All Things Considered, July 23, 2008 · Americans want alternatives to traffic jams and high gas prices. Portland, Oregon, thinks it has found one: convincing residents to commute by bike. Cycling has doubled since 2001. And the city hopes this is just the beginning.
I’d be VERY interested to know how Portland proposes to convince people to trade driving for cycling. Is the plan just a matter of some great ad campaigns? Will there be financial or other incentives? Will Portland be doing anything to their infrastructure to encourage cycling and discourage cars in the inner city? I think a lot of North American cities are going to be looking in this direction over the next few years and the first one to do it successfully is going to be a model for the rest. Europe, of course, has the bike thing down pretty good — but they don’t have that whole sprawl thing to deal with. Please post updates!!
XUP – Portland’s the first large city given a “platinum” designation by the League of American Bicyclists. The city has had a master plan in place since 1996 to gain this designation.
Here are some highlights (from the League of American Bicyclists press release about Portland attaining platinum status):
• Portland’s bikeway network includes 270 miles of on-street bike lanes, bike boulevards, and paved trails; another 6 miles of singletrack and 40 miles of mountain bike accessible trail offer mountain biking opportunities in city parks.
• A city ordinance requires bike parking in new development and redevelopment projects; another provides a huge incentive for developers to provide showers and locker rooms
• Six bike corrals have been installed, each replacing one on-street car parking space with 12 bicycle spaces
• 400 bikeway destination signs have been installed (with 400 to come) on the bikeway network
• The city distributes 35,000 citywide bicycle maps and another 35,000 local area maps. The citywide map is also reproduced in the Portland phone book.
• A Tri-Met survey found that three-fifths of area employment sites provide bike parking and ten percent offer incentives to employees who bicycle.
• The city boasts 40 bike shops and more than 150 bicycle-related businesses that provide thousands of green-collar jobs and with an economic benefit of more than $65 million (2005)
From my daily viewing of Portland cyclists, most of whom at will disregard stop lights, stop signs, marked traffic lanes, etc., I would say that the Portland police have taken the “support the scofflaw cyclist” as the fast way to promote bicycle use in Portland, Oregon. Pity.
I disagree that most cyclists disregard traffic signal, lanes, etc. Of course if you are only paying attention to the elitist bike messengers and apply stereotypes accordingly, yes you are correct. But as a bike commuter myself, I would say the majority of cyclists are doing their part by using hand signals, staying within the bike designated lanes, and obeying signs and signals.
leo – I wish more cyclists would obey traffic laws too, but in contrast to car drivers I think it’s a minor, if annoying, issue. When a car driver disobeys a traffic law, as they do often (e.g. rolling through stops, encroaching on crosswalks, blocking sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes, speeding, tailgating, etc.) they’re putting more lives in danger than the idiot cyclist running a red.
VeganFabulous – I think you’re right; we tend to notice the scofflaws more than the well behaved.