Perspectives: Bicycle news from the Bay Area, Chicago, Mexico City, and the Netherlands . . .

Some perspective on developments in bicycling from around the U.S. and the world:

Bay Area, California: Streets getting a makeover, with more room for biking and walking, less for cars

The Mercury News reports:

Ever since Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House six decades ago and gave a green light to the interstate highway system, the car has been king.

Road Diet Diagram

But today there is a new focus, one drawing howls of protest from some motorists but cheers of relief from pedestrians and bicyclists. Across the Bay Area and California, cities are removing or narrowing lanes and redesigning hundreds of streets to add bike lanes, speed up transit and improve pedestrian safety.

The car remains king, but the crown is slipping.

"There is a strong national and international movement to provide transportation for people and not just cars," said Hans Larsen, director of San Jose's Department of Transportation. "For decades, planning has focused on the efficient movement of cars. The result has been communities that are dependent on cars and are not conducive to walking and biking and transit."

Mexico City: Meeting its greenhouse gas reduction targets

At the recent training by the Alliance for Biking and Walking, one of the participants was from Mexico City--a very interesting and different perspective from the rest of us, who were mostly from U.S. cities and states.  

Hispanically Speaking News is reporting that Mexico City is doing something that few U.S. cities are doing--meeting its targets for greenhouse gas reduction:

It appears Mexico City is on track to meet it’s 2012 goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Plan Verde” (Green Plan) was implemented in the capital city in recently, and since then, the city has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 6.28 million tons, which has them on track to reach its 2012 goal of a 7.7 million tons reduction..

Green Plan targets a number of the city’s systems including transportation, energy, and water conservation, air quality, and solid waste management.

So far 44 percent of GHG emission in Mexico City is created by transportation. Since 2008, the Green Plan has effectively reduced its footprint by 5.3 million tons by replacing the 84,000 high-emission microbuses and taxis with the Metrobus system. The Metrobuses are larger than their predecessors, allowing for more people to ride, resulting in fewer necessary trips.

Also, “Zero Emission Corridors” were created an allow no modes of transportation that emit GHGs to travel through them. The Ecobici bicycle sharing program was also created allowing for a healthier lifestyle all around.

 

Chicago installs first of series of protected bicycle lanes around downtown

Spurred on by the vision of new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago has installed the first in a series of separated bicycle lanes near the downtown area.

Kinzie protected bike lane, construction day 1

The separated lanes were designed and installed in record time--less than two months--after Emanuel initiated the idea.

NBC Chicago reported:

Cruising down Kinzie is supposed to be easier now that the city installed new protected bike lanes this June.

 

Liz Kramer, a cyclist who commutes to work, thinks the new protected lane is wonderful.

 

“Yeah, I think they’re great,” Kramer said. “I changed my commute into the loop to ride on Kinzie because I felt the other routes to be dangerous.”

But one person’s dream can be another person’s nightmare. Just ask a few drivers who are not too fond of the new street design, or don’t even understand its complicated layout.

 

“I’m not sure I quite get it,” said Tom Osier, a resident of the River North neighborhood. “There is a lot of visual clutter as a motorist driving through.”

Just by chance, the Alliance for Biking and Walking training session that three of us from MoBikeFed attended in Chicago a week ago was on Kinzie.  I must confess, after biking and walking on and across the new lanes every day for a week I didn't notice any of the problems that NBC Chicago reports.  Cars and bicycles both seemed to be getting along just fine.  

I guess news outlets have got to find controversy wherever they can, but it was really hard to see any in person on the spot. Read the Active Transportation Alliance's page on the new lanes for more perspective.
 

The Dutch Way: Building a city around bicycling

Russell Shorto writes in the New York Times about how European cities' view of themselves is fundamentally different from U.S. cities' view:

More important, I think, is mind-set. Take bicycles. The advent of bike lanes in some American cities may seem like a big step, but merely marking a strip of the road for recreational cycling spectacularly misses the point. In Amsterdam, nearly everyone cycles, and cars, bikes and trams coexist in a complex flow, with dedicated bicycle lanes, traffic lights and parking garages. But this is thanks to a different way of thinking about transportation.

To give a small but telling example, pointed out to me by my friend Ruth Oldenziel, an expert on the history of technology at Eindhoven University, Dutch drivers are taught that when you are about to get out of the car, you reach for the door handle with your right hand — bringing your arm across your body to the door. This forces a driver to swivel shoulders and head, so that before opening the door you can see if there is a bike coming from behind. Likewise, every Dutch child has to pass a bicycle safety exam at school. The coexistence of different modes of travel is hard-wired into the culture.

Images:

1. Road Diet Diagram by MoBikeFed

2. Kinzie bicycle lanes under construction, by Steven Vance on FlickR. License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0