Happy New Year

Piazza Times Square?

When the department of Transportation closed seven blocks of Broadway to cars this summer, New Yorkers were offered an object lesson in how profoundly urban space can be altered by a few traffic barriers and a bucket of paint. Within hours, the newly pedestrianized Times Square was colonized by wanderers, nearby office workers, and tourists calling home (“You will not believe where I am standing!”). But what, exactly, should replace an avenue formerly filled with cars? Three design firms were invited to suggest visionary ideas for the street’s future. None is particularly ... practical. But then again, this time last year, who would have expected to see our most famous boulevard transformed into a piazza? Dutch Designers West 8 created some ideas: It is crucial that Times Square not be further transformed into a theme park or playground: It must be robust, substantial, urban, and timeless, while amplifying the neighborhood’s singular reputation. To make Times Square a true public square, we propose repaving it with an LED-lighted “carpet” whose pattern suggests fireworks, spinning ticker tape, Champagne bubbles, and the New Year’s ball drop. Times Square is dedicated to the idea of verticality. How to add green in such a place? Make high, elevated places for solitary trees—“tree pedestals” that synthesize the Olmstedian lanterns of Central Park and the neighborhood street tree. Read more in NYMagazine.

Amsterdam European Green Capital Finalist

The City of Amsterdam has made great efforts to promote greener means of transport, and successfully. The citizens now prefer bicycles over cars. With roughly 750,000 residents, Amsterdam is the biggest city of Holland and part of the great metropolitan area ‘Randstad’. The Dutch are fond of biking, and Amsterdam has always been a popular city for cycling. And now bikes have overtaken cars! Studies show that in the period 2005 to 2007 residents used their bicycle an average of 0.87 times a day and their car 0.84 times. Approximately three out of four of Amsterdam residents own a bicycle, and bicycles are the most commonly used means of transport. Over the last thirty years, the municipal authority of Amsterdam has worked hard on encouraging bicycle use by providing cycle paths and lanes; bicycle and pedestrian friendly roads and an extensive network of parking facilities for bicycles.The main bicycle routes through the city are part of the ‘Hoofdnet Fiets’ bicycle network. A complex network of bicycle routes through the entire city, which ensures all of Amsterdam is safely and comfortably accessible by bicycle. With this project description and this presentation Amsterdam is running for the European Green Capital Award.

New York leading the way

Connectivity for Sustainability

Traffic jams, overcrowded inner city roads, parking problems, environmental issues: it is clear that the city wants to move employees towards alternative means of transport for the car, like public transport, the bicycle or to get there on foot. By using the Personal Travel Assistant (PTA), a next step in accomplishing this goal within urban regions could be made. PTA combines available transport information with a social network, in which the personal diary is shared with other users of the system and their companies through the internet and mobile services. With PTA,commuters can make smart combinations with the travel routes of other participants. A meeting can be scheduled to take place in the metro or a seat on the bus can be reserved. CT-enabled mobility solutions include the Personal Travel Assistant, a service designed to resolve complex, frustrating experiences within urban transportation environments. PTA integrates urban transportation services, experiences, and transactions, providing travel information and support in a convenient format through various information channels and devices . PTA will be pilot-tested in Seoul and Amsterdam to take advantage of those cities many PTA-centric provisioned services, which can be easily integrated into PTA’s Web-based services model. See the movie below and read more here.

Kilometer Charge per kilometer in The Netherlands

The Netherlands is set to become the first country in Europe to replace road tax with a kilometer charge for all motorists, over 10 years since the idea was first put forward.If the legislation is passed by parliament, motorists will start paying tax on every kilometer they drive, which the government hopes will reduce traffic jams and pollution. On Friday, ministers agreed that the tax will be three cents a kilometer when the charge is introduced in 2012, rising to 6.7 cents by 2018 - for the greenest cars . But if revenues generated by the tax are not in line with expectations, the tax can be adjusted. The tax will be higher during the rush hour and for more polluting vehicles. To make sure motorists are not worse off, road tax will be scrapped and the purchase tax on new cars will be reduced. Some 60% of drivers will be better off, the government claims. The transport ministry said on Friday it expected fatal accidents will fall by 7% and carbon emissions would be down by 10%. Traffic jams will be halved and the amount of kilometres driven will go down by 15%. Each car will be fitted with a GPS device which will use satellites to monitor where and when the car is driven and send the information to a central billing point.

Support 'Motion for Women' petition

Sustrans Northern Island asks us to pass on the following message: Of the 2% of journeys made by bike in the UK, only a quarter are made by women. Compare this to the Netherlands where of the 27% of trips made by bike, over half are by women. Sustrans surveyed over 1,000 women to find out what they believed would most persuade them and other women to cycle more. Overwhelmingly women wanted more cycle lanes separated from traffic, so Sustrans has launched our Motion for Women petition calling on governments to prioritise the creation of environments that encourage and support cycling, including cycle paths separated from traffic, as a way of enabling many more women to travel by bike. We want as many people as possible who support the petition to sign it at www.bikebelles.org.uk by the 29th November 2009. We will present the petition to governments in December and ask them to extend the choice of cycling to millions of women by investing much more in making cycling safer. Please do pass this e-mail on to others who may be interested in supporting Sustrans’ Motion for Women petition.
Read more here.

Booklet on the New Amsterdam Bike Slam

While the Bike Slam teams were hard at work, leading experts from urban planning and design, transportation policy, cultural anthropology, and advocacy gathered on September 11 at the Center for Architecture to discuss “Global Trends in Sustainable Urban Mobility,” especially as they pertain to New York City. Throughout the day, the primarily American audience was treated to perspectives from a multitude of exceptional speakers who offered opinions wide and varied, including how Dutch cities integrate economic benefits with the planning of space; population groups who are harbingers for significant mode shift (women and elderly); and the strong connections between growing cycling and lowering carbon emissions. Perhaps most inspiring is the consistent theme that benchmarks are not indications for achievement and mark the end of the project, but are markers for improvements and going further. Special guests of the day included Christopher Ward, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Janette Sadik- Khan, New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner. Download the booklet here. Have a look at some of the many pictures taken.

Also in Uganda important role for women

Also our friends from the First African Bicycle Information Organisation (FABIO) engages in the contribution of wmen. In their newsletter they write: ' There is no time for delay if the world is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Gender equality and women’s empowerment – the Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG) – is core to accelerating progress on all the MDGs. Why? Unless the situation of women is deliberately, purposefully and radically improved, we will never eradicate hunger, educate all our children or achieve any other MDG. Only a joint effort will enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment - and thus contribute to achieving all the MDGs. Women are the key to reducing poverty. With programs such as the Bicycle Credit, the Health Care Project and our engagement regarding the challenges of climate change, FABIO aims to accelerate progress. The Bicycle Credit Scheme offers women the possibility to own bicycle paid in installments. With the help of the bicycles they have easier
access to working places, gardens, water sources markets, other villages or schools.There have been steady improvements in many of the world’s poorest countries, but still there is a lot to do…

More cyclist on the road? Target for women!

In the U.S., men’s cycling trips surpass women’s by at least 2:1. This ratio stands in marked contrast to cycling in European countries, where urban biking is a way of life and draws about as many women as men—sometimes more. In the Netherlands, where 37 percent of all trips are made by bike, 55 percent of all riders are women. In Germany 12 percent of all trips are on bikes, 49 percent of which are made by women. “If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’—just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences. Women are considered an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities for several reasons. In the cycling arena, risk aversion translates into increased demand for safe bike infrastructure as a prerequisite for riding. Women also do most of the child care and household shopping, which means these bike routes need to be organized around practical urban destinations to make a difference. Vlo Mondial agrees: if you see an elegant woman cycling to work or theater you know life is good in that city. Read more here

Bike Racks for Dubai

Approximately 2,000 parking slots for bicycles have been constructed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and another 4,000 are in progress across Dubai. They have been constructed to encourage road users to also use bikes as part of a daily routine. Maitha Bin Adai, CEO of RTA Rail Agency, said: “RTA has completed construction of 2,000 parking slots for bicycles, 200 of which have been opened with the launch of Dubai Metro. The step is part of a comprehensive plan to prepare parking slots for thousands of bikes in all parts of the emirate, particularly in the vicinity of commercial centers. “Construction of these parking spaces is carried out according to top quality specifications and standards to ensure that they will be easy to use, with maximum safety and minimal risk of causing injury to users and pedestrians or sustaining damage to bikes during parking. Velo Mondial's friends from RTA are keen to have in place the required security & safety standards for bicycles and cyclists, and protect the beautiful setting of Dubai such that cyclists will be tempted to park their bikes at the designated places rather than randomly parking them on roads and squares. Read more here!

NOISE MAP EUROPE

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has launched the most comprehensive map of noise exposure to date, revealing the extent to which European citizens are exposed to excessive acoustic pollution. The NOISE (Noise Observation and Information Service for Europe) database provides, at the click of a mouse, a picture of the numbers of people exposed to noise generated by air, rail and road traffic across Europe and in 102 large urban agglomerations. Noise is ubiquitous but its role as a key form of pollution with serious human health consequences is still underestimated. Prolonged exposure to even low levels of noise can trigger hypertension and disrupt sleep. A first glance at Europe's noise exposure map is far from soothing: it is estimated than half of the population in urban areas with more than 250 000 inhabitants endure levels above 55 dB as a result of ambient road noise. Just over 41 million Europeans are exposed to excessive noise from road traffic alone in the largest cities. Users of the NOISE database can view the extent of data reported in accordance with the directive on a colour-coded map. Enter the NOISE Viewer here

Dublinbikes

DUBLIN CITY Council is to increase the capacity of its Dublinbikes rental stations in the coming weeks because of the huge popularity of the scheme. The council also has longer-term plans to introduce new station locations and increase the number of bikes available to users. More than 16,000 people have subscribed to the scheme since it was introduced just six weeks ago, making it the most popular city bike scheme to date in Europe, according to the council. “More than 11,500 people have registered for annual passes and around 4,000 for day or three-day tickets, so we’re absolutely chuffed with it,” council communications manager Michael Sands said. There is also a very fast turnover of bicycles with an average usage time of 16-17 minutes. Rental is then free for half an hour and costs 50 cents for the first hour, rising to €6.50 for four hours. However, the popularity of the bicycles and the rapid turnover has resulted in a shortage of bicycles at many stations and a shortage of free spaces to return bicycles at others. The additional spaces will be paid for by JC Decaux, the out-door advertising company which won the contract to provide the bike scheme in return for advertising space in the city. Read more.

Transport Month in South Africa

The October Transport Month campaign is a national initiative that seeks to profile public transport services, highlight socio-economic and environmental benefits from the use of public transport and informing the public about measures to reduce congestion on the roads. Themed 'Safety in all modes of Transport: System readiness for 2010, Sisonke siyaphambili akujiki' the campaign will be focusing on the user, operator and infrastructure in ensuring safety of commuters. Car Free Day takes place on the 20th October 2008 and is one ofthe flagship activities of the Public Transport Month campaign. The Car Free Day concept is still a pilot project in South Africa and its success is largely dependent on the commitment and support of the citizens. The support role that the people can play will go a long way in ensuring that as citizens of the world we take responsibility for the environment, not only for ourselves, but for future generations. Car Free day should provide an opportunity to discover another way to practice mobility while at the same time offering a reflection process on what is at stake in terms of the environment when it comes to the air and noise pollution in cities. Read More here. The picture was taken on the predecessor of Car Free Day: The first Vehicle Free Event in 2003.

Italy takes cycling serioulsy

On September 25; just two hours after the start of Italy’s second bike buying incentive scheme already 2,000 bicycles were sold with a total government subsidy of 230,000 euro! On September 18, at the opening of the 67th EICMA International Bicycle Exhibition show Italy’s Minister of the Environment Stefania Prestigiacomo announced that the government has allocated another 7.6 million euro to spur consumer purchases of bicycles; earlier the Italian government granted in total 11.4 million euro as incentives for buying bikes. These millions (which were also allocated to spur people to buy new and more environmental friendly scooters and motorcycles), resulted in about 40,000 bikes extra sold in Italy. The extra 7.6 million is however expected to raise an even much better sales score of 70,000 bikes. Italy’s Minister of the Environment Prestigiacomo stressed at the start of the campaign the importance to dedicate government funds for the development of cycling paths and routes. She pointed to the fact that most of the thousands villages and cities in Italy have old city centers which are ideal for bicycles and e-Bikes! Read on.

And the winner is ......

It was Saturday night in the meatpacking district. The velvet ropes were out; a rumbling bass pulsed out of every club. Well, nearly every club. At Cielo, which says on its Web site that it is “purpose-built for dancing with a centrally located sunken dance floor,” no one was shaking it. Instead, a rapt crowd, many of them sitting on the purpose-built dance floor, watched two teams of Dutch and American designers make pleas for their plans to improve bicycle riding in New York City. A slow-turning disco ball cast speckled light across the audience, but all eyes were on a pair of monitors on a stage and Team Amsterdam’s presenter. “You think that’s enough greenways?” Michael Mandiberg, a Brooklyn-based artist and designer, asked the crowd as he pulled up a map of Manhattan, its West Side and East Side bike paths highlighted. Mr. Mandiberg and 11 other designers, architects, planners and bike thinkers from the United States and the Netherlands were in the final competition stage of the New Amsterdam Bike Slam. After days of touring the city on bikes and brainstorming to create a vision to spur a million more cyclists onto New York’s streets, the two teams were coming into the final stretch and pitching their plans.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam Part 5

New York City is changing, and safe and abundant cycling is part of the new face of the city. It's one thing to hear about it from those in the middle of the often painful process, but it can be bracing to ask an expert from outside to have a look and report what they see. This is a celebration of active transportation in NYC – how New York is leading the way to the post-Motordom city. With an interesting comparison to Portland and Vancouver. Visit New York City with Gordon and his camera, and check out the state of play as things stand as of summer 2009. Gordon is Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. A former six-time City Councilor in Vancouver, he has written extensively on Vancouver and transportation issues. Cycling NYC 2 presents 34 pages of photographs and commentary on what works, and what is causing friction as the cycling agenda gets pushed ahead by a strong team with high, consistent commitment from the highest levels of local government, with vigorous support from transport and environment groups, the non-profit sector, academics and specialized consultants, citizens and increasingly the media. Read more in World Streets.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam Part 4

The New Amsterdam Bike Slam is a high-profile, positive public event which offers an open collaborative way for helping New York and anybody else who is ready to learn from their experience to move together from old to new mobility. The Slam approach offers a number of interesting and useful characteristics which those of us who care deeply about the transition to sustainable transportation have not always given sufficient play in the past. At the end of the New Amsterdam Bike Slam, one team will emerge the winner for having the most creative - and practical - vision for making New York Harbor a bicycle friendly area with good quality of public space. The winning team will present convincing solutions combining a host of disciplines, including but not limited to urban design, marketing and traffic safety. On September 13 (the day after the battle), Mr. Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, will convey the prize to the winning team on the waterfront in Manhattan. The movie you see here is about another big American city, but could have been about New York. The movie shows the challenge for New York and other major cities.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam Part 3

New York and Amsterdam, like many other global cities, face challenges regarding mobility and requiring immediate solutions. An urgent look at necessary changes in mobility is the objective of the symposium ‘Global trends in sustainable mobility.’ For that purpose we have invited speakers to debate ideas that would further our thinking about cities and mobility. How did Amsterdam and New York get to where we are now with regard to mobility and what analyses can we bring to the table? What are the systematic differences in urban planning between New York and Amsterdam? Do these differences only exist in the field of mobility or has it other psychological and cultural backgrounds? What makes cities not only livable, but attractive to live in, and what good can mobility bring or bad by making things disappear? Can cities live with less or no petrol cars at all and what does such an idea do to the economy? How will public transport play a role in the triangle with emission rich mobility and more sustainable modes of transport? This issues will be discussed in the Symposium: 'Global Trends to Sustainable Mobility' September 13, 2009 in the Institute for Architecture in New York. Read more here.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam Part 2

Four hundred years after Henry Hudson's arrival in Manhattan, two teams of Dutch and American planners & designers face off in a battle for the future of New York City transportation. Their challenge: find ways to bring NYC cycling up to the level of the Netherlands, the only country in the world with more bikes than people. The New Amsterdam Bike Slam is being organized in New Amsterdam (sometime also referred to as "New York City") from 10-13 September 2009. It is an initiative of Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability, produced by Vélo Mondial and Transportation Alternatives, with funding from Transumo and the City of Amsterdam. After three days of preparation, the New Amsterdam Bike Slam teams face off in a live debate “battle,” and compete to provide the most compelling vision for making lower Manhattan and Brooklyn a bicycling area on par with Amsterdam. The battle begins at 10:00 pm, followed by a late night dance party at the renowned Meatpacking District club, with DJ John Julius Knight. Full background on the program: http://newamsterdambikeslam.org/.

Autolib: Paris' Electric Car Sharing Plan

A plan to make 4,000 electric cars available for Parisians to pick up and drop off at rental stands still has some kinks to be worked out. Could the City of Lights soon become the City of Electric Cars? Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, building on the success of the city's popular Vélib curbside bike rental scheme, is planning to deploy a fleet of 2,000 electric cars that customers can pick up and drop off at rental stands around the city. Another 2,000 vehicles will be offered in two dozen surrounding cities. The green scheme, dubbed Autolib (short for "automobile" and "liberté"), is scheduled for launch as early as the end of 2010, although city officials say the startup date could be closer to mid-2011. Advocates say the system would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 tons a year while improving traffic congestion as fewer Paris residents would need to own cars. It would be the first major city to offer such a service. "This could revolutionize transport," Delanoë told French radio station RMC when he first proposed the program in June 2008. Now, after numerous delays, Autolib is finally going forward, with the formation this summer of an intergovernmental council for Greater Paris that will oversee the scheme. Read more in Business Week.

Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability in context

Velo Mondial works with many partners towards sustainable mobility plans. programs and policies. Sustainability policies in Amsterdam however do not limit to mobility but also range to Energy, Waste, IT, Design, Finance, Food, Built Environment. Last year, the Amsterdam Innovation Motor facilitated, initiated and coordinated a number of promising projects: Amsterdam Smart City: to promote smart energy and applications related to smart energy; AIM to Sustain: a network that connects all the companies in the field of sustainability; Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability: in which knowledge about sustainable mobility is spread as widely as possible. All of these projects contribute to a more sustainable working and living environment - at companies, knowledge institutes, government institutes and, of course, with the inhabitants of Amsterdam. The synergy between the various sustainability projects of the municipalities within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area radiates energy. Collaborating, inspiring one another, and learning from each other are the keys to creating a more sustainable environment. Velo Mondial is happy to be part and parcel of all this. Read on here.

EyeStop

Imagine if your local bus stop allowed you to check your e-mail, share community information on a digital message board or monitor the local air quality? And perhaps best of all, what if it could tell you the exact location of that bus that you're waiting for? MIT architects and engineers just unveiled a design for such a bus stop this past Saturday, at the Genio Fiorentino festival in Florence, Italy. (A more formal prototype will be unveiled this October.) Called EyeStop and developed by the MIT SENSEable City Lab, it takes the tedium out of waiting for the bus and showcases the potential of next-generation urban transportation design. The EyeStop is partially covered with touch-sensitive e-INK and screens, and features state-of-the art sensing technologies and a variety of interactive services. Riders can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, surf the Web, monitor their real-time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. Unlike the typical mass-produced bus stop, EyeStop is designed to fit the physical characteristics of its surroundings. A computer program generates a unique design for each bus stop, providing both optimal sheltering for users and maximum sunlight exposure for power generation. In addition to displaying information, the bus stop also acts as an active environmental sensing node, powering itself through sunlight and collecting real-time information about the surrounding environment. Read more here.

E-bikes is about revenue and profit

It’s safe to say that e-Bikes are a genuine trend in the Netherlands. In the past few years electric bicycles have become so popular that even car brands are using them nowadays as incentives to sell their 4-wheelers. In case The Netherlands is setting the trend for the whole of Europe (and who is denying that?) then the bike sector is in for a treat as in The Netherlands e-Bikes now count for 26% of all the money dealers make from selling new bicycles.“With e-Bikes a market opened up that is not to be looked upon in terms of volume as with regular bikes; it’s about revenue and profit.” This quote is from a spokesperson from GfK Retail Tracking - the company whose retail panel is able to pinpoint exactly how many e-Bikes were sold in Holland last year through various distribution channels. That number stood at 124,250. The majority, about 80%, were sold through dealers at an average sales price of € 1,945. Of the total of 124,250 e-Bikes sold last year in Holland, 97,800 were sold through dealers, where they accounted for 17% of total turnover. About one third of sales are Gazelle and Giant while at fifth place stands Koga-Miyata.” Read more in Bike Europe.

NOWAITTRANSIT: high tech approach to sustainable mobility

Today about 3 billion live in cities, and the transport in the cities will increase by 200% till 2050. The increase is particularly high in developing countries that also produce most of the population growth. These markets have serious financial limitations and current mass transit solutions are too expensive. The NOWAITTRANSIT ® track is constructed as a closed loop filled with cars individually coupled to each other through a distance beam. Each vehicle consists of an 8 m long car beam, an 8 m long distance beam, two bogies and a passenger compartment. Hence, the NOWAITTRANSIT ® vehicle is 16 m long and 1,6 m wide. Each bogie consists of two conventional railway wheels and three guide wheels, which precludes derailment. The passenger compartment is located on top of the car beam via suspension system. Due to the factor 10 relation between vehicle length and vehicle width the speed is reduced by the same factor 10 as the vehicle rotates 90 degrees while entering a station. As the vehicle leaves the station it is rotated back to its initial position and the speed is regained. Much more can be read here.

Non-motorised transport, sustainable yet vulnerable!

In 2007 I had the honor of addressing the World Road Congres with a speech on the vulnerable road user. Benoit Beroud of BB MobiliT France (ex-Saône Alpes Mobility Consultant), and I prepared this speech with a research document. In 1990, road accidents were the 9th most common cause of death in the world. If no action is taken, they will become the 3rd most common cause by 2020. In 2002, according to the report of the WHO1, there were 1.2 million deaths and between 20 and 50 million people injured, a very sad track record for road accidents in the world. 90 % of these road accidents take place in developing countries, and around 90% of the victims are vulnerable people: pedestrians, passengers or bicyclists2. How can we better their traffic conditions and improve their safety? The users of “green” transport do not expose themselves to the same risks as with motorised ones; the twin needs of safety and comfort are therefore partly at odds. First of all, their resistance to collisions with vehicles is insignificant. Secondly, they do not reach the same speeds. Thirdly, they look for the shortest way in order to save energy and reduce their efforts sometimes at their own risk and peril! Read the article here, both in French and in English.

10 measures to promote cycling

Annually some 4 million kilometers are covered by car for trips within 7,5 kilometers in the Netherlands. These short trips generate extra emissions of pollutants since the engines are cold and consistent driving behavior is often impossible in cities. Local authorities are therefore particularly interested in decreasing the number of short car trips.The bicycle is a powerful tool against short polluting car trips in towns, as demonstrated by a study within the framework of SOLVE (fast solutions for air and traffic) of CROW research institute. The result is a list of the ten most likely measures. No fewer than five of the ten likely measures are based on promoting bicycle use. The following 10 measures are included in the shortlist: - priority for cyclists at traffic lights - make a town impossible to traverse by car (segmentation) - providing good and safe bicycle routes - improve accessibility of schools for cyclists in comparison to motorists - decrease number of parking places - parking at a fee/higher parking fees - maintenance of bicycle parking facilities - free/high-quality bicycle parking - delivery services - promote independent cycling by children.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam Part 1

In 1969, architect and urban planner Ulrich Franzen articulated, through the film below, a bold vision to reclaim Manhattan’s congested streets as open space free from cars and trucks. Forty years later, our sense of urgency about the ecological imperative of transforming how we transport goods, information and people from place to place has increased, but the terms of the debate about how to accommodate the various competing uses of our streets have not changed much. Road-based, limited-occupancy vehicles still provide the most flexible and often most comfortable routes around the city. Critics who pit cars against people often seem to forget that people drive cars, buy the products trailer trucks deliver and produce the waste that garbage trucks remove. These days, the policy prescriptions that aim to limit city-dwellers’ reliance on cars tend to take the form of disincentives and prohibitions, such as congestion pricing or restrictive parking. Recent design initiatives in New York City, most visibly the Department of Transportation’s appropriation of street space for quiet zones or bicycle lanes, represent pro-active steps in a positive direction. Read more here.

Bus Rapid Transit System: an above-ground subway

Like most thoroughfares in booming cities of the developing world, Bogotá’s Seventh Avenue resembles a noisy, exhaust-coated parking lot — a gluey tangle of cars and the rickety, smoke-puffing private minibuses that have long provided transportation for the masses.But a few blocks away, sleek red vehicles full of commuters speed down the four center lanes of Avenida de las Américas. The long, segmented, low-emission buses are part of a novel public transportation system called bus rapid transit, or B.R.T. It is more like an above-ground subway than a collection of bus routes, with seven intersecting lines, enclosed stations that are entered through turnstiles with the swipe of a fare card and coaches that feel like trams inside.Versions of these systems are being planned or built in dozens of developing cities around the world — Mexico City, Cape Town, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Ahmedabad, India, to name a few — providing public transportation that improves traffic flow and reduces smog at a fraction of the cost of building a subway. Read more in the NYT

The best public bike system in the world?

Adam Cooper writes in World Streets why he thinks Canada's BiXi is the best public bike system in the world. He says: Watch out world, the city of Montreal is on the move: this time powered by pedals. The second largest city in Canada is now home to North America’s largest bike sharing program. The BIXI system (Bicycle + Taxi) is Canada’s first attempt at large scale bike sharing; and from my initial experiences I will say it is extremely well done, maybe even the best in the world. Beginning in the summer of 2008, Stationnement de Montreal, the City’s parking authority, was mandated to design, build, operate and maintain a bike sharing system, by the Montreal City Council. Less than one year later (May 12, 2009) the BIXI program was up and running. Operated by a non-profit company (the Public Bike System Co.), BIXI provides 3000 Canadian designed and manufactured bicycles at 300 stations located across the core of Montreal. The system can be reconfigured for large public events and stations not functioning at their maximum utility can be expanded or contracted to meet the supply and demand constraints.Although BIXI is still in its infancy, there is no doubt in my mind that this technology will be exported to other cities in Canada. Read more here.

New Cycle Racks for Amsterdam

Amsterdam is preparing for more new and better bicycle parking facilities. At the moment the center of Amsterdam has 10.241 bicycle parking facilities, catering for 33.839 bicycles. The demand for bicycles has however staggered in recent years. To alleviate the situation Amsterdam is planning for a number of bicycle parking garages and many more bicycle racks. There are many options for bicycle racks and therefore the city has organized a test situation with 19 different racks. The users of the racks can vote which one they like best. It can already be seen who will win: the ones that are occupied all the time have obviously the preference. Have a look at the variety of options and if you read Dutch go here to read more of Amsterdams ambitions regarding bicycle parking in a city where more people ride a bike then people drive a car into the center of the city. In 2007 56% rode a bike when entering the city versus 24% a private car and 20% public transport. These figures have already altered in 2008 and 2009 and as soon figures become available you will read them in this blog.

Cycling in The Netherlands NEW EDITION

Information about the organisation and substance of Dutch bicycle policy is so often requested that a new actualised brochure was produced.
English: Cycling in The Netherlands 2009
Deutsch: Radfahren in den Niederlanden 2009
Français: Le vélo aux Pays Bas 2009
Español: La bicicleta en Países Bajos 2009
The brochure offers compact information about a broad range of subjects, like: Bicycle use, Traffic safety, Motives for cycling, Why is cycling so successful in the Netherlands, The Dutch approach, Ways to promote bicycle use, How to find more information?, Who cycles in the Netherlands?, Success and fail factors for bicycle use, Arguments pro cycling, The Dutch approach, Effective cycling policy, Organization and responsibilities regarding to cycling in the Netherlands, The bicycle as a vehicle for common everyday use for every purpose, Bicycle education, Concrete measures, 27 examples from all over the country , Many photos.

Amsterdam moet veilig worden voor onze fietsende kinderen!

Wij, bezorgde ouders van Amsterdam, constateren: Steeds weer worden Amsterdamse kinderen slachtoffer in het drukke Amsterdamse verkeer. Dat is absoluut onacceptabel. Er moet nú iets gebeuren. Onze kinderen móeten veilig van en naar school kunnen fietsen. Nog steeds is fietsveiligheid geen speerpunt van beleid en door gebrek aan centrale aansturing krijgt dit onderwerp niet de aandacht die het in Amsterdam verdient. Met doden en gewonden tot gevolg. Daarom hebben we, als bezorgde ouders, een tienpuntenplan opgesteld. Met deze maatregelen willen we van Amsterdam een veiligere fietsstad maken. Wij roepen u op deze maatregelen met de hoogste prioriteit uit te voeren. In het belang van de Amsterdamse kinderen, in het belang van Amsterdam. en verzoeken Maak de veiligheid van onze kinderen speerpunt van uw beleid. En ga over tot het uitvoeren van het volgende tienpuntenplan

New York, Paris new bicycle cities

Word Streets interviewed Paul White from Transportation Alternative and concluded the interview with some lessons for New York from the Paris experience with Critical Mass Bike Rides over these last years. And even though the basic cultures are so different, here are a few thoughts that come to mind:
1. Transportation professionalism.
2. Iron discipline
3. Be there or be square
4. Have your man in City Hall
5. Be your own good cop
6. Communicate like a winner
At the same time New York's Commissioner for transport Janette Sadik-Khan closed off part of Times Square, a brave act with a massive impact. Read more in the New York Times. Also the Summer Streets Program 2009 will give New Yorkers a chance to see carfree streets. Much of the Park Avenue will have no traffic at all on three Saturdays this summer, as the city shuts down 6.9 miles of Manhattan roadway in a reprise of last year’s Summer Streets program.
The Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan will be using Acorn Cycles “bakfietsen” (Dutch for “bucket bikes”) to turn the park into a “green zone”, with less unnecessary green house gas emissions. By doing this the park wants to set the example for a sustainable solution for transportation in all US parks.

Finally a World Health Report on Road Safety; long overdue

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday its first global report on road safety worldwide. The news is grim. The report is based on data drawn from a survey of 178 countries. It concludes that something on the order of 1.3 million people are dying in traffic accidents each year, that this number is accelerating, and that anywhere from 20 to 50 million people are injured as a result of traffic crashes. If you check out their five minute video on this page, you will hear them reminding us that these numbers sum to one person being injured in traffic every second, and someone dying -- being killed rather is a more accurate way to state it -- every thirty seconds. Of these totals roughly half (46%) of the victims killed on streets and roads worldwide are pedestrians, cyclists, and riders of motorized two wheelers – the most vulnerable road users. Dr. Kelly Henning, director of global health programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation that has sponsored and paid for the work behind the report, recommends that the answer lies in more laws and better enforcement of them. Read more here or go to the WHO page for details. You can also click on the picture.

New York here we come

Luud Schimmelpennink, the winner of the first Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability Pioneer Award wrote a nice article in Worldstreets. His opening paragraph: "Back in the 1960s, when I was young, and I thought smart, the idea occurred to me and some of my friends that bicycles were surely the best way for people to get around cities. We could see that for ourselves every day on the streets of Amsterdam. However as we thought about it, it struck us that something was missing. So we came up with something we called the White Bicycles. Free bikes".He ends with writing: "But here in closing is my final, respectful and a bit less direct message which I should like to share with all of you in Washington who have been charged by President Obama with the responsibility of creating sustainable transportation projects, sustainable cities and sustainable lives for people of all economic and social classes across the United States. Do not shy away from an idea just because it may at first glance strike you as a bit crazy. Sometimes that is the way it is with a new idea that really could make a difference. So before automatically saying no, just because the idea strikes you at first as untenable, get comfortable, sit back and think it through from the beginning. You may find that within it are the germs of a great idea. A benevolent virus.

Velib Paris changes more than just Paris

The JCDecaux Vélib bike scheme in Paris was responsible for what had almost every Capital in the world contemplating about public bike hire schemes. Since July 2007 Paris was all of a sudden the world capital of rental bikes. Once again the bicycle was in the spotlight as the healthy, zero-emission alternative for the traffic congestion most big cities are struggling with. The first statistics show the success of the Vélib in Paris: every bike is being rented on average ten times a day and around 300,000 people, mainly Parisians, have already taken annual subscriptions. There is more to come as a growing number of cities are setting up self-service rental bike schemes. Chicago is interested, as well as Moscow, Washington, Geneva, Roma, Beijing and Sydney. Read more about the public bicycle in 'Cycling on the rise' by Spicycles. The public bicycle system is also having a huge effect on the sales for bicycles around the world. The offering in bikes is dominated by sports orientated bikes like MTBs and road racers. With the biggest cities in the world implementing rental bike schemes, the demand for City, Trekking and folding bikes is growing and with that also the demand for hassle-free transmission systems. Also the 'standard rental' bikes market is increasing. Read more in Bike Europe.

Shopping by Free Bike in San Sebastian

To promote cycling as a normal means of transport for shopping, the city of Donostia-San Sebastián, is giving away 170 free bicycles to people that shop in the city centre. The campaign was launched on the 20th of May when shops in the city centre started handing out “scratch & win” cards to customers. On the 6th of June, 170 happy cyclists ride off on their new black bikes equipped with a useful basket to carry their groceries. The “go shopping on your bicycle” campaign is an initiative of the city of Donostia-San Sebastián and the shopkeepers associations of Zaharrean and Centro Erdi. The shops that are members of the associations are handing out scratch & win cards to their clients. The bicycles are handed out to the lucky winners during a joint event on Saturday morning 6th of June at a time when there are lots of people shopping in the city centre.The campaign supports the package of CIVITAS measures on cycling being implemented in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián. Within CIVITAS the bicycle lane network will be extended and new bicycle parking facilities will be developed. In 2009 450 meters of new exclusive bicycle lane was added on Xabier Lizardi street. Read More.

'Bikes And Chill’ By AAArchitecten & UQ Design

AAArchitecten together with UQ Design have received first prize in the Poly Products Competition for their project ‘Bikes and Chill’. Constructed from fiber reinforced composite material the covering hides a semi recessed bicycle parking facility, whilst the outside has the shape of a bench where people can rest and relax. The bike bench consists of separate components that can be connected to form a curving pattern. ‘Bikes and Chill’ was initially conceived for the square outside The Hague central station, the Netherlands but it can also be used in other environments such as schools and parks. With the winning design ‘Bike & Chill’ the designers were not only the main design requirement: the application of a fiber reinforced composite. The jury praised the winners because of the multiple functions of the product. The plastic casing houses a bicycle, while the exterior is designed as a bank. Here, people can relax, read a book or just enjoy the Sunday. The design is also of value as a form response element in the public space. Read more in archiCentral.

The Ultimate way to Vanmoof

As one of the densest and flattest countries in the world, The Netherlands has a long tradition of using bikes for transportation means. The bicycle has been our vehicle of choice since the 19th century and the Dutch are leading experts ever since. The world is catching up and discovers the advantages of going around town by bike. In NYC alone commuting by bike went up 34% from 2007 to 2008 and 170 miles of new bike lanes are created. An increase in clogged up traffic and fuel prices stimulated this trend. But the bike innovations did not keep up with the urban needs. Creating a stylish, comfortable, urban-proof bike became the challenge of VANMOOF. “We were inspired by the good old-fashion Dutch bike”, explains the 28-year old Dutch designer Sjoerd Smit. The result is the first bike that is so smooth that it fits your image and yet so functional it makes you go to work whistling. It is the bike you want to be seen on, the car of the future! The VANMOOF has a striking aluminum rust-free frame with a highly advanced solar powered LED light system built inside its tubes. To turn them on, you simply wipe the keychain over the frame.

Cycling fashion on the streets of Amsterdam

On Saturday 30 May, 2009 again a fashion show for cyclists will be held on the streets of Amsterdam. The designs are a selection from the entrants in a competition that aimed to make cycling safer and more fashionable, organised by the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in the Milan shopping district in September last year. This year the show in Amsterdam is an initiative of the Italian Institute of Culture in Amsterdam, in collaboration with the NABA and cyclists’ organisations. More than 60 designers took part in a competition and in September 2008 a cycling fashion show took place in the shopping district in Milan, arousing great attention from the press and the public. A number of selected articles will now be shown in the streets of Amsterdam, as a contribution to a safer mobility and to more comfortable cycling. Saturday, May 30, 2009 – From 10.30 to 12.30. Itinerary: Muntplein, Amstel, Magere Brug, Kerkstraat, Reguliersgracht, Rembrandtplein, Kloveniersburgwal, Oude Hoogstraat, Damstraat, Dam, Damrak, Beursplein. Velo Mondial will take pictures and show them here after the event.

Safety? NOT my Problem!

Safety is often deemed the Cinderella of the transport and travel world, especially in relation to public and collective transport. Car manufacturers and airlines are ahead of the game, but public authorities seem less inclined to spend on preventing events that may never happen! Buses travel at the same speed as cars, but with standing passengers; whereas car occupants are strapped to their seats! Perceptions of safety whilst travelling have become of increasing importance to travelers. Indeed safety issues often act as a barrier to walking on street for even short trips, cycling and using public transport. The loss of revenue, missed health improvement opportunities and positioning the car as the preferred mode of transport is the result, but the real cost to the community is hidden. The CIVITAS MIMOSA consortium has decided to confront these issues head-on in an open workshop in Gdansk on 5 June 2009. If you want to hear set-piece presentations on wonderful solutions to problems then this workshop is NOT for you. Instead we want to present and discuss problems; maybe you have some of the same too? Experts will be on hand to advise, and the outcome will be real plans for tackling the issues in cities.

Famke Jansen rides her Oma Fiets in New York

Bakfiets en meer reports: 'Actress Famke Jansen rides her WorkCycles Omafiets through the streets of New York. Actually it concerns me less that she’s a semi-famous celebrity type (former Bond-girl etc.) than that it’s just a cool photo of a good looking Dutch woman nonchalantly riding her good looking Dutch bike through Manhattan. Yes, the bike is a WorkCycles-Azor Omafiets, purchased from WorkCycles dealer Dutch Bike Seattle.'
One comment Velo Mondial likes reads: 'Famke looks like an ordinary, albeit very pretty, New Yorker getting from one place to another by bicycle. She’s not geared up or sweating, nor is she yelling at anyone, violating traffic laws, praying for anarchy, or nearly running over hapless pedestrians. She’s an effortlessly cool, clean-showered, law abiding bike rider. And, knowing she’s a movie star adds more: she could have anything and she’s choosing a black Azor over a black Escalade and making life easier on everyone else. Thanks, Famke!'
We would like to add: If you see a scene like this in a city, you know that life is good there.

Master Class Sustainable Urban Mobility

Amsterdam: 14 -16 September 2009
How can sustainable mobility contribute to quality of life in urban areas? This is the key question in the international master class ‘Sustainable Urban Mobility’ in Amsterdam. The modern city is confronted with many challenges concurrently: air pollution, noise, spatial segregation, congestion and a lack of accessibility. In the master class urban planning, economics, psychology and sustainability are integrated into the common fields of mobility, transport and traffic management. Participants are introduced to a new approach to sustainable urban mobility: the most optimal blend of economic, environmental and social solutions to the myriad of challenges we face. Nicis Institute, Amsterdam Innovation Motor, Delft University of Technology, Transumo and Velo Mondial have joined forces in the development of this master class. The master class is supported by ‘Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability’. In the three-day programme 14 -16 September 2009 - the expertise of the various partners is combined to offer the participants state of the art knowledge on the conceptual and practical implications of developments in the field of sustainable mobility in Europe’s cities.
Read more here in the brochure in preparation of the Master Class. Email Bart Nijhof or call him at NICIS: +31703440513. Click here for the registration form.

Catch them young

Healthy habits have to be established at an early age. This is not rocket science, but common sense. Introducing children to cycling in schools as both a way of getting to and fro and a leisure pursuit is therefore key. This is what Bike It does so well. The Bike It officers that we have worked with have inspired children and our own projects, and been a wealth of knowledge. The Bike It project works directly with schools making the case for cycling in their school travel plans, supporting school champions who want to promote cycling, and demonstrating that cycling is a popular choice for children to get to school. The project adds to local investment in cycle routes and bike sheds by involving pupils, teachers and parents and enabling them to take the small steps which are necessary to make a real difference. During 2005/06 Bike It built on the success of the previous pilot year. By June 2006 an average of 10% of pupils in Bike It schools were cycling regularly to school. The National Travel Survey shows that the national average is 1%. Counts of parked bikes during the year show a near trebling of cycle use from a base of 3.7% of pupils cycling in September 2005. Read more about this succesful SUSTRANS program here.

Bike Europe endorses Spicycles

Bike Europe, a leading European magazine on cycling, endorses the succes of the work done by the Spicycles cities Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, Gothenburg, Ploeisti and Rome with their partners Velo Mondial from The Netherlands, ISIS from Italy, Goudappel Coffeng from The Netherlands, DB Rent from Germany, CPI Progetti from Italy, the University of Rome and ATAC from Italy. Bike Europe writes: The huge popularity of public bike rental schemes like Velib in Paris didn’t escape the attention of the EU government. The European Commission initiated an extensive study to the implantation of public rental bike systems in Europe over the past two years. The outcome of this study was recently published by SpiCycles that carried out the study. SpiCycles discusses nine subjects in its final report. These are; finances, the implementation of bicycle measures, the future orientation, institutional cooperation, human resources, bicycle parking, users’ acceptance and preferences, communications and awareness, local partnerships.

Batteries Not Included

Shai Agassi stood in a warehouse on the outskirts of Tel Aviv one afternoon last month and watched his battery-swapping robot go to work. He was conducting a demonstration of the curious machine that is central to his two-year-old clean-energy company, which is called Better Place. Agassi’s grand plan is to kick-start the global adoption of electric cars by minimizing one of the biggest frustrations with the technology: the need for slow and frequent recharges. The robot is the key to his solution. Unlike most electric-car technologies, which generally require you to plug your car into a power source and recharge an onboard battery for hours, the Better Place robot is designed to reach under the chassis of an electric car, pluck its battery out and replace it with a new one, much the same way you’d put new batteries in a child’s toy. Electric cars have long been a fetish object for environmentalists: electricity can be produced from wind, solar or nuclear sources with little or no CO2. But now even the auto industry seems to be taking the idea of the alt-car seriously. When the Big Three filed their restructuring plans earlier this year, all aggressively emphasized their intentions to begin producing electric vehicles and hybrids. Read more in The New York Times here.

Sitting up straight, Glamorously! 2

Are New Yorkers ready for the Dutch bicycle? Some see the World War II-era bike as so retro that it’s become fashion-forward. 200 Dutch-style bicycles are coming to New York as part of the 400th anniversary of the Henry Hudson’s landing in New York City. Not just any Dutch bicycles, orange Dutch bicycles. “Very orange,” as the deputy mayor, Robert C. Lieber, put it at a ceremony introducing the bicycles. They were presented by the Dutch government to the city on Thursday morning on Queen’s Day, essentially the Dutch equivalent of the Fourth of July. The Dutch take their bicycles very seriously — so seriously that they are the only country in the world where there are more bicycles than people in their country, said Frans Timmermans, a Dutch cabinet minister at the ceremony. There are 1.1 bicycles for every person. About 27 percent of the trips are made by bicycle, and it is a standard way to get around their country. And since there are essentially no school buses, children bike to school. Read more in The New York Times.

Making streets safer for seniors

Transportation Alternatives' Safe Routes for Seniors campaign started in 2003 to encourage senior citizens to walk more by improving their pedestrian environment. Funded by the New York State Department of Health's Healthy Heart program, this was the first program of its kind to address the needs of elderly pedestrians. In 2008, the City of New York launched its own Safe Streets for Seniors initiative based on TA's Safe Routes to schools. Focusing on 25 areas with high senior pedestrian fatalities, this program is paving new ground. Yet, some including seniors not in these zones are asking, is it enough? Stats released by Transportation Alternatives show that: People aged 65 years and older make up 12% of the population, yet they comprised 39% of New York City's pedestrian fatalities between 2002 and 2006. The fatality rate of senior pedestrians is 40 times greater than that of child pedestrians in Manhattan. This video is an overview of what Transportation Alternatives, New York State Department of Health, NYC DOT, community groups, and elected officials are doing to promote safe streets for seniors.

Sitting up straight, glamorously!

Cycling sitting up straight while wearing normal clothes, on a city bike with chain guard, fenders, a rack and a dynamo. This way of cycling has been promoted by Velo Mondial many years now. According to the New York Times, it is now becoming a trend. The newspaper quotes the owner of a vintage bicycle shop who says that not car culture, but bike culture is the problem, meaning that “the discourse about city biking is dominated by cycling zealots who don’t have the desire, or the skill, to attract people who don’t see themselves as cyclists, just as people who ride a bike to work”. Marketing bicycles as fashion items may be the way to save cycling from the cycling zealots, the New York Times suggests. Fashion store Club Monaco is selling somewhat dull Gazelle replicas of an 1892 ‘grandma’ bicycle. Incidentally, a similar approach was taken by bicycle mender Joep Salden from Utrecht, who designed a bicycle (pdf) that is only sold in fashion stores and interior design shops. In some bicycle stores, city bikes are now the biggest growth area. Meanwhile, bicycle commuting in New York rose by 35% from 2007 to 2008. Read more in News from Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Going Green, Smart & Fast

Among Amsterdam's 17th century town houses and meandering canals, big changes are afoot. On Utrechtsestraat, a major shopping avenue in the center of the Dutch capital, street trash soon will be collected by nonpolluting electric trucks, while the electronic displays in local bus stops will be powered by small solar panels. Elsewhere, 500 households will pilot an energy-saving system from IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) aimed at cutting electricity costs. An additional 728 homes will have access to financing from Dutch banks ING (ING) and Rabobank to buy everything from energy-saving light bulbs to ultra-efficient roof insulation. The projects, all getting under way over the next few months, represent Amsterdam's initial steps toward making its infrastructure more eco-friendly. The move comes as governments worldwide set aside billions of dollars to create so-called "smart cities," or towns that mix renewable projects, next-generation energy efficiency, and government support to cut overall carbon dioxide footprints. Yet, unlike cities that could take decades to upgrade their infrastructure, Amsterdam aims to complete its first-round investments by 2012. That makes it one of the first and most ambitious adopters of the smart city concept, attracting attention from policymakers worldwide hoping to glean lessons from the green experiment.

Velib Challenges vandalism

Despite the vandalism problems not only a new and more vandalism-proof Vélib bike is now being developed but also that the scheme is expanded with another 300 hire stations and 3,300 bikes. Vélib is currently being rolled outside the city for the first time. Recently the first of 29 suburbs was plugged into the network. Before the end of the year the cycle hire scheme is to be extended to the suburbs surrounding the French capital. Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who championed the original scheme and who lobbied for it to be extended to the suburbs, recently inaugurated the Boulogne network. The expansion of the network is costing Paris city € 8 million. JC Decaux, the advertising group that covers the cost of Velib, picks up the bill for labour and local authorities for roadworks. The fact that Paris city is paying for the Vélib stations and bikes in the suburbs is part of a new deal called “Avenant no. 1” that was negotiated with JCDecaux. According to Vélib’s project manager Mathieu Fierling, it is agreed in the new deal with the outdoor advertising company that the Paris city will pay more for by vandalism damaged bikes. Read more in Bike Europe

BCYCLES

Velib with 20,000 shared bikes in the streets of the most spirited city in the world literally changed the face of Paris - overnight. B-cycle is the American answer. B-cycle is the zero-hassle, zero-emissions way to get around town. It's a bike sharing program that meets the transportation, health, and environmental needs of our communities. One that adapts to any size city, corporation or campus. It's wind in your hair, air in your lungs and bugs in your teeth. It's free and spontaneous but also organized and practical. B-cycle is the only "next"-generation bike-share program. Integrated data tracking will automatically capture information such as your distance traveled, equivalent calories burned and carbon offset after each ride. It will then upload this data to your personal user profile on Bcycle.com. B-cycle is the future of bike sharing, and it's available to your city now. B-cycle is a collaboration between three major players in three industries. • Humana • Trek Bicycle Corporation • Crispin Porter + Bogusky. All three share one common goal: cultural change. B-cycle will change the way you get around. And that will change our communities. So grab a B-cycle from the nearest B-station and we're on our way. Have a look here

Cycling on te Rise

When the Spicycles project was launched in 2006, cycling was not the “hot” mode of transport that it has become today. Spicycles wanted to gather experience related to specific areas of cycling policy and was keen to explore how key elements such as communication and awareness raising, and the building of local partnerships,might increase the modal share of cycling. The big expectations at the beginning of the project regarding cycling planning could not have predicted the explosion in the popularity of public bicycle systems that has taken place during Spicycles. In the course of the project, cycling became increasingly relevant to city policy makers and transport planners, as well as to citizens. As the project comes to an end Spicycles can conclude that huge strides have been made. Spicycles’ results can be read in the report 'Cycling on the Rise' and on the website http://spicycles.velo.info, which also features an innovative inter-active map for cycling planning, a benchmarking tool and a pool of consultants.

New York's Sustainable Street Index 2008

Enhancing transportation choices and encouraging the use of sustainable forms of transportation are core goals of both PlaNYC, New York City’s long-term sustainability plan, and Sustainable Streets, the New York City Department of Transportation’s strategic plan. Achieving these goals means facilitating walking, cycling and mass transit through a set of varied and mutually supportive measures. These include making streets and squares into more people-friendly places; providing fast, reliable and comfortable bus and train service; better managing curbside parking and delivery regulations; and ensuring the safety of all users of city streets and sidewalks. Delivering on these goals requires a comprehensive understanding of how New Yorkers currently use the city’s streets and transportation systems, and current and historic trends in mobility and travel choices. By bringing together data on motor vehicle, transit, bicycle and ferry use, this report shows how travelers are changing the ways they travel in the face of the population and employment growth of recent years and of changes in transportation systems and operations. Have a look at the full report.

Utrecht obtains second clean beer boat

The beerboat navigates through the canals of downtown Utrecht to supply hotels, bars and restaurants with goods. The first boat is such a success, that a second one is required. This second boat will be a special one: completely electric, without any damaging emissions. On Saturday January 31st the building contract was signed at the VOC-museumship in Amsterdam, in the presence of Utrecht Alderman Robert Giesberts. Already in 1966 the City of Utrecht introduced the first beerboat to save the monumental bridges and roads near the canals from heavy freight traffic. Because of the increased demand for waterborne transport, it was decided in 2008 to introduce a second beerboat. This second boat will be the first electrically driven ship of the Netherlands where even the (off-)loading will be done electrically. An electric crane will rack heavy goods, such as barrels of beer, from the ship to the shore and vice versa. The boat will yearly emit 16,5 tons of CO2 less than regular freight traffic would. This is the equivalent of eleven football fields of forest. The electric beerboat is charged with ‘green’ electricity and can navigate for eight to nine hours at a time. Read more about Utrecht's sustainable mobility approach in CIVITAS MIMOSA.

Solid Gold from The Netherlands

Despite the increasing distances covered by the Dutch, the bicycle has retained its popularity. The bicycle is used for more than a quarter of all journeys. In fact for distances up to 7.5 km, the bicycle is the most popular means of transport. In 2007, 34% of all trips up to 7.5 km were made by bicycle. Bicycle use very much depends on the distance covered. As 70% of all journeys in the Netherlands are still shorter than 7.5 km, the strong position of the bicycle over short distances (35%) also extends into the total modality split (27% bicycle). At the same time, it is interesting to note that the bicycle is regularly chosen above 7.5 km: 15% of journeys in the category 7.5-15 km. In the Netherlands, the use of bicycles is not restricted solely to school-going children. The high overall cycling proportion (26%) is far more due to the fact that the bicycle achieves a more or less comparable share in all travel motives – and particularly in the most important motives in terms of scope, such as commuter travel and shopping. Many people do not make absolute choices between using the car or the bicycle over shorter distances. The latest version of Cycling in The Netherands gives you a peek in the Dutch Bicycle Kitchen.

Boost for E-Bikes

The Italian Government is currently examining a proposal by the industry organization ANCMA for a major tax incentive on e-Bikes. Like in all EU countries, the Italians are looking for new means to cut emission rates in their urban areas. In order to stimulate the use of sustainable forms of mobility as alternatives of motor vehicles the Italian Government wants to grant 30% restitution on all e-Bikes. It is generally expected that this incentive will boost the sale of e-Bikes tremendously. When successful it might even be a good example for other national Governments within the European Union as a means to reduce emission rates. The e-Bike meant in the proposal is limited to a “pedal assisted bicycle equipped with an auxiliary electric motor with a maximum power output of 250 Watt whose power is gradually reduced and stopped at 25 km/h or when the cyclist stops cycling.” The 30% restitution is limited up to € 700 of the retail price including VAT. All applicable e-Bikes will be specified by the Ministry of Environment in advance and updated annually. Have a look at some of these YouTube films

Shared space gaining momentum

Both in the Netherlands and abroad increasing numbers of roads are being designed in accordance with the Shared Space philosophy. Recent publications demonstrate that some dozen towns in the Netherlands are using or considering Shared Space. In the rest of Europe the design philosophy is gaining adherents as well. In the Shared Space approach public spaces form the heart of society. They are areas where you stay, where you meet others, where you observe, where you undertake something with or without others, where you relax, where you become familiar and part of the living environment. Public spaces also enable you to look at what people are saying about themselves - in the way in which they present themselves or in the way in which they design and modify their own spaces, their house or their garden. Staying in a public space enables us to remain up to date with the world and the environment in which we live or stay. The layout of the public space tells us what society looks like, who forms part of it, how people deal with each other and what they consider important. It is a window on and a mirror of society. Shared Space views public spaces first and foremost as spaces for people. Read more. & Click here for more pictures in Drachten, The Netherlands. The slide show opens and closes with a few examples of spectacular bike bridges and of bike parking facilities at a random Dutch railway station.

Hot mode of transport

When the Spicycles project was launched in 2006, cycling was not the ‘hot’ mode of transport that it has become today. As project partners, we wanted to gather experience related to specific areas of cycling policy. We were keen to explore how key elements such as communication and awareness raising, and the building of local partnerships, might increase the modal share of cycling. We had big expectations at the beginning of the project regarding cycling planning, but could not have predicted the explosion in the popularity of public bicycle systems that has taken place during Spicycles. In the course of the project, cycling became increasingly relevant to city policy makers and transport planners, as well as to citizens. This interest was heightened by the looming economic crisis: petrol prices rose dramatically, and economic recession became a reality. Public discussion of issues such as those raised in Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” began to change people’s way of thinking, and from being regarded as ‘old-fashioned’, cycling was increasingly perceived as a relevant and contemporary mode of transport. Read more of this article in V1 Magazine.

Amsterdam Best Green Transport Capital of Europe

The Best Green Capital Award for Europe in the category Transport would have been won - hands down - by Amsterdam if there was one. The Jury Report of the Best Green Capital in Europe mentions: 'Amsterdam has a transport situation which is very favourable for bicycles and public transport and restrictive to individual motorized transport in the city, without aiming to restrict overall mobility. In the city of Amsterdam bicycles are the most commonly used means of transport. In addition, the city has a public transport fleet which is 100% low emissions. Successful measures to enhance cycling further and reduce car traffic to city, starting from already high level have been introduced in recent years. A very wide range of transport measures are planned or currently being implemented, including further expansions of bicycle and public transport networks, road charging experiments anticipating the national scheme, more park and ride facilities, further parking restrictions, priorities for parking to car sharing organisations, environmental zones, incentives to scrap polluting cars, stimuli to use electric cars, electric support for pleasure craft use, and more. Also freight transport and waste transport are considered. Overall Amsterdam has an impressive transport policy legacy and promising outlooks.' Read the full jury report here.

Berlins expansion on bike network & bike parking

The city of Berlin explored the framework conditions for the planning of a Second Level Bicycle Route Network for the borough of Pankow. It also assessed parking needs for bicycle. The outcome are guidelines for a network and parking facilities ready for the implementation and widely accepted by retailers, housing societies, private companies and of course inhabitants in the respective area. The implementation (i.e. the actual building and creation) will take place when the necessary finances will have been acquired. The “Bike Network Planning Guide” serves two purposes: first, it proposes a local network of cycle routes for the city district Pankow and secondly, as a pilot, represents a systematic planning aid for other Districts and European cities. For an increase in cycling attractive and secure parking facilities at the start and destination of a journey are fundamental. The “Bike Parking Guide” therefore describes not only the legal requirements on bicycle parking facilities but names the conditions of a good bicycle parking rack and lists contacts to enterprises producing them. Download these guidelines (in English) here: Guide Bike Network Planning Berlin & Guide Bike Parking Berlin

Need for bicycle planning in Gulf increases

Al Ain Police have warned bicyclists to stay away from the main streets and follow the safety regulations in the city. The warning was issued yesterday due to the rising number of accidents involving bicyclists. The traffic police have recently noticed an increase in accidents involving bicycles from different nook and corners of the Oasis city. "We have been taking measures to control it," said a senior police officer at Al Ain Traffic Police Department. Bicycle is an efficient and cheap mode of transport which is popular among expatriates who use it to cover short distances. They are, however, not allowed to come on the high speed roads as it posses threats to their lives and those of others. Majority of the bicyclists, said the officer, is disobeying the safety regulations and peddle along the high speed traffic on main roads. "This is dangerous and not acceptable and we'll take strict action against such bicyclists," he warned. Read more here.

Amsterdam: more cycle than car trips

The bicycle is the most used transportation means in inner Amsterdam. In the period 2005-2007, citizens of Amsterdam took on average 0.87 trips per day with the bicycle and 0.84 trips by car. The bicycle is now, for the first time, being used more than the car. In 2006, all citizens of Amsterdam made jointly about 2 million trips per day. This is 8% less than in 1990. The reduction is lower because the number of trips per person per day is gone down from 3.6 to 3.1. Especially within the so-called inner (old) city the number of trips takes off. The number of car trips is has dropped by -14% in all city areas, whereas the cycling trips only has risen within the inner city (+36%). In the center, the bicycle becomes used mostly (41% against on average 28%) and the car the least (18% against on average 28%). The restrictive parking policy that has been led since the years '90 clearly has its effects.

New York City Wins the Sustainable Transport Award 2009

New York beat the likes of Beijing, Istanbul, Mexico City, Milan to win the 2009 Sustainable Transport Award. The Award was awarded on January 13, 2009 by a jury composed of ITDP, Embarq, CAI-Asia, GTZ, UNCRD, UITP, ICLEI and Environmental Defense.Throughout 2008, the city continued to implement PlaNYC 2030, its comprehensive long-term sustainability vision. The city took 49 acres of road space, traffic lanes and parking spots away from cars and gave that space back to the public for bike lanes, pedestrian areas, and public plazas. Protected on street bike lanes were part of the 140 miles (255 kilometers) of bike lanes implemented. Bike ridership has increased by 35 percent over the past year. Over 98,000 trees were planted, a select bus service was implemented, car free Sundays introduced. As part of its standard operations, the city’s Department of Transport also recycles 40 percent of its asphalt. Although not successful, the city pushed for congestion charging, a first for US city and now other cities are considering it. Read more about this all.

Walking and Cycling in England

"The fact is, however, that the people who most need to walk and cycle are the least likely to do so. People from the lowest socio-economic groups have the highest inactivity levels. Yet despite the fact that walking and cycling are the cheapest and most accessible form of exercise known to humankind, physical and mental barriers, such as the mis perception that it can be ‘unsafe’ or time consuming, prevents people living in the most deprived areas from traveling actively in their own neighborhoods. The Travel Actively projects are set up so that people living in some of the most deprived areas benefit from the expert-designed program. We deliver projects underpinned by a simple and pragmatic goal; to demonstrate that, from the bus stop stroll to the three mile circuit, walking and cycling is as flexible and unique as the person doing it and it can be incorporated into people’s daily lives". says Tom Franklin, CEO of the Ramblers’ Association in Travel Actively. Much more you can read in a report from Active Travel Consortium that addresses health and wellbeing through regular walking and cycling across England.

Spicycles Final Report Planning for Cycling

The Final Report on Planning for Cycling has been drawn up collecting information from all the partner cities in regards to the urban context, to the structure of the town and the characteristics of the transport system in particular regarding cycling subsystem. The high variability of the different contexts has been the greatest difficulty since they can be very small such for example Ploiesti but also very large like Rome and Berlin. Another problematic, finding good homogeneous reports in order to plan cycling inside the cities, is linked to the different sustainable politics on transportation among the several partners.The analysis of detailed activities implemented by the partners, showed that the different characteristics of the urban context influenced the resulted actions. In fact big towns such as Berlin and Rome focused planned the use of bicycles in relation with public transport, with the approach of developing the planning of journeys either using the cycles from origin towards interchange nodes or using public transport from interchange nodes until the final destination. Differently from cities above, smaller cities like Ploiesti developed the planning of bicycle use (and infrastructures related to) from the origin until the final destination. Read the full report with results here.

Spicycles Final Report on Bike Sharing

Bike sharing systems in urban areas usually differ from traditional bicycle rental services since they are rather offers for daily mobility than leisure oriented systems. In contrast to those conventional renting schemes, bike sharing systems can be used one-way for either monomodal or intermodal trips. As a flexible mobility option they can be considered as an additional part of public transport systems. A long list of possible benefits makes bike sharing attractive for municipal
organisations as well as for businesses. First of all, the increasing price of natural resources especially for oil necessitates thinking about sustainability, efficient use of resources and development of new innovative solutions. Furthermore, the increasing urbanisation brings the necessity to think about alternative transport concepts. Growing density of the population in cities intensifies the problem of insufficient infrastructures. Those infrastructures can only be enlarged to a certain level. Thus, new ways and concepts for an efficient use of the existing infrastructures have to be found. Bike sharing also offers an economic effect for cities and individuals. bike sharing can be seen as an environmentally friendly service to support the modernity and individuality of a city. A further long term effect is the overall increase of awareness for cycling and sustainable transport modes. More of this in the Final Report that you can read here.

Spicycles Final Report on Local Partnerships

Partnership-building has clearly formed an important element of the implementation of the
measures realised during the project. The key findings are quite varied, reflecting the specific context of each city’s actions. Nevertheless, it is possible to define a “win-win” scenario: Making cycling visible by practical actions helps to develop the stakeholder platform. The SPICYCLES experience suggests that this is better done in a step-by-step manner than in trying to develop an all-encompassing Master Plan in one go. As the partnership-building progresses, the ambition and the level of integration can be increased. Once the platform is functioning for key actions such as infrastructures planning and communication, then the Master Plan can help to improve the level of integration of the specific actions. There is evidence to suggest that cities with an active stakeholder framework are able to achieve a more intensive implementation of actions. Hence, it is recommended that partnership-building form a key element of any city’s cycling action plan – whatever stage of development the city finds itself with regard to cycling promotion. Read more in their comprehensive final report here.

Final Report Communication & Awareness

The share of cycling in the world is increasing. Spicycles is one of the Intelligent Energy Europe STEER projects that aim to demonstrate that the share of cycling can be increased even more. Colleague projects in Europe's STEER are Bypad and Astute; many other projects work parallel to strengthen the efforts. Actions in Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, Göteborg, Ploiesti and Rome focus on bicycle communication through different marketing campaigns and improved cycling information. The overall goal is to encourage the use of cycling which will raise peoples' awareness, create a change in travel behavior and raise the status of the bicycle to become an attractive mode of transport. At the same time, other beneficial aspects, such as health, environment and safety are being highlighted. In order to encourage the use of cycling, activities such as marketing campaigns and improved cycling information have been carried out for all of the cities. However, the activities carried out and how they are carried out differ for each city as the prerequisites for working with cycling are very different. Here you will find the final report of the Communication and Awareness group.

Velo Mondial: The premier global sustainable mobility and cycling network

Velo Mondial has been promoting cycling as a positive mode of transport in the last 10 years. In various projects that we have been reporting about at our site and blog, we have been active in bringing cycling at the position where it is now: one of strong and positive opportunities for a world looking for sustainability. We will continue with organizing the most relevant global conferences on sustainable mobility and cycling as we have done in the past. We will cooperate with Europe based cycling conferences like Velo-City and the American conferences, and primarily we will continue to work with local governments and with knowledge based oriented organizations. In the future we will focus on sustainable mobility, with cycling as one of its prime opportunities. We will bring with us, all our experiences that we gathered in past projects. Now we will be working on: CIVITAS PLUS MIMOSA: Making Innovation in Mobilityand Sustainable Actions; in Gdansk, Talinn, Funchal, Bologna and Utrecht; Promoting a safer position for vulnerable road users in Brazil and India with a number of international partners.Amsterdam Cycling to Sustainability with a focus on knowledge and with ambitions to set up the Amsterdam International Academy for Sustainable Mobility. Hudson 400 with a global Conference in Amsterdam on Sustainable Mobility and with a Design Battle in New York. We will focus on systematically gathering information on sustainable mobility and make it available in innovative ways, as soon as it becomes available on our various websites.

Velo.Info awards

During the final conference of Spiycles in Bucharest on 19 December 2008 the cities or Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, Gothenburg, Ploiesti and Rome got their awards handed to them in the closing ceremony. All cities had filled in the Velo.Info questionnaire. Many more cities are asked to fill in the short questionnaire to get awarded bronze, silver, gold or platinum for their cycling policy. The 19 multiple choice questions will take a well informed civil servant maybe 10 minutes in return for which:

• They will receive a Velo.Info Status Award in Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum for their cycling policy.
• The award will be publicized on the Spicycles Interactive Map on Cycling Planning

See the awards here

Bicycle Lift in Trampe

Hilly cities normally have a low share of cycling. How come that Trondheim, the third largest city of Norway, has the highest share of cycling compared to all the other Norwegian cities? We believe there are there reasons:Trondheim is a university city with 30 000 students, 90 % of whom using their bicycles as their main transport tool. During the last 20 years, there has been invested more than 2.5 million Euro in a bicycle roads network and bicycle transport infrastructure in Trondheim. One of the most important infrastructure elements is the bicycle lift Trampe. Since the opening in 1993, it's pushed more than 220 000 cyclist up the very steep hill BBrubakken in the historical heritage part of the city center. There is no doubt that Trampe has inspired students as well as other people living in Trondheim to take to their bicycles. In a user survey, 41 % of the lift users claim they're using the bicycle more often due to the installation of Trampe.

Bike Dispencer

The Bike Dispenser is a fully automated, space-saving storage and dispensary system for bicycles. It was developed to increase ease-of-accessibility to those business areas lying within three kilometers of commonly used public transportation junctions. And although the initial target-users for the Bike Dispenser are indeed commuters, its ease-of-use, simplicity, adaptability and cost-effectiveness make it applicable to a multitude of purposes like parking-facilities, metro stations, shopping centers etc. The Bike Dispenser is the most compact storage system for bicycles in the world, with specially designed bicycles positioned a mere 17 cm apart from each other. This makes the cost for the system an amazing 70% lower than other known automated bicycle storage systems.The Bike Dispenser capitalizes on the idea of the bicycle as the missing, final link in the commuter’s mobility chain. Furthermore, since the bicycles are stored inside, the risk of theft, vandalism and wear of the bicycles is reduced considerably.

Cycling Cities = Sustainable Cities

Throughout Europe, increased traffic in town and city centers has resulted in chronic congestion, with the many adverse consequences that this entails in terms of delays and pollution. Air and noise pollution is getting worse year by year. Urban traffic is responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions and 70% of emissions of other pollutants arising from road transport.
Cities can benefit greatly from cycling. However, the number of road traffic accidents in towns and cities is also growing each year: one in three fatal accidents now happen in urban areas, and it is the most vulnerable people, namely pedestrians and cyclists, who are the main victims. By integrating cycling planning in their urban mobility policies, local authorities guarantee the improvement of the attractiveness and safety of their cities. Spicycles has addressed main stream elements of cycling policy that can help cities to improve, also in East European countries. Spicycles made this overview in Polish, Czech, Rumanian and Hungarian.

One of those days in Amsterdam

During evening rush hour Amsterdammers daily cycle 250,000 kilometers / 155,000 miles !
This should be easily challenged. Amsterdam only has 750,000 inhabitants of whom 80,000 can be found on their bikes during evening rush hour. On an average they bike 3 kilometers from work to home.
Which city takes up this challenge?

Mark Bakker of Super 208 made a longer version of which this is a clip.

Free use of bikes for commuters in Amsterdam

In a pilot, commuters will be offered free use of an OV-fiets (public transport bicycle) to travel to Amsterdam Zuid railway station. The aim of the pilot is to see whether the bicycles can be used more efficiently. The pilot's target group are commuters from Amsterdam who work at least 32 hours per week and who travel to work by train from Amsterdam Zuid. If they use an OV-fiets instead of their own bicycle, they will no longer have to bother about finding a place to park the bicycle and about bicycle maintenance. During the day, the same bicycles will be rented out to commuters who arrive at Amsterdam Zuid and work in the city. This way, the OV-fietsen will be used more intensively and fewer parking spaces for bicycles will be needed at the station. Participants in the pilot will take the bicycle home at night and get to use the bicycle during the weekend as well. The pilot starts on 25 November. Those who are interested in participating can request information through info@ov-fiets.nl . OV-fietsen are normally rented out to subscribers from stations and a few other locations for 2.85 euro per 20 hours.

ASTUTE Final Conference

Spicycles sister project ASTUTE also organizes its final conference. In London, 5 December 2008.

Amsterdam Sustainable City

Amsterdams new climate from Bosch Film on Vimeo.

Final Conference for Spicycles in Bucharest

Check the program and book these dates 18-19 December 2008 - now!

Pedaling Transportation Alternatives

Summer Streets took place in New York for three consecutive Saturdays in August 2008 from 7:00 am - 1:00 pm. The route connected the Brooklyn Bridge with Central Park and there were recommended connections to the Hudson River Greenway, allowing participants to plan a route as long or short as they wish. This event took a valuable public space - New York's City's streets - and opened them up to people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. Paul White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives evaluates the summer of 2008 in an interview in The New York Observer, as the ‘Summer of Car-Free Streets,’. He states that in a few years from now we might look back at this summer as the summer when car-free streets hit the big time and people woke up to the enormous latent demand for car-free living and walking. In this interview Paul also touches on many issues like bicycle safety, parking issues, transit and elections. Paul cites street design as the biggest impediment to safe cycling.

Copenhagen creates a network 'OF' cyclists

MIT researchers unveiled a major new project on Oct. 10 in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use in Denmark's largest city, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city's cyclists. The project, called SmartBiking, will utilize a novel self-organizing smart-tag system that will allow the city's residents to exchange basic information and share their relative positioning with each other. The project will be implemented citywide in time for the November 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference, which Copenhagen will host. They have developed a Facebook application called 'I crossed your path,' which creates a social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections. The smart tags will also allow individuals to monitor the distance they travel while cycling as part of a citywide "green mileage" initiative, which is similar to a frequent-flyer program. Ultimately, fine-grained monitoring of urban activities could allow cities such as Copenhagen to enter carbon-trading schemes.

Air Quality Management Course

The Stockholm Environment Institute has launched a new Foundation Course on Air Quality Management in Asia, which is NOW available on-line. The course is focusing on Asia but it contains a host of good information for anybody. It is for learners studying the issue without the support of a classroom teacher and is aimed at individuals with some basic knowledge of the environment and air pollution issues. The course consists of six modules covering the key components of air quality management together on-line resources. An international team of air pollution specialists has developed the course with funding from the EU and additional support from a number of other organizations. One of the topics topic is on traffic emissions: The steady growth in road traffic has resulted in the increasing contribution from traffic to urban air pollution, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO, NOx and PM. Uncontrolled motor vehicles, particularly those with diesel and twostroke engines are the most important sources of air pollution in most urban areas in Asia. Asia has the largest motorcycle fleet in the world.

Pre-occupied with gold

Velo Mondial has always emphasized the relevance of glamor for cycling and now the industry has followed suit. As of 7 September, the world will never be quite the same again. That is when the Scandinavian design company AURUMANIA will be launching the world’s most lavish and expensive bike. But it will only be a tiny, exclusive group of people who can become the proud owners of these gold bikes, which each bear a price tag of € 80,000. That’s because only 10 will ever be made, all numbered. Each bike is hand-built, and then plated with 24-carat gold and generously adorned with more than 600 fine Swarovski crystals. The handlebar grips are made of hand-sewn, chocolate-brown leather, and a moulded Brooks leather saddle provides exactly the right nostalgic touch. Lock it well before you park it.

Cycling Scotland's State of the Art approach

The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) will be developed over the coming year, with the goal of getting more people to cycle more often. The Plan will seek to draw together the efforts of all agencies delivering cycling in Scotland, to form a more effective and unified force for change. The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) promises to be one of the most exciting developments in cycling in Scotland in decades, as it seeks to draw together all organisations with a stake in cycling to deliver real and lasting change based on the needs of the public. Stakeholders will get their chance to develop CAPS further when the views of the public will be considered at a Stakeholder Engagement Conference on Tuesday 7th October at Perth Concert Hall. Click here for more information and to register. The extensive quantitative and qualitative research, online survey and Public Roadshow feedback will be taken direct to stakeholders to decide on the future of cycling in Scotland. The conference will focus on giving stakeholders the chance to shape the action plan in key areas identified by the public and will be free to attend. Following the consultation events, it is anticipated that the information and input will be shaped into a Consultative Draft Action Plan to be published in early December 2008. This will give everyone a second opportunity to provide feedback. The Final Cycling Action Plan for Scotland will be published in may 2009.

Getting Australia Moving

Cycling in Australia is on the increase! Over 1.68 million adults cycled in 2006; an increase of 244,000 from 2001. Australian capital cities have also experienced an average 22% increase in bicycle journeys to work, with Melbourne’s growth rate soaring 42% between 2001 and 2006.As Australians continue to lead increasingly busy lifestyles, cycling is in a unique position for its ability to combine physical activity, recreation and transport. This provides an important health benefit for a population failing to meet minimum physical activity requirements. Cycling is also a carbon neutral, petrol free form of transport, simultaneously helping Australians fight climate change and reduce fuel costs. For peak hour journeys in particular, the bicycle can reduce congestion and increase the efficiency of the transport system. For Australia to fully capitalise on the benefits of cycling, a whole-ofgovernment approach is required, with commitment from the health, transport, environment, education and planning portfolios. Only through a combined approach can the benefits of cycling be fully realised.

Design manual for bicycle traffic

'Design Manual for Bicyle traffic' is latest version of ‘Sign up for the bike’, the standard manual for those who design for bicycle traffic.

A bicycle-friendly infrastructure is one that allows direct and comfortable cycling in a safe and attractive traffic environment. Only then is it possible to create an alternative to the car. High quality bicycle infrastructures lead to a larger share of bicycles in the modal split. This design manual describes the steps required to achieve such an infrastructure from the policy plan to promote cycling to the physical implementation of a bicycle-friendly infrastructure. Bicycle infrastructure comprises all the technical provisions intended for cyclists.

A recurrent theme runs throughout the design manual as an assignment for the designer: immerse yourself in the idea that the cyclist is the future user of the design; give form to the objectives; balance functionality, form and use. This is a creative challenge demanding more than just the use of templates; the process compels the designer to consider and formulate the consequences of choices in his design. Also read: Cycling in The Netherlands (go to 'bestand')

Tokyo Great Cycling Tour

One of the nicest ways of discovering Toyo is to participate in the Tokyo Great Cycling Tour. Is this your first trip to Tokyo? Or are you a Tokyo repeater? In either case, if you are looking for something different, this is the one! Tokyo Great Cycling Tour is a guided tour, open to all foreign visitors to ride through - on a BICYCLE - the major tourist spots in Tokyo. Even if you have visited those places before, riding a bicycle will make the trip very special. Tokyo Great Cycling Tour promises you a wonderful day in Tokyo. Velo Mondial participated - sponsored by Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd. - in this wonderful tour and is happy to share the photo album.

Amsterdam’s first cycled fashion show!

YDU - Young Designers United will participate at the Downtown programme of the Amsterdam International Fashion Week with a special project: Amsterdam’s first cycled fashion show!
“We notice very often that our Dutch customers are looking for pieces which are not only beautiful, wearable from day to night, occasionally sexy and unique, but they should also be handy for cycling”, says Angelika Groenendijk, founder of YDU. “With Amsterdam’s first cycled fashion show we want to make a statement: Biking doesn’t necessarily mean plastic rain ponchos and rubber boots – it can be stylish and practical at the same time. YDU will present an ‘amsterdamized’ collection for women who are biking to different destinations: For the ‘ lady on her way to a first date’ or the ‘party night’, the ‘opera visit’, the ‘shopping with the girls’ experience and many more.”Amsterdam’s first cycled fashion show will bike through the city along various spots.

Cities Adapting to Sustainable Mobility.

Speeches in Portland, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Daejeon and Cork; June/July 2008.
Cities are changing fast and a few arguments show that: Car sales have dropped in Europe with 8 % in the last month; Car industry disassociates with SUV; Car companies focus on electric cars; Petrol price has passed $4 per gallon in USA; $11 in Europe; Congestion on the rise, infrastructure overheated; Public Bike systems in over 140 cities now ; Waiting list for bikes in New York; Overbooked trains in the USA; Price of donkeys in Turkey on the rise. Local arguments become more compelling: obesity, diabetis, noise, asthma, sleep disorders; Global arguments are felt: climate change, air polution, CO2 emission,
Economic arguments for change emerge like Emission Rights trade; New ways of energy generation: solar/wind/tidal/sweet & salt waterBuilding permits; Floods / nature disasters; Cradle to Cradle; ‘Dump the pump’ behaviour all over the world ; New modes of transport are out there.
Better understand Sustainable Mobility as a political choice for a level of long term balance between: emission rich modes, emission poor modes and emission free modes; at the same time aiming at a mix of mobility modes in economic terms, environmental terms and terms of social justice. See the IAMSTERDAM / AC2S power point presentation.

Happy Birthday Velib!

On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world's largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike share programs. The program celebrates its first anniversary. And, throughout the year cities across the globe have kept a close eye on the progress of this environmentally-friendly public transportation mode. Overall, bike-share programs have proven to increase public transportation options at a relatively low cost to the city. In Paris, Vélib has saved the city 10 million km in car trips, roughly equal to $10 million in savings. With 200,000 Parisians paying the city $50 each for an annual Velib pass, this has yielded an additional $10 million in revenues. Beyond economics, Paris has seen tremendous traffic calming and air quality benefits from this public bicycle system. Transportation Alternatives' Caroline Samponaro visited Vélib. Check out this video to get a picture of it yourself.

Electric Hire Cars Become Competition for Velib

The French capital will get 4,000 electric hire cars to expand on the successful bike pick up scheme. Not everybody is happy with this new transport system. Environmentalists have offered the plans a lukewarm greeting, claiming the scheme could undermine the popularity of Vélib bicycles in Paris and add to congestion. Read more in Bike Europe. The key issues of sustainable mobility are: energy, environment and safety. Therefore developing clean, efficient and intelligent vehicles, including battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles is necessary. The two major environmental risks affecting sustainability in the production of electricity using fossil fuels are green house effect and acid rain. The basic requirement of power electronic for electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles are: high energy density, high power density, high efficiency over wide speed and torque range, frequent start stop, continuous dynamic, capable working under severe ambient temperature and vibration environment, compatible EMI-EMC, high reliability, high endurance, and reasonable cost.

Making Cycling Irresistible

Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
This article shows how the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have made bicycling a safe, convenient and practical way to get around their cities. The analysis relies on national aggregate data as well as case studies of large and small cities in each country. The key to achieving high levels of cycling appears to be the provision of separate cycling facilities along heavily travelled roads and at intersections, combined with traffic calming of most residential neighbourhoods. Extensive cycling rights of way in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany are complemented by ample bike parking, full integration with public transport, comprehensive traffic education and training of both cyclists and motorists, and a wide range of promotional events intended to generate enthusiasm and wide public support for cycling.

Cycling in the Netherlands outside Amsterdam

More people cycle than drive in the Netherlands. This hasn't happened by accident, and it isn't due solely to the country being relatively flat. Rather, the Dutch have for many years had a policy of increasing the importance of cycling as a proportion of journeys. The cycle friendly infrastructure which you find in this country has been redesigned time and time again until it has reached the current form. This is a very safe place to cycle, but also a very convenient place to cycle. Cyclists have priority over motorised vehicles, can often make much more direct journeys and quite frequently have smoother surfaces on which to travel. The country is covered by good design and it is as suitable for long journeys at high speeds as for short trips to the shops or to schools.
Judy and David Hembrow are experienced English cyclists who moved to the Netherlands in 2007. This is some of their report. And some of their clips on cycling in The Netherlands.

Bicycle Flat

People always ask us about pictures of the Bicycle Flat. The 100 metre long bicycle flat at the Central Station was built to temporarily store thousands of bikes during the period that old bicycle-stands had to be removed during the large renovation of the surroundings at Central Station. The building was built over water to maximise land-use (or in this case: water-use). It consists out of three slightly sloping parking decks. There is a small surveillance facility in the centre of this quayside structure. The bicycle flat was supposed to be closed and removed in 2004. In 2008 it still exists and looking at the figures it may just have to stay. In 2008 The Netherlands lack 65,000 bicycle parking spaces at railway stations. The number of commuters is increasing, bringing the shortage of parking spaces to 90,000 by 2010.

Less ................

Amsterdam, the world’s number one cycling city with some 60% of all trips in the city centre made by bicycle, wants to turn into the world’s centre of expertise on sustainable mobility.
A program to reach that goal was launched on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

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