Bikeshare safer than riding personal bikes

Anyone who’s ever ridden a bikeshare bike can tell you: they are hardy, aluminum tanks on two wheels. But does that translate to an inherently safer experience on the street, especially when many casual riders are likely unfamiliar with a city’s bike infrastructure? A recent study from the Mineta Transportation Institute determined that yes, bikeshare systems in major metropolitan areas have low rates of collisions, and are in fact safer than riding a personal bike. The report, “Bikesharing and Bicycle Safety,” examined at data from three active bikeshare systems: Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., Nice Ride in Minneapolis/ St. Paul, and Bay Area Bike Share in the San Francisco Bay Area. Researchers also met with focus groups of bikeshare riders and non-members in San Francisco and San Jose to determine riders’ habits and perceptions, sought insight from road-safety experts, and analyzed crash data from the various operators and state transportation agencies in the three metropolitan areas. Read more here

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Salt Lake city street removes parking, adds bike lanes and sales go up

Protected bike lanes require space on the street, and removing curbside auto parking is one of several ways to find it. But whenever cities propose parking removal, retailers understandably worry. A growing body of evidence suggests that if bike lanes and parking removal are part of a general plan to slow traffic, everybody can win. In an in-house study of its new protected bike lane, Salt Lake City found that when parking removal was done as part of a wide-ranging investment in the streetscape — including street planters, better crosswalks, public art and colored pavement — it converted parking spaces to high-quality bike lanes and boosted business at the same time. On 300 South, a street that's also known as Broadway, SLC converted six blocks of diagonal parking to parallel parking and also shifted parallel parking away from the curb on three blocks to create nine blocks of curb-and-parking-protected bike lanes on its historic downtown business corridor.It added up to a major road diet on part of the street (from five general travel lanes to three) and much less auto parking on another part (a 30 percent cut total). Read more here.

Bike Share System organisation in UK

Bikeplus is a new representative body for the UK’s bike share schemes. Sixteen towns and cities have bike share schemes, with at least another four in development. Over 10 million trips were made by shared bikes in the UK in 2015. Bikeplus roles can be summarised into three key functions: Collect data to provide evidence of for the benefits of bike share schemes. Collecting and sharing information on: statistics on bike shares status in UK, good practice for setting up successful schemes, developments overseas, Development of pioneering projects to ensure the social and environmental benefits are maximised and evenly spread. A selection of fact sheets and research from the European Cyclists’ Federation, the Obis Project, the University of West England, and Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (US). Contributions to this resource archive are welcome, please email info@bikeplus.org.uk European Cyclists’ Federation fact sheet. Go to their webpage.