YEAR OF THE BICYCLE?
By Neal Peirce

Bicycling’s best year since the start of the auto age?  That’s the argument likely to be made March 4-6 as hundreds of cyclists from across the nation gather in Washington for the National Bike Summit sponsored of the League of American Bicyclists.

A crescendo of trends and developments makes the case.

First the trends: oil costs are surpassing $100 a barrel, global warming alarm calls are mounting, polluting autos and trucks increasingly clog city streets, and health concerns about a sedentary and fattening society are mounting.

And now the developments: Handy bike-for-hire stations are proving instant hits in Paris and other European cities and seem poised to invade urban America.  Moves to add painted bike lanes along city roadways are being eclipsed by proposals for entire networks of “bike boulevards” — roadways altered radically to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians. And a companion “Complete Streets” movement — making roadway space for cyclists and pedestrians, not just cars and trucks — is gaining traction
nationwide.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), founder of the Congressional Bike caucus (now 160-bipartisan members strong), claims a new pro-bike politics is forming, that it can mobilize a 1-million-plus national constituency and force clear recognition of the role of bicycles in the next (2009) federal transportation bill.  He and the Bike Summit will be pushing a sense of Congress resolution recognizing the potential of bikes to undergird a greener, healthier and more efficient national future.

Cycling, nationwide, still counts for tiny portions of commuting and shopping trips.  But Portland’s experience shows the potential, Blumenauer insists: since that city’s bike program began in the 1990s, the “modal split” for bikes has quadrupled and a $100 million industry of bike shops, bike sales, a start of manufacturing and bike tourism, accounting for 1,000 jobs, has emerged.

Paris’ “velib” bike rental program — the name combines “velo” (bicycle) and “liberte (freedom) — opened last July and registered an astounding 2 million trips in its first 40 days.  Twenty-thousand bikes are available at 1,450 cycling stations across the city.  Insert a credit card to sign up ($1.50 a day to $43 a year) and you can drop your
bike off at any other station, the first 30 minutes free.

Paris’ sturdy bikes have three gears, good hand brakes, adjustable seat levels and “sit-up” handlebars.  They’re equipped with antitheft and global positioning devices.  Cost of the biking operation is offset by revenues from advertising at bus shelters and other “outdoor furniture.”

Almost identical systems are sprouting up across Europe — in Lyons, Rennes, Barcelona, Oslo, Stockholm, Seville, Brussels, Vienna.  Many others are soon to come including London and Rome.  There’s also reported interest in Moscow and Beijing. This April the first serious U.S. fast bike-rental system is due to open in Washington, D.C., followed shortly by San Francisco.  Considering the idea or in active negotiations are Houston, Tucson, San Antonio, Portland, Cambridge and Boulder.

Among possible U.S. cities is Chicago — Mayor Richard Daley tested a Velib bike in Paris last summer and came back a fan. Add Louisville: the health giant Humana has bikes for its own workers and Mayor Jerry Abramson likes the idea of a citywide system.  And the U.S. Capitol complex — It’s a small city of 12,000 workers and, Blumenauer suggests, “government needs to lead by example.”

On the bike boulevard front, London sprang to world leadership with Mayor Ken Livingstone’s February announcement of a £400 million ($787 million) system of 12 two-wheeler superhighways connecting popular residential areas to city center. The roadways will have continuous, wide cycle lanes, dedicated junctions and clear signs, cutting a swath through traffic.

Planners hope the London system will attract a “critical mass” of cyclists. Even diverting 5 percent of people from their cars and the tubes and buses, it’s estimated, would result in 1.7 million cycle trips each day.

The Londoners also hope to set up special cycle networks around 15 suburban towns, connecting residences with schools, train and bus stations, parks and shops.

Portland has its own version of bike boulevards — remakes of residential streets that had been degraded by motorists using them as cut-throughs. With a minimum of traffic-calming devices such as speed bumps and traffic islands, cut-through traffic was effectively excluded.

Contentious when they were first introduced a decade ago, the Portland bike boulevards have created quality environments raising nearby home prices significantly.  But perhaps most important, they’ve marked a major shift from meeting needs of expert and intermediate cyclists. The focus, instead, is on making cycling welcoming for everyone — kids, families and novice cyclists included.

And in the long run, that’s what the worldwide and U.S. bike reforms will have to achieve — a world of safe cycling for people of all ages, both sexes,  all skill levels.  If we get there, you can mark 2008 as a big year on the route.

Mark your calendars for June 6-8, 2008. We will start off the weekend at Cinebarre on Friday night around 7 pm drinking our chosen beverages and meeting the IMBA TCC, then we will discuss the upcoming workday for Saturday June 7. On Saturday prepare to be part of something very special. We will work with around 200 folks on the Green’s Lick Trail in Bent Creek. The trail will be hardened and armored in places that are seeing tremendous amounts of use, and some of the berms and rollers will be adjusted to realign sections. After the work day it is time to PARTY! Cinebarre will again be the host location, but this time we will take over the parking lot and show movies on the outdoor screen, combine that with prizes and raffles and you have a good time. Then, Sunday Pisgah Area SORBA will be leading group rides out of every trailhead in the greater Pisgah area. Come out and join the fun. The best part is participation is absolutely FREE.

Questions? pisgahareasorba.org  Or contact benblitch@gmail.com.

We at BioWheels have choosen to take action. Let us know what you think.

http://www.terracycle.net/cbb/cbb.htm

BERKELEY, CA (BRAIN)—Clif Bar and TerraCycle have announced the nation’s first program designed to reduce the amount of energy bar wrappers going into our landfills, while educating people about the benefits of reusing waste materials.

Together the companies have created the Wrapper Brigade, which will donate two cents to charity for every used wrapper collected by individuals and organizations.
The collected wrappers will be fused and woven into a strong material, which will then be used to make backpacks, gym totes and other products. These items are expected to be available at major retailers by early next year.
Clif Bar is sponsoring the program and TerraCycle is providing product collection and reuse expertise. Both partners recognize that millions of energy bar wrappers are discarded each year. Together they want to help make reuse rather than disposal the norm for used wrappers.

There is absolutely no cost to participate. Within one to two weeks after signing up, you receive four collection bags that hold 200 energy bar wrappers each. You simply mail the collection bags back to TerraCycle and designate the charity you want to support with your wrapper donation. All shipping fees are covered by the program to encourage people to collect as many wrappers as possible.

On August 15, the PBS NewsHour with Jim Leher interviewed DOT Secretary Mary Peters.

Peters, when asked about a possible gas tax increase, repeated President Bush’s response - No, there can be no tax increase because Congress is wasting the money they already get. Peters cited “bicycle paths” as a prime example of the waste because bicycles are not a transportation use of the gas tax money.

It is disappointing that the administration is attacking Jim Oberstar for his efforts to get the Minneapolis bridge repaired along with raising the funding for transportation maintenance, by using Oberstar’s support for bicycles as a weapon.

The League of American Bicyclists feels strongly that this should not go without a response and we have sent a letter to Secretary Peters voicing our view. Click here to view our response.

For those of you who feel strongly about bicycling issues, we would also urge you to contact the Secretary to share your personal viewpoints.

To listen to an audio copy of the PBS interview click here

BioWheels sent a letter to Secretary Peters via the Bike League website. Here is the letter:

Dear Secretary Peters:

I was very disappointed to hear your comments about bicycle paths in your recent interview on the MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour.

I own a bicycle business and sell bicycles and accessories on a daily basis to people who want to replace their cars entirely or limit their automobile use by using a bicycle as transportation. The number one reason I hear from my customers for not using their bicycles as transportation more frequently is the lack of bicycle paths & lanes.

Bicycles are the ideal “congestion relief”. More than 40 percent of trips in urban areas in this country are two miles or less; one quarter are just one mile or less, and most of these trips that could easily be made with a bicycle are made by car.

Bicycle use as transportation should be promoted and funded more vigorously by the federal government if it is sincerely interested in saving energy, cutting climate changing emissions, improving air quality, reducing congestion and improving the overall health of the American population.

Please publicly rescind your comments about bicycle paths being a waste of federal transportation dollars and respond to me about how the D.O.T. is going to promote and fund bicycle use so that I may pass the information on to my customers.

Sincerely,

Eric Krause
BioWheels
81 Coxe Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801

When it comes to the longest trails in the country, mountain bikes haven’t been welcome. Congress banned bicycles from the Appalachian Trail before our sport evolved, and access to the Pacific Crest Trail was eliminated in 1988, before mountain bike advocacy had fully developed. With nearly 5,000 miles of iconic trail off-limits on either coast, mountain bikers have had to look to the Rocky Mountains for their taste of epic, backcountry riding.

The 3,100-mile Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) is truly a unique resource for the mountain biking community. Running the spine of the Rockies from Canada to Mexico, the CDNST is largely open to bikes in non-Wilderness areas. But now that appears to be in danger as well.

Take Action!
Bike access to the country’s longest shared-use trail is now in jeopardy. The Forest Service just released a draft rule that would encourage land managers to kick bikes off existing routes, and not include us on future segments. Your voice is needed to help preserve our access!

• Send Comments
  File formal comments with the Forest Service. IMBA’s simple form makes it easy.
• Spread the Word
  Rally your friends and ask them to echo your support for bike access on this outstanding trail. We need thousands of comments to hold out hope for continued access.
• Help Maintain the CDNST
  If you live or play near the CDNST, consider organizing or attending trailwork days to help build and maintain this magnificent trail.
• Donate
  The IMBA Legal Fund needs your financial support to preserve singletrack.

The Forest Service’s deadline for comments is Friday, October 12.

Additional Information

The Forest Service suggests prohibiting mountain biking where our use is currently allowed on the CDNST. The proposed policy also singles out bicycling as an undesirable use that should be subject to additional scrutiny and restrictions. These include a burden of proof that bicycling “would not substantially interfere with the nature and purposes of the CDNST,” which the Forest Service deems to be hiking and horse travel.

IMBA believes that the Forest Service directive should not discriminate against bicycling on the CDNST. This is our chance to ask the Forest Service to include bicycling as a central focus and purpose for the trail.

The CDNST is a public trail and potential uses should be considered equally. It is unfair to discriminate against bicycling when scientific research has shown its impacts to be similar to hiking and less than equestrian use.

With 40 million participants, mountain biking is the second most popular trail activity in the country (Outdoor Industry Foundation, 2007). This large constituency helps lobby for public lands funding and donates nearly one million volunteer hours each year to trail construction and maintenance. Mountain bikers can be valuable partner for the CDNST by helping build and maintain trail, and by lobbying for its completion.

IMBA is not asking for access to the entire CDNST and respects the ban on bicycling in existing Wilderness areas. Some non-Wilderness sections may be suitable as hiking and/or horse-only, but along the 3,100 miles there is room enough for multiple uses in most areas.

Unfortunately, the newly proposed Forest Service directives specifically target only motorized and bicycle travel, even though bicycling is a quiet, low-impact, human-powered activity and science has shown the impacts of mountain bicycling to be similar to hiking and far less than horse or OHV use.

The IMBA / Forest Service Memorandum of Understanding states mountain bicycling should be managed distinctly from motorized travel. It also says mountain bicycling is appropriate in areas listed as “primitive” on the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum. These areas comprise a significant percentage of the CDNST.