San Francisco is Planning for a Bike Future

Bicycling in big U.S. cities has been on a major roll in recent years, from the explosion of next generation bicycle infrastructure (paths, lanes, trails, etc.) in New York, to the visionary planning in Portland that aims to make bicycling a comfortable, convenient and mainstream transportation choice for anyone who wants to ride.

San Francisco, which packs 815,000 residents in just 231 square miles (only Manhattan boasts a higher density in the U.S.), is joining its metropolitan peers with a bold plan that would triple bike use in the city during the next decade.

Despite a temporary legal injunction that prevented San Francisco from building any new bike facilities, bicycling in San Francisco increased 53% from 2006 to 2009. Now with the injunction behind it, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a new transportation policy goal last week: 20% of all trips will be made by bike by 2020. Today, about 7% of all trips in the city are made on two wheels.

The goal is ambitious by design — an increase of that magnitude in such a short time will require significant investments in infrastructure and education campaigns — but the change in policy is a rational approach to a very challenging problem. The city is facing a saturated road network, a public transit system at full capacity and ever-shrinking transportation budgets; bicycling may be the most cost-effective solution for San Francisco’s leaders eager to find more ways to help people move from A to B in the near future.

Portland was able to triple the percentage of trips taken by bicycle by spending roughly $50 million on bicycling infrastructure. Although this sounds like a lot, it's actually less than the cost of one single mile of freeway. San Francisco is now ready to replicate this cost-effective investment.

Power of Paint Part 2

 A few months ago I posted about the new stripes that were put down as an experiment on Livingston, here in Orlando, in my post Power of Paint.

This is one of the main routes on my daily commute, and it has some interesting issues/conditions. The entire streets is considered a bike route/lane and most of the way is asphalt with 5' bike lanes painted on them. For about .5 mile through one of the historic districts in the city, the street surface is the original brick pavers. The city constructed a 4' concrete gutter curb through this section and had signed it as the bike lane, but hadn't put a stripe along its edge.

This seemed to result in cars driving in the concrete gutter to give them a "half smooth" drive. For cyclists this created conflicts when cars would pass around riders to get back into the gutter, queue up in the lane at stop lights, and create a feeling of worry that drivers would see you and cause a crash from behind.

Last week the city repainted the experimental stripes and finished out the stripes along the entire brick section of the street. In the few days that the paint has been down, I have already noticed that cars have started respecting the lane and driving out of the concrete gutter. It honestly seems like the drivers had no idea that the gutter was the bike lane until now. Either way, I am happy that the paint has been implemented, and I applaud the city for finishing this important east-west connection through the city.

Bike Miami Days Returns to Downtown Miami

 
Party begins and ends at Mary Brickell Village, anytime between 9am-2pm.

Bring your family and friends and try out a decoBIKE for free this Sunday in the heart of the City of Miami. The Bike Miami Days Team is back to open Flagler Street and South Miami Avenue to pedestrian traffic for five hours on Sunday, November 14th. Bring your kids, your parents, your friends from out of town, meet up with your colleagues, your cousins… the City of Miami welcomes everyone to the free, family-friendly Bike Miami Day!

They are still seeking your fully tax-deductible donations and sponsors. Please contact Collin Worth if you can help.


Volunteers! Emerge Miami will be leading our crews of volunteers – you can be a big help just by spreading the word. They are on Facebook and Yelp already. Help make sure no one misses Miami’s largest free and family-friendly street party!

No one needs to have a bicycle to enjoy Bike Miami Days – everyone is invited to walk, roll, dance or otherwise play in the open streets of Downtown Miami on Sunday.

 

DECOBIKE is the newest community supporter and will be launching the first true city-wide bicycle share program in the country in the City of Miami Beach this Fall, but you will be able to ride a DECOBIKE for free at Bike Miami Days.

DECOBIKE plans to set up at Mary Brickell Village where they will be providing 100 brand-new DECOBIKES for you to ride. So far, DECOBIKE only has bicycles for adults 18 and over, but don’t worry! BuddyBike will also be on hand for those of you with younger adults.

Portland’s Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways

Transportation planners in Portland, Oregon are taking their famous bicycle boulevards to the next level. By adding more routes and stepping up the traffic calming treatments, the city is not only making these streets more attractive and usable for cyclists, but also for pedestrians, runners, children, and anyone else who gets around under their own power.

These next-generation facilities have been christened “Neighborhood Greenways,” and by 2015, over 80 percent of all Portlanders will live within half a mile of one. The city is counting on these re-engineered streets to reach its goal of increasing bicycle mode share from eight percent to 25 percent by 2030.

Just about anybody who’s biked one of these routes can testify to the safety and peace you experience. You’ll see scores of families and children riding to school with regularity. At any time of day, there’s a constant buzz of activity, and during rush hours you’ll see many more bikes than cars. As Portland Mayor Sam Adams points out, “They’re on a quiet street, where that bike boulevard is prioritized for the bike, not the car.”

On a final fun note, one day Portland may also be able to lay claim to being the birthplace of the “sharrow flower.” What’s that? You’ll just have to take watch this Streetfilm and find out.

Rich Guy Hits Cyclist And Runs, Gets Off Because Charges Might "Jeopardize His Job"

The rich are different from you and me; they get to hit and run, almost killing a cyclist, but get off without serious charges because it is hard to be money manager for Smith Barney if you have a record. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert is not charging Martin Joel Erzinger with a felony, because "Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession," which is managing billions for rich people.

Dr. Steven Milo, the victim, is not impressed.

Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway," Milo wrote. "Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case."

Dr Milo's lawyer notes that the accident had some pretty serious job implications for his client:

He will have lifetime pain,' his lawyer Harold Haddon told the court. His ability to deal with the physical challenges of his profession - liver transplant surgery - has been seriously jeopardized.'

According to the Vail Daily,

Milo was bicycling eastbound on Highway 6 just east of Miller Ranch Road, when Erzinger allegedly hit him with the black 2010 Mercedes Benz sedan he was driving. Erzinger fled the scene and was arrested later, police say.

Erzinger allegedly veered onto the side of the road and hit Milo from behind. Milo was thrown to the pavement, while Erzinger struck a culvert and kept driving, according to court documents.
Erzinger drove all the way through Avon, the town's roundabouts, under I-70 and stopped in the Pizza Hut parking lot where he called the Mercedes auto assistance service to report damage to his vehicle, and asked that his car be towed, records show. He did not ask for law enforcement assistance, according to court records.

At Cyclelicious, Richard Masoner is organizing a boycott of a race in Vail next August.

At Change.org, a petition has been started, asking DA Hurlburt "Don't drop felony charges against hit-and-run wealth manager."

Traffic laws exist to motivate all drivers to act in a manner that is safe for other users of the road, including pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers. To those of us who rely on bicycles for transportation and recreation, enforcement of laws that ensure our safety on the road is vital. The enforcement of traffic laws should not differ depending on a driver's ability to write a check, but rather on the ability of the law to motivate drivers to drive safely. What Martin Joel Erzinger is accused of doing is clearly criminal, but dropping felony charges will set a message to drivers that the penalties for neglecting the welfare of others on the road, causing life-altering injury, and showing no concern for the victim might not be as serious as the law indicates.

Read the petition here.

Should Sidewalks and Bike Paths Have a Designated Slowpoke Lane?

I am a big proponent of bicycle commuting and it is nice to see a lot of new - and welcome - company on the bike lanes. But then I think about my own morning commute. In Florida, it's almost always the ideal riding conditions - warm and dry weather. I have a super-simple 2.3 mile commute, nearly all on bike lanes. But being out in commuting prime time of 8:00 am and 6pm, means several slower cyclists come in contact with speedier folks like me. Sometimes slower commuters are an irritation to faster walking and biking commuters. The problem is acute enough, reports the WSJ, for a group of London businesspeople to plan to create a slowpoke shopping lane on Oxford Street sidewalks.

The New West End Company, a group of merchants, won't likely paint the lines on the street - though knowing the unpredictable behavior of most pedestrians and riders (myself included) this might be a good idea. Instead, according to the WSJ, the group of business advocates of New West End Company will use employees people wearing special red caps to help direct walkers to walk in a "shoppers lane" close to store fronts, while other more determined and faster pedestrians keep to the left.

I see no problem in saying, 'Excuse me, it might be easier if you rode/walked on the right". Not everyone thinks segregating pedestrians is a good idea. The WSJ story concentrates on the potential conflict on sidewalks between slow and fast walkers, thought there's a similar conflict between fast and slow cyclists, and a definite strain between faster cyclists and slower pedestrians when their paths cross.

So how about slowpoke lanes? While the idea may seem overly prescriptive, we live in an era where the need for civility between the different members of the travelling public - the peds, cyclists, drivers, even electric scooter users and wheelchair drivers. Yet agreed-upon etiquette rules (and peer pressure reinforcement of these rules) are practically non-existent.

For slow traffic to keep to the right is long-standing idea for vehicular traffic, and it is an assumed idea for pedestrian and cyclist traffic. Should we reinforce the idea with extra painted lines or designated slowpoke lanes? Let me know what you think/prefer.

Consequences of the Mid-Term Elections On the Bike World

Given what happened Tuesday night, things are likely to fundamentally change for how bicycle advocates nationwide frame their arguments from here on out. But just what exactly does this all mean for bicycling? Leaders from several major bike advocacy groups have already stated what they thought and I think you'll be scared, surprised, and inspired by what they said. From taking a cue from the Tea Party, to a frank assessment of what could be a bumpy bikeway ahead, read their reactions below... 

Kevin Mills, Vice President of Policy for the Rails to Trails Conservancy:

Will bicycling be impacted by the shift in power?

"Bicycling is not traditionally a partisan issue, so it’s unfortunate that there have been some occasions where bicycling has been used as an issue to divide rather than unite. However, we take heart in our support from across the political spectrum in communities across the country..."

Is the Transportation Enhancements program in jeopardy?
"The Bureau of National Affairs recently reported that Rep. Mica may take transportation funding ‘back to basics’ and that Transportation Enhancements may be among the programs cut. However, Mr. Mica has vocal constituents and political allies back home for whom trail systems and bicycling are high priorities. He has expressed support for trails and participated in ribbon cuttings on numerous occasions, and he supports robust transportation spending overall. If there is an attack, it is likely to stem from House leaders directing committee chairs to push for aggressive cuts in programs that they do not perceive as core federal functions.

On the role for bike advocates going forward:

"It is critical that bicycling advocates make the case for the cost-effectiveness and mainstream importance of federal active transportation investments. We need to convince decision-makers on both sides of the aisle that investment in bicycling and walking is more important in times of fiscal constraint, not less. That is why Rails-to-Trails Conservancy feels so strongly that AAA’s call for restricting the use of federal gas taxes for highways alone has to be challenged (see our petition). When money is tight, balanced transportation investments are more important than ever. Our past gains and future needs could be in jeopardy if we don’t convince decision-makers of this truth."

---

Tim Blumenthal, Director of the Bikes Belong Coalition

"I think emphasizing the cost effectiveness of government investments is going to be absolutely crucial. I think there's a perception among some elected officials that bicycling is an enhancement or an add-on, that it's a nice thing and you do it when budgets are flush and everything else is taken care of; but we know from experience - especially in Portland - that a small amount of money invested in bike infrastructure gives people a viable alternative to driving, saves cities on infrastructure construction cost, saves money on new parking construction and all the other benefits we stack up all the time.

What I've been hearing from the new majority is talk about any infrastructure investments being focused on building new lanes on highways. In some cases that makes sense... but we'll have to really sharpen our arguments about dollar invested/dollar returned. If this election was all about people saying 'we want smaller, more efficient government' than bicycling should be a higher priority.

The other thing is we have to be clearly more bike-partisan than ever. We've got to be very careful out of the gate not to be branded as a Democrat thing or a solution that's supported by just one party — if we did that we'd lose half the population out of the gate.
We have two choices now as a movement: One is to be discouraged and say the sky is falling, the other is to get back to work and get better, and that's what we're going to do."

---

Jim Sayer, Executive Director, Adventure Cycling

Jim Oberstar was a key champion for your U.S. Bike Route System project. What are your thoughts after his defeat?

"It's shocking. It's stunning really. In general it's a tremendous loss for America to not have Jim Oberstar working on transportation. He was a champion not just for us [bikes] but for a truly integrated transportation system. To not to have Oberstar's leadership on the US Bike Route System is a setback; but the project now has 27 states working on projects, which is far beyond anything we expected.

To some extent, the work we've all done has spread projects far and wide and has generated interest at state and local levels that I think will help move the bike movement forward. I think it's early to say what impact the elections will have... but I do think we have an incredible ecosystem of organizations and people that will help keep the bike movement going forward no matter who's in power in D.C."

What about working in a bi-partisan fashion?

"I hope we can bring both parties around on this issue. There's got to be some incentive for both Republicans and Democrats to have an issue they can work together on, an issue they can work on where they haven't already had harsh words. Bicycling and transportation could be one of them. You have all these groups - the Chamber of Commerce, labor, transit, and so on, all saying we need a long term investment plan for transportation, so it seems there's more pressure to act here than in other areas. How that plays out for biking, who knows."

---

Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists

"We are going to be playing a lot of defense in the months ahead and – not to push the analogy too far – we lost a star player in yesterday’s elections: Congressman Jim Oberstar.

The bicycling movement has to hone our message, get back to basics, and start working with a lot of new members of Congress to make sure they know about our issues. Thanks to our successes over the past several years we have a lot more to lose now… so it’s going to be more important than ever for folks to show up in Washington at the National Bike Summit in March and to meet with their elected representatives at home to make the case for continuing the Federal investment sustainable, livable, healthy communities. Bicycle-friendly communities."

---

Rob Sadowsky, Executive Director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, former ED of the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago and Board Member of the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking and Walking.

On the loss of House control:

"There's going to be a lot of fears with Oberstar's departure. There will be a little battle over positions, but locally we might gain as DeFazio could gain stature in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and become the ranking minority member.

The biggest concern with House shift is the Republicans have almost across the board taken a pledge to not fund projects through earmarks. While earmark funding on surface appears to be a poor way of managing a democracy, our projects, particularly trail projects have historically done very well through earmarks.
In order for us to convert to a transportation policy truly abased on merit, we need a reform of the transportation bill, and with a split congress it will be difficult to get reform inside that bill (like a complete streets policy for example). We may not do as well in project funding in the future.

On other hand, we had two years to build a great transportation bill and we didn't get that done either... so maybe sitting down around a table trying to build consensus with two parties is what it's going to take to get incremental changes now that will help build for the future."

So, why do you think we didn't get that done?

"I think one thing we saw last night was a lack of vision. If you look at what's going on right now, there's a lot of vision coming from the White House and the DOT. Some Democrats embraced that, but as a party, maybe this will get them to embrace a real vision of hope and livability and not be afraid to run on that campaign.

One thing the Tea Party movement shows us is that yes, fear and loathing can trump hope and vision, but it also shows that people with very little experience - and in some cases very little money - can build a campaign and win. The lesson we can take from this is we need to find our own candidates. We need to show up at town halls and be just as angry and loud, but instead of being loud about fear, we need to be loud about traffic justice, street design, connectivity...

We need to not be complacent, we need to say 'This is our country!' We need to not sit around."

---

Some important takeaways from some very smart people.

There's a lot of great reporting about what the election means for national transportation policy. Two of the best I've come across are from Streetsblog and from The Transport Politic.