Weekend bicycling policy roundup

Nicole Freedman, Boston's top bicycling official, pedals through Arlington, Va., in a 2000 contest. She was a professional racer from 1994 to 2005, and competed in the 2000 Olympics. (Phil Marques)

(Not a complete roundup by any means). And even I feel like I am writing too much about this stuff.)

1. Boston's bicycling czar, Nichole Freedman, was a professional bicycle racer. See "For Boston's bicycling czar, gung ho is the only speed," from the Boston Globe. From the article:

... She is also aware there's no need to reinvent the wheel. "We are not the first city to have bike programs. How can we really pick and choose among the best practices to make Boston the best?" ...

The Boston Bikes Summit, a three-day conference in October featuring national biking experts, cosponsored by the LivableStreets Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists, was her office's first major initiative and helped glean "best practices" for Boston.

"The mayor started cycling last year," said Freedman, who bikes to work from her home in Jamaica Plain. "Through his interest he really realized the benefits of cycling for the city. There are some very powerful economic benefits, health benefits and obviously environmental benefits."

But bicycling advocates are understandably skeptical of Menino's pie-in-the-sky talk. The mayor's previous efforts to improve cycling conditions came to an abrupt end in 2003, when bike coordinator Paul Schimek was laid off and an advisory committee was disbanded. "We did put together a great plan a number of years ago," Freedman said. "Nothing really was implemented."

Now that Menino has declared himself a bicycling convert, present and would-be cyclists hope the administration will put its money where its mouth is.

2. Washcycle makes an excellent point about the U.S. House of Representatives plan to have a bike fleet for its employees, does the region really need 4 different bicycle sharing programs (DC, Alexandria, Arlington, and the U.S. House of Representatives)? See "Standard Gauge."

I am not sure if it's the end of the world, especially because the bicycle sharing programs seem to be focused on short trip use. It depends on the nature of the use, the nature of the trip. I think most trips would be within a jurisdiction. However, there are areas where I can see the need to accommodate cross-border bicycle sharing, for example, Rosslyn-Georgetown, or Takoma DC-Takoma Park, MD, maybe the area around Silver Spring and Georgia Avenue/DC?

And why not have options that are discounted, like the equivalent of the one day pass for transit.

3. The Bike Sharing Blog has a photo of Jim Sebastian with a soon to be able to be used bicycle from the sharing program station at 14th and U Streets NW. See "Rebirth of Bicycling in the U.S."

4. Remember Momentum magazine, the bicycling as a lifestyle magazine that Morgan called our attention to, the magazine that I should be subscribing to? The current issue has an article "John Pucher – the Bicycle Scholar," about the Rutgers transit scholar who has two important papers out now on "Making Cycling Irresistable" and a set of case studies on European best practices cycling cities, "At the Frontiers of Cycling: Policy Innovations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany."

From the latter article:

The focus in each case study is on the wide range of integrated, mutually supporting policies and programs that are used to promote cycling. To some extent, the cycling successes of the six cities rely on more and better implementation of the same sorts of traditional policies that many other European cities use. In addition, however, the case study cities examined here have been particularly innovative, introducing new approaches to encouraging cycling and making it safer. (emphasis added)

I think the latter point about "new approaches to encouraging cycling and making it safer" is particularly important. It's not just about bicycle lanes, it's also about the broader regime of policies and a support system and network.

Separated bicycle path in Bogota, Colombia. Photo source unknown.

5. For example, I went with some people to Florida Market today, and one was talking about her first bicycle excursion of this year, and how she needed air for her tires and didn't have a pump. The first gas station she went to didn't have a working air compressor. The hardware store in the neighborhood didn't sell air pumps. Another gas station did have a working air compressor, but this still took a couple hours for her to accomplish.

What about having some public air compressor stations associated with the bicycle rental stations, for use by anyone? I know there are vandalism issues, but still it's something that should be explored.

This is infrastructure, but it's also a matter of thinking about how to support bicycling more broadly than just having separated lanes. (Which I will now state, I also think are important, particularly for certain potential segments of the user base.)

6. Speaking of competitiveness between cities, Montreal claims it will be the first city in North America to have a widespread bicycle sharing program in place, because by Summer 2009, they intend to have 2,500 bicycles at 300 stations across the city. That's probably a much more ambitious rollout schedule than DC's. See "City plans bike-rental network," from the Montreal Gazette. From the article:

By summer 2009, the goal is to have 2,500 bicycles at 300 stations in the Ville Marie, Plateau Mont Royal and Rosemont/Petite Patrie boroughs. "That will be Stage 1, and we'll adjust according to demand," Plamondon said. "It will, I think, answer a need that's out there for short-term commuting without using a car."

Use the bicycle trailer's cargo box directly in a supermarket trolley. From the Camcarts website.

7. I think we need to start thinking about these systems in a more nuanced fashion. I caused some ruckus on the worldcitybike list, when I suggested adding some cargo bikes (just like how Flexcar had some pickup trucks and other atypical vehicles, for a higher price) to accommodate people with different trip needs.

I got some pushback, about adding complexity. But then people could more easily grocery shop with a bicycle. I was making the point that one of the reasons that Paris may be having fewer women ride bicycles in Velib (based on some early research reportts), is that the system is biased towards serving a very particular type of trip.

On the other hand, another way to do this would be for a grocery store to get some workbikes, and rent them/let their customers use them for free.