Urban Cycling Developments

[M II A II R II K]

Australia's biggest bike-lane skeptic 'wants to destroy cycling in Sydney'

Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...-gay-cycleways

There are currently posters on bus stops all over Sydney saying: “A metre matters.” An initiative of the Amy Gillett Foundation, the campaign has a simple aim – stopping drivers from hitting cyclists. Gillett died on 18 July 2005, when she was struck by a teenage driver while training in Germany with the Australian cycling squad.

If Duncan Gay has seen those posters, however, he has not let it affect his views. Gay, a member of the junior party in the Liberal-National coalition, is minister for roads for New South Wales, and has described himself as “the biggest bike-lane skeptic in the government”. The NSW government is about to get rid of a much-loved and much-used AU$5m (£2.4m) protected cycleway in Sydney’s city centre – a move Clover Moore, lord mayor of Sydney since 2004, describes as “a shocking breach of trust”.

Gay’s move seems to go against the flow, with cycling increasingly feted as a potential congestion and pollution game changer in major cities around the world. Take the segregated bike lanes currently under construction in the centre of London, for example, or the introduction of protected cycleways in New York, where pedestrian and cyclist injuries are down and traffic is moving quicker.

But he is not alone. Earlier this year Gainesville, Florida, returned bike lanes to cars on a 1.6km stretch, resulting in cyclists moving to the pavement. In San Antonio, Texas, the city council removed 3.7km of bike lanes, which the local Express-News paper described as “a failure of leadership from council”. And, in Toronto, the colourful former mayor Rob Ford oversaw the removal of bike lanes at a cost of CA$300,000 (£147,000).

Stephen Hodge, a former professional cyclist who now works for Australia’s Cycling Promotion Fund, says the decision will put cyclists at greater risk. “The one unifying measure everyone agrees on, that has been shown to increase both perception and actual safety of cycling, is infrastructure such as cycleways,” he said. “Duncan Gay is a hero to Nationals for breaking through barriers. By hook or by crook he has got his mind fixed on [removing the College Street cycleway], so he’ll do it.”

.....

[202_Cyclist]

I am pretty sure that the reason we have a multi-trillion dollar deficit in unmet infrastructure needs not because we spend one half of one percent of federal transportation money on bicycle and pedestrian enhancements. The reason is that we haven't raised the federal gas tax in nearly 25 years (again, how many of you wouldn't mind getting paid in 1993 dollars?).

There are more than 3,000 annual pedestrian fatalities and more than 700 cyclist fatalities every year in the United States. Instead of cutting this funding, we need to be increasing investments in bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure-- some of the most cost-effective transportation investments we can make.

House Dems: We Won’t Support a Transpo Bill That Cuts Bike/Ped Funding

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/09/1...keped-funding/

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I am pretty sure that the reason we have a multi-trillion dollar deficit in unmet infrastructure needs not because we spend one half of one percent of federal transportation money on bicycle and pedestrian enhancements. The reason is that we haven't raised the federal gas tax in nearly 25 years (again, how many of you wouldn't mind getting paid in 1993 dollars?).

There are more than 3,000 annual pedestrian fatalities and more than 700 cyclist fatalities every year in the United States. Instead of cutting this funding, we need to be increasing investments in bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure-- some of the most cost-effective transportation investments we can make.

House Dems: We Won’t Support a Transpo Bill That Cuts Bike/Ped Funding

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/09/1...keped-funding/

good, but that would be ped/bike funding, not the other way around. no way should bikes be given priority or more $ for improvements over peds. i wish the fed money to funneled to both would be fully separated. for example, projects like taking out lanes for cars do not automatically mean giving them over to bike lanes when sidewalks might be widened instead on busy streets. vigilance is needed and this a constant tension between all forms of transportation i guess.

[M II A II R II K]

London Is Calling Its New Pedestrian- and Bike-Friendly Zones 'Mini-Hollands'

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/201...llands/406702/

.....

Right now, the city is remodeling three new zones it’s calling “Mini-Hollands”—cycle- and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that it hopes will act as flagships for the transformation of the rest of London.

- Introducing properly segregated cycle lanes, more pedestrian areas, and traffic-calming measures in ways that reflect long established Dutch practices, these zones secured up to £100 million ($155 million) in funding from Transport for London last year. This summer and fall, the first parts of the zones are being officially launched. The plans are part of a brightening picture across London. It seems that when it comes to cyclist and pedestrian safety, the city is finally getting itself together.

- New bike lanes are laid out with some segregation from cars. In the best places, this means a separating curb, though some may have to make do with a line of bollards. Key junctions get carefully arranged so cyclists no longer have to turn into busy traffic or tackle blind corners. Car traffic on major shopping streets is either halted or reduced to a trickle, and sidewalks swell out to take their place.

- Then barriers or bollards are strung out across residential streets to prevent their use as rat runs for through traffic—a common problem in a city where quiet streets very often run parallel to major road routes. Beyond these general steps, each Mini-Holland has its own unique local plans. The most eye-catching is a project to create a riverside cycleway in the southwestern borough of Kingston upon Thames. This would float on the River Thames itself, opening up a pretty stretch of waterfront to cyclists.

- While it’s clear than not everyone is in love with the Mini-Holland plans, there’s no avoiding the fact that London’s tide is clearly turning towards a genuinely cycle-friendly city layout. This is a refreshing change from years of half-measures that have resulted in a notoriously high number of road deaths. Often little more than paint on a road, London’s main bike highways have been accused of actually making problems worse, by granting cyclists a false sense of safety.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Hickenlooper promises $100M to make Colorado "the best state for biking"

Read More: http://www.denverpost.com/business/c...t-state-biking

.....

"Biking can be such a positive force, and I think being the best biking state is going to fuel economic growth and tourism. It's going to lead us toward a cleaner environment, and it's going to help us be the healthiest state in America," Hickenlooper said in Las Vegas at Interbike, the largest annual bike trade event in North America.

- Hickenlooper is attempting to bring previously announced bike- and pedestrian-trail improvement projects into sharper focus to help influence a transportation policy that has not changed with Colorado's growing, younger population. His public-private Colorado Pedals Project plots short steps toward the goal of encouraging the Colorado Department of Transportation to allow local communities more control of their biking, walking and driving destinies.

- The plan calls for $60 million to develop bike and pedestrian infrastructure, using CDOT and federal Transportation Alternatives Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program funds. An additional $30 million will come from Great Outdoors Colorado's new push for trail connectivity with grants that develop bike and pedestrian infrastructure. About $10 million will go toward sustaining and growing the state's Safe Routes to School program.

- Bike lanes on road shoulders, signage and other cycling considerations "are going to be the norm, not the exception, in Colorado's transportation network for the future," Hickenlooper said. This isn't about getting CDOT to spend more, Hickenlooper said. It's about getting CDOT at the table with Bicycle Colorado, GOCO and the Department of Local Affairs so projects and grants are more efficiently orchestrated to consider bicycling as an essential transportation element.

- First on the Colorado Pedals Project task list is cataloging and connecting trails — natural, paved and bike lanes — statewide. The governor wants a marketing campaign — akin to the state's "Come to Life" tourism push — to help sway support for the plan at home and to help lure cycling tourists. Hickenlooper said he chose Interbike for the launch because a bike message sent there will quickly spread throughout the two-wheeled world. He also urged national bike dealers, retailers and manufacturers to "steal our ideas" and head home with a challenge for their own governors.

- Hickenlooper cited the bike culture in Copenhagen, where a quarter of all transportation spending is directed toward bikes and more than half of Denmark pedals to work, compared with fewer than 1 percent in the U.S. "Denmark clearly shows the benefits of making these long-term investments within narrow, achievable plans," he said. "(The country) creates bicycle-friendly communities and infrastructure that far outweigh the costs."

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Atlanta Officials Approve Plans For 31 Miles Of Bike Lanes

Read More: http://wabe.org/post/atlanta-officia...les-bike-lanes

.....

One part of the plan, called Connect Atlanta, adds 31 miles of bike lanes to several areas, including Midtown and downtown. City Councilman Kwanza Hall represents some of the areas where those lanes will be. He says they’ll help attract people to the center of town.

- “[They’ll draw] the talented, creative class who want to be in town and even families with children who may not have cars,” Hall said. “Bikes can surely change the game for getting to work, getting to school, even getting the grocery store.” Another part of the program would increase the population living near some MARTA stations and Atlanta Streetcar stops. MARTA will lead those plans, but the city owns the surrounding land. Hall expects developers to show an interest and invest in those areas.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Dallas bike lanes moving forward, but not the way everyone wants

Read More: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/trans...yone-wants.ece

.....

In 2012, Dallas had 8 miles of on-street bike lanes. Today that’s grown to 39.3 miles. Within the next few years, that’s expected to increase to 107 miles.

- “To see the progress that Dallas has made is really impressive,” said McNair, a director of bike advocacy group Bike DFW. Others, including some Dallas City Council members, aren’t as awed. That’s largely because 32 miles of the network so far is made up of shared lanes. Those are places where the city paints arrows and bike icons often called “sharrows” to indicate cyclists and drivers share the same space.

- In addition to a 2011 bike plan that calls for expanding the network of cycling lanes, the city has also drafted a “complete streets design manual” that, among other things, advocates for more bike-friendly streets. The full City Council is expected to vote in December on whether to make both documents part of Dallas’ overall thoroughfare plan. Interim assistant mobility planning director Tanya Brooks told the council’s transportation committee this month that the shared lanes are simply low-hanging fruit.

- The 2011 bike plan calls for increases in the shares of dedicated bike lanes, which use paint striping to separate bikers and drivers, and protected bike lanes, which put a physical barrier between the two. Of the city’s 39.3 miles of on-street bike lanes, the only protected lanes are on the Jefferson Boulevard bridge that connects downtown to Oak Cliff. But 5.2 more miles of protected lanes are in the works on Houston Street in Victory Park, the Margaret McDermott bridge, the Sylvan Avenue bridge and the Continental Avenue and Riverfront Boulevard reconstruction projects.

.....

[mrnyc]

a milestone in nyc per amny:


Exclusive: City to reach 1,000 miles of bike lanes on Tuesday

By REBECCA HARSHBARGER September 22, 2015




After an aggressive expansion in recent years, the city will reach a thousand miles of bikes lanes Tuesday when it finishes a new stretch on the Lower East Side, data shows.

The city's network will reach that milestone with a two-way bike lane on Clinton Street, between Grand Street and East Broadway. The path runs from Williamsburg Bridge to South Street.

The city has added 485 miles of bike lines since 2007, about 80 of which have been built under Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. Twelve of those miles are protected on-street bike lanes, while others are off-street lanes like the Hudson River Greenway.

Almost 40% of the miles are shielded from traffic, such as through greenways or off-street bike lanes.

"With 1,000 miles in the city's bicycle network, we have reached a momentous milestone," said Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg in a statement.

The first lane was built back in 1894 on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, according to Deputy Commissioner Ryan Russo.

Cyclist-friendly Brooklyn has the most bike lanes, with 311 in its network. It is followed by Manhattan at 241, according to data from the city's transportation department.

Queens has 208 miles, and the Bronx 174 miles. On Staten Island, where the MTA has been experimenting with bike racks on buses, there are 75 miles for cyclists.

"From Queens Boulevard to Clove Road in West Brighton, Staten Island, the city is getting more innovative as we continue to expand the bicycle network, connecting neighborhoods and communities, and giving thousands of New Yorkers another option to travel to their destination," Trottenberg added in a statement .

Going forward, the city Department of Transportation plans to add a protected lane between the Bronx and Randall's Island on Bruckner Boulevard.

The agency might add bike lanes on the Harlem River bridges, such as the Willis Avenue and Third Avenue bridges. It recently started construction on a bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge between Long Island City and Greenpoint.

The DOT is also looking to place additional bike lanes in upper Manhattan and Long Island City, neighborhoods where Citi Bike recently expanded.

It plans to discuss a potential lane next year on Amsterdam Avenue in the Upper West Side with the community board in the fall.

Safe street activist and cyclist Charles Komanoff, an organizer for the group Right of Way said the 1000-mile mark is an important marker, but there is still a long way to go.

He wants the DOT to show greater resolve when it faces opposition from community boards -- and the NYPD to enforce laws protecting cyclists the bike lanes.

"I think the challenges are DOT backbone, and NYPD apathy if not downright hostility," he said. "At some point the buck stops at City Hall."

Keegan Stephan, a 31-year-old cyclist who advocates for livable streets, , also said the lack of enforcement makes it difficult to use the lanes -- and that many have worn down and need to be re-striped. Livable streets are considered ones you can walk, bike, drive, and take mass transit on safely.

"Enforcement against cars parked in bike lanes is literally a joke," he said.

"Just check the #bikenyc hashtag on twitter and you'll see dozens of different users posting pictures of obstructions in bike lanes every day. The most frequent offenders seem to be police officers themselves, who use bike lanes as parking spaces so frequently that there is a highly active twitter account dedicated solely to documenting them -- @CopsInBikeLanes."

Citi Bike, the bike-share program that started in 2013, has benefitted significantly from the new lanes -- and recently hit 20 million rides.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, it had its busiest day ever -- reaching 50,780 riders.

It's trickier for the city to track the overall number of cyclists than Citi Bike, which uses an electronic system. It counts cyclists on a summer weekday each year at major destinations, such as the Williamsburg Bridge and Hudson River Greenway.

The agency counted about a 12.8% increase in cyclists between 2012 and 2014. It is more than a 100% increase from 2007, when the city began aggressively adding lanes. There were about 9, 330 cyclists then.

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said the increase in miles is a big achievement for the city, but there needs to be more lanes to shield drivers from cars.

"The city needs to focus not just on creating more lane miles, but on building the protected bike lanes that communities across the five boroughs are demanding more than ever," he said.


http://www.amny.com/transit/new-york...day-1.10873995

[M II A II R II K]

TTC launches bike repair stations at 10 subway stops

Read More: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...tops-1.3248164

.....

TTC chair, Coun. Josh Colle, unveiled the first repair station at the Davisville stop on Tuesday morning. Nine more stations will be included by the end of the month, and the program will spread to all stations within a year.

- The repair stations will include most tools needed to repair bicycles, including wrenches, Allen keys, screwdrivers, an air pump and wheel chock. All equipment will be secured with steel cables. The TTC chose the 10 stations based on specific criteria, including whether the station already had bike racks, proximity to bike paths and trails, and bicycle commuting trends in the neighbourhood. --- ​"The TTC is committed to enhancing mobility options in Toronto," Colle said in a statement. "By adding bicycle infrastructure at TTC stations and on buses, we've made it easier for our riders to complete the first and last mile legs of their trips."

.....

[mrnyc]

^ yeah those bike repair stations are a very good idea. i saw them all over minneapolis.

[M II A II R II K]

Bike Commuting: Still on the Rise

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/...e-rise/408679/

.....

In sheer numbers, the places with the most bike commuters reflect population, as well as decades of dedicated investment in cycling infrastructure in smaller cities like Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis. It’s also important to remember that mega-cities like New York City and Los Angeles have been steadily funding things like dedicated lanes, bike-share programs and street improvements that make biking a little easier, contributing to their ramped-up numbers.

- The top 10 cities with the highest share of bike commuters are mostly college towns, where extensive bike infrastructure that may have been built originally with students in mind morphed into something non-student commuters heavily rely on. Davis, California, which has long had by far the highest share of bike commuters anywhere in the country, has bike lanes on 95 percent of its major streets. --- Perhaps the most interesting tally is the top 10 large cities where bike commuting is growing fastest. Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati have all begun investing in bike lanes within recent years. With growing numbers of cyclists responding to new features, all of those cities have plans to expand their bike infrastructure.

- Of course the share of people riding bikes to work is still less than 1 percent of all commuters. From 2008 and 2012, men were more than twice as likely than women to ride to work. And in many cities, bike lanes and bike-share programs aren’t distributed equitably. Though surveys have shown that people of color ride bikes for transportation more than white people do, it’s often predominantly non-white communities that lack the right infrastructure. --- Still, the trend is clear: More Americans are biking to work, as cities roll out necessary infrastructure and road-safety policies. Nationwide, from 2000 to 2014, bicycle commuting has grown 62 percent. Yes, it’s easy to grow fast when you start with small numbers. But that doesn’t take away from the larger point: If you build the lanes, cyclists will come.

.....

[fflint]

^It's great to see the data. The raw numbers are looking good in the top ten biking cities, the university towns are teaching young people early in life the value and ease of bicycling everywhere, and the growth rates are astounding in many of the Midwestern cities. This does appear to be a long term trend--outside the South, that is, which is conspicuous in its absence from the lists.

[Bikemike]

I'm surprised to see Santa Monica missing from the second list of smaller cities. As the leading bike-commuting city in Southern California, its absence from the list is disappointing. It's accurate though. I've seen various sources cite the low 5% range for bike-commuting mode-share for Santa Monica, presumably placing it right below Bloomington which is actually still VERY respectable. Apparently Santa Monica's absence reflects the fact that there are quite a few (mostly small) cities that achieve such high bicycling mode shares.

Another redeeming fact is that Santa Monica achieves its high mode-share without relying on a large college population (it's not a college-town). Many cities on the second list are college-towns with a large share of population stemming from a university, and naturally get a boost. Take the college towns out of the equation and Santa Monica would shoot towards the top. It's also amazing that Portland can hang with them all, big or small, college-town or not.

[fflint]

What may not be immediately apparent, regarding the college towns in the original post, is what the Census Bureau data is not counting: students bicycling to class. The data in the lists above only concerns people who bicycle to work.

[M II A II R II K]

‘Protected Intersection’ For Bikes Opens In Salt Lake City

Video Link

[cabasse]

it's going to take a concerted effort to bring about any large increases in bike commuting in atlanta, unfortunately. unlike flat, gridded cities, where easy alternatives to main roads are common, the roads with the least amount of elevation changes are also the main roads for auto traffic, and are also usually fairly narrow (as are most roads in general in atlanta, outside the freeways)

trails, helped by and including the beltline are becoming more common, but there are fights happening right now on whether or not to give major roads (like peachtree) a diet in order to add bike lanes.

http://news.wabe.org/post/atlanta-of...les-bike-lanes

http://buckheadview.com/2015/09/12/5...-gdot-speaker/

i used to commute by bike to work (on roswell rd in north buckhead/sandy springs) and it was harrowing.

[Bikemike]

Originally Posted by fflint

What may not be immediately apparent, regarding the college towns in the original post, is what the Census Bureau data is not counting: students bicycling to class. The data in the lists above only concerns people who bicycle to work.

^So Davis could conceivably be pushing bike commuting mode share significantly higher than 23% after factoring in student bicyclists? That's insane! That would put Davis right up against Amsterdam or Copenhagen!

SLC: I'm jealous!

[fflint]

Originally Posted by Bikemike

^So Davis could conceivably be pushing bike commuting mode share significantly higher than 23% after factoring in student bicyclists?

Well, yes and no. No, in that "commuting" in Census Bureau parlance means traveling between home and work specifically, and that is the 23% figure. Yes, in that when we combine bicycle commuters with the thousands of students who bike to and from UC Davis daily, the number of total trips made by bicycle is well over the 23% figure--it may well be over 50%, although I don't know for certain. And Davis--the city and the university--has the sort of large-scale bicycle infrastructure one would expect in such a bike-oriented city, including big bicycle parking lots everywhere, bicycle rotaries to control intersecting paths and lanes...and even a protected intersection that opened before the one in SLC. I checked that out a little over a month ago.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I am pretty sure that the reason we have a multi-trillion dollar deficit in unmet infrastructure needs not because we spend one half of one percent of federal transportation money on bicycle and pedestrian enhancements. The reason is that we haven't raised the federal gas tax in nearly 25 years (again, how many of you wouldn't mind getting paid in 1993 dollars?).

There are more than 3,000 annual pedestrian fatalities and more than 700 cyclist fatalities every year in the United States. Instead of cutting this funding, we need to be increasing investments in bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure-- some of the most cost-effective transportation investments we can make.

Whereas I agree the small percentage of DOT funding going to pedestrian/bike infrastructure isn't breaking the bank, how many of these projects support interstate commerce in any way? How about the Harahan Bridge project at Memphis?

http://harahanbridgeproject.com
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/story/27...on-is-underway
"The entire Main to Main project which began earlier this year totals $43 million with $15 million coming from the feds. The rest of the funds are from private donations and other local and state grants."

At least the funding formula for the feds is around 33% for the entire project, not at 50% or higher. The locals are pouring much of their own money into it, so Memphis can boast about being bicycle friendly and a haven for bikes. Never-the-less, it's a nice to have project, not a need to have one, in an era of increasing deficit spending and larger busted budgets.

If we're not willing to cut "wants", eventually we're going to have to cut "needs". If you're not willing to trim the fat off the federal budget, we're going to have to cut meat all the way down to the bone.

I'll admit people can have different viewpoints on what is fat and what is meat. But the idea that no item of the federal budget can ever get cut from time to time needs to go if we are ever going to balance it.

[M II A II R II K]

Interactive - Compare what bike commuting looks like between 12 major cities:

http://insights.strava.com/