Urban Cycling Developments

[M II A II R II K]

Educating the next generation for sustainable mobility

Read More: http://thecityfix.com/blog/educating...y-clare-taylor

.....

Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE), launched in 2003 by the European Commission, seeks to find sustainability initiatives around the region that can help Europe’s citizens gain the knowledge and skills they need to surmount current environmental challenges and work towards creating a more sustainable future.

- IEE’s Cycle-to-school project, an initiative of the Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Recognition for Schools (STARS), is an innovative program that works to increase sustainable mobility by changing the behavior of schoolchildren – and in turn the next generation’s mindset towards sustainability. The program has the simple aim of getting kids to cycle to school instead of being driven by their parents, but its implications are vast. In addressing children’s health, pollution, traffic congestion and road safety, cycling to school creates a model of sustainable education that can be used around the globe, and one that can have immense positive consequences for the future.

- The three-year STARS project is designed for youth ranging from primary school to teenagers. Although still in its first year, the program utilizes a general model of education and activity in a way that can be tailored to the ages and cultural backgrounds of the participants. Schools from nine European cities – Bielefeld, Brussels, Budapest, Edinburgh, London Borough of Hackney, Krakow, Madrid, Milan, and Noord Brabant – are already on board, and the program is moving towards its goal of creating a 5% modal shift from car-to-bike in participating schools.

- A key component in bringing together cycling and education is community collaboration. From the beginning, teachers, parents, school administrators, and cycling experts must discuss the factors inhibiting kids from cycling to school. Then, they can identify ways to facilitate change with community buy-in. Another key to successful cycling and education initiatives is to understand the unique potentials and constraints of a specific region, and change the general model to suit the region’s individual needs. Sometimes this means making small adjustments to areas with histories of cycling; at other times, more extensive measures are necessary.

- The STARS program builds on research from mobility experts Mobiel 21 and draws on successful projects from across Europe, like Ride2School in Rotterdam and the Youth Travel Ambassador pilot program in London, to create a flexible and adaptable model. For primary schools, the STARS Accreditation Program allows kids and schools to gain bronze, silver or gold certification in recognition of achievements in using sustainable alternatives to cars. To address older kids’ motivations to cycle, the STARS Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme (YTAS) was developed, where groups of students take responsibility for designing and implementing campaign activities that will encourage their peers to cycle more. This means that students are simultaneously learning sustainable behaviors themselves, as well as learning to take the initiative to help others make positive changes.

- However, STARS can also take inspiration from the world at large as combined education-and-activity programs emerge around the globe. There are Brazil’s “Cycling Schools,” which combines cycling classes with larger community involvement programs. In Beijing, TEDx events are used to simultaneously teach students about the environmental benefits of biking – and rebrand it as “cool.” Maharashtra, India – home province to growing cities Mumbai, Pune, and Surat – combines its cycling program with a dedication to equality, and views providing bicycles and cycling classes as pivotal components in increasing girls’ access to education and opportunity. All of these models can learn from each other, and each can grow from the others’ success, so that all students across the globe will view bicycling as a vehicle for community, equality, and sustainable mobility, and an important component in their lives.

.....

[SHiRO]

Video Link

[KevinFromTexas]

http://kxan.com/2014/06/01/school-re...only-bicycles/

School relocates using only bicycles

By Erin Cargile Updated: Sunday, June 1, 2014, 6:47 pm Published: Sunday, June 1, 2014, 6:46 pm

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A small, unconventional elementary school in East Austin has a new home, and Sunday was moving day. However, there weren’t any moving vans in sight.

So when the time came to pick a bigger place, the move could not be traditional either. Volunteers, parents and students set off on bikes Sunday. They made the 3 mile ride to the other side of I-35 with inspiration from the Yellow Bike Project.

“Generally the philosophy of that organization… that community… is that we do everything with human power,” parent Mateo Scoggins said.

[M II A II R II K]

How More Bike Parking Could Make Cities Better For Everyone

Read More: http://gizmodo.com/how-more-bike-par...ver-1582198868

.....

Parking allows access for customers to stores, employees to work, entrepreneurs to meetings, tourists to places where they can deposit all their money, the needy to services, residents to their homes. Because of this, it's harder to see that the costs are so high that they outweigh all economic benefits provided.

- In the U.S., 99 percent of trips by car end up in a free spot. The value of that land—and to a lesser extent, the costs of paving, sweeping, policing, and maintaining it—makes parking one of the largest subsidies going. Donald Shoup, the world's foremost expert on all things parking, calculates that the average parking subsidy to a U.S. commuter who drives to work is $5 per work day. Shoup estimated the entire parking subsidy of free parking to be at least $127 billion in 2002—an amount that would put a nice dent in the cash-strapped transportation budget. We are quite literally paying people to drive.

- In 2010, Jesse McCann was looking for a building to open a bar in Portland, Oregon. Like many a business owner, he was thrilled when he finally found one with a big parking lot right out front with room for five cars. But instead of using the lot to provide car parking for his customers, he fenced it off and filled the space with outdoor seating and a rack for 63 bicycles. People thought he was crazy. But McCann's investment paid off—from the day Apex Bar opened, its outdoor tables and bike racks have been full to overflowing on nice days.

- Business owners tend to like bike parking. Many are wary at first, especially when car parking spaces are being replaced. But once a bike corral or staple is put in, the value added becomes immediately clear, and as they become more common, they are more broadly accepted and welcomed. --- Bike parking is undeniably an affordable investment. For each vehicle, bike parking takes up ten times less space than car parking and the cost is from 30 to 300 times less. When bike parking is available at destinations, people are more likely to choose to ride to those places, and also to ride overall.

- A study in Melbourne, Australia found that bike parking brought in five times the revenue of car parking. A study in Toronto found that customers who biked and walked to local businesses spent more money overall than those who drove. Critics of bike corrals often voice the concern that the city will lose revenue from parking meters. But parking is so undervalued that meters typically charge less than the value of a parking space; it makes more sense to maximize capacity—and the benefits.

- But the law of induced demand cannot be escaped. One of the problems bike-friendly cities face is overcrowding of bike parking areas. Bike parking in Amsterdam is so freely available that many people own multiple bikes and keep them parked at transit centers around the city to ride when they happen to be in the neighborhood. The benefits must outweigh the costs of dealing with this bike jam, or the business-minded local government would doubtless begin charging for parking.

.....

Bikestations like his one in DC offer storage for commuters, repair services, and even showers






Chicago peddles bike-friendly image

Read More: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...y-bike-network

For years, these were the faces of biking in Chicago: messengers weaving frantically through downtown traffic, spandex-clad guys racing 21-speeds down the lakefront trail, tattooed 20-somethings zipping coolly along Milwaukee Avenue.

- As Chicago prepares for Sunday's annual Bike the Drive event, in which thousands of cyclists take over Lake Shore Drive from cars, there's good reason for the mayor to back biking: This once-fringe way of getting around is inching into the American mainstream. You can see it in the streets.

- At Union Station during last Monday's evening rush hour, a steady stream of downtown office workers — mostly men, none with visible tattoos — pedaled powder-blue bikes to a long docking station for Divvy, the city's popular, largely federally funded bike-sharing program. The influx was so heavy that a Divvy worker had to pull bikes out of the station and put them in a locked corral so spaces would be available for other cyclists.

- At Navy Pier, home to the most heavily used Divvy location, Argentine tourist Ramiro Lafuente eased a rented bike into the station after riding northward on the lakefront to get a better glimpse of Lake Michigan. "It's a good option to be a tourist in this city," he said. "I like to know the city by walking or riding."

- Since Emanuel took office in 2011, Chicago has installed 52 miles of protected bike lanes, which use a variety of means — plastic pylons, striped pavement markings and non-curbside parking spaces — to separate bikes from vehicles. That brings the city's total bicycle lanes to 207 miles.

- Good urban design has been instrumental in spurring cycling's mini-surge. The protected bike lanes tamp down the fear associated with riding a fragile, two-wheeled contraption alongside trucks and 2-ton SUVs. The sleek, modern Divvy stations lend a human scale to the city's broad, car-clogged streets.

- But Chicago's bike network remains saddled with operational hiccups. Some commuters are frustrated when Divvy stations are bereft of bikes at rush hour. And there are bigger flaws, like a lack of safe, easy-to-navigate connections to and between the protected lanes. --- "Chicago has made incredible progress over the last few years," said Martha Roskowski, vice president at People for Bikes, a Boulder, Colo.-based advocacy group. But, she added, "Chicago also has a ways to go."

.....

[emathias]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

...
Chicago peddles bike-friendly image

Read More: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...y-bike-network

I think Chicago needs more bike racks. There are places where having one seems like a total no-brainer, and yet there are none. Sometimes there aren't even any other sign poles nearby to lock onto. And many buildings actively discourage using their parkway fending to lock up to, which is silly.

The City should proactively put at least one bike rack at every intersection in the central area, and really should probably put more than one rack on most intersections. That would be very useful.

[OhioGuy]

Not One Person Has Died on an NYC Bike-Share Bike

One year ago, New York City launched a bike-share program, and pundits predicted a safety nightmare.

“The most important danger in the city is not the yellow cabs, it is the bicyclists,” raved the Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz in a segment titled “Death by Bicycle.” The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart offered a similarly blunt assessment: “A lot of people are going to die.” The bike-share program did give him an idea for a business, though: “Jon Stewart’s Street Brain Material Removal Service.” A Rutgers professor got more specific. In a New York Post story headlined, “Citi Bike ‘Heading’ for a Fall,” he predicted that cyclist fatalities could triple in the program’s first year, from 20 to 60.


It has now been a full year since the first foolhardy tourists began menacing the city’s streets in those fat blue Citi Bike bikes. Riders have taken more than 8.75 million trips so far, Citi Bike reports, travelling some 14.7 million miles in all. Want to guess how many have died?

None.

“Out of 8.75 million trips, we’ve had about 100 crash reports, of which about 25 warranted a trip to the ER,” Citi Bike spokeswoman Dani Simon told me. “To my knowledge there have been zero fatalities to date.

New York City’s bike-share program is not the only one with a sterling safety record. Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare hasn’t seen any riders fatally injured either, says Reggie Sanders, director of communications for the District Department of Transportation. “We’ve had some scrapes here and there,” he said. “But so far it’s working out beautifully based on the lack of serious injuries and fatalities.”

Around the world, cities with bike-share programs have seen similar results.

If anything, bike-share programs might make city streets safer. As the Washington Post’s Emily Badger points out, the more bikes and pedestrians are on the road, the lower their fatality rates. Their presence forces motorists to drive more carefully, which is good for everyone.

[kilbride102]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

Not One Person Has Died on an NYC Bike-Share Bike

I would guess that riders of bike share programs are not taking chances or engaging in riskier behavior than their counterparts who own their own bike. Can we see the total bicycle accidents/deaths in nyc? I drive in nyc all the time and it seems like the people on the big blue clunky bikes are one step removed from training wheels while other bikes are zipping around in traffic.

[M II A II R II K]

A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling More Popular

Read More: http://www.wired.com/2014/06/a-new-b...nd-save-lives/

.....

Most protected bike lanes—lanes that have a physical barrier between bicyclists and drivers—end just before the intersection, leaving bicyclists and pedestrians vulnerable to turning vehicles. Nick Falbo, an urban planner and designer from Portland (one of the most bike friendly cities in the nation), is proposing a new protected intersection design that would make intersections safer and less stressful than they are today.

- The protective bike lane island will be extend further into the intersection, giving cyclists a physical separation from traffic while they’re making right turns or waiting for a green light. Falbo describes this a curb extension for cyclists, though it’s beneficial for pedestrians, too, Falbo points out. “The more you can separate fast-moving cars from the sidewalk, the more pleasant the experience is going to be for pedestrians.”

- Falbo proposes a waiting area, just past the crosswalk where cyclists can stop. Cars will stop behind the crosswalk, bikes will halt ahead of it, and pedestrians are free to cross the street uninterrupted. This has the added benefit of making cyclists more visible to turning cars, and it’s a safe space for cyclists to wait while wanting to turn left. Instead of merging into the flow of traffic, riders can to a two-step left turn, and wait for a signal to turn.

- Most of the bike lanes in the U.S. tend to bend into the intersection, right next to moving cars. This creates the constant anxiety of: Is that car turning right even though its signal isn’t on? A setback crossing allows for added space (typically the length of a car, so about 6 meters), which means there’s more time to react to potential conflicts. The design forces drivers to turn 90-degrees before they even cross the bike lane, giving them a clear vantage point and greatly reducing the possibility of a side sweep.

- Falbo proposes that at big intersections bike lanes should have their own signals to synchronize movement. A simultaneous green phase would allow cyclists to all move at once, limiting confusion on when to stop and go. Many cities do at least one of these things already, but combing them at particularly busy intersections would be a huge step forward, says Falbo. Unfortunately, making this happen isn’t just about adding some paint and a traffic signal. It goes all the way down to changing policy in cities.

.....

Video Link

[M II A II R II K]

Surprise! People Aged 60-79 Are Behind More Than a Third of the Biking Boom

Read More: http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/06/2...m/#more-153526

The national surge in bicycling since 1995 may have more to do with healthy hips than with hipsters. More than a third of the net increase is coming from people between the ages of 60 and 79, an analysis of federal data shows.

As recently as the Clinton administration, biking was for the young. Riding a bicycle over the age of 55 was very rare; riding over the age of 75 was almost unheard of. Even today, the rapid drop in car use among young adults sometimes leads to assumptions that millennials are driving the nationwide boom in bike trips. Nope.

There’s no question that Generation Y’s tendency to favor city life and declining enthusiasm for car ownership has boosted bike transportation. But as the older civil rights generation and the baby boomers who followed them have entered their golden years, they’ve quietly transformed what it means to be the kind of person who rides a bicycle.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

City Council Adopts Motion to Explore In-Bed River Bike Path Downtown

Read More: http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...-downtown.html

Quite unusual for ambitious infrastructural projects, the Los Angeles River bike path on the Riverbed is progressing in record time. The Los Angeles City Council yesterday adopted a motion by Councilmember José Huizar to advance the construction of a bike path along the Los Angeles River's Downtown section. Concurrently, the Metro Board of directors approved a similar motion by members Mayor Eric Garcetti, Supervisor Gloria Molina, and Councilmember Mike Bonin.

"Connecting the L.A. River Bike Path is critically important to our growing bike network and our office's placemaking efforts along the River," said Councilmember Huizar in a statement. "We have seen recently great momentum supporting the transformation of the Los Angeles River, while we are also reimagining the 6th Street Viaduct, making this a decisive time to build on the energy of those two once-in-a-lifetime projects to ensure a connected Bike Path is integrated into our infrastructure and restoration plans."

Details of the so-called in-channel bike path have only recently come to light a few months ago, but the plan has already undergone preliminary studies. The proposal was brought forth by real estate developer and downtown resident Yuval Bar-Zemer of Linear City, who used his personal funds to consult with geo-engineers at Geosyntec and designers at wHY Architecture to explore solutions. --- According to Bar-Zemer's plan, an almost 9-mile bike path would be built right on the river bed, connecting Riverside Drive to the north, to Atlantic Boulevard in Vernon to the south. The path would create a continuous 31-mile bike route from Griffith Park to Long Beach, working its way through the most problematic areas of downtown Los Angeles, which have traditionally been hemmed in by pre-existing infrastructure like the railroads and freeways.

.....

[FREKI]

Copenhagen's Bycykel ( "City Bike" ) system was the first public free bike sharing system - it was however not without it's issues..

The bikes were very basic ( no gears, no lights, they even ran on solid rubber tires ) and the biggest flaw in a post cash nation was that they was based on a coin deposit system..

While popular amongst tourists they faced a lot of problems, mainly "theft" as drunk people would use them to get home from a night out and not return them to their stations in later years they were also stolen by Eastern European gangs.
The lack of light ment it was illegal to use them after nightfall and the hole system relyed on corporate sponsors and that people cared enough about their coin to return the bike.
And in these days where noone carries cash anymore having to use a coin was reather dumb.


http://i58.tinypic.com/f1i70o.jpg

Now the new one is finally out.. the "Gobike"

It's a modern electrical bike with a large always online touchscreen navigational and operational system and led lighting, real tires, gears, ajustable seat, electronic lock, GSP tracking and so on - plus you can use the national NFC based travelcard to use it - heck you cen even book a bike online and have it ready for you at the nearest charging station




This of course mean the cost per unit is a lot higher, so the system is not completely free anymore - though by far the cheapest transportation available here other than walking ( the first 30min is free after that it's $1/hour )

All in all a cool modern day update - and while it's a shame it's not completely free anymore the price it kept very low and you need to register to borrow one so that should limit theft and lost bikes substancially lower, plus they now know who to bill for a mising bike

[M II A II R II K]

Baidu is secretly developing unmanned self-driving bicycles for China: report

Read More: http://www.techinasia.com/baidu-driv...icycles-china/

Google’s driverless cars might be the talk of the town in the west, but Chinese search giant Baidu just flabbergasted Asia with its recently revealed development of unmanned autonomous bicycles.

- We could see a prototype for the world’s first unmanned bike before the end of this year, according to Techweb. The bike can reportedly identify its owner in some way, and presumably putts around using an electric motor. Sources told Techweb the bike sans rider can sense its environment well enough to avoid obstacles and navigate complicated road conditions.

- Details are sparse, and Baidu hasn’t officially confirmed the bike’s development so far. In theory, rider-less bikes should undergo less scrutiny than driver-less cars when it comes to road safety and legalities. The implications for such a device could be huge in the logistics industry. Like the rest of Asia, dozens upon dozens of local courier companies use scooters and other two-wheeled transportation to deliver packages and food. Individuals could benefit from many of the same perks as they would with self-driving cars, such as sending bikes to pick their kids up from school and transporting persons who are blind or disabled.

.....

[InTheBurbs]

Tucson installs first protected bike lane



Read More:http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/road-runner-city-builds-protected-bike-lanes...

"...City officials hope a recently completed set of bike lanes along West St. Mary’s Road near downtown will help bicyclists feel safer and encourage more of them to get out on the road.

The city finished installing “protected” bike lanes last week along St. Mary’s between North Main Avenue and Interstate 10.

Protected bike lanes feature a wider buffer between bike and car lanes, as well as white posts to separate motorized vehicles and bikes.

The new protected lanes are part of a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of the lanes, but the city could install similar alignments within the next year.

City officials are looking at other locations downtown, including Stone Avenue near the new public service center, as well as some locations on the Pima County Loop that would connect with nearby neighborhoods..."

Photo: www.livingstreetsalliance.org

[edluva]

bring back those flying pigeons!

meanwhile, LA now officially lags tuscon in usable bike infrastructure. it's what happens when you have unenlightened leadership, and an unenlightened populace. council member cedillo officially shot down a protected bike lane for north figueroa (which was already studied and approved by city council), and council member koretz single-handedly shot down bike lanes for westwood blvd - the westside's biggest potential last-mile connection to the expo line is dead. wow. what a crap city LA has become since peaking in '84. mayor garcetti cant do shit with his great streets initiative seeing as council district leadership refuses to adopt his vision.

it's sad when a supposed "world class" city like LA is being one-upped by its own suburbs (santa monica, long beach, west hollywood). megacity of lameness. with LA, getting continental crosswalks is considered an achievement of epic proportions.

[M II A II R II K]

Strange As It Seems, Cycling Haters Are a Sign of Cycling Success

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/...uccess/374275/

.....

As major American cities embrace multimodal transportation and balanced mobility networks, cycling has shifted from an outsider enterprise to the mainstream. That shift, in turn, has produced a new psychological strain for drivers accustomed to the belief they own the road.

- Cyclists may always make up a minority of city travelers (at least in U.S. metros), but the increased prevalence of bike lanes and bike-share systems, alongside steadily rising rates of ridership, means that every passing day makes them less an unpredictable "out group" and more an integral part of the urban transportation fabric.

- If not all cyclists are scofflaws, then not all drivers are Courtland Milloy. So many Americans moved to the suburbs decades ago on the social promise of a swift car commute into the city, and now find themselves locked in terrible daily congestion and surrounded by an urban transport network (rightfully) placing greater emphasis on alternative modes.

- You can try to argue it's the personality of all drivers to hate cyclists. Or you can realize that much of the hate is really a symptom of frustration with a changing environment.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Bike Commuting in the Tropics—Singapore’s Challenge

Read More: http://urbanland.uli.org/infrastruct...res-challenge/

.....

In Singapore, recreational cycling is common, but the design of major roads still favors cars over people. Cultural biases persist against cycling and walking as modes of everyday transport. And high temperatures and rain often force people to take cars, trains, and buses to get where they need to go.

- So, could Amsterdam’s bike-friendly culture be replicated in Singapore, a ­population-dense city-state of 5.3 million where prosperity in the 1970s gave rise to car culture? Yes—but it must be in a way tailored to the unique challenges of tropical environments, according to Active Mobility for Creating Healthy Places, a report published by ULI and its research partner, the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC). In June, at the World Cities Summit in Singapore, the two organizations renewed their commitment to producing research together on what makes cities vibrant and sustainable.

- Professor Jan Gehl, a Danish architect and pioneer of people-focused design, led 55 participants on a bike tour through Ang Mo Kio, a typical residential town, to experience for themselves the difficulty of navigating roads designed for car traffic. Participants encountered inadequate bicycle parking facilities, a lack of safety and convenience when crossing at intersections, and fast-moving “mini-highways” where cycling felt risky. --- Gehl said Singapore is the perfect place to test whether active mobility could be moved beyond the realm of recreation—transforming Sunday cycling into Monday cycling, as the report puts it. Because it has a robust network of trains, Singapore is well on its way to getting more cars off the road. Yet more work needs to be done to integrate cycling into people’s daily commute.

- “I could see the state of Singapore as being the best place in the world for public transportation combined with bicycling,” Gehl said in a local radio interview. “But that means we shall have room in the trains for bicycles. . . . Then you have a system, not only a little ride here and there.” --- Turning Singapore into the Amsterdam of Asia won’t happen overnight—and isn’t even the point. Far from it. Mayor H.E. Ridwan Kamil of Bandung, Indonesia, explained that persistence, education, and understanding local customs are essential to changing minds. As Gehl noted, “It takes time for bicycle culture to develop.”

.....

• Video Link

[M II A II R II K]

Tentative Deal With Related Cos. Affiliate Could Take Bike-Share System Into Queens and Further Into Brooklyn

Read More: http://online.wsj.com/articles/citi-...ash-1406163340

Citi Bike and its operator stand to get tens of millions of dollars to expand New York's popular bicycle-sharing program in a deal that could close within a week, according to people familiar with the matter.

REQX Ventures, an affiliate of real-estate giant Related Cos., is close to hammering out an agreement that could enlarge the footprint of Citi Bike to upper Manhattan, into Queens and further into Brooklyn over the next few years, these people said. The number of bikes would nearly double, from 6,200 to about 12,000. The pact would allow Citi Bike's operator, Alta Bicycle Share Inc., more flexibility in raising the price of the $95 annual memberships, which could increase to $140 or more, these people said. More than 100,000 annual memberships have been sold.

As part of the tentative agreement, REQX Ventures would secure a controlling stake in Alta, these people said, thrusting the Related affiliate to the forefront of a budding industry spreading across the U.S. Alta, based in Portland, Ore., runs bike-share and rental systems in cities from Boston to San Francisco. The programs have faced a mix of obstacles, chief among them a need for capital to expand and keep rolling.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

The Most Persuasive Evidence Yet that Bike-Share Serves as Public Transit

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/...ransit/375142/

.....

Past work has found that bike-share members decrease their car use considerably: According to one survey, 52 percent did so in Minneapolis, and 41 percent in Washington, D.C.

- The new, more fine-grained analysis of bike-share use in these cities reveals that its role in the transit system varies based on the character of the host city. In larger cities with dense cores like D.C., bike-share may replace shorter transit trips; in smaller, more dispersed cities like Minneapolis, it may expand the entire public transport network.

- Berkeley researchers Elliot Martin and Susan Shaheen report the findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Transport Geography: --- The denser the urban environment (particularly for rail), the more bikesharing provides new connections that substitute for existing ones. The less dense the environment, the more bikesharing establishes new connections to the existing public transit system.

- Overall, the maps suggest that bike-share, at least in Minneapolis and Washington, is making the entire multimodal transit network more efficient. For short trips in dense settings, bike-share just makes more sense than waiting for the subway—it's "substitutive of public transit," in the words of Martin and Shaheen. For longer trips from the outskirts, bike-share access might act as a nudge out of a car—it's "complementary to public transit."

- Basic research like this is important in its own right, but it's especially intriguing at the moment because it lays the foundation for bike-share systems to receive public money. Right now, part of the appeal of bike-share for most cities is that it operates using private funding. But with the flaws in that financial model becoming clearer every day, and with increasing evidence that bike-share can expand or support public transit networks, the case for improving these systems with taxpayer dollars becomes much stronger.

.....

D.C. RAIL







D.C. BUS







Minneapolis RAIL







Minneapolis BUS

[M II A II R II K]

This Is Supposedly the Urban Bike of the Future

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/...future/375773/

In the coming years, what mutations can we expect to see in bicycle design in American cities? To judge from a national contest to make the "next-wave urban bike," it will be things like turn signals, automatic-gear shifters, and motors—almost everything you'd expect on a good moped.

- But compared to a traditional cycle, these decked-out machines remove the pain and add some problems. They could contribute to environmental degradation if batteries and electronics aren't recycled properly. And with that power assist, you can jet down to the 7-Eleven for some Hot Pockets without barely burning a calorie. But maybe these are just outdated opinions from a caveman who likes to sweat on his 2007 Trek hybrid.

.....

Video Link

[M II A II R II K]

Copenhagen’s New Bike Skyway Makes Commuting Look Fun

Read More: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/copenha...ide-id-1379361

Copenhagen has long been leading the world in citizen-pleasing infrastructure, and the country has yet again outdone itself. In June, it welcomed the Cykelslangen, or Cycle Snake, an elevated cyclist roadway over the harbor to ease congestion.

This road is the latest addition to one of the most bicycle-friendly city infrastructures in the world. In Copenhagen, more than 50 percent of residents ride their bicycles to work. Portland, Oregon, with the most bicycle commuters in the United States, clocks in at 6.1 percent. Credit those numbers to a culture that encourages cycling, but also to an infrastructure that does the same, with traffic lights timed for bicycle speeds, cobblestone paths with smoothed shoulders, and parking systems that position unoccupied cars as a buffer between cycle lanes and moving traffic. So many people cycle that it’s become a quaint issue to find parking for the two-wheelers.

Cykelslangen (pronounced soo-cool-klag-en) adds just 721 feet of length to the city’s 220 miles of bicycle paths, but it relieves congestion by taking riders over instead of through a waterfront shopping area. “Underneath, there’s a harbor front, so there are slow moving-pedestrians,” says Mikael Colville-Anderson, CEO of Copanhagenize, a Danish design company. “It wasn’t a smooth commute for the cyclists. The people on bikes want to get home and the pedestrians want to saunter.” Pedestrian-cyclist conflict was never an issue, but cyclists couldn’t pedal at a constant speed, and they had to deal with stairways. The new roadway, which runs one story above the ground, lets them move without interruption. At just over 13 feet wide, there’s plenty of room to pass even a double-wide cargo bike.

.....