Speaking of using stimulus "investment" to build a better future rather than to just build highways

Having suffered losing my bicycle seat and post to a eager thief at Fort Totten a couple weeks ago, I went to Arrow Bicycles in Hyattsville yesterday--figuring that since they are about the newest bike shop around they are probably the most in need of customers during this trying retail season.

While waiting, I was poking through back issues of Cycling Plus, a UK cycling magazine that they had lying on the repair counter, and I came across an article about the Cycling Demonstration program launched by the UK, "Bristol named as UK's first 'cycling city'" and "Will Bristol spend its cycling city cash?"

This is something that both Washcycle and I have written about in the past, but it took seeing this article again in the context of the discussion of road-oriented federal infrastructure stimulus spending to think again about how very little forward-thinking, discussion of transformation, of building "better" not just building more, is happening.

Can you imagine if the equivalent of $200 million was being spent as part of the stimulus package, comparable to the program in the UK, on creating one "Cycling Demonstration City" and 16 additional "Cycling Demonstration Towns."

See for example:

-- Bristol's cycling project seeks boss to spend £22.8m (Evening Post)
-- Britain Invests Hundreds of Millions to Encourage Cycling (Environment News Service)
-- Bristol wins first cycling city title in £100m plan to get Britons pedaling (Guardian)
-- Government seeks UK's first 'cycling city' (Guardian)

Rails to Trails Conservancy has a trails oriented transportation enhancement proposal floating around, but for me, it misses the point, because it's more about trails than it is about pushing forward creating substantive bicycle-friendly mobility environments that are regularly used as part of how people get around day to day, rather than weekend fun things that are primarily recreational.

But think about this from the Cycling Plus story:

Bristol wants to double the number of people cycling over the next three years, by:

• Creating the UK's first on-street bike rental network, modelled on the successful Paris scheme
• Establishing a 're-cycling' scheme, providing free bikes to those in deprived communities
• Building a facility for cyclists in the city centre providing showers, bike parking and lockers so commuters can have a wash and brush up before work
• Creating a dedicated cycleway to link the suburbs with the city centre opening up new, safer options for commuters who currently rely on their cars
• More than doubling the number of children receiving cycling training.

In announcing Bristol as the UK's first cycling city, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said, "A quarter of journeys made every day by car are less than two miles. Cycling is an alternative that could bring real health benefits to millions of adults and children, as well as helping them save money and beat congestion.

Can you imagine hearing a similar quote from current U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters?, who is famous for saying that the reason the Minneapolis bridge failed is because of money spent--in her terms "wasted"--on supporting bicycling, walking, and other non-automobile oriented transportation infrastructure.

The steps Bristol is moving to take, or the steps I suggest in the paper "Ideas for Making Cycling Irresistible in DC" about what could be done to create a truly world-class bicycling infrastructure in the City of Washington are the kinds of programs I would like to see supported, developed, and extended as part of enhancing transportation, mobility, and the economy.