A post from David Hembrow in the Netherlands on what it takes to make pedestrianized spaces work by examining a new living/shopping development in Assen. Make it clear that pedestrians have right of way over everyone, but make it easily accessible to bikes. However, ensure that it isn’t a throughfare for bikes — only cyclists actually coming to the place as a destination should be there. If you exclude both bikes and cars from the space, then you decrease the relative attractiveness of cycling unnecessarily, encouraging people to drive.
Tag: transportation
No more bicycle excuses
David Hembrow’s list of myths and excuses that are trotted out to explain why we couldn’t possibly get our cycling rates to be comparable with the Netherlands. Hills, weather, costs, speed, distance, etc. They just don’t hold water.
Green Manhattan
A good piece from The New Yorker on what makes dense urban areas intrinsically better for the environment than suburbia or back-to-the-land fantasies. More people closer together need less transportation to go about their daily lives. High density buildings need less energy to stay comfortable inside because they have less surface area for the enclosed useful space. More resources can be effectively shared when lots of people are close together. The author, David Owen, has a whole book on the topic, entitled Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability. Cities have their problems, but often they aren’t the result of density directly. Poor air quality in cities, for instance, is almost entirely the fault of motor vehicles.
Project Thirty Days mostly Car-Free
Someone from Bike Radar decided to give up their car for a month, right here in Boulder and midwinter no less. They’ve got a sweet longtail from Trek that looks like it’s served them well. Even with temperatures plunging below -20°C, it ended up being easier than he thought, and easier with time. Boulder’s infrastructure made it pleasant, not just doable. Here’s hoping more people will give it a try!
We aren’t so tough
We’ve had some honest-to-god winter weather in Boulder this past week, with overnight temperatures as low as -25°C (-13°F), and light snowfall on and off for several days. Here, if you keep riding your bike around town when the weather is like this, people think you’re tough, hard core, committed… or crazy:
@BoulderParking: Boulder bikers are tough & committed. Despite the sub zero temps this week… bike commuters were out every day!
Understanding the Republican Party’s Reluctance to Invest in Transit Infrastructure
A great look at the geography behind the Republican demonization of mass transit. To a large degree in the US cities are democratic and the exurbs and hinterlands are republican. Since so much of our transportation funding gets funneled through the federal government, this means cites spend a lot of time getting screwed. Policy decentralization would help a lot.
Do Roads Pay for Themselves?
A study from the US Public Research Interest Group (PDF) on transportation funding the US. The short answer is that only about half of highway funds come from “user fees” like the gas tax and vehicle registration fees. The rest is payed out of bonds, property taxes and other government revenues.
Sprawl at the Gates
Boulder County is slowly being invaded from the southeast and it’s not clear what we can do about it. Sprawling development is (still) the order of the day in Broomfield, Weld, and Jefferson Counties, and it looks set to generate a lot more trips through Boulder County in the coming decades. Personally, I’m praying for $8 gasoline.
Hackable Cars
A study of the security (or lack thereof) inherent in today’s highly computerized vehicles. Not much better than voting machines overall. We’re connecting dangerous things to our networks much faster than we’re learning how to keep them from blowing up. Just ask Iran! Thankfully my bicycle is still unhackable.
Whose Roads?
A summary of research looking at how road infrastructure is funded (PDF) from VTPI. Only about half of road funding comes from “use” fees like the gas tax and vehicle registration fees. The other half comes from general tax revenues. Ultimately this means that non-motorized road users, whose impacts on road infrastructure are very low, overpay significantly and end up subsidizing motorists.