Urban Cycling Developments

[Swede]

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

"Cykelväg" I could get behind. Or cycleway or bike highway to describe limited-access roadways built for bikes.

I wonder how it would translate into other languages...? Fahrradbahn? Véloroute? Via bicicleta?

Cykelväg kinda just means bike path though, and in Swedish there's no "freeway" or "highway" just "motorway". Cykelled is a possibility, but that's already used to mean any bike route. I wonder what the Dutch are calling 'em?

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Semi-turbo roundabout with right of way for cyclists - Hilversum, The Netherlands


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The dangers of turbo roundabouts


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Chicago Applies NACTO Urban Bikeway Guidelines


January 30, 2012

By Itir Sonuparlak

Read More: http://thecityfix.com/blog/chicago-a...ay-guidelines/

Last year, the National Association of City Transportation Officials released a technical guide on how to implement bike lanes in urban areas. We now see that Chicago is applying these guidelines to create safe biking paths across the city.

We previously wrote about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s commitment to providing safe and protected spaces for bicyclists, so it’s no surprise to see the city taking leaps towards this goal.

In order to communicate the city’s efforts, NACTO released a video highlighting Chicago’s bike lanes and the exchange of knowledge among experts in the transportation world.

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[The Gibbroni]

This is a great cycling video. Such dedication!

Video Link

[M II A II R II K]

Capital Bikeshare program looks to spread into the Washington suburbs


February 1

By Ashley Halsey III

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...EjQ_story.html

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By summertime, the bikes should be rolling through the streets of Rockville and Alexandria as the popular Capital Bikeshare program expands into several outer Washington communities. If grant applications come through, they might also appear in the inner-ring areas of Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Friendship Heights and Forest Glen. The development of White Flint and Wheaton make those neighborhoods likely candidates as well. College Park, with thousands of students looking for cheap transportation, is also a tempting location. Greenbelt is in the mix, as are Frederick, Howard and Prince George’s counties.

- A key reason the bike program has flourished in the District and Arlington has been the expansion of bike lanes and bike-related improvements to encourage cycling. As Bikeshare moves to areas outside the city, the same accommodations are important, said Shane Farthing, director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. “I do think that the next places that come along are going to have to step it up a little bit to make sure that conditions are right, that people are safe, that there’s space for people to bike, and that drivers and cyclists are educated on how to ride responsibly,” Farthing said.

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Boehner Bikepath Blog is … Baloney, say Bicyclists


Read More: http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012...ay-bicyclists/

Speaker John Boehner’s weekend claim that 25% of the highway dollars are “siphoned off for non-economic projects – such as beautification and bikepaths” came as a bit of a shock. The nation’s bicyclists must have gotten a big raise over the holidays, because last November Boehner and his buddy Eric Cantor were claiming only ten percent of highway funds were “diverted” this way.

Neither figure is anywhere close to the truth, of course. Boehner continues to use “bikepaths” as a whipping boy for everything that he thinks is wrong with our transportation system – he knows, and his colleagues know, that “bikepaths” get barely 1.5% of Federal transportation dollars. They also carefully avoid inconvenient facts like:

- The 1.5% of funds that go to bicycling and walking projects compares to the 12% of trips and 14% of fatalities for which these two transportation account nationwide.

- “Bikepaths” make up a small percentage of investments made in safer bicycling and walking infrastructure – most of the funds go to popular and cost-effective projects including sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, trails, bike parking, Safe Routes to Schools programs and a host of other safety projects that benefit all road users.

- The Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to Schools programs are among the only programs that give local governments the opportunity to compete fairly for transportation dollars that are fiercely controlled by state highway agencies; these funds are typically over-subscribed by a factor of three or more.

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Paris cyclists given right to break traffic laws


07 Feb 2012

By Henry Samuel

Read More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ffic-laws.html

A new government decree has just authorised cyclists in the French capital to go through red lights, after road safety experts deemed the measure would cut road accidents. bIt follows a fierce three-year campaign by cyclists' associations. Under the new system, which will be first tested on 15 crossroads in the East of the French capital, cyclists are allowed to turn right or go straight ahead even when the lights are red.

They must, however, make way for pedestrians and incoming traffic on the left and will be held responsible in the event of an accident. Red and yellow signposts posted on traffic light poles will inform cyclists that they can ignore the lights in designated 30km per hour zones. If judged feasible, the scheme will then be rolled out to 1,700 crossroads in Paris. The text for the new rule, approved by Paris councillors last week, justifies the measure by saying: "Experience shows that adding specific traffic lights for cyclists can create confusion for motorists."

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San Francisco Will Pioneer Electric Bike Sharing


February 10, 2012

By Sarah Laskow

Read More: http://www.good.is/post/san-francisc...-bike-sharing/

San Francisco is putting a new spin on car- and bike-sharing services. With federal backing, the city is partnering with a local car share service to offer members access to electric bikes, too. The program will launch this year with 45 bikes being integrated into the system, and an additional 45 will come into circulation in 2013, The New York Times reports.

- That bike’s designer, Tony Pereira, told judges that his bike could replace a car. The San Francisco pilot program is asking more directly whether that’s true. Researchers at University of California-Berkeley will be studying the extent to which car share customers choose an electric bike over a car. In theory, there should be a threshold at which a bike makes more sense than a car.

- The rider might rule out a regular bike because she needs to reach a destination quickly, or doesn’t want to arrive sweaty, or doesn’t want to face a particular hill. But she might not need the full power of a car to solve those problems. Since the pilot program will price the electric bike at half the rate of cars or even lower, car share members will have an added incentive to choose the e-bike — a vehicle that will have a smaller environmental impact.

- The Value Pricing Pilot Program, the federal transportation initiative that’s chipping in for the e-bike share, also supported the parking program, which raises the cost of parking where demand is high and lowers it where demand shrinks.

- In both programs, pricing helps nudge consumers towards more efficient decisions. Perhaps drivers don’t need to park on the street they’ve always favored when another one is cheaper. Perhaps that trip to the grocery store doesn’t require a car. These are small decisions, but the more often consumers make smarter ones, the more emissions from transportation—one of the biggest contributors to climate change—will decrease.

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[M II A II R II K]

Not Every City Can Be the 'Most Bicycle-Friendly'


Feb 14, 2012

By Emily Badger

Read More: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/nei...friendly/1222/

A couple of weeks ago, Chicago transportation commissioner Gabe Klein mentioned to us that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had set a goal for his hometown to become the bike-friendliest city in America. This was right around the time Nate Berg reported on Long Beach, California, which is awkwardly planning to do the same. A quick Internet search reveals that this is more than just a two-town contest. Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis didn’t even realize other cities seriously thought they were in the running.

Davis, California, already has the official motto on lock-down as “most bicycle friendly town in the world” (not to mention the most bicycle-friendly municipal logo). Boston is aiming for the slightly less measurable promise of becoming “the leading bike-friendly city.” Meanwhile, New Orleans also has its eye on the mantle. As do bike advocates in Buffalo, New York, Columbus, Ohio and Flagstaff, Arizona.

This is a great development for the U.S. bike scene. Nothing motivates Americans (and our elected officials) quite like the race to appear in a magazine as the “best” at something. Unfortunately, we can’t all be superlative at the exact same thing at the same time. And so as a public service to the collective imaginations of these and other cities out there, we thought we’d propose a couple of civic distinctions they could aspire to instead. In a world where it will hopefully soon no longer be so notable to befriend cyclists, who wants to fight for these titles?

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Bipedal? Curious? Americans give walking and biking a try


15 Feb 2012

By Claire Thompson

Read More: http://grist.org/transportation/bipe...-biking-a-try/

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While biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips in the U.S., they receive only 1.6 percent of federal transportation funding, according to the report. If House Speaker John Boehner & Co. get their way, that percentage would drop to zero. But Americans — particularly young ones — are sick of sitting in traffic, both literally and figuratively. Biking and walking numbers are up, and they will rise even more if we just support the growing desire to drive less.

- Nationwide, the number of people who bike to work is up 57 percent since 2000. It’s still a tiny fraction — 0.6 percent — of all commuters, but there’s reason to believe that more people are interested in making the switch: Grassroots bicycle advocacy is on the rise, and participation in adult bike education courses has grown a whopping 267 percent since 2006. Consider, too, that 40 percent of all trips in the U.S. are less than 2 miles. Clearly, we could be doing a lot more biking and walking, and a lot less driving.

- The Alliance’s report gives an in-depth look at the chicken-and-egg way cycling and walking grow: More cyclists and pedestrians on the streets signal to local governments that those modes of transportation deserve more infrastructure investment; improved infrastructure encourages more people to bike and walk; and the cycle continues. Not surprisingly, cities with the most biking facilities (Portland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle) generally rank high for biking and walking levels. Places at the bottom of the rankings, like Fort Worth, Dallas, and Jacksonville, have little infrastructure.

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New National Plan to Transform Bicycling


Read More: http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012...orm-bicycling/

The leadership of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, Bikes Belong, and the League of American Bicyclists has agreed that uniting the three organizations would dramatically improve their effectiveness in increasing bicycle use in U.S. communities. Leaders of the three groups issued a joint statement summarizing the outcome of their recent meeting in San Diego, February 13-14.

“We can transform communities across the United States and accelerate the creation of a more bicycle-friendly America by combining the programs, resources, and members of these three leading organizations,” said Chris Fortune, Chairman of the Bikes Belong board and member of the transition team empowered to facilitate unification of the three groups. The transition team comprises representatives of each organization and will be working with the boards, staff, and members of each group to implement the process.

“There is a lot of work ahead,” acknowledged Hans van Naerssen, Chair of the League’s board and a member of the transition team. “We must determine how to combine the diverse strengths of a powerful alliance of state and local organizations, a storied national user group, and a vibrant industry association in a way that preserves their unique attributes and realizes the game-changing potential of a single entity.”

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Moscow Artist Sparks Local DIY Bike Map Movement


February 18, 2012

By Jennifer Hattam

Read More: http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/mosc...-movement.html

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Cyclist/activist/artist Anton Polsky has sparked a "movement to create a participatory, informal bicycle map for Moscow," the urban-ideas blog Pattern Cities reported earlier this week.

- After making the first-ever map of bike routes in Moscow in 2010, Polsky uploaded it to his website and began encouraging people to "download, print, mark their favorite routes, and drop off the maps at galleries across the city," Pattern Cities writes. Symbols on the maps note the locations of bike rental shops, bike parking spots, local landmarks, and dangerous intersections.

- In addition to regular commuter routes through the city, special maps have been created for bike transportation to eco-friendly events such as the 10/10/10 Global Work Party for climate action and last year's Sdelai Sam (Do It Yourself) festival, which included a cycling parade, "an eco-themed scavenger hunt in the city," a Really Free Market and tree planting and park clean-up activities.

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Do Bike Paths Promote Bike Riding?


Feb 24, 2012

By Eric Jaffe

Read More: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/com...e-riding/1318/

The "fundamental law of road congestion" tells us that building roads creates traffic. There's such a latent demand for space on the highway that no sooner does it appear than it's filled. But whether or not a similar law applies to bike paths and bike lanes remains a mystery. A recent study of Seattle residents found that those living near bike paths had an increased likelihood of riding, but saw no effect for bike lanes. Then again, a study in Minneapolis reached the opposite conclusion. Some recent work has found no connection between bike lanes and ridership levels at all. In short, the research picture is far from settled.

A new study published in the March 2012 issue of the journal Transportation attempts to clarify the confusion. Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech and John Pucher of Rutgers analyzed a new batch of 2008 data on bike lanes (that is, on-road routes) and bike paths (off-road ones) in 90 of the largest cities in America. Even after controlling for a number of factors — including land use, climate, socioeconomic status, gas prices, public transport and bike safety — they still get a clear result: "cities with a greater supply of bike paths and lanes have significantly higher bike commute rates."

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Rental Helmets, Coming Soon to a Bike-Share Station Near You


February 29, 2012

By Brad Aaron

Read More: http://streetsblog.net/2012/02/29/re...tion-near-you/

With the rising popularity of bike-share systems around the world, one inevitable issue is the availability of helmets. This is particularly true in the United States, where a bare-headed cyclist is considered a daredevil miscreant who’s practically begging for trouble. Enter HelmetHub, a bike helmet vending system developed by students at MIT. Spurred by a call from the city of Boston, which wanted to get more bike-share users to use helmets, the HelmetHub crew is looking to go worldwide.

- The HelmetHub has several design features that make it sustainable for the rigors of city use. The first thing you’ll notice is the narrow width for efficient use of tight city sidewalk space, and the user interface is just like that of the bikeshare system. There’s no need for external power hook-up as they draw everything they need from a solar panel. This makes installation much more efficient and keeps costs low. Working with Bell Helmets they will dispense helmets for only $8, and these can be returned after the ride. That’s a small price to pay for the added safety of a helmet.

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Bordeaux Unveils the “Ideal City Bike”


February 24, 2012

By Itir Sonuparlak

Read More: http://thecityfix.com/blog/bordeaux-...eal-city-bike/

Bike Website: http://www.starck.com/en/news/topic/...gn_in_bordeaux

It looks like Bordeaux, France will be the next city to have its custom-designed bike for its bike-share program. Philippe Starck, a French product designer, unveiled the final rendering of the “ideal city bike” with Mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppe during the second annual edition of Cyclab—a sociological, political, industrial and civic event that considers the future of the bike. Here is the best part: the bike is also a scooter, which will come in handy while biking up to the suburbs to the east of town—not that the city needs any help increasing the number of cyclists.

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[M II A II R II K]

The Zipcar Of Electric Scooters Is Coming To San Francisco


March 9th, 2012

By Ariel Schwartz

Read More: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679472/t...-san-francisco

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Scoot Networks, a startup that emerged from the Greenstart cleantech accelerator, launched this week with the aim of bringing the joys of zipping around on a scooter to the masses. "We were looking at collaborative consumption and electric vehicles, and hit on the opportunity of using these affordable and efficient electric scooters in a European-style bike sharing system, and adding to that all the smarts and technology you find in Silicon Valley," explains CEO Michael Keating.

- The system, which is being rolled out to San Francisco-based companies for private fleets, lets users locate nearby scooters with their smartphone and claim the one they want (as with Zipcar, each scooter lives at a certain location). After it’s docked into the scooter, the phone unlocks the vehicle and acts like a virtual dashboard, providing a map as well as information on speed and range. The scooters have a top speed of 30 MPH and a range of 20 to 30 miles--enough to go roundtrip from any one point in San Francisco to any other point. They charge up once they’re returned to their parking spots. For now, users have to return the scooters to their original location. Once the service scales up, Scoot expects that users will be able to make one-way trips and drop the vehicles off at more convenient spots.

- Once the corporate clients test out Scoot Networks, it will start to deploy scooters for public use at public transit stops. And after that, it will be rolled out widely across the city. The service will have 20 networked scooters by April and if all goes well, hundreds by the end of the year. Heavy users will pay a monthly fee that costs about as much as a Muni pass ($62) plus a few cab rides. Occasional users will get a single-use rate that competes aggressively on price with cabs. While California residents have to get a moped endorsement on their driver’s license to operate a scooter that they own, riding a rented scooters doesn’t require any special certification. Still, Scoot plans to offer training for new riders.

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[SHiRO]

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[SHiRO]

Bike thief NYC
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/...ike-thief.html

[202_Cyclist]

If anyone is interested, my friend Darren Buck will be having a webinar tomorrow (March 14), "Integrating Bikesharing with Public Transportation." This event, hosted by the University of South Florida, is free.

http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2012/03/inte...ansit-webinar/

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by SHiRO

Bike thief NYC
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/...ike-thief.html

I've almost completely avoided parking my bike out on the street, unless I can see outside from a restaurant or store. I use bike valet services when available or secure bicycle parking which many malls and office buildings offer here in Chicago....and obviously at home in my building's bike room.