Cities for Cycling

Last night was the Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around presentation at the Newseum featuring David Byrne, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Janette Sadik-Khan. It was a good set of presentations, if a bit scattered, that resulted in some good conversation afterward.

Bruce Katz was the moderator and he mostly talked about the others and asked questions. After the presentation someone told me he was an expert on how current transportation funding is biased towards the rural areas and against cities and it would have been interesting to hear him talk about that, but it was also clear he's not a bike commuter so maybe that's why he didn't talk more.

David Byrne was the first speaker. For those of you too young to remember he was the lead singer for the Talking Heads and he's halfway to an EGOT. He started out talking about Columbia, MD where his parents live and how as they become older and unable to drive they become more and more trapped in their homes since the town isn't very walkable. I worry about my own parents in the same situation and remember some line from some movie about how as we get older our bodies become prisons. Anyone?

He talked about books that inspired him: 20 minutes in Manhattan, The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Timeless Way of Building. Then he stepped through some futuristic versions of the city from the early 20th century including visions by Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller and General Motors. He talked about termite mounds and how they're build to passively control heat, something most buildings don't do. He showed cities as they are now, including ugly scenes from downtown Memphis, TN; Austin, and Houston. [The Austin shot was not downtown, btw, but west of Old West Austin under the MoPac expressway]. He also showed shots of Hong Kong (which has no parks it seems) and Ferrara, Italy (which has no cars it seems). He actually didn't talk about bicycles very much.

Earl Blumenauer spoke next and started out with the question "How many people are stuck in traffic right now on their way to ride a stationary bike in a health club?" He talked about Portland,  which he called the best European city in America, and said that they have not declared war on the car they just aren't ready to surrender to it. In Portland they drive 30% less than people in Houston (there was a lot of Houston bashing last night) and spend $2500 less per year (or month?) on transportation than the average American.

He talked about how he's trying to expand Safe Routes to Schools to high schools, his Green Routes to Work initiative and the Active Community Transportation program. He also reiterated his call for bike lanes on Pennsylvania, NW by the time of the next bike summit and called on DDOT director Gabe Klein (seated in the 3rd row) to make sure it happened. Gabe made no promises, but did talk about how we need to stop talking about cycling as outside the mainstream and instead about how sensible it is and how we need to balance the transportation network.

JSK started out by noting the rock star panel that had been put together. NYC lost 1 million people in the 70's but now it is larger than ever (8.3 million) and still growing. She wants to push for a federal framework for urban street planning. It can no longer be local, there is too much bureaucracy to deal with. She complained about the number of hoops that have to be jumped through (an air quality check?) to add bike lanes. San Francisco is out of bike planning purgatory and she showed photos of the first bike box painting there. She said there is no national street design that includes cycling and so her favorite word is now "Pilot" because everything she does is a pilot program. Many new facilities (15th Street NW) aren't in any design guide. It would be useful to identify best practices. There are no provisions for bicycle traffic lights, bike boxes, lane markings. So NACTO has started the Cities for Cycling program to achieve the goal of establishing best practices. From the press release:

Congressman Earl Blumenauer; New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan; and artist/musician David Byrne joined city officials from Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. to launch Cities for Cycling, a new effort by city governments to promote best practices in urban cycling and to increase the use of bicycles to improve urban mobility, livability and public health while reducing traffic congestion and CO2 emissions.

Cycling is booming in cities across the nation. Based on the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. census bureau, cycling as a share of transportation is up in major cities by as much as 72% from 2007-2008, with an average growth rate of over 30%.

Still much work remains to make cycling a more mainstream mobility option. Providing safe, comfortable, convenient bicycling facilities has allowed cities like Portland, New York and others to vastly increase commuter cycling and drive down injuries and fatalities to cyclists. From protected cycle-tracks to bike boxes and special traffic signals for bikes; Cities for Cycling seeks to share these best practices among leading cities and encourage State and Federal governments to adopt the new design treatments emerging from cities as standard practices, opening up funding and technical support opportunities and cutting red tape.

“Cities have been going it alone with their bike networks,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan, who is President of the National Association of City Transportation Officials. “Cities for Cyclists will create a forum to discuss and develop best practices and speed the adoption of innovative design guidelines at the federal and local levels.”

Cities for Cycling will feature an online warehouse of bike-friendly street best practice factsheets as well as a compendium of links to cities’ technical design guidelines for innovative bicycle facilities. The project will convene leading bicycle experts from cities around the United States and abroad to share information and stimulate the development of a new generation of better bicycle facilities.

They also hope to pursue more federal funding for biking and walking. 

During the Q&A one person shamed the Brookings Institute, who was putting on the program, for not having bike parking and for having a sign that read "no bikes" on their front door. He had a bike stolen from in front of the building in the past.

Earl Blumenauer noted, when questioned, that the federal government should serve as a model for the kind of behavior it would like to see; so it should have bike parking, showers, transit subsidies etc...There is no uniform government transit plan - each agency is on its own - and that should change. He talked about how the Treasury Dept is continuing to look into how to make the bike commuter benefit work - and if they can make it work. And he wants to make the whole program more flexible so that you can use some for parking on days you need to drive, some for transit and some for biking.

JSK noted that,in Copenhagen, drivers are taught to open their car door with their right hand so that they're forced to look back and reduce doorings. 

Another questioner made a good point about the danger of a "Cities for Cycling" brand in that it naturally seems to exclude people in the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas. Cycling should be inclusive as much as possible.

My only disappointment was that I left without a sense of action. What do they want us to do?

Comments

[Right Honorable John]

Good write up, washcycle. I was there too and I thought the only one who instilled any sense of action in the crowd was, fittingly, Gabe Klein.

Per Gabe's recommendation, I plan on sending an email to Jack Evans today re: the bike/bus lanes on 7th street and to ask for bike lanes on 9th b/t Florida Ave and Mass Ave.

[BlindPilot]

Thanks for a great, detailed write-up, washcycle. I was interested in attending, but the online registration was already closed by the time I got to the website a couple weeks ago.

Tidbits that stuck out the most to me:

*current transportation funding is biased towards the rural areas and against cities

No doubt in my mind, though data and studies would be interesting to know about on that count... I concur it's too bad Katz didn't discuss this more.

*in Copenhagen, drivers are taught to open their car door with their right hand so that they're forced to look back and reduce doorings.

Love it! I always make a point of checking, double-checking, sometimes triple-checking my side mirror before getting out of my car, looking both for cars and for bikes, but I like this idea, too. Makes it even easier to spot someone or something that could be a danger (or that I could be a danger to).

[Chuck]

It was an interesting event, I'm glad you were taking notes.

One thing that struck me was the guy who said we need to consider electric assisted bikes. That sounds good in theory but could lead to additional conflicts of the bike/ped/slow rider/fast rider type if people aren't civil. Horsepower wars and bike freeways anyone? Just thinking ahead.

[Charlie]

That's me, and Chuck raises a valid point. (It's well established that cyclists -- electrically assisted otherwise -- aren't inherently less likely to be idiots than anybody else.)

Electric bikes are already subject to regulation. (The motor on mine won't go faster than 20 mph, for example.) However, regulations are hugely inconsistent from state to state.

My point in raising the issue in that forum is that we need to include electric bikes in our planning, together with sensible guidelines for their use. There are folks who would add enough horsepower to their bike to challenge a Ferrari, and in my view those don't belong anywhere unless they can pass the registration requirements for motorcycles. But sensible electric-assist bikes can really expand your commuting possibilities.

Besides, have you seen the 2010 electric Trek bikes? With a set of panniers them on most folks will be hard-pressed to distinguish them from the non-electric base model bikes. I don't think it's practical to exclude them from roads, bike lanes or bike trails -- I think they belong in all of those places. We've all seen foolish behavior on bike lanes and bike trails, and we'll need to work on ways of improving that situation whether or not some riders are getting some electric help.

And anything that gets folks out of their cars and on to two (or three) wheels sounds pretty good to me.

FYI, I'm local and recently started http://ElectricCyclist.com as an on-line community specifically serving the needs of electric cyclists.

[Jonathan Krall]

Thanks for the great write-up. Opening my car door with my right hand sounds like a good habit to adopt.

[MB]

Charlie, in their present incarnation, I think electric bikes absolutely ought to be treated as regular bikes (esp since I've never met an electric bike I can't outclimb . . .). I do reserve, however, the right to mock the (*@# out of you :)