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.
The Sperm Bike in Copenhagen
The Sperm Bike in Copenhagen has to be seen to be believed. It’s a cryogenic dewar, on a long-john style cargo bike, shaped like a giant spermatozoon, used for transporting semen samples from donors to fertility banks around town. No, really, it is! How long until we get one of these in Boulder?
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
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.
Continue reading Potential Boulder Transportation Innovations
2011 Boulder Cyclist Survey Results
We put out a survey in early March (more detailed summary here in PDF format), asking a bunch of questions about the bicycle habits and desires of Boulderites, and we’ve gotten nearly 200 responses. This is an attempt at a summary.
A large majority (83%) of respondents reported using their bikes as either their primary (53%) or secondary (30%) mode of transportation. This isn’t too surprising, since we targeted cyclists in promoting the survey. It’s important to realize though that at some level, our most important audience is people don’t currently bike, or identify as cyclists, but who could be potentially be enticed into riding given the right inducements. This group is important both because it’s large, and because it’s not “the choir” in terms of preaching. It isn’t your base that you aim for in politics, it’s the undecideds. At the same time, the current cyclists are the political constituency that we are trying to represent in an advocacy context.
Hero Biking to Fort Collins and Back
The Boulder Bike Culture Meetup‘s first little social intro to bike touring went pretty well I think. Didn’t lose anyone, no injuries that I know of, no major mechanical issues, only one flat tire. Tail wind and gorgeous weather on the way up. Good food, good beer. Naps and gracious hostesses. Tail wind and deteriorating weather on the way back, capped off by hail and sleet. A well rounded taster.
Oh yeah, and I took some pictures… It takes a while to load, but I think it’s worth it.