Sustainable Transportation

Comment

Comment by Alys Kennedy on February 28, 2010 at 10:46am

Hello All! I have been reading many of the posts on this part of the web site, and I too would like to see a change in the constant use of cars/trucks in our county - well, actually, in the world! That said, I have to say that there needs to be something besides just bikes.....biking is great when you are young, healthy, strong, and you live in or near town. However, for us older folk, many who may have some type of health problem, and/or those who live in the county, many miles from town biking is not an alternative. So, what else can we do to promote some type of alternative transportation??? I have been researching on the web a lot and so far have not been able to come up with much, other than bicycles, and/or expensive alternative fuel cars....which of course do not solve the issue and where I am carpooling is not much of an option. A goat and a cart might work, but I can't imagine that a goat would take me to town and back for my weekly trip.....suggestions, ideas, input, anyone?????

Comment by Juliet Thompson on February 16, 2010 at 4:36pm

Re: Bike trailer fabrication - Joseph,
Did you think of contacting Kyle at the HUB? I know he has at least two of the three items you mention. I certainly need a bike trailer, and would be interested in working on one, but not until May or June!

Re: Rob and mom & kid friendly infrastructure:
Mike McAuley (sp?) who is now a Port Commissioner designed a network for a bicycle route system that follows the arterial streets. This type of network/alternate route system would come close to addressing your vision of a network that can be used by all levels of bike riders. But there's a lot of infrastructure re-working involved in such a design.

What if we worked on a Cyclovia that used a network like this? That is, we picked a route of streets that basically traverses the entire city, but does not use arterials. The Cyclovia would ride this route, with groups leaving together every 1/2 hour, celebration/refreshment stations along the way. It might be a way to not only hold a festival related to bicycle transportation, but to also introduce the city to a proposed alternate system.

Comment by Rob Olason on February 16, 2010 at 12:08pm

I had seen this article before, but didn't find it on the TW site, so I'm posting the link.

The article's main point is that biking infrastructure needs to pass the "mom safety" test if bike transportation is to achieve wide-spread adoption. The article describes the type of infrastructure that doesn't (not surprisingly, the infrastructure we have and add to in Bellingham) and the type that does.

To me the main point for this community to consider: if we keep adding bike infrastructure that doesn't meet this standard of safety, can we really be surprised that biking isn't widely adopted?

http://hopedance.org/home/transportation-news/1587-bikes-as-transpo...

Comment by Juliet Thompson on January 10, 2010 at 6:46pm

The Project List prepared by the now dissolved BPAC was recently delivered to the Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Committee. This document was prepared from comments gathered from the neighborhoods, from individual suggestions made by community members to Public Works, and by BPAC members experience as cyclists and pedestrians.
BPAC Neighborhood Project List - MNAC 1209.xls

Comment by Rob Olason on January 7, 2010 at 11:26pm

US IS SHEDDING CARS! -from ecogeek.org

2 Signs the Time has Come for Alternative Transportation
Written by Megan Treacy on 07/01/10


Two interesting pieces of news came out this week showing that Americans are becoming more open to car-less travel: (1) the Earth Policy Institute released a study showing that car ownership dropped by 4,000,000 vehicles in 2009 and (2) the Upper West Side of New York City will be converting 240 parking meters into bicycle racks.

During 2009, 14 million cars were scrapped while only 10 million new ones were purchased. The U.S. fleet of cars declined by 2 percent from 250 million to 246 million within the year. This marks the first time since WWII that the number of cars scrapped was greater than those purchased.

The study attributes the decline to us reaching market saturation for vehicles. There are five cars to every four Americans (even with the drop), which is more than plenty. The analysts also cite "ongoing urbanization, economic uncertainty, oil insecurity, rising gasoline prices, frustration with traffic congestion, mounting concerns about climate change, and a declining interest in cars among young people" as reasons. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we've reached "peak vehicle" and the fleet number will continue to drop?

In the other news, 40 blocks of the Upper West Side in NYC will have their old parking meters converted to bike racks. The community board voted to make the change after local businesses said they wanted the 185,000 cyclists in the city visiting their shops and restaurants. Logical and bike-friendly!

Comment by Heather K on January 5, 2010 at 2:12am

I love these bike clips Rob posts! And I notice how very Level the land & roads are. Its a lot tougher when the roads are steep or narrow with speeding cars! I also notice how few trees have been preserved in their towns. For townies, B'ham is also level along the shoreline! Makes rolling north & south easy especially with the bike lanes. It does makes sense for us to keep adding more bike & cart lanes, while also not cutting down trees like sometimes happens....
Rob's recent clip has great ideas like the early lights for bikers & the flashing LED lights on the roads! Love the looks of all their different cargo bikes! Oh and the great pink locked shelter for the cargo bikes!

I've recently learned that not all buses can hold some of the newer pedal assist bicycles. (due to wheel-base distance). I'm told the bike I chose will fit on our bus racks, although I've not tried it yet...since the bus no longer even come to some of the work areas I have outside the city limits!
Its not so hard to get around town on a bike when you sleep & work in town...but for the folks who still plan to travel back & forth from town & country, it sure would be helpful to have some alternative transpo choices at least 2x week, since the buses no longer travel to all the rural neighborhoods.
I like a post David M posted somewhere on TW site about the rural mini vans-taxi's that were filled with people!

When I traveled rural by public transpo in the small country of Costa Rica, it was incredible to experience the full buses filled with families traveling far into rural areas! They have many different bus companies in their country. This makes for great business diversity but also quite a challenge when downtown San Jose, CR trying to find the correct bus station center among many different stations when 'no hablo espanol' and security is a challenge.
Each time the bus stops along its route, locals would come up to the bus selling coconut water & food right through the passenger windows! I was blessed to be among these Latino ticos and witness the love the men had for both their families and for working with their hands using hand tools & riding their horses!

David W or someone...could you save a copy of the new bike map for me since I won't be able to attend the next meeting...Thanks if you do!

Comment by Rob Olason on January 5, 2010 at 12:17am

Bicycle culture 2.0. This short video features the most heavily biked road in Europe.

Copenhagen bike transportation system

Comment by Rick Dubrow on December 16, 2009 at 12:26pm

Ellen Barton has offered to come to our next meeting to give us her take on the leverage points for bike advocacy locally. She also is making 10 copies of the new biking map available to us; I'll bring them to the next meeting.

Comment by Juliet Thompson on December 14, 2009 at 12:36pm

Here is a link to Seattle's Bicycle Master Plan. I know it seems like a big read, but it has a lot of information about infrastructure that will help get us on the same page.

Comment by Rob Olason on December 14, 2009 at 12:30pm

Last Night's Meeting recap: We had around 10 people attending. Juliet Thompson gave us a lot of useful information on the Bike Pedestrian Advisory Committee's (BPAC) work. BPAC concluded it's term with a summary document detailing issues they felt should be addressed. She was going to look into whether the document could be shared with our group. There was consensus that our group might find one or more goals in that document that we could advocate for. Jim McCabe talked about the new Bellingham Transportation Committee, and gave us some ideas about what the committee might work on, which also would be an area that our group should look at for future areas to explore. Other ideas tossed around were bringing in local bike "leaders" to speak and share their thoughts with the group; look at how to expand the current bus system's hours of operation, including advocating for smaller buses and buses running on alternative fuels. Other ideas involved helping develop bike route maps, advocating for more visible bike signage on existing routes and looking at creating different configurations for bike routes beyond the current approach of adding a bike lane as roads are resurfaced.


We also set a date for the next meeting: Sunday January 24, 4-6 pm at A-1 builders.

A general question: does anyone have experience booking the meeting room at the WECU Holly St. main branch? It might be a possible meeting location for larger Transition groups.

Anyone else who attended last night's meeting want to add to this list?

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