Good, Better, Best – The City of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Strategy 2011-2025 - some nice weekend reading!
A bicycle-friendly city is a city with more space, less noise, cleaner air, healthier citizens and a better economy. It’s a city that is a nicer place to be in and where individuals have a higher quality of life. Where accessibility is high and there is a short route from thought to action if one wants to head out into nature, participate in cultural or sports activities or buy locally. Bicycle traffic is therefore not a singular goal but rather an effective tool to use when creating a liveable city with space for diversity and development.
Fortunately, it pays off to invest in urban cycling. Increased cycling levels give society less congestion, fewer sick days, longer life expectancy, less wear and tear on the roads and less pollution. Cycling initiatives are also inexpensive compared with other transport investments.
Another report about the damaging effects of cars with unsurprising conclusions and recommendations. Its been a while since I read a “cars are good for you” report….oh…wait…
Read the report “Transport, Physical Activity and Health: Present knowledge and the way ahead” here.
With just 39 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women reaching the Department of Health’s recommended level of health-enhancing physical activity, the answer to the UK’s growing obesity problem could depend on people choosing to swap car journeys for walking and cycling, according to a new study by researchers at UCL.
The report, commissioned by the Department for Transport, highlights the fact that physical inactivity costs the nation upwards of £6.5 billion per year through its impact on overweight and obesity, while also directly costing the NHS an additional £1.08 billion per annum.
The report, compiled by Professor Roger Mackett and Belinda Brown of UCL’s Centre for Transport Studies, concludes that:
- increasing physical activity through more walking and cycling is the key to improving health
- the only way to increase walking and cycling significantly is through reducing car use
- car ownership is entrenched in the lifestyles of many households and reduction is only feasible if households can maintain access to cars when they really need them and make rational, economic decisions about the most appropriate mode of travel for each individual journey (on foot, by car, bicycle, bus, train etc); this will lead to less car use
- the recent growth of car clubs, neighbourhood car rental schemes, car sharing and pay-as-you-go insurance helps to make this possible .
“Everyone knows that walking and cycling can provide valuable physical activity, but how we actually get people out of their cars is not so obvious,” says lead author, Professor Roger Mackett.
“The key lies in reducing overall car use, but enabling people to maintain their current lifestyles by ensuring access to a car when necessary. By shifting away from the current situation where most households own cars, to one where people can have the benefits of access to a car when they need it while using other forms of travel when it’s convenient we can empower people to make decisions which benefit their health, their household finances and the environment.
“We need to shift the emphasis from households spending thousands of pounds on a new car every few years and then experiencing a relatively low cost per trip, to a situation where people pay for each individual trip but don’t invest the initial lump sum. By doing this, we will all think much more carefully about the best way to make a journey – sometimes it will be by car, at other times it will be by train, bus, walking or bicycle. Some households will find that they no longer need to keep a car for their personal use and will save money.”
Eight to eighty, people of all ages cycling in the Netherlands
Great video by Mark Wagenbuur of NL Cycling showing that cycling in cities can be for everyone! He also has a video showing what happens when it rains!
Abstract
Objective To estimate the risks and benefits to health of travel by bicycle, using a bicycle sharing scheme, compared with travel by car in an urban environment.
Design Health impact assessment study.
Setting Public bicycle sharing initiative, Bicing, in Barcelona, Spain.
Participants 181 982 Bicing subscribers.
Main outcomes measures The primary outcome measure was all cause mortality for the three domains of physical activity, air pollution (exposure to particulate matter <2.5 µm), and road traffic incidents. The secondary outcome was change in levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
Results Compared with car users the estimated annual change in mortality of the Barcelona residents using Bicing (n=181 982) was 0.03 deaths from road traffic incidents and 0.13 deaths from air pollution. As a result of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided (benefit:risk ratio 77). The annual number of deaths avoided was 12.28. As a result of journeys by Bicing, annual carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by an estimated 9062344 kg.
Conclusions Public bicycle sharing initiatives such as Bicing in Barcelona have greater benefits than risks to health and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Cool inspiring video by the City of Portland. Taking inspiration from some of the best cities in the world, Portland is delivering road space that can be safely used by all road users.
Listen up @MayorOfLondon…Portland is getting bikes and cars where they need to go safely and efficiently!
Bikes in the City: ‘On the Right Track’
From Vimeo:
Catherine Ciarlo, Transportation Policy Director in the Office of Mayor Sam Adams in Portland, Oregon, explains how cycle tracks and buffered bike lanes work.
Interesting reading and graphics in the telegraph today. They have published a map detailing all of the reported bicycle accidents in London between August 2010 and July 2011.
Details of every accident involving a bicycle reported to Transport for London between August 2010 and July 2011 have been released…
Mapping the incidents reveals some of the most dangerous areas for cycling in London.
The junctions north and south of Blackfriar’s Bridge are notable for being the site of seven serious accidents and over a dozen non-serious accidents in the 12 months covered by the reports.
Transport for London recently announced plans to increase the speed limit for cars over Blackfriar’s Bridge, and restructure the northern junction.
Cycling groups staged protests against the changes, claiming the new designs didn’t take cyclist needs into account…
• There were 4,274 reported accidents on London’s roads between August 2010 and July 2011.
• One in ten accidents result in a serious injury (471 out of 4,274).
• 16 cyclists died on London’s roads in 2011, the highest annual figure since 2006.
• Eight accidents involved emergency service vehicles, including five ambulances and a fire engine.
• 36 cyclists involved in collisions had recently consumed alcohol, 11 of which were serious accidents.
A bike repair station! London could do with a few of these!
All the tools are still there! Full marks for Brisbane! —- At South Bank.
Do you care about the future?
Can you go car free?
Try it for just a day, the benefits are many.
Netherlands on wheels: Stats and info on the cycle culture of the Netherlands
I have Netherlands envy!
Photo: Lonely Planet / Katya Cameron
Introducing the Dutch Cycling Embassy, the world’s cycling experts sharing experiences.
Interesting stats from their brochure:
As bike use goes up, accident rates go down
The number of cyclists killed per 100 million kilometres cycled and the
bicycle in different countries:
Netherlands 1.1 fatalities 26% bicycle use
Denmark 1.4 fatalities 19% bicycle use
Germany 1.7 fatalities 10% bicycle use
United Kingdom 3.6 fatalities 2% bicycle use
United States 5.8 fatalities < 1% bicycle use
London and the cycling revolution - Compare and Contrast?
This video really demonstrates the issues that prevent cycling being a safe, attractive transport option in London.
Compare it to the video of Copenhagen below and you can see that London, due to a lack of political will to invest in cycling infrastructure and reclaim some of the road space from cars, has missed an opportunity to become a real world capital, a city that is truly liveable and puts people first.
Considering the economic and environmental benefits of cycling, it really is a shame.
Pedestrians get paths, trains get tracks, cars, buses and motorbikes get roads but cyclists continue to get very little priority.
Listen up drivers! In Copenhagen, bicycles don’t just carry people. They carry things. Efficiently as well! Imagine that!
Photo: Copenhagenize
Short paper on cycling and public transport and how they complement each other!
Public transport (PT) and cycling are transport modes that are friendly for the urban environment. Separately or in combination, they contribute significantly to the liveability of cities, an asset of increasing importance at a time when concerns on congestion, the use of urban space, air quality and personal health and safety are growing. This article looks at good practices of the intermodality of cycling and PT in European urban areas, and synergies between the two.
