Bicycles, Transit, and the Last Mile

Bike Oasis on the Portland Transit Mall

Transit agencies have a problem called the Last Mile.  It’s especially problematic in lower density communities, where convenient, high frequency local feeder bus, light rail, and trolley lines are unlikely to be economically viable.  Many US communities have this problem.  The most common solution is the Park-n-Ride — a gigantic surface lot or parking structure adjacent to a regional mass transit line.  People drive their cars a few of miles and park them all day — usually at very low cost to the driver, and often for free (though of course, parking isn’t actually free).  There are lots of problems with this model.  Parking lots take up a lot of space.  Structures are very expensive ($10k-$25k per parking spot).  What do you do when you get where you’re going?  If the transit line doesn’t come within easy walking distance (500 meters?) of your ultimate destination, this model probably isn’t attractive.  It also assumes that you’re going to own or have access to a car, even though you’re taking transit, which precludes you from reaping most of the economic benefits of not driving, as they only accrue when you get rid of the car completely.

I bring the Last Mile problem up because I just came across a study entitled Bicycling Access and Egress to Transit: Informing the Possibilities.  Combining bicycles and transit instead of cars and transit can help with a lot of the above issues.  The cost per bike parking space is at most a couple of hundred dollars, not $10,000 or more, and for a given area, you can park ten times as may bikes as cars, making a bicycle park-n-ride much more economical in both dollars and space.  It’s also possible to take at least a few bicycles along on transit vehicles, which can solve the problem of getting to one’s final destination on the other end, though not generally for everyone since bicycle capacity tends to be limited, especially on buses.

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Upending an Asian Baby Farm

An apparently illegal surrogacy ring has been busted in Thailand.  The company, which called itself “Babe 101: Eugenic Surrogate” was using young Vietnamese women for both gestation and egg donation, and seems to have been aiming primarily at the Asian market, charging $32,000 for a baby with the gender and ethnic background of your choice.  They were also explicitly targeting women who didn’t want to give birth for cosmetic or convenience reasons.  The surrogates were not allowed to leave the (relatively comfortable) compound unaccompanied, and had their passports and money were confiscated and held by management.  This is the kind of place where human germ-line engineering will start in a few years.

Bike Transport in Switzerland and Austria

A pleasantly surprised American cyclist commenting on bike infrastructure in Switzerland and Austria, in particular Basel and Innsbruck, two European cities that aren’t particularly big (166k and 120k respectively), and which do have some weather and topography, not so different from Boulder.  Basel’s bike mode share is 17%, about double Boulder’s, and their bike infrastructure is fantastic.  If we get another 9% of our trips by bike, can we have that too please?  Or maybe the causality is the other way around.

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq.  I don’t know who could possibly be surprised by this, but it’s both nice and horrible to have unequivocal confirmation.  Goes a long way toward normalizing Donald Trump’s plan to steal (at least) $1.5 trillion worth of Iraqi oil if he’s elected president.  Trump-Palin 2012!  Apocalypse please.

Ten Boulder/Denver Transportation Issues for the Next 10 Years

Bite-sized summaries of ten regional transportation issues, including using Bcycle as a last-mile transit solution, the bazillion-dollar freeway boondoggles in progress, $5 gasoline, FasTracks finances, Boulder-Denver BRT and more.  Would be nice if they had links to deeper information… but that’s what The Google is for.

Bike Helmets Not Warranted

A concise explanation from Urban Country on why bike helmets really aren’t warranted.  First, cycling just isn’t that dangerous, and we do most safe things without a helmet.  Second, strongly promoting or legally requiring them discourages cycling in general, and fewer bikes on the road is less safe for cyclists, less healthy for society, more expensive in terms of infrastructure, pollution, etc.  Third, bike helmets aren’t really designed to deal with serious accidents — the ones that kill or maim you.  And fourth, focusing the blame for what danger does exist for cyclists on the cyclists themselves, distracts from the real bicycle safety issue, which is cars.

Energy and Equity – Ivan Illich

Energy and Equity is an essay from the energy crisis of the 1970s.  It’s got a socialist bent, but I don’t think that’s actually vital to the point being made.  As the speeds at which we travel and the distances traversed have increased, the cost of that transportation as a fraction of personal income has also gone up.  Going further faster isn’t really an improvement, if one has to work longer hours to pay for the privilege.  Thoreau made a similar point with respect to trains.  Bicycles are a notable exception to this trend.  With them you can travel much further and faster, even including the time it takes to earn the bicycle and pay for the infrastructure it requires.

Portland’s bike corral backlog

Portland literally cannot build bike corrals fast enough to satisfy local businesses.  After installing 30 corrals in 2009 and 21 in 2010, there are now 75 businesses on the waiting list.  Once you reach a certainly critical mass of cyclists, swapping a single car parking space (1.3 customers) for a dozen bike parking spaces (12 customers) is no longer a difficult idea to sell to business.

Potential Boulder Transportation Innovations

Portland Bike Box

Much cheaper than an underpass…

The Camera reports (in a pleasantly positive light) that Boulder is exploring a variety of low-cost bike and transit improvements.  Underpasses and separated trails are awesome, but quite costly, and often depend on external funding sources.  Thankfully there are also locally fundable small-scale improvements that can go a long way toward improving the quality of service for bikes and transit users.  Most of them are just better paint, information, and organization of the streets, but represent potentially large quality of service improvements.

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