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VeloCittà aims to provides inspiration and build capacity in local authorities and BSS stakeholders. We work with stakeholders that are engaged with the design and implementation of effective and resource-efficient solutions.  This has resulted in a boost in the uptake of BSS’s and set in motion a beneficial snowball effect on urban cycling as a whole. The project ended in February 2017 but will see its results continued in the ‘Platform for Cities on Bike Share ’ and the ‘Bike Share Workspace’.

New OV-Fiets in The Netherlands

The OV-fiets is a convenient rental bicycle to use for the last leg of your journey, for example to visit friends and family, go to the museum or attend a business lunch. What you need to know about the OV-fiets When you arrive at the station on the train, you can quickly rent an OV-fiets to cycle to your appointment. There are more than 250 rental locations: at many stations, at bus or tram stops, in several city centres and at P+R car parks. The OV-fiets gives you the freedom to choose where to go, when to depart and what route to take. So transfer to the OV-fiets too! The OV-fiets is a quick and healthy way to reach your final destination. You can rent an OV-fiets for 24 hours using your OV-fietsabonnement for just € 3,15 (from 1 January € 3,35) per ride from more than 250 locations at many train stations, bus and metro stops, a few city centres and at P+R car parks. The bicycles are stored in both supervised and unsupervised storage areas, or in self-service bicycle lockers or carrousels. This way you always have access to a bicycle, and can continue your journey. Read on here

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The Hague Cycling Plan; state of the art in cycling planning

The previous programme expired in 2014 and will continue into this Bike 2015-2018. The starting point for this new multi-annual Bicycle is the Coalition Agreement 2014-2018: “Trusting in The Hague's Strength”. Under the heading “More room for the bicycle”, the following is stated: "Safe, recognisable and comfortable cycling facilities are the basis for further growth in bicycle use. There is an ambitious programme for the expansion and improvement of bicycle facilities, a number of star routes will be expanded this period, we will continue with the asphalting of bicycle paths and create more (free) parking facilities at stations in the centre and at the beach. Abandoned bicycles are addressed throughout the city and we are expanding the number of neighbourhood bike parking facilities and routes in areas such as the Stationsbuurt and Schilderswijk." These ambitions along with the focal points for the bicycle policy of The Hague Mobility Policy and the continuation of the bicycle policy of recent years are detailed in this new Cycling Programme 2015-2018. 

Sharing schemes within the CIVITAS DYN@MO project

Sharing a vehicle, whether it’s a car or a bicycle, has many advantages such as saving money for the individual and improving the environment due to fewer vehicles on the road. In addition, it paves the way for multi-modal use of transport systems since the vehicle-sharing concept excels at high flexibility due to the independency of timetables and predetermined routes. Automated sharing systems can reliably be in operation year-round, day and night. Furthermore, the user freely chooses the fastest route to his destination not being bound to bus or train lines. In other words, a vehicle-sharing system adds customer value to the whole transport chain. The DYN@MO cities of Aachen, Gdynia, Koprivnica and Palma have been strongly committed – each city in its own way and own scale – to introducing and extending the usage of sharing schemes, with traditional bicycles, electric bicycles as well as with electric and hybrid cars. This brochure describes the partner cities’ practical experiences of their establishment of sharing schemes within the CIVITAS DYN@MO project. Read more here.

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.

London could soon have more cyclists than motoristen on its streets

Londoners are aking to bicycles in record numbers. The number of commuters taking to bicycle in the city have tripled since 2000, while commuting by car has been cut in half. Since the turn of the century, London has seen the number of commuters traveling by bike triple from 12,000 daily commuters to 36,000. Jason Sayer of The Architect’s Newspaper reports that despite the growth, London still lags behind other European cities, including Madrid and Oslo, which have moved to limit automobile access to their city centers. However, as ridership grows better infrastructure is being built to meet demands for safety and access. Britain now boasts over two million weekly cyclists—an all-time high, according to British Cycling, a governing body in the UK. Sales of U.K. manufactured bikes subsequently grew 69 percent in 2014 and the effect of this is most evidently seen in the capital. “You can probably trace it back to the bombing attacks in London in 2005,” points out Simon Mottram, founder of cycling clothing firm Rapha, in a BBC report. “Not to forget the government’s Cycle To Work scheme [introduced back in 1999 and which allows people to buy a bike tax-free]. Read more here.

The transformation of Tel Aviv: how cycling got cool in Israel’s hippest city

When four Israeli cyclists suggested to the Tel Aviv city council in 1994 that it might be a clever idea to promote the bicycle as a new mode of transport, they were met with laughter. “They were told that cycling was something for third world nations,” says Yotam Avizohar, director of the Israel Bicycle Association. “The council official said: ‘Tel Aviv is a modern city. We only promote sophisticated transport solutions. Very soon we will have a light rail system.’” Undeterred, the cyclists gave it another try and approached a council official who they knew to be a cyclist himself. “This time, they were told that cycling was something for European countries. The man said: ‘Israel is a Middle-Eastern country and Israelis are addicted to their cars or to their camels.’ He didn’t see how it could ever be changed.” More than 20 years later, the realisation of the Tel Aviv light rail system is still a very long way off. But cycling has definitely become the new mode of transport in the city. Everywhere you go in Tel Aviv, you see people on bikes, and most of them aren’t wearing any special gear. In Israel’s hippest city, cycling is the hippest way to get around. Read more here.

The Bike-Share Boom

www.citylab.com/city-makers-connections/bike-share/

Halifax bike share system: extending the “reach” of pedestrians

This document gives insight how to approach a bike share project as a city. Some elements: Multiple operating structures exist, such as: Non-profit, Privately owned and operated, direct contract with operator, transit owned and operated, administrative non-profit with private operator. For the purposes of this pre-feasibility analysis, a non-profit operating structure was chosen due to the frequency at which it has been used for other bike share systems throughout North America. A non-profit would be formed to manage and operate the bike share system. The organization would be responsible for procuring funding, equipment, defining system guidelines, launching the system, and providing expertise for operations.There are a number of general start-up costs. Capital and installation costs associated with the creation of a bicycle share system include equipment purchases, site planning, installation and deployment costs. Annual operating costs after system launch are also included. These costs include salaries, equipment maintenance and replacement, rebalancing equipment, system software upkeep. Read on here.

The Bike-Share Planning Guide from ITDP

Bike-share has taken many forms over the course of its development, from free bikes left for a community to use at will to more technologically advanced and secure systems. In every iteration, the essence of bike-share remains simple: anyone can pick up a bike in one place and return it to another, making point-to-point, human- powered transportation feasible. Today, more than 600 cities around the globe have their own bike-share systems, and more programs are starting every year. The largest systems are in China, in cities such as Hangzhou and Shanghai. In Paris, London, and Washington, D.C., highly successful systems have helped to promote cycling as a viable and valued transport option.  Each city has made bike-share its own, adapting it to the local context, including the city’s density, topography, weather, infrastructure, and culture. Although other cities’ examples can serve as useful guides, there is no single model of bike-share. Read more here. 

Washington cycles

Smooth bike ride into 's-Hertogenbosch NL

How Cities Can Harness the Benefits of Shared Mobility

Sharon Feigon is the executive director of the Shared-Use Mobility Center, a national public interest organization working to foster collaboration in shared mobility and extend its benefits for all. Communities both large and small have begun to use shared mobility combined with transit as an effective tool to cut auto congestion and emissions, provide first and last-mile connections, and expand access to jobs and a better quality of life for their residents. As these new services proliferate, however, city governments have also found themselves playing catch-up as they try to manage their growth and balance varied goals such as preserving safety, ensuring equitable service and allocating parking and use of curb space. To address these issues, the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) recently convened a unique cross-section of public sector transportation leaders, private sector innovators and community representatives in Chicago for the 2015 national shared mobility summit Move Together. The summit’s 500 attendees included mayors, transit agency officials and department of transportation executives from across the USA. Read more here.

Brompton Bike Share in London

Bike Sharing System in Seoul; 20.000 in 2020

After the big announcement about a new, city-wide public bicycle sharing system last year, we have seen very little about the news about the system. Now stations for the public bike sharing system were set up and it is going to be run a trial from September 19 to October 14. The official opening of the service to the public is October 15. Thanks to Philip for the tip about the sudden appearance of stations! He posted pictures about the new system in the Kojects Forum and gave me many helpful information. It made me curious and so I begun to work on this post and visited Sinchon to get a sneak peek at the new public bike sharing system in Seoul.The city published in August a 585-page master plan about the bicycle infrastructure. I knew that the bicycle department of Seoul was very busy but 585 pages, wow! It begins with an examination of the existing bicycle infrastructure and introduces then all details of the bicycle plan. Currently, there are a total of 733.4km bike lanes. 124.4km are bike-only lanes and the large majority (600.2km) are shared paths between cyclists and pedestrians. Read more here.

Don't doubt you planners and engineers: Dutch roundabouts are the way to go!

Dutch roundabouts are terrifying. At least in the eyes of foreign planners and engineers. Dutch road users, including the most vulnerable ones – people walking and cycling – prefer roundabouts over signalised intersections. And so do Dutch planners and engineers, who know that roundabouts have proven to be a lot safer than traditional intersections. The reconstruction of a lot of those Dutch intersections into roundabouts is getting more and more attention abroad. It is so good to see that e.g. the Americans are no longer only occupied with on street cycle lanes. They get it that paint is just not good enough. It is all about protected bike lanes now. And more and more the protected intersection as well. Planners and engineers now understand how necessary it is to connect stretches of roads with protected cycle lanes with well-planned intersections. They are studying protected intersections all over North-America. A number has just been finished or are under construction: Davis (CA), Austin, Salt Lake City and Boston. Read and see much more here! The great video below of Bicycle Dutch is a manual how to deal with Dutch roundabouts.

Salt Lake City street removes parking, add bike lanes and sales go up!

Protected bike lanes require - like car lanes- space on the street, and removing curbside auto parking is one of several ways to find it. But whenever cities propose car-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. So what happened? Along the project, sales rose 8.8 percent, compared to 7 percent citywide. 

Should bike helmets be compulsory? Lessons from Seattle and Amsterdam

Every day, Elizabeth Kiker cycles to her work through the streets of Seattle. As the executive director of a big bicycle club, she wants to show people that you don’t need fancy gear to ride a bike – so she rides in her skirt and office shoes. But she does wear a helmet. If she didn’t, she would risk a $102 (€90) fine. Five thousand miles to the east, Marco te Brömmelstroet cycles to his job as director of the Urban Cycling Institute of the University of Amsterdam. The wind is blowing freely through his hair. “Cycling without a helmet is something I take for granted, I never give it any thought,” he says. “But it does amplify the feeling of ultimate freedom.” In Amsterdam, adults don’t wear helmets while riding city bikes – they don’t even consider it an option. Helmets are mainly worn by tourists and expats, whom the Dutch regard with bemusement, even ridicule. They know their country is a very safe place to ride a bike: in the Netherlands, the number of cyclists killed per travelled mile is the lowest in the world. Read on here.