Urban Cycling Developments

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Nearly 650 Miles Added to the U.S. Bicycle Route System!


By Lindsay Plante

Read More: http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012...-route-system/

Thanks to the support and collaboration of advocates, government officials and recreational riders, the Adventure Cycling Association and the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials recently announced two new routes in the growing network of the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS).

- U.S. Bicycle Route (USBR) 35 covers nearly 500 miles through Michigan, from its Canadian border all the way to Indiana. In Minnesota, USBR 45 stretches from the Twin Cities area to its southern border with Iowa, a total of 148 miles. Both routes take cyclists through a variety of settings — from quiet beach towns and scenic hideaways to metropolitan and cultural centers. These recent additions were accompanied by improvements to the existing USBR 1 in North Carolina. This route, first designated in 1982, was realigned to avoid high traffic areas, maintaining a comfortable bicycling environment for both local and visiting cyclists.

- For all three routes, the state departments of transportation provided invaluable support for the completion of the projects and dedication to the welfare of cyclists while Adventure Cycling provided technical assistance for the proper route implementation. The progress won’t end here. In Michigan, USBR 35 will continue south through Indiana all the way to Mississippi. The Minnesota DOT plans to see 800 miles of existing trail extend USBR 45, which will eventually reach south along the Mississippi River arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana. But policymakers and engineers aren’t the only ones growing the USBRS: Riders like you are making it all possible, too. Just today, ACA announced a record year for its Bike It. Build It. Be Part of It. campaign, raising $50,000 in May alone!

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Map: http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog//blo...2/06/USBRS.jpg

[M II A II R II K]

Gears of rhetoric ratchet up in San Francisco's car-bike debate


June 16, 2012

By Maria L. La Ganga

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...850,full.story

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In the ongoing smart-growth discussion, San Francisco offers a cautionary tale for cities where officials are mulling antidotes to sprawl and working toward less dependence on the private auto. Two-wheel travel has grown 71% in the last five years here, and officials have passed ambitious new goals: 50% of all travel within the city limits should be by something other than a private vehicle by 2018, and 20% should be via bike by 2020.

- But even in this environmentally correct city — where the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition wields great clout and 10 of 11 supervisors joined the mayor in pedaling to the Civic Center on Bike-to-Work Day — the transition has been rocky. "There's a thinking now that the public realm should be for people to be in, not just to drive through," said Ed Reiskin, San Francisco's director of transportation. "But as cycling has increased and our infrastructure has not kept up, there are conflicts and tensions. …I'm no cyclist hater. But there's a lot of bad behavior out there."

- Three pedestrians get hit by cars in San Francisco every day, said Stampe, who rents a car only for errands that can't be done on foot or bike, like buying a case of soy milk. And 55% of all traffic fatalities here are pedestrians, she said, compared with 12% nationally. "If everyone in a car right now were on a bike," Stampe said, "the streets would be safer and cleaner." In fact, according to the most recent San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency report, crashes in general have been going down over the last decade or so. The exception? Bicycle-related crashes have risen as the number of cyclists has grown. A window on San Francisco's space-sharing conflicts can be found along a beloved bike route called the Wiggle, which allows cyclists to avoid hills between the Panhandle and Market Street.

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[M II A II R II K]

Survey: Capital Bike Share Saved 5 Million Driving Miles


06/18/2012

By Andrea Bernstein

Read More: http://transportationnation.org/2012...driving-miles/

Full Study PDF: http://mobilitylab.org/wp-content/up...rvey-Final.pdf

A new survey of Washington’s Capital Bikeshare, done for Capital Bikeshare, says four in ten users report using cars less — for an average savings of 523 miles for those users. The survey’s authors say that translates to a total of 5 million miles not driven.

- But the survey also found that bike share users tend to be, “on average, considerably younger, more likely to be male and Caucasian, highly educated, and slightly less affluent” than the adult population of the Washington, DC area.

Other results:

* 64 percent said they would not have made the trip without bike share;

* 15 percent said they joined bike share because of a “Living Social” offer;

* More than half of respondents used bike share as a feeder to reach transit stops.

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[M II A II R II K]

Bike Chicago’s protest of Alta Bicycle Share winning bike sharing contract


June 20, 2012

By Steven Vance

Read More: http://gridchicago.com/2012/bike-chi...rid+Chicago%29

The Chicago Office of the Inspector General is currently investigating the procurement process for the bike sharing RFP that selected Alta Bicycle Share, Inc., and its partner, Public Bike Share Co., as the winner bidder to launch a bike sharing program in the city with 4,000 bikes and 400 kiosks.

In March, Josh Squire, the president of Bike Chicago (a sponsor of this blog through Bike and Park), called the selection process “tainted”. In April he sent Grid Chicago a summary of the allegations and a detailed timeline of evidence supporting them. We’re posting it now because we’ve received a couple inquiries about the procurement process that this could help answer.

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[M II A II R II K]

Mayor announces bicycle sharing program


June 19, 2012

By Aaron Vaughn

Read More: http://fox13now.com/2012/06/19/mayor...aring-program/

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker announced Tuesday that starting next spring, residents will have the option to ride publicly shared bicycles.

The new program, SLC Bike Share, will implement nearly a dozen bike stations where people can go to rent a bicycle. Riders will have to pay $5 to rent a bike for 24 hours or $75 for an annual pass. The annual pass will allow a bike checkout any time.

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[M II A II R II K]

U.S. Mayors Urge Congress to Preserve Funding for Bike/Ped Programs


Read More: http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012...eped-programs/

Adding a very powerful voice to the call for continued federal funding for sidewalks and bikeways, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution at its annual meeting last weekend that urges Congress to “protect and increase funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs in the next transportation reauthorization law.”

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A few keys lines from the resolution:

• WHEREAS, communities that have invested in pedestrian and bicycle projects have benefited from improved quality of life, a healthier population, greater local real estate values, more local travel choices, and reduced air pollution; and

• WHEREAS, federal investments in pedestrian and bicycle programs are highly cost-effective relative to road-building projects, reduce accidents by providing safe and convenient places to walk and bicycle, and decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil; and…

• THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors urges Congress to protect and increase funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs in the next transportation reauthorization law through transportation enhancements, an expanded NTPP [Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program], support for Safe Routes to School, the Transportation Community Systems Preservation Progam (TCSP), expanding the Recreational Trails program and other federal transportation programs.

That wasn’t the only measure related to cycling that passed at the meeting either. The mayors also got behind a resolution in support of bike sharing:

• WHEREAS, use of alternative modes of transportation helps all users of the transportation system, including those who choose to or must drive, by reducing congestion and improving safety among other benefits; and

• WHEREAS, alternative modes of transportation often support each other– for example, bike sharing programs improve the effectiveness of the existing transit system, integrating into the existing network and providing valuable connections and flexibility; and…

• THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors strongly endorses the planning and implementation of alternative modes of transportation throughout the United States.

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[M II A II R II K]

Bike helmet law up for debate


June 22, 2012

By DANIEL FONTAINE

Read More: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Columnists.../19901196.html

Around the streets of Metro Vancouver, a significant number of cyclists don’t wear helmets. This is despite the fact that in 1996 helmet use became mandatory for everyone riding a bicycle on our roads and bikeways.
Now that Vancouver politicians have decided to sink a few million tax dollars into subsidizing a new bike share system, the issue of helmet use is heating up.

- Both cycling and health advocates have been abuzz regarding how to handle this thorny public policy issue. Front-line health care providers who work in our hospitals and emergency wards are adamant that helmets save lives and prevent serious head injuries. Meanwhile, Vancouver’s former city planner Brent Toderian is an advocate for relaxing helmet laws in order to make cities more cycle friendly. He argues public officials should be looking at the macro health benefits of more people cycling, rather than simply focusing on individual injuries.

- The debate has become so intense that cycling advocates have even suggested that if they are forced to wear helmets, so too should car and truck drivers. This is one debate where I find myself being swayed by both sides. Removing helmet laws will encourage more people to cycle – which is a good thing. But, it would also lead to an increase in the number of serious head injuries. On the whole, the libertarian side of me is leaning toward supporting the elimination of the mandatory helmet law. While I personally would never ride a bicycle without a helmet, I think government making it illegal is likely doing more harm than good.

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[M II A II R II K]

“Transformative” Bike Projects Win Big in Fourth Round of TIGER Grants


June 22, 2012

By Tanya Snyder

Read More: http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/06/22...-tiger-grants/

PDF Report: http://www.dot.gov/tiger/fy2012tiger.pdf

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Houston received $15 million to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to transit. The city with the most bike commuters in the state of Texas will get 7.9 miles of on-street bike lanes, 2.8 miles of sidewalks, and 7.5 miles of off-street paths for that money. And Chicago got $20 million for infrastructure improvements to the high-traffic 95th Street terminal and another $10.4 million to untangle freight and passenger trains, potentially reducing travel times by 50 minutes.

- Here in DC, $10 million will build four miles of missing links in the bike network, connecting hundreds of miles of off-street bike paths between DC and Maryland. Shane Farthing, director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, says there’s not much commuter traffic in that area now, partly because the connection to the vast bike network in the near Maryland suburbs was nearly impossible to access from many parts of DC. But this grant will be transformative, he says. “I don’t think a lot of people realize that for a lot of DC, you can actually bike to the University of Maryland faster than you can drive or metro. And this will make that possible for an entire new segment of the District.”

- The League of American Bicyclists points out some other exciting bike projects that were awarded TIGER grants, including one to put downtown Concord, New Hampshire on a bicycle-friendly road diet, another to connect downtown Tampa by completing important greenways, and another to include bike lanes on a new bridge in the Maine bicycle system. However, another DC proposal to improve bike and pedestrian access to seven transit stations and hubs was rejected, unfortunately — one of many disappointed applicants this time. This round of TIGER was vastly oversubscribed, like every round before it. According to U.S. DOT, the 703 applications the agency received amounted to 20 times the amount of money available.

A few notes from U.S. DOT about the winners:

• Of the $500 million in TIGER 2012 funds available for grants, more than $120 million will go to critical projects in rural areas.

• Roughly 35 percent of the funding will go to road and bridge projects, including more than $30 million for the replacement of rural roads and bridges that need improvements to address safety and state of good repair deficiencies.

• 16 percent of the funding will support transit projects like the Wave Streetcar Project in Fort Lauderdale.

• 13 percent of the funding will support high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects like the Raleigh Union Station Project in North Carolina.

• 12 percent will go to freight rail projects, including elements of the CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) program to reduce freight rail congestion in Chicago.

• 12 percent will go to multimodal, bicycle and pedestrian projects like the Main Street to Main Street Multimodal Corridor project connecting Memphis and West Memphis.

• 12 percent will help build port projects like the Outer Harbor Intermodal Terminal at the Port of Oakland.

• Three grants were also directed to tribal governments to create jobs and address critical transportation needs in Indian country.

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[Smuttynose1]

This is kind of old news, but I believe first time reported here.

Boston: Longfellow Bridge loses outbound car lane in new design



The rebuilt Longfellow Bridge will shrink to a single traffic lane bound for Cambridge, keep two headed for Boston, and gain wider bike lanes and sidewalks in each direction as part of a new design released to the public yesterday.

For the 105-year-old Longfellow, that plan, filed with federal regulators last month, reverses some 1950s-era changes that recast one of the state’s best-known bridges to allow for faster driving. It represents a win for advocates of greener travel and shared streets.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-0...-inbound-lanes

[zilfondel]

That cross section looks familiar - similar in scope to what Portland did with our Burnside Bridge (except we don't have transit lanes). 6-foot bike lanes can make a world of difference. They aren't perfect, but they are a huge step in the right direction:

http://bikeportland.org/2011/01/20/p...-bikeway-46395

[M II A II R II K]

Construction of the 55th Street protected bike lane and road diet began Wednesday


June 28, 2012

By Steven Vance

Read More: http://gridchicago.com/2012/55th-str...rid+Chicago%29




The eastbound bike lane begins at this bus stop at Cottage Grove Avenue.






At Drexel Avenue, buses will merge into the cycle track to pick up and drop off passengers.






At Ellis Avenue, right turning drivers will share the bike lane with people cycling through the intersection.

[M II A II R II K]

Why advocates are distraught over new transportation bill


June 28th, 2012

By Jonathan Maus

Read More: http://bikeportland.org/2012/06/28/w...-anyways-74002

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Details of the 599 page bill are still being analyzed, but advocates from Portland and around the nation have seen enough: They are extremely disappointed with what they have to show for years of member email blasts and bike summits. Nearly every major national bike advocacy group, as well as Portland's own Bicycle Transportation Alliance, have already published statements of opposition to the new bill.

Here are a few reasons for all the heartache:

• The America Bikes coalition estimates that overall, this new two-year bill slashes funds for biking and walking by an estimated 60-70% — from $1.2 billion in FY 2011 to an estimated $702 million per year under the new plan.

• Half of the $617 million allocated to a new section of the bill called "Transportation Alternatives" — $308.5 million — can be easily opted-out of by individual states who'd rather spend it on freeways and other auto and freight-centric projects.

• The cherished Safe Routes to School program, which currently enjoys it's own dedicated pot of funding, has been thrown into the mix of "eligible projects" states can choose to fund among many others in the Transportation Alternatives section.

• There are some new types of projects — like environmental mitigation of road projects — that are also eligible for funding alongside Safe Routes and other non-motorized projects. Advocates fear this will drain the money and make it even more difficult to compete for the limited funds.

• Further eroding the Safe Routes program, the existing law made it a requirement for all states to have a Safe Routes to School coordinator position. In MAP-21, that position is only eligible for funding, but states aren't obligated to fund it.

• Transportation Enhancements, a vaunted program that has been nothing short of a funding juggernaut for dedicated bike paths and other innovative, non-motorized projects, no longer exists as a separate program.

• Another crucial program for funding bike-related projects, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program, has suffered key changes. Congress has stripped the provision that used to prohibit the use of CMAQ funds to construct single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) lanes and additional turn lanes on highways. This means CMAQ funds could go toward widening highways, leaving less money for non-motorized projects.

• The bill completely strips funding for the FHWA's informational clearinghouses. That means more no more money for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.

• A mandatory sidepath provision that bans bicycling on roads inside federal lands is still in the bill (although it's improved slightly from it's original form to provide an exception if the road meets a certain level of quality for biking).

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[M II A II R II K]

China Transportation Briefing: Booming Public Bikes


July 3, 2012

By Heshuang Zeng

Read More: http://thecityfix.com/blog/china-tra...-public-bikes/

The Beijing Municipal Government recently launched a new public bike rental program, though this is not Beijing’s first foray into bike sharing. There are 39 public bike schemes in China—dwarfing all other nations. As more Chinese cities introduce public bike systems, we need to think carefully about their design and operations under a broader sustainable transport framework.

- Currently, Hangzhou runs the largest bikeshare program in the world with 250,000 trips a day with more than 60,000 bikes and 2,177 stations. This system, which is funded entirely by the municipal government, was planned and built within only three years The red bicycles have been so well-received by the public that it inspired many other Chinese cities, including Beijing, to replicate the Hangzhou model. On June 16, the Beijing municipal government launched its public bike program. The first batch of 2,000 bikes have been stationed in 63 places with high-traffic flow in Beijing’s Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts. According to the plan, 50,000 bikes will be in use in 1,000 designated service places by 2015 to cover major districts, transportation hubs and streets.

- It is widely recognized that Hangzhou’s success is attributed to its good planning and design. Laying out a new public bike network is not an easy task, from putting bike stations in the right places to providing well-connected bike lanes. Hangzhou carefully considers the density and service radius of its bike stations. The average station distance is about 1,000 meters, which makes the public bike an accessible last- or first-mile solution. Hangzhou’s bike program also has an incredibly beautiful and bikable open space in the city center, starting with the famous West Lake scenic area. These factors contribute to the popularity of Hangzhou’s public bike system.

- Other than station and bike lane planning, integration with other public transit modes is also crucial. In Hangzhou, the planning of its bike stations is consistent with its public transit system, where the large bike stations (with 80 to 140 bikes) are placed at important transit nodes, and median bike stations are found at bus stops (10 bikes per thousand residents.) This integration allows people to easily transfer from bikes to public transit. For new bus rapid transit or metro line projects, integrating bikeshare infrastructure is only a very small additional investment that could yield great social benefits, as shown in the case of the Guangzhou BRT and Guangzhou bikeshare. While Beijing continues its efforts to build new metro and bus lines, taking the public bike into account might be a good way to go.

- Public bikes might be a sweet burden for local governments, but more sustainable and innovative models could be developed, such as the program in Wuhan, China. The public bike program in Wuhan is a point collecting system and it is free and accessible for everybody. But to many people’s surprise, this system was set up and operated by the private sector. Instead of being directly involved, the Wuhan government grants the station advertising and development rights to the operators, and the operators obtain revenues from advertisements to pay for the construction and management of public bicycles. Coincidently, when Fangzhou, the former largest private bikeshare company in Beijing, closed its business in 2010, the owner told reporters that the company would have survived if the Beijing government could grant them the advertisement rights for their bikes and bike stations. Though the Wuhan bikeshare program currently suffers from some problems like vandalism, its operations and funding model, through advertising rights, is still informative for other cities looking to adopt a similar scheme.

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[M II A II R II K]

Study shows biking customers spend more


July 6th, 2012

By Jonathan Maus

Read More: http://bikeportland.org/2012/07/06/s...end-more-74357

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The impetus for this research came from the common perception among business owners that auto access equals business and anything that impedes auto parking or auto capacity on roads near their business will hurt their bottom line. We all know how this plays out: A city announces plans for a new bikeway and immediately there is push-back from business organizations and/or business owners. We've seen examples of this play out all over Portland, most recently on SW 12th Ave.

- Using intercept surveys, they asked people at a variety of Portland-area bars, convenience stores, and restaurants how much they spent, how often they shopped, and whether they showed up via public transit, on foot, by car, or by bike. The study also focused on different locations to see if there were differences between spending habits in central business districts, the urban core, neighborhood centers, or suburban areas. "Survey results suggest that patrons who arrive by automobile do not necessarily convey greater monetary benefits to businesses than bicyclists, transit users, or pedestrians. This finding is contrary to what business owners often believe."

- People who drive to these establishments spend more per visit; but bike riders visit more often and therefore spend more overall. For example, the data shows that people drove to a convenience store an average of 9.9 times per month and spent $7.98 per visit for a total monthly expenditure of $79.73 while people who biked made 14.5 convenience store visits, spending $7.30 per trip for a total of $105.66 per month.

- Clifton's ongoing research will look to gather more evidence and data. In the next steps of the study she plans to control for things like, "establishment characteristics, customer demographics, and the built environment near the business." So far, this sounds like great news for cities and this research should help build the already strong case for the development of better bicycle and human-centric access (like the City of Chicago's "people spots") near businesses. This research is funded primarily through the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium. Clifton (who you can read comments from below) says the final report will be done in about a month.

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[M II A II R II K]

Charlotte’s first bike sharing stations arrive


Jul. 11, 2012

By Jeremy Markovich

Read More: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...e-sharing.html

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Several bike sharing stations were set up this week around uptown, including at the 7th Street LYNX station, and on Trade Street in front of the Omni Hotel near The Square. Workers were testing the system Tuesday afternoon, reports NewsChannel 36, the Observer’s news partner.

- B-Cycle, which runs bike share programs in a dozen cities including Spartanburg, Houston and Kansas City, will run the program. The website for Charlotte’s bike share, charlottebcycle.com, was not online Tuesday, but a search revealed Charlotte Center City Partners as the site’s owner. An official announcement is set to come Thursday at noon from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Charlotte Center City Partners. At this point, it’s unclear how many bicycles or stations there would be in Charlotte, although each of the two stations we saw Tuesday had docks for more than a dozen bikes. Bikes can be checked out between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. but can be checked back in at any time.

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[M II A II R II K]

Biking to the future in Boston


July 08, 2012

Read More: http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-0...e-improvements

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Cities and towns across Greater Boston are peddling cycling construction projects this summer like never before: If it isn’t a Newton city committee proposing 30 new miles of bike lanes, it’s Malden and Everett converting downtown railroad beds into a multiuse path, or Charlestown and Jamaica Plain residents lobbying for bike improvements once antiquated highway overpasses are torn down.

- Meanwhile, at 698 feet, the longest bicycle and pedestrian bridge ever built in Boston is expected to open this month. The North Bank Bridge, paid for with $10 million in federal stimulus funds, begins under the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Charlestown’s Paul Revere Park and ends in Cambridge’s North Point Park. Looping like a giant steel roller coaster over four sets of railroad tracks and a boat ramp, it is a sight to behold, whether you own a bicycle or not.

- Cycle tracks are key, because most people are not comfortable in a 5-foot bike lane on busy streets, Geller says. “They want a network that is completely separated from automobiles, and that’s what the world’s best bicycling cities have done. That’s what Copenhagen has done, what Amsterdam has done. That’s what Seville, Spain, is all of a sudden doing. Cities all throughout Europe are doing this.” A handful of US cities, Memphis, Chicago, and New York among them, are moving in that direction.

- “You need to have a network, so that people can do the major part of their trip on facilities that are safe and convenient. If you have any gaps in the route they need to take, it might as well not be there,” Watson says. (Moving bicyclists out of vehicle traffic would, naturally, improve things for drivers, too.)

- The type of progress Geller and Watson talk about, of course, takes both money and time. Portland spent a decade promoting its bicycling initiatives before ridership significantly increased, and even now, the number of people who cycle to work is just 6 percent citywide, though that’s a relatively high share for a US city. “I think it’s almost unavoidable in America that there’s this incremental approach,” Geller says.

- Bicycle advocates say there’s a vibe about cycling in Greater Boston that wasn’t here just two or three years ago, with numerous projects and plans under discussion, a burgeoning advocacy group whose ranks include everyone from local bike manufacturers to Critical Mass disciples to politicians and municipal officials, and even a few national cycling awards for smarter planning trickling in.

- The Hubway bike-sharing program, which is expanding this summer to 72 stations in Boston and adding stations in Cambridge, Brookline, and Somerville for the first time, has garnered the most publicity. But the city, under Menino’s direction, has also added 51 miles of bike lanes to streets since 2008, created a “director of Boston bikes” position, and adopted a “complete streets” design approach, making bicycle and pedestrian access a priority whenever roads are improved.

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[M II A II R II K]

Commuters Pedal to Work on Their Very Own Superhighway


July 17, 2012

By SALLY McGRANE

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/wo...erhighway.html

COPENHAGEN — Picture 11 miles of smoothly paved bike path meandering through the countryside. Largely uninterrupted by roads or intersections, it passes fields, backyards, chirping birds, a lake, some ducks and, at every mile, an air pump. For some Danes, this is the morning commute.

- The cycle superhighway, which opened in April, is the first of 26 routes scheduled to be built to encourage more people to commute to and from Copenhagen by bicycle. More bike path than the Interstate its name suggests, it is the brainchild of city planners who were looking for ways to increase bicycle use in a place where half of the residents already bike to work or to school every day.

- “We are very good, but we want to be better,” said Brian Hansen, the head of Copenhagen’s traffic planning section. He and his team saw potential in suburban commuters, most of whom use cars or public transportation to reach the city. “A typical cyclist uses the bicycle within five kilometers,” or about three miles, said Mr. Hansen, whose office keeps a coat rack of ponchos that bicycling employees can borrow in case of rain. “We thought: How do we get people to take longer bicycle rides?”

- “It doesn’t work if you have a good route, then a section in the middle is covered in snow,” said Lise Borgstrom Henriksen, spokeswoman for the cycle superhighway secretariat. “People won’t ride to work then.” For the superhighway project, Copenhagen and 21 local governments teamed up to ensure that there were contiguous, standardized bike routes into the capital across distances of up to 14 miles. “We want people to perceive these routes as a serious alternative,” Mr. Hansen said, “like taking the bus, car or train.” The plan has received widespread support in a country whose left- and right-leaning lawmakers both regularly bike to work (albeit on slightly different models of bicycle).

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[M II A II R II K]

Europe embraces bike-based urban delivery with new cargo bike lobby group


July 17th, 2012

By Jonathan Maus

Read More: http://bikeportland.org/2012/07/17/e...=Google+Reader

Portland has made lots of headlines in the past few years for our growing crop of cargo bike based businesses; but all the exciting momentum is coming from the grassroots and from individual entrepreneurs. Ironically, the most energy-efficient mode of urban freight delivery is being ignored by state and federal programs designed specifically to reduce emissions. In Europe however — where a pervasive car culture doesn't cloud political thinking quite as much as is does here in the states — leaders are moving forward with programs that support the development of a bike-based urban freight delivery industry.

- According to the European Cyclists Federation, over 30 companies from across Europe came together in Cambridge, England over the weekend to form a cargo bike lobby under the rubric of the "European Cycle Logistics Federation". Their aim is to, "improve urban delivery and act as a lobby group to promote cycle based delivery solutions." This new cargo bike lobby is part of the larger Cycle Logistics effort that receives funding from the European Union's Intelligent Energy program. The founder of a bike delivery company in Cambridge who was part of the weekend meeting told the ECF that, "As a group we will be able to influence and convince stakeholders that freight bikes are a feasible option for delivering cargo in congested inner city areas. More cargo bikes delivering goods means less trucks in city centres and safer, liveable streets for people."

- Reading through the ECF's press release it was very easy to imagine this type of event happening in Portland. The only thing we're missing is the official buy-in from government and politicians. Several months ago, a few cargo bike enthusiasts rallied together to form TRANSPORTLand, a group led by enthusiasts and local business owners who have many of the same goals and beliefs as the new European cargo bike lobby. The group has a website and has held several events, from regularly scheduled "Cargo Bike Roll Calls" to pedaling together in a parade during the Rose Festival, and of course the wildly successful Disaster Relief Trials. With some official funding and more buy-in from local, state, and national politicians, Portland could lead America toward a new era in (nearly) emissions-free, bike-based urban freight delivery services.

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[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Commuters Pedal to Work on Their Very Own Superhighway


July 17, 2012

By SALLY McGRANE

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/wo...erhighway.html

I still dream of a grade-separated multi-lane bicycle superhighway here in Chicago. It would create 100% pedestrian, and 100% bicycle routes. Congestion problems would be eliminated, accidents would decrease, and people would no longer be mad at each other competing for trail space.

There would be two lanes each direction....slow and fast lanes. Leisure riders, rickshaws, quadricycles, families with young children keep to the right (in an extra wide lane). Cyclists out there for commuting and exercise would use the inner most lane. Maximum speed would be 20 mph during park operating hours. After hours, speed limits would be unlimited since the park is closed, and any individual not using the path exclusively for commuting purposes is technically trespassing.

[M II A II R II K]

Cameras Are Cyclists’ ‘Black Boxes’ in Accidents


July 20, 2012

By NICK WINGFIELD

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/te...imes&seid=auto

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Cyclists have long had a rocky coexistence with motorists and pedestrians, who often criticize bike riders for a confrontational attitude, and for blowing through stop signs or otherwise exempting themselves from the rules of the road. Now small cameras — the cycling equivalent of the black box on an airplane — are becoming an intermediary in the relationship, providing high-tech evidence in what is sometimes an ugly contest between people who ride the roads on two wheels and those who use four.

- Video from these cameras has begun to play an invaluable role in police investigations of a small number of hit-and-runs and other incidents around the country, local authorities say. Lawyers who specialize in representing bicyclists say they expect the use of cameras for this purpose to increase as awareness of the devices goes up and their prices, now starting at around $200, come down. Some riders even argue that the technology will encourage cyclists to keep themselves in check during dust-ups with drivers. “I know my actions before and after some event are going to be recorded if I’m the one being a jerk,” Mr. Wilder said. “It makes me want to be careful.” Bicyclists say cameras can also deter motorist harassment, a problem that many complain about and that cities like Los Angeles and Berkeley, Calif., have sought to combat with new laws.

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