Tactical Urbanism 2 by Street Plans Collaborative is out! Get it here! Some nice weekend reading!
Just back from a great fireworks show on the banks of the Thames! I love New Years Eve…such a great celebration of humanity and a wonderful reminder of the fact that we can achieve so much if we work together!
Best wishes for the new year to all of you!
From Reuters:
Public bicycle sharing schemes such as Barcelona’s “Bicing” program or London’s “Boris Bikes” save lives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study on Friday.
Bike schemes are becoming increasingly popular in cities around the world, with more than 360 already running, but their main aim is usually to ease congestion rather than boost health.Researchers at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona found in a study, however, that around 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide pollution are averted and some 12 lives saved each year by Barcelona’s scheme, which was introduced in March 2007.
“Active transport policies such as bike sharing systems promote physical activity among the population and are a good means to improve public health and also reduce expenses in public health services,” said David Rojas-Rueda, whose study was published in the British Medical Journal.…
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and says this could be done by walking for 30 minutes five times per week, or by cycling to work every day.…
The researchers said this initial assessment suggested it was important “to encourage cities to change car use by cycling and stimulate the implementation of bike sharing systems in cities to improve the health of the population.”
Check out the rest of the article, including details about London and Barcelona’s bike share systems, here. For an overview of the rapid growth of bike sharing programs around the world take a look at National Geographic’s recent article, ‘Bike share Schemes Shift Into High Gear’. Ride on!
(Photo credit: Inhabitat)
Copenhagen City of Cyclists - Bicycle Account 2010 by Cycling Embassy of Denmark
A great short read for a Monday afternoon lunchbreak! Its got great facts and stats on safety, numbers cycling etc!
People are safer and feel safer in traffic
There has been a marked increase in the perceived safety from 51 % in 2008 to 67 % in 2010, thereby reversing an otherwise clear downward trend in cyclists’ sense of safety since 1996. Today only 5 % of city cyclists respond that they feel very unsafe. At the same time the level of cyclist safety is historically high: 92 seriously injured cyclists in 2010 as against 252 in 1996. This positive trend is due to an organized effort to improve safety and security in traffic. Advanced stop lines and more and wider cycle tracks have made cycling in traffic safer and more secure. However, a continued, intensified effort is necessary if we are to achieve our goal that 80 % of city cyclists shall feel safe in traffic by 2015.
Almost everybody cycles
84 % of Copenhagen residents have access to a bicycle and 68 % cycle at least once a week. Even among those who cite the car or public transport as their primary transport mode, 15 % cycle at least once a week.
As many as 50 % of Copenhagen residents who work or study in Copenhagen cycle to their workplace or educational institution.
The Atlantic reports on a great idea for promoting public transport from a guy called Balaji Prabhakar, professor at Stanford University!
His big idea is to create “frequent commuter programs” in which people who travel on public transit would be rewarded for patronizing the system varying amounts depending on when and how far they travel. Prabhakar thinks the system could help create greater public transit usage and simultaneously decrease congestion. And he’s deploying behavioral economics to transform the small monetary rewards a city could offer into something more.
Heading to the Architecture Centre tonight for this! Anyone else going?
The Localism Bill aims to provide communities with a greater influence on local planning matters by allowing them to prepare Neighbourhood Development Plans. Architecture centres such as Open-City can act as independent advisors steering negotiations toward a productive conversation that result in effective local design policy and high quality local development proposals.
Open-City will highlight its experience of formulating an effective and highly successful model of engagement around planning and development with residents and planning councillors in London, and how this can be replicated elsewhere.
Venue: The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ from 6.30pm, talk from 7 to 8pm Tickets £5
Just found this amazing video on the Cycle Chic site! Made me feel all inspired! Copenhageners love cycling so much they even cycle in the snow!
Cool song too!
Photo courtesy of Cyclehoop
Another of Cyclehoop’s products (see previous post) and my favourite! It converts a normal car space into a bicycle parking bay for 10 bicycles. Its car shape acts as a barrier, protecting the parked bicycles from cars! In my opinion it also makes a clear statement about the efficiency of cycling in cities and makes a bold and fun reclaim of space for other modes of transport! Fingers crossed for a wide roll out!
When a negative event leads to a positive outcome!
A disenchanted architect called Anthony Lau invented Cyclehoop after his bike was nicked in London! I think they are amazing! A quick, easy and cheap way to retrofit London with bicycle spaces! Many London and other county boroughs are now installing them (I spotted one around the corner from me)!
On your bike for commuter tax benefits in Europe
Picture courtesy of Guardian Newspapers
Cool! Come on UK…we could so do this! A tax break/ income supplement for cycling!
Reuters reports -
Getting paid for going to work may sound too good to be true, but it’s part of an increasingly popular scheme for commuters across Europe.
Employers in Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries are rewarding staff if they come to work on a bicycle, paying them for every kilometer they cycle, all in an effort to promote environmentalism, not to mention a healthier lifestyle.
Save our cities: build for bicycles, not cars
Photo: Carlton Reid
An interesting, passionate and honest piece from Dave Horton, a sociologist working at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and currently working on the Understanding Walking and Cycling project (which I have posted on recently).
Initially the article starts out with a pretty glum but unsurprising update on the current state of cycling in the UK. Horton comments that after significant research the main findings of his research indicate that….
the vast majority of people never willingly cycle journeys which they could otherwise make by car. Richer people tend to ‘get’ cycling, but do it mainly for pleasure and mainly off the road. Poorer people tend not to get cycling, though some still ride out of necessity, on the footway. Nowhere across our research exercise did we find a culture of normalised, everyday urban cycling.
Horton goes on to argue that in order to make mass cycling in the UK a reality and reach a level of cycling comparable to say, Copenhagen, cycle advocates need to listen to what people say is dissuading them from cycling, accept those points and develop one confident and united way forward. Without having ‘our own house in order’ as Horton states, we can’t hope to influence politicians or transport policy.
Unsurprisingly, his research has identified that the main thing preventing cycling in the UK is a fear of traffic! He argues that we need to create separated cycle infrastructure to protect cyclists and encourage and facilitate cycling.
I have to say that I agree completely with him. Having been to Copenhagen and observed their cycle infrastructure and experienced first hand the kind of mass cycling that we here in the UK only dream of, I am convinced that highly visible and protected cycle routes on main roads and at junctions are a must!
I simply have too much experience of spending time with too many people, of too many different kinds, all of whom clearly won’t be moved onto a bike under currently prevailing cycling conditions. The sheer weight of evidence that most people will not ride a bike on busy roads is unambiguous and uncompromising.
We need radically to restructure our urban mobility systems in ways which will get people out of their cars and make them cycle. Half of the infrastructural change required is underway – the push for a maximum speed limit of 20 mph on residential streets is gaining momentum. But the other half of the key infrastructural change required needs a similar push, and this push should be for very high quality and continuous segregated cycling infrastructure on our biggest and busiest urban roads, the kind of roads on which almost everyone today refuses to cycle.
The task might seem enormous, even impossible. But it’s not. Think about how things change. Our research has made very clear the normality among a large proportion of the population of using a car for short journeys. But this normality has been produced over only the last fifty or sixty years. We used to travel differently, and we will do so again.
With a projected 75 per cent of the world living in cities by 2050 Monocle has partnered with Philips to look at the need for meaningful innovation. Copenhagen sums up what it means to be a modern metropolis: Much more than a mass of people and buildings, it’s a gathering place for ideas and a testing ground for new solutions. In this film we talk to the city’s architects and lighting experts about crafting communities and how intelligent lighting in public places can help pave the way for better cities and a healthier society.
Definitely worth a weekend read! The Danish Cycling Embassy have published “Good Cities for Bicycling” an excerpt from Jan Gehl’s “Cities for People” that deals with creating good cities for cycling! It offers practical advice on what can and needs to be done to make cities fit for cycling!
Improvements to bicycle infrastructure are far cheaper and faster to implement than other infrastructural improvements and also give faster and longer payback!
In many cities, bicycle traffic continues to be not much more than political sweet talk, and bicycle infrastructure typically consists of unconnected stretches of paths here and there rather than the object of a genuine, wholehearted and useful approach. The invitation to bicycle is far from convincing. Typically in these cities only one or two percent of daily trips to the city are by bicycle, and bicycle traffic is dominated by young, athletic men on racing bikes. There is a yawning gap from that situation to a dedicated bicycle city like Copenhagen, where 37 percent of traffic to and from work or school is by bicycle. Here bicycle traffic is more sedate, bicycles are more comfortable, the majority of cyclists are women, and bicycle traffic includes all age groups from school children to senior citizens.
At a time when fossil fuel, pollution and problems with climate and health are increasingly becoming a global challenge, giving higher priority to bicycle traffic would seem like an obvious step to take. We need good cities to bike in and there are a great many cities where it would be simple and cheap to upgrade bicycle traffic.
…The cities that have successfully promoted bicycle traffic in recent decades can be tapped for good ideas and requirements for becoming a good bicycle city. Copenhagen is a compelling example of a city whose longstanding bicycle tradition came under threat from car traffic in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the oil crises in the 1970s were the catalyst for a targeted approach to inviting people to ride their bicycles more. And the message was received: today bicycles make up a considerable part of city traffic, and have helped keep vehicular traffic at an unusually low level compared to other large cities in Western Europe. The experiences from Copenhagen are used in the following to provide a platform for discussion about the good bicycle city.
