Blog

Mary Lauran Hall is communications manager at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. This post was cross-posed from the Alliance's blog.

It’s National Bike To Work Week, and many communities will celebrate Bike To Work Day tomorrow. Spring is the best time of year to dust off that bicycle and start riding!

In case you need a few reasons to hop on the saddle, here’s an infographic showing the health benefits of riding a bike to work.

Source: Fitness for Weight Loss

Jim Sayer is Executive Director of the Adventure Cycling Association. This blog post was cross-posted from the Adventure Cycling Association blog. 

Three Adventure Cycling staff (Ginny Sullivan, Winona Bateman, and myself) traveled this month to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. Although it was my eighth summit, it felt really new and fresh. Here are five highlights, and I'm hoping Ginny and Winona will add some more.

1. Diversity! There's a running joke about older white guys dominating America's bike groups, including the infamous MAMILs (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra). I have to say, I resemble that remark (except for the lycra: board shorts and regular trousers for me)! But this year, there were many more women (and people of color and young people) than ever. There were plenty of white guys too, but it was great to have a much more diverse movement at the summit and on Capitol Hill. The League of American Bicyclists held a dynamic and well-attended Women's Bike Forum before the summit, which was a key reason for the more diverse attendance. Kudos to the League!

More women than ever attended the National Bike Summit, including Eileen Schaubert, a cycling advocate based in Austin, TX, (left) and Mia Kohout, publisher of Momentum Magazine (right)

2. Bike Tourism: As it has the past couple of years, bike tourism played a more prominent role at this years conference. I did a plenary talk on bike tourism with April Economides, who consults on the creation of bike-friendly business districts. IMBA did a great summary of the economic impacts of mountain bike tourism. Travel Oregon released the preliminary findings of their study on bike tourism's economic impact (by their accounting, that impact is at least $325 million annually). We also took the "power of bike travel and tourism" message to Capitol Hill; I was fortunate to meet with Congressman Sam Farr, co-chair of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus and an ardent supporter of active travel in his district (on the central California coast) and throughout the U.S.

Jim with California cycling advocates and Congressman Sam Farr (center), co-chair of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus

3. Decentralization: Last year's new federal transportation bill was something of a setback for bicycling. We lost some of our dedicated funding and are seeing some states decide not to use federal funding at all for biking, walking, or safe routes to school programs. As a result, I heard more discussion than ever at this summit about the need to grow our grassroots support to make sure our state departments of transportation and metropolitan areas invest in bicycling along with other modes of transport, and also to prepare for next year's reauthorization of the federal transportation program.

4. Bike-Partisanship: I attended a reception for Bikes PAC, which supports Congressional candidates who support biking, and I was pleasantly surprised to observe that, of the 10 Members of Congress who stopped by, half were Democrats and half were Republicans. It's a sign that bicycling is increasingly seen as a non-partisan (or "bike-partisan") issue, which bodes well for our efforts to bolster cycling in the next federal bill. The reception was also a great place to catch up with bike champions like Representative Peter DeFazio (from Eugene, OR, and the only retired bike mechanic in Congress).

On the left, Representative Peter DeFazio

5. Partnerships: The main message at the summit was "bicycling means business" and it was terrific to see so many representatives of the biking and tourism industries in DC. There were also many leaders from federal, state, and city agencies, from U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood to Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard whose city is expanding its bike lane and trail network from one mile to 200 miles in 8 years! Also exciting was a panel discussion on providing more access to federal lands by bike, which Adventure Cycling organized. Look for more news on this soon, including a special agreement we are about to sign with the National Park Service on facilitating more biking in and to our national parks.

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks and consults frequently about biking and other ways to improve our communities. This post was cross-posted from the People for Bikes blog. 

It’s always a pleasure when scientific studies confirm your own long-held opinions, especially when what you think flies in the face of all conventional wisdom.

For instance, who knew that chocolate éclairs and triple fudge caramel brownies actually contain fewer calories than a 12-ounce glass of skim milk? Or that every $1000 you spend on lavish vacations before the age of 65 will, over the long run, provide you with more retirement income than if you’d stashed that same $1000 in a savings account?

Well, to be honest, I made up the fact about the éclairs. And the one about vacations too.

But here’s bona fide scholarly research that excites me in the same way: Biking for transportation appears more helpful in losing weight and promoting health than working out at the gym.

This means I can spend less time wearing a grimace as I endure mind-numbing exercise routines at the Y—and more time wearing a smile as I bike to work, shopping and social events. Just what I always thought.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. According to Australian epidemiologist Takemi Sugiyama, lead author of a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Commuting is a relevant health behavior even for those who are sufficiently active in their leisure time.”

Analyzing the research, The Health Behavior News Service notes, “It may be more realistic to accumulate physical activity through active transport than adding exercise to weekly leisure-time routines.”

The four-year study of 822 adults found that found that people commuting to work by car gained more weight on average, even if they engaged in regular exercise, than people who did not commute by car. The authors of the study recommend creating more opportunities for everyone to walk or bike to work.

An earlier study by researchers at the University of Sydney School of Public Health published in Obesity Reviews (the journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity) supports the thesis that leisure-time exercise alone is not enough to prevent obesity. Sixty to 90 minutes of daily physical activity is recommended to curb obesity, which is more time than most people can fit into their busy schedules. That’s why the study’s authors recommend “active transport” like biking and walking for commuting other common trips.

Beyond fighting fat, biking and walking for transportation also boosts overall health. A 2007 paper in the European Journal of Epidemiology concludes “Commuting physical activity, independent of leisure time physical activity, was associated with a healthier level of most of the cardiovascular risk factors.”

The key advantage of traveling by bike over working out at a fitness center is that most people find it easier to do. Instead of vying for scarce free time with many other fun and important things, exercise becomes something we do naturally as part of daily routine. As a study by Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill in the Journal of Public Health Policy shows, 60 percent of Portland cyclists ride for at least 150 minutes per week (the recommended exercise minimum for adults) and that “nearly all the bicycling was for utilitarian purposes, not exercise.”

She adds “a disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards”—confirming the importance of bike infrastructure improvements to public health.

In my opinion, all this research also suggests that if I bike a lot for everyday transportation I can sometimes ditch the skim milk in favor of the brownies, and may save enough on auto expenses to both take a cool vacation and fund my retirement account.

Alex Dodds is online communications manager at Smart Growth America, a coalition of organizaions advocating for smarter neighborhoods that offer a variety of transportation options, including biking and walking. This post was cross-posted from the Smart Growth America blog.

Main Street in downtown Franklin, TN. Photo via Flickr.

Franklin, TN’s historic Main Street is more than a pretty place. It exemplifies Franklin’s historic heritage and has become the heart of the city’s new economy.

“We like to say we’re a community that balances preservation with growth,” says Franklin Mayor Ken Moore. Moore is on the Advisory Board of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council, a nonpartisan group of municipal officials who share a passion for building great towns, cities, and communities. As a member of the Local Leaders Council, Moore is one of many elected leaders across the country using smart growth strategies to help their hometowns generate better return on taxpayer investment and compete in today’s economy.

Upholding Franklin’s local character and heritage is important to the city and its residents. Working in partnership with property owners, preservationists, city and county government, local businesses and merchants in the city’s historic downtown, Franklin has created the conditions to make one of the country’s best Main Street success stories possible.

“The preservation community worked with the business folks to redevelop the entire downtown Main Street area,” Moore explains, “which involved undergrounding utilities, upgrading infrastructure, and for many of them upgrading the facades on their businesses. Now it’s a place that people love to walk, have a cup of coffe, have lunch, and also we’d like them to go in and spend a little money.”

“We see that when we develop gateways – whether it’s Main Street or the gateway into our city – redoing those areas with sidewalks and infrastructure and plantings and beautification leads to more economic development.”

In October, Mayor Moore was one of several Tennessee leaders who came together for a a full day summit examining transportation in middle Tennessee. Learn more about how Franklin is using smart growth strategies at the city’s Department of Planning and Sustainability website.

Carolyn Szczepanski is communications director at the League of American Bicyclists. This post was cross-posted from the League blog.

Photo by Brian Palmer

A Democratic U.S. Senator from the Northeast and a Republican Mayor from the Midwest — at the National Bike Summit last week we saw the success of local control from both sides of the political spectrum.

This time last year, at the 2012 Summit, we were still on uncertain ground with the federal transportation bill, MAP-21.”We were up against a tremendous battle,” Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) (pictured) recounted this morning. “The rhetoric coming out of Capitol Hill when we started MAP-21 was ‘not one dime but for roads’ — and there would be no set asides or opportunity at all.”

But Cardin stepped up with a game-changing amendment — and advocates had his back in a big way. “At the end of the day, we were successful with the Cardin-Cochran provision because of the people in this room,” he said. “You’re smart. You figured out a strategy to win. Rather than just make a point, we won. The strategy is local control.”

And local leaders are stepping up, too. Sharing the stage this morning was Greg Ballard, the Republican mayor of Indianapolis, Ind. Sure, Ballard likes to bike, but that’s not the political point. “I tell people very candidly, it’s all about talent attraction — it’s not because the Mayor likes bikes,” he said.

“We’re all in competition for young talent and young families,” he explained. “And young people, milenials, are looking for bike lanes. They’re looking for trails. They’re looking for that connectivity — and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Ballard’s vision to recruit the best talent includes a connected network of 200 miles bike lanes and trails that link the city’s cultural amenities and green spaces. It includes converting an underutilized market into a state-of-the-art YMCA facility for bike commuter to shower and change and the launch of a new bikeshare system later this year.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he said, “we just need to put in the infrastructure.”

And, well, stellar shower facilities don’t hurt, either. For the YMCA, Ballard joked: “I told them to go into the locker room of the Indianapolis Colts — that’s what I want. And that’s what I got.”

That kind of commitment at the local level is exactly the kind of control that will continue our work to build a bicycle-friendly America. Cardin, for one, is excited about the prospect: “Mayor Ballard, you’ll spend the money a lot smarter than the people in your capitol will to help your community.”

Margo Pedroso is deputy director at the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. This post was cross-posted from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership blog.

If the news in your hometown is similar to what I hear in Washington, DC, you are probably hearing a lot about the sequester. Back in 2011, Congress and the President agreed to reduce the federal deficit, and created the sequester as a fail-safe to force spending cuts if they couldn’t reach a deal. Since no agreement has been reached, the sequester kicks in on March 1 and will require approximately $85 billion in cuts to federal spending between now and September 30, split evenly between defense spending and domestic spending.

Secretary LaHood has spoken quite a bit recently about the impact of these cuts on air travel, with air traffic controllers and TSA employees likely to be furloughed. But, he hasn’t talked about the impact on surface transportation. That is because the Highway Trust Fund dollars generated from the federal gas tax—which fund roads, bridges, Transportation Alternatives projects and more—are exempt from the sequester. 

However, the Trust Fund has gotten infusions of money from general tax dollars to help keep it solvent, and those funds are subject to the sequester. So, Highway Trust Fund programs will see a small cut, of approximately 1 percent—much less than the 6-8 percent cuts to other federal programs. We don’t yet have the details on how those cuts will be applied, but if it is similar to how the sequester is being implemented, it has to be applied evenly across all programs. It is still possible Congress could come to a deficit reduction deal that would cancel the sequester—but that is not expected until late March at the earliest when Congress also has to complete work on this year’s appropriations bills. 

On another note, even though the MAP-21 transportation law is only a two-year law, it includes changes that can take months or even years to take effect. As we are still waiting on the final guidance for Transportation Alternatives, I want to focus on performance measures. MAP-21 requires the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) to set performance measures in several areas no later than March 2014. States then have another year to set their targets within those performance areas. While this seems far off, performance measures have the potential to drive how states spend their funds as they try to meet their performance targets.

In partnership with other national bicycling and walking organizations, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership is advocating that USDOT include a performance measure on bicycle and pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Bicycle and pedestrian fatalities are rising, and now make up 16 percent of all traffic fatalities. Yet, just a handful of states spend a tiny percentage of their Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) dollars on bicycle and pedestrian safety. Creating a performance measure on bicycle and pedestrian safety will help ensure that states set targets to improve safety for these users—which will likely result in more safety spending on bicycling and walking. Attendees of the National Bike Summit next week will get a chance to talk with their Members of Congress about this important request on performance measures.

Finally, it’s important with all this focus on the future that we don’t forget about the past. The majority of states still have funds remaining from the old Safe Routes to School program available for more grant cycles. Take a look at our latest State of the States report to see what funding your state has remaining, and check in with your state’s Safe Routes to School coordinator to see what your state’s plans are for spending any remaining funds.

Mary Lauran Hall is communications manager at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. This post was cross-posed from the Alliance's blog.

Last weekend, Recycle-A-Bicycle held the third annual Youth Bike Summit, an inter-generational exchange between youth, advocates and educators from around the country who are working to promote bicycling and bicycle education in their communities. The Alliance for Biking & Walking was proud to sponsor the 2013 Youth Bike Summit as part of our efforts to support community bike shops.

Dr. Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, delivered a keynote address at the New York City event. Dr. Peñalosa earned worldwide notoriety for bringing a vast network of bicycle paths, cutting-edge pedestrian promenades, and a world-class bus rapid transit system to Bogotá. The following passages are excerpted from Dr. Peñalosa’s keynote remarks.

Original image: EMBARQ Brasil/Flickr

“Bicycles are revolutionary machines: they construct equality. … While cars are a means of social differentiation and exclusion, bicycles integrate people as equals. When two people on bicycles meet, they meet as human beings.”

Original image: Claudio Olivares/Flickr

“Saving on public transport by using a bicycle saves between 15% and 40% for a low-income person. A protected bicycle way is a symbol of democracy. It shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is just as important as a citizen in a $30,000 car.”

Image: add1sun/Flickr

“Parking is not a constitutional right in any country.”

Image: Ed Yourdon/Flickr

“We don’t have a right to go to most of the world. The only piece of planet to which you have access is public pedestrian space – sidewalks, bikeways, parks. In the 20th century, we made enormous mistakes in our human habitat. We worked hard to make it much more for cars’ mobility, not for human beings.”

Original image: Paul Krueger/Flickr

“All citizens are equal before the law. If that’s true, a citizen in a car has the same right to road space as one on a bicycle. For example, a bus with 80 passengers has the right to 80 times more road space than a car with one. Sometimes inequality is before our noses and we don’t realize it because we are used to it. Most cities in the world give more room to parked cars than to pedestrians and bicyclists. And we think this is normal.”

Original image: wileymcb/Flickr

“Sidewalks are for playing, for talking, for kissing. Ideally, sidewalks in every city should continue at grade. And cars should have to go up and down to make it clear that cars are entering pedestrian space and not that pedestrians are entering car space.”

Image: Saúl Ortega/Flickr

“In Bogotá, we close 120 kilometers of main arterial roads to cars every Sunday for 7 hours. Ciclovía is a ritual, a ceremony reminding us that the city belongs to people, more than to cars. … Besides, it’s always fun to do things you are not allowed to do.”

Image: EMBARQ Brasil/Flickr

“If you want a more bicycle-friendly world, it will not be the result of technical or academic analysis (as valuable as they are), but of political pressures and decisions. Therefore, get organized and participate in politics!”

Zach Vanderkooy is International Programs Manager for the Green Lane Project. The Green Lane Project is an initiative of Bikes Belong, an America Bikes coalition organization. This post was cross-posted from the Green Lane Project site.  

Next-generation infrastructure and programs are inspiring cities across the United States to make bicycling irresistible. Here's a peek at ideas and innovations from the Netherlands and Portland, Oregon that are pushing the envelope. 

1. Dedicate space for low-stress bicycling

To make bicycling a way of life for a large share of the population—not just committed cyclists—it’s crucial to offer riders a sense of protection from traffic on busy streets. Dutch cities routinely create bike lanes with physical barriers between riders and cars. Not only does this give people on bikes and in cars more room to breathe, it increases bicyclists’ psychological sense of comfort, which encourages more people to ride.

New York was one of the first U.S. cities to follow suit by creating a physical buffer between bike lanes and moving car traffic on city streets. Commuter bicycling in NYC more than doubled between 2006 and 2010 while crash rates have decreased on the re-engineered roadways.

The post-war Dutch city of Rotterdam resembles an American city with wide streets, glass skyscrapers, fast traffic, and aggressive drivers. But 22% of trips are made by bike—a number that’s rising 3% annually thanks to efforts to physically separate bike lanes from traffic, notes city planner Wim Hinkamp.

2. Bike Lanes Built for Two

When traveling with a friend or a young child, it’s only natural to want to move side-by-side to chat. But unfortunately, the narrow width and minimal protection of most bike lanes makes this uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous. To accommodate the basic human desire to travel in pairs, Danish and Dutch planners are now building bike lanes wider than the typical 5-foot ones used in the U.S. A parent riding abreast with a comforting hand on the back of a child is a common sight in the Netherlands and Denmark.

In Denmark, planners now recommend 2.5 meter (8 feet) widths for bikeways whenever possible. In the Netherlands, Hillie Talens, a transportation engineer with the Dutch transportation and public space organization CROW, recommends that cycle tracks (bike lanes separated from busy streets) be 2.5 to 3.5 meters (8–11 feet) wide.

3. Bike boulevards aren’t just for bikes 

Experienced travelers always know the quiet side streets that offer a safe, pleasurable ride. Now some of these streets are being redesigned as bike boulevards, (also called neighborhood greenways) where local cars are allowed but two-wheelers and walkers get priority. These residential streets pass near popular destinations and offer convenient access across busy avenues, but feature a low volume of cars traveling at low speeds. Many are designed with special pavement colors, decorative vegetation, or signage to identify that the streets are optimized for people on bikes. Some also feature diverters, which permit people on bikes and on foot to pass through directly but route motorists to adjoining roads more suitable for car travel. Studies conducted by Portland State University show that bicyclists, especially women, will travel out of their way in order to ride on low-stress bike boulevards. Bike boulevards are an especially cost-effective way to complete a bicycling network—on average they cost 25% as much as an off-street path.

Portland features 36 miles of bike boulevards, locally called “Neighborhood Greenways” to emphasize that it’s not just bicyclists who benefit. Many projects include vegetation that collects rain runoff that would other otherwise enter the sewer system, making the street more beautiful and reducing the need for costly water treatment facilities.

4. Put safety first on the road

Experts agree that a critical way to keep bicyclists safe on city streets is to make sure motorists notice them. This can be accomplished with a whole toolkit of roadway improvements, many of which are simple and inexpensive. These include bike boxes (where cyclists can gather in plain view in front of cars at red lights), colorized bike lanes (which remind drivers they share the stree), and bicycle-only traffic signals (which control movements of cars and bikes separately to minimize potential conflicts).

Roger Geller, Portland’s Bicycle Program Coordinator, believes that markings on the pavement are better than street signs to communicate with both cyclists and motorists. He advises using bright colors in bike lanes and bike boxes (the preferred color in the United States is green; in the Netherlands it's red) and extending the markings far into the intersection.

5. Bike Sharing, American Style

Bike sharing, which transformed European cities like Paris and Barcelona, is now taking root in North America. The idea is simple: provide high-quality bikes at handy spots around town that can easily be rented for short rides with a credit card or annual membership and returned to any number of convenient stations scattered around the city.

Montreal launched its system in 2009 with 3,000 shared bikes on the streets. In 2010, bike sharing spread to Minneapolis, Denver, Des Moines, and Washington, D.C, followed by Boston and San Antonio in 2011. Cities including San Francisco, Chicago, New York and many others are following with plans for their own systems. Not only does bike sharing make it easier to get around, it provides a boost to the city’s image that can attract businesses and spur other improvements.

In its first year, the Minneapolis system disarmed skeptics who said bike sharing would never work in America. In June, 700 bikes hit the streets at 65 stations and were taken for more 100,000 rides before winter. Only three bikes were vandalized, two stolen, and there were no reported injuries. Financially, the system wound up in the black and will be expanded in 2011.

6. Encouragement campaigns

What stops the 71% of Americans who say they would like to ride more from actually getting on bicycles to do it? The lack of good bike infrastructure is a major reason, but so are a host of other obstacles, many of which come down to simple questions about how to dress, how to lock a bike to a rack or which streets to take to get from A to B. Personal encouragement programs can provide the answers, as cities from Copenhagen to Portland have found out.

These campaigns start by urging would-be bicycle commuters to consider riding more often, especially people who may not have ridden bikes regularly since they were kids but still find the idea appealing. Transportation ambassadors then follow up with personalized solutions to their specific concerns via one-on-one conversations. It’s like having a personal transportation coach.

Portland’s Smart Trips campaign begins with fun community events and a mailing to households asking about their interest in biking, walking, or taking transit. Anyone interested can meet with a friendly transportation ambassador who offers maps and can field questions about how to get started and choose the best routes. They will even escort first-time bike commuters to work, showing how easy it can be.

7. Riding to School

Most Dutch children ride their bikes to school, which not only offers them more freedom but also establishes bicycling as a natural habit that endures throughout adulthood. This is possible because Dutch cities promote traffic safety at an early age and create special bike streets, separating bike lanes from cars on busy roads.

Kids learn how to get around by bike, foot, and public transportation in special classes given weekly at primary schools as part of core curriculum.

In Utrecht, all schoolchildren spend some time at Trafficgarden, a miniature city complete with roads, sidewalks, and busy intersections where students hone their pedestrian, biking, and driving skills (in non-motorized pedal cars). A Dutch study shows that kids who bike to school on their own are more self-confident and earn higher grades than those who are driven to school by parents.

8. Catching a boost up the hill

The growing popularity of pedal-assist e-bikes could dramatically boost the number of two-wheel commuters and longer-distance riders. These bikes are powered by pedaling just like an ordinary bicycle, but a small electric motor kicks in to give you a boost up hills, into the wind, or over long distances. Electric-assist bikes make it easier for older people and residents of hilly cities to enjoy the benefits of biking and are popular with commuters who don’t like to arrive at work sweaty. In the Netherlands, where electric bikes now account for 10% of sales, planners are starting to build inter-city bike highways to support the longer range of travel possible with e-bikes.

There are a half-million electric bikes on the streets in the U.S, compared to 120 million in China. Many Americans cyclists dread sharing bike lanes and paths with speeding motor-powered electric vehicles, but e-bikes (as opposed to mopeds and scooters) have top speeds of 16–20 miles per hour—about the same speed as a hard-pedaling rider.

9. Connecting Bikes, Trains, & Buses

Studies show that people ride bikes more frequently if they can easily transfer to public transit to cover long distances or to dodge inclement weather. That’s why the Dutch have invested heavily in providing secure bike parking close to train stations across the country.

Many American cities have now installed bike racks on the front of buses, and also make it easier to bring them on trains. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, for example, all buses, light rail, and commuter trains will carry your bike.

Public transit doesn’t always get you exactly where you need to go, but it can almost always get you close. To help passengers travel that last mile from where the train or bus stops to where they need to be, the Dutch national rail transit agency launched its own bike sharing program. For a low daily or hourly fee, you can pick up a bike at a station to ride to your destination and back, then return it before catching the next train home.

10. Bike parking paradise

In many neighborhoods nowadays, you can no longer count on finding a traffic sign or parking meter that you can use to lock your bike. As bicycling grows in popularity, so does the need for secure, convenient places to park. This is especially true for commuters, who may not want their bike exposed to weather and potential thieves on the street eight hours a day. Solutions being pioneered in the leading cities include requiring builders to include bike parking spaces at businesses and apartment buildings (similar to cars), adding places for bikes in car parking garages, streetside bike sheds, high-capacity on- street bike corrals, and staffed parking lots with attendants at transit stations.

With as many as 25%of their customers coming on bikes, some Portland businesses are taking part in a city program to convert a curbside parking space for one car into “corrals” for 10 or more bikes. The conversion is hugely popular with local merchants, and there is long waiting list. Several other cities have launched similar programs and local businesses are profiting from the increased customer parking.

11. New neighborhood designs

For the last 50 years most new neighborhoods have been designed for heavy automobile use, often making it difficult to walk or ride a bike for transportation, exercise, or recreation. But that’s changing as developers come to understand families’ desires to live in places where they can bike, walk, and play safely in their neighborhood streets. In both Europe and the U.S., some newly built communities now balance bike and pedestrian access with automobile convenience, resulting in healthier people and safer streets.

The latest trend in Dutch urban planning is auto luw (“car light”) developments. A shining example is Java, a desirable new neighborhood in Amsterdam’s harbor where motorized traffic is channeled to underground parking garages on the edges, so people can leisurely bike or walk. Kids run freely through the green common spaces, and everyone seems to enjoy strong connections with their neighbors. According to Amsterdam city council member Fjodor Molenaar, car light is now the official planning policy of the city.

12. Car-free days

A growing number of cities throughout North and South America close certain streets on Sundays for the enjoyment of families and residents on bikes or on foot. The Colombian capital of Bogotá pioneered the idea, and today it’s spread from Latin America to a growing list of North American cities, including Atlanta, Madison, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Cleveland, Chicago, Tucson, and El Paso. Traffic-clogged avenues are temporarily transformed into a rolling street fair, with food vendors, dancing, and games for the kids. In Bogotá, as many as two million people turn out for the weekly festivities.

Close to 100,000 Angelenos turned out for the inaugural ”CicLAvia” in 2010 to pedal through miles of streets closed to cars in downtown Los Angeles. The event drew many families, even young children who rode in trailers or tag-alongs hitched to their parents’ bikes. Participants made frequent stops to enjoy entertainment, food stands, and bicycle information booths along the routes. Experiencing city streets at a leisurely pace without the presence of car traffic is a delightful, eye-opening experience that fosters civic pride.

13. Bikes mean business

The data is in. Bicycles make a measurable contribution to the vitality of our economy, especially considering that investments in bike infrastructure cost only a fraction of those for highways or transit. A study from CEOs for Cities calculates that Portland keeps $800 million yearly that would leave the local economy if people there drove cars at the same high rate as other U.S. cities. Because they spend less money on gas and less time behind the wheel, Portlanders have more of both to spend at local businesses. Mia Birk, CEO of Alta Planning Design with 15 offices nationwide, points to studies of the Portland area showing that bicycle-related businesses directly pump $90 million into the local economy annually and account for 1,000 jobs.

Dutch bike expert Hans Voerknecht cites a Danish study showing that every 10 kilometers traveled by car costs society $4.36 in health, infrastructure, and other expenses, while every 10 kilometers traveled by bike saves $1.36. People who ride bikes regularly live three years longer on average than people who don’t and have lower healthcare costs, according to another Danish study. A Dutch study offers similar findings: if no one in the Netherlands rode a bike, the country would be forced to spend $2 billion more for healthcare each year and another $2 billion in road construction and other costs.

Caron Whitaker is Vice President of Government Relations at the League of American Bicyclists. This post was cross-posted from the League of American Bicyclists blog.

When Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced his retirement last month, we quickly went from gratitude for his work promoting biking and walking, to wondering who President Obama will tap as his replacement.

Who will replace LaHood? Photo via League of American Bicyclists

Here in Washington the rumor mill is swirling with names and questions:

• Will it be the National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Debbie Hersman? She’s already been meeting with Senate Commerce Committee members. (The Commerce Committee holds nomination hearings for the position of Transportation Secretary)

• What about Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles? He seemed like a favorite until he announced he wanted to complete is full term as Mayor — which runs until June 30th. Would President Obama wait that long to nominate a cabinet member?

• What about former Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington, or Jennifer Granholm of Michigan? Their names are being tossed around for many different cabinet positions.

Speculating on cabinet nominations is a common pastime in Washington, but not necessarily a productive one. As the selection of the next Transportation Secretary gets closer, the America Bikes coalition sent a letter to the President weighing in on the characteristics and qualities we most hope to see in the next Secretary of Transportation.

… We sincerely hope [LaHood's] tenure — and his legacy — is just the start of a new era of transportation policy that embraces all modes of transportation equally and ensures that transportation is more than just an end in itself. We hope your next appointment to this critical position: continues the extraordinary collaboration between DOT, EPA, and HUD, and even extends this multi-disciplinary approach to include health and energy agencies; builds on the remarkable success of the TIGER program in getting more funds directly into the hands of local government entities, where smarter, more equitable and inclusive community development projects emerge, and responds to the clear need for real transportation choices and options to be available to all in our communities…

Read the full letter below, or download it as a PDF. 

And remember, you can say thank you to Secretary LaHood at his last National Bike Summit in March! 

Yolanda Savage-Narva is campaign director at America Walks, an America Bikes partner organization.

Elected officials prioritize boosting local economies and creating more jobs. Local business owners and retailers consistently ponder how to get people in their doors to grow their businesses. The solution to both problems could be as simple as the most basic form of human transportation: walking.

 
Photo courtesy Alliance for Biking & Walking

Walking provides numerous benefits. Daily walking is a great way to incorporate physical activity into our lives. It promotes emotional and physical well being and increases social interactions. Walking is a viable mode of transportation for shorter distances and a great way to shrink environmental footprints.

Not least of all, boosting a community’s walkability can have a major impact on the economic success of local business owners and retailers.

Studies show that business owners and retailers that are accessible by multiple modes of transportation — like walking and transit — have greater economic success over the long term. Just this year, a study by the New York City Department of Transportation showed that making a neighborhood more attractive for walking by turning an underused parking area into a pedestrian plaza helped increase retail sales at nearby small businesses by 179%.

Image courtesy NYC DOT

That’s right: better walking nearly tripled local business.

Of course, local business owners cannot boost neighborhood walkability on their own. It takes a community of traffic engineers, local elected officials, urban planners, and private developers to support and develop safe, aesthetically pleasing infrastructure that will attract people to walk by, stop in, and purchase from neighborhood stores.

Photo courtesy Alliance for Biking & Walking

Public health, transportation, and land use policies at the national, state and local levels play a huge role in promoting more walkable communities. Complete Streets policies in state, local, and regional departments help ensure that construction projects plan to accommodate all users. And state and local pedestrian plans — like Oregon’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan — and guides — like the Mid-America Regional Council guide — provide direction and guidance for local elected officials who want to prioritize walkability for better business.

When we focus on building great main streets for walking, local businesses see the benefits.

If you agree that walking is a great public investment, join America Walks by signing our Vision Statement for a Walkable America.