out. And with it, you can ride anywhere, anytime, as many rides as you want — for free, so long as those rides don’t exceed 45 minutes. That grace period exceeds the grace period in most other cities. With the exception of Paris, Montreal and Mexico City, charges in all the above cities start at minute 31. (In Paris you can chose between a deluxe membership, which costs about $50, or a regular which costs about $36, and gives you just 30 minute free riding) NY officials say 97 percent of rides in DC are under the 30 minute free ride there. But if you keep the bike past the grace period, the charges escalate rapidly. The $4 cost of an hour ride in New York will be more than twice that of the roughly $1.50 it costs in Washington, DC, Boston and London. (It will also cost $1.50 in Chicago, when that city’s bike share launches in late summer.)

Here’s a look other annual fees (& daily membership fees) around the world:

New York: $95 ($9.95)

Boston $85 ($5)

Denver $80 ($8)

Montreal $80 ($7)

Washington, DC $75 ($7) — there’s also an $84 annual fee that can be paid out monthly

Chicago $75 ($7)

London $72 ($1.60)

Minneapolis $65 ($6)

Paris $50 ($2.20) — this level of annual gives you 45 minutes free riding

Mexico City $23 annual (daily rate N.A.)

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emathias May 10, 2012 5:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 5696792)
What Bike Share Costs — A Comparative Chart


05/09/2012

By Andrea Bernstein

Read More: http://transportationnation.org/2012...arative-chart/

Why is anyone in New York shocked? It's sponsored by a bank (Citibank) and what are banks best at? Outrageous fees.

Cirrus May 10, 2012 8:59 PM

The Capital Bikeshare website includes a user profile that keeps a record of every trip you've made.

In the year-and-a-half that it has existed, I've used the system about 200 times, and I've passed over the 30-minute threshold exactly twice. So it happens to me about 1% of the time. It is *so* not a big deal.

M II A II R II K May 11, 2012 4:23 PM

How Chicago’s Humboldt Park Neighborhood Embraced Bike Lanes


May 11, 2012

By Angie Schmitt

Read More: http://streetsblog.net/2012/05/11/ho...ed-bike-lanes/

Quote:

When African American residents in Portland initially opposed the extension of bike lanes on North Williams Avenue last year, it seemed to signify a wider perception that bike infrastructure mainly serves white professionals. While cycling for transportation is most common among low-income Americans, bike lanes were only on the table for North Williams once more affluent people were biking on the streets.

The perception of bike infrastructure as a sign of gentrification used to hold sway in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood too. But John Greenfield at Grid Chicago reports that attitudes toward bike lanes in this Latino and African-American neighborhood have shifted from resistance to enthusiasm:

People in Humboldt Park, a largely low-income Latino and African-American community on Chicago’s West Side, once opposed bike facilities as well. So it was a good feeling yesterday when I took my first spin on new buffered bike lanes under the giant Puerto Rican flag arches of the neighborhood’s Division Street business strip. I viewed them as a sign of how much attitudes about cycling have changed in Humboldt Park over the last decade. And as the city moves forward with the Streets for Cycling plan to install 100 miles of protected bike lanes within Mayor Emanuel’s first term, the story of the Division Street bike lanes offers a lesson on the need to engage local people in the process.

In 2003, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) installed bike lanes in gentrified, bike-crazy Wicker Park, located just east of Humboldt Park, on Division from Ashland Avenue to Western Avenue, the border between the two neighborhoods. The stretch of Division in Humboldt Park between Western to California Avenue, known as the Paseo Boricua (“Puerto Rican Way”) and defined by the flag arches, is the same road width. But Chicago aldermen have final say on whether bike facilities get built in their wards and Billy Ocasio, Humboldt Park’s alderman at the time, opposed extending the lanes into his ward, according to CDOT spokesman Pete Scales.

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sammyg May 11, 2012 6:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 5697966)
How Chicago’s Humboldt Park Neighborhood Embraced Bike Lanes

I'm always confused by this. Are community leaders really saying that Blacks and Latinos can't learn how to ride a bike? Or that driving is cheaper than biking?

M II A II R II K May 14, 2012 5:02 PM

Planning framework for Bloomingdale Trail wrapping up in Chicago.


05.10.2012

Read More: http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6039

Quote:

The community planning process to convert the elevated rail line known as the Bloomingdale Trail into a public park and recreational path is underway. The three mile embankment, twice the length of New York’s High Line, will feature five access points from adjacent pocket parks, as well as eight access points from intersecting streets. The trail winds through Chicago’s Logan Square, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, and Bucktown neighborhoods.

During public meetings residents who live near the abandoned line have expressed concerns about privacy and security, while some have objected to opening up the structure to the public (urban adventurers have long accessed the line illegally). The planning team, which includes ARUP, Ross Barney Architects, and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, has worked to address those concerns in a number of ways. Where a house has a window overlooking the trail, the planning framework will call to the path to curve away from the house toward the opposite side of the trail (which is approximately 30 feet wide at it’s narrowest points). The project is much more earth-bound than its New York predecessor with direct connections to the city’s sidewalks and neighborhood parks system. A small number of parking spaces will be eliminated at the street access points, which the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has supported.

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http://archpaper.com/uploads/image/b...process_01.jpg

SHiRO May 14, 2012 5:56 PM

Amazing documentary about bike messengers in Brussels (a city where just 4% of traffic is bikes).

Trailer
Video Link


To watch the entire documentary:
http://www.brusselsexpressfilm.be/trailer

M II A II R II K May 14, 2012 7:31 PM

Cincinnati receives national bicycle award, announces bike share feasibility study


May 14, 2012

By Travis Estell

Read More: http://www.urbancincy.com/2012/05/ci...ibility-study/

Quote:

City officials announced today that Cincinnati has been named a bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. The award comes after two previous failed attempts, and makes Cincinnati the only city in Ohio to receive the recognition.

Leaders say the award is as a result of the city’s ongoing efforts to add bike lanes, sharrows, dedicated bicycle parking to streets across the city, and frequently seek feedback from the bicycling community. The designation also illustrates a huge improvement since 2009, when the local community gave the city a “C” in its first bicycling report card.

Since that time, City Council has passed a new bicycle safety ordinance requiring vehicles to maintain a three-foot passing distance when passing bicyclists, and banning cars from driving or parking in bike lanes. Additionally, the city’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) has been working to add bicycle parking at special events such as the Midpoint Music Festival and inside parking garages such as at Fountain Square. Efforts by other organizations have also helped improve the city’s bicycle infrastructure. Three local transit agencies teamed to offer free rides to bicycle commuters on Bike to Work Day in 2011, and non-profit Queen City Bike has offered a list of bicycle-friendly destinations across the region.

City officials and bicycling advocates also took the opportunity today to announce that Cincinnati will begin a bike share feasibility study for the region’s urban core. The process, officials say, will begin in June and be completed by August this year. The work will be done by Alta Planning+Design, which is the same firm that has developed and implemented bike share programs in Washington D.C., Boston and New York City. “We’re honored to be included among America’s most bicycle-friendly communities,” said DOTE director Michael Moore.

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http://cdn.urbancincy.com/wp-content...Bike-Share.jpg

M II A II R II K May 21, 2012 2:22 PM

Los Angeles Lives by Car, but Learns to Embrace Bikes


May 19, 2012

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/us...pagewanted=all

Quote:

.....

These days in Los Angeles, there are midnight bike rides, East Side bike rides, women’s bike rides and nude bike rides rolling out nearly every day. In the past 18 months, close to 40 miles of bike paths and lanes have been created across the city and the City Council passed a measure to prevent bicyclists from being harassed by motorists.

- Bicycling is no longer the purview of downtown messengers or kamikaze daredevils. Its advocates include hipsters who frequent the bicycle repair cooperative known as the Bicycle Kitchen (which, experiencing growing pains, is about to move to bigger quarters) and middle-class riders who hum along a bike path on the beach in Venice and Santa Monica. There are biker-commuters who like to shock people by boasting that they do not own a car. And the mayor, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, who broke his elbow in a bike accident involving a taxicab and has since become one of cycling’s biggest cheerleaders, is intent on resurrecting a plan that he acknowledged had been “kind of languishing a bit.”

- None of which is to say that this of all cities is about to give up the car for the bicycle. But at a time when Los Angeles is struggling to ease congestion — and when cities from New York to Portland, Ore., are outpacing this city in making life easier for the urban bicycler — the bicycle is becoming part of the transportation fabric in Los Angeles. “There was not a biking network when I was there,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, who attended Occidental College here in the late 1970s and today is New York City’s transportation commissioner, leading the way in expanding a network of bicycle lanes. “You are beginning to see the bones of one emerging now, and it’s very exciting.”

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M II A II R II K May 21, 2012 2:23 PM

Amtrak asked to allow bicycles on trains


May 18, 2012

Read More: http://www.timesunion.com/business/a...ns-3569744.php

Quote:

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Friday called on Amtrak to make it easier for bicyclists to take the train to the trail.

She's asking Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, a former New York state transportation commissioner, to include bicycle racks in new or modernized equipment used in New York state, including the Lakeshore Limited, Empire Service and Maple Leaf trains. The rail line parallels the state's Erie Canalway Trail that's popular was bicyclists. Bicycles aren't currently allowed on Amtrak trains unless they are disassembled and boxed.

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M II A II R II K May 22, 2012 10:02 PM

Pedaling to Prosperity: Biking Saves U.S. Riders Billions A Year


5/20/2012

By Tanya Mohn

Read More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamoh...h-occurs-each/

PDF Report: http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/...ure_report.pdf

Quote:

New data highlight that bicyclists in the United States save at least $4.6 billion a year by riding instead of driving. The analyses were released on Friday to coincide with National Bike to Work Day, part of National Bike Month, which occurs each May.

- The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.

- “There are so many reasons more people are riding, from improving their health to protecting the environment,” Andy Clarke, the League’s president, said in a statement. “But, especially in tough economic times, bicycling can also be an economic catalyst, keeping billions of dollars in the pockets of American families.”

- More Americans are choosing to bicycle for everyday transportation. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of bicycle commuters grew 40 percent nationwide, and was even greater — 77 percent — in the some cities, according to the report.

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M II A II R II K May 23, 2012 4:47 PM

Bike Registration Laws: A License to Profile?


May 23, 2012

By Angie Schmitt

Read More: http://streetsblog.net/2012/05/23/bi...se-to-profile/

Quote:

.....

Putting up barriers to healthy choices like biking makes no sense from a policy perspective — especially since many people cycling are children or very low-income, for whom the registration and licensing process may be especially difficult or offputting. (By the way, if you don’t have a car, how do you legally get to the registration point?)

- But in case you needed another reason, James Sinclair at Network blog Stop and Move has a good one for us today: police profiling. Sinclair points to a recent statement from the police department in Clovis, California:

- From what I understand, Clovis still has a law on the books requiring that all bikes be registered (with a fee). Fortunately, that law hasn’t been enforced in years, and it’s entirely possible the current PD doesn’t even realize that law exists. Anyway, in the title of the post, I mention that profiling is included. What do I mean by that? Well, the ABC news broadcast has a very unfortunate quote from a Clovis PD rep.

- If we stop somebody and they’re on a bicycle and it doesn’t look like maybe they should have that bicycle, we can run the serial number of the bike and then we can see that its owned by someone else. And then we can contact that person and see if that bike is supposed to be with that person.

- That sounds exactly like a healthy dosage of profiling and it shouldn’t be something that department is boasting about doing. Unless we’re talking about an adult on a bike intended for a small child, how exactly can an officer determine that “it doesn’t look like maybe they should have that bicycle”? We all know what’s actually going on here, and it’s wrong.

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202_Cyclist May 27, 2012 6:07 PM

David Byrne of the Talking Heads has a great editorial in today's NYT about bike-sharing. I saw Mr. Byrne at a Brookings event (http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009...transportation) about bicycle infrastructure a few years ago that also featured Jannette Sadik-Khan and Harriet Tregoning, DC's Director of Planning. Not only is David Byrne a great musician, but he's also an amateur urban planner and a committed bicycle advocate.

This is how we ride

New York Times
May 26, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/op...pagewanted=all

fflint May 29, 2012 3:07 AM

Byrne also wrote an amusing book of his experiences cycling in cities across the world on his many tours since the 1980s, called Bicycle Diaries. It's a good read.

M II A II R II K May 30, 2012 9:26 PM

SFMTA Installs Second Green Wave for Bikes on 14th Street


May 25, 2012

By Aaron Bialick

Read More: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2012/05/25...n-14th-street/

Quote:

The SFMTA recently implemented its second green wave on 14th Street, re-timing traffic signals for more bicycle-friendly speeds from Dolores to Folsom. Following the success of SF’s first green wave on Valencia Street, the 14th Street project was installed in March, said SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose, adding that the agency is still “evaluating and tweaking it, if necessary.”

“This is a pilot because it is our first downhill green wave, but we do not see it as temporary,” said Rose. “Once we feel that it is working as intended, we will install signs stating what speed the signals are timed for.” SF Bicycle Coalition Communications Director Kristin Smith said the organization “is very pleased to see the ‘green wave’ tool used on more and more of San Francisco’s key bikeways.” “It’s a simple but powerful way to prioritize bike traffic and make bicycling even more convenient and comfortable,” she said. “Of course, it’s not just good for bike traffic — by pacing traffic to a human speed, green wave streets are safer for everyone.”

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M II A II R II K Jun 1, 2012 12:50 AM

The Green Lane Project brings bicycling into the 21st century


By Jay Walljasper

Read More: http://www.bikesbelong.org/bikes-bel...erican-cities/

Quote:

You can glimpse the future right now in forward-looking American cities—a few blocks here, a mile there where people riding bicycles are protected from rushing cars and trucks. Chicago’s Kinzie Street, just north of downtown, offers a good picture of this transportation transformation. New bike lanes are marked with bright green paint and separated from motor traffic by a series of plastic posts. This means bicyclists glide through the busy area in the safety of their own space on the road. Pedestrians are thankful that bikes no longer seek refuge on the sidewalks, and many drivers appreciate the clear, orderly delineation about where bikes and cars belong.

- “We’ve seen biking almost triple on parts of 15th Street NW since installing a protected bike lane last year,” reports Jim Sebastian, Active Transportation Project Manager for the District of Columbia. “And we’re seeing different kinds of cyclists beyond the Lycra crowd. People in business suits, high heels, families out for a ride, more younger and older people.” This particular bike lane—one of more than 50 protected bikeways built recently in at least 20 cities from New York to Minneapolis to Long Beach, California—is richly symbolic for Americans. It follows 15th St. NW to the White House. “This is what cities of the future are doing to attract businesses and young people,” notes Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “People don’t want to drive all the time; they want a choice.”

- The Green Lane Project, an initiative to showcase these next-generation transportation improvements, was launched May 31 in six U.S. cities: Chicago, Washington D.C., Memphis, Austin, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. The effort is coordinated by the Bikes Belong Foundation. Advisors to the project include New York City Department of Transportation (which has already pioneered 5 miles of protected lanes on six streets), the National Association of City Transportation Officials and the League of American Bicyclists. Major funders include Volkswagen of America, SRAM, Interbike, the Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association and the Bikes Belong Coalition.

- The name “green lane” was chosen not only to draw attention to the typical color of protected bike lanes but also to highlight their potential in improving the urban environment and saving on transportation costs. “Green lanes are not just a color on the street. They are paths to better cities,” the project’s website explains, adding that more people on bikes eases congestion and boosts residents’ health, sense of community and economic opportunities. The project will connect elected officials, city planners, traffic engineers, bike advocates and citizens in these six cities to share experiences, trade data and swap ideas, says Project Director Martha Roskowski.

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