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