Transit becoming cooler than cars? What’s next?

It doesn’t matter if it’s by bus, subway, light rail, streetcar or commuter rail.  It doesn’t matter if it’s in Minneapolis, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, New Jersey, Houston, Charlotte or Philadelphia. For the last ten years, mass transit ridership has been increasing (see NY Times survey), and significantly the last three months for obvious reasons.

Americans took 10.3 billion public transit trips in 2007, up 2.1% from 2006, but

read more…

What’s hot? Bicycles?!

As you can see by the graph, bicycle production is enjoying a renaissance, increasing in each of the last six years while car production has remained steady in growth. Much of the recent growth has been driven by the rise gas prices as well as in electric bike production, which has doubled to 21 million units in the last three years. Since 1970, bicycle output quadrupled while car production doubled.

The city of Copenhagen (pictured) plans to invest more than $200

read more…

So what’s the delivery truck equivalent of the bicycle? Look no further than Paris, the home of 20,000 shared bikes, and there you’ll find La Petite Reine, a delivery company that utilizes a fleet of 60 Cargocycles.

With a delivery capacity of 400 lbs. and 50 cubic feet within an 18-mile delivery radius, La Petite Reine completes 2500 deliveries every day for larger corporate partners like DHL that can’t access the more intimate street networks of more pedestrian-oriented downtowns.

‘La

read more…

Already owning bragging rights to being the greenest city in the U.S. by one measure, Portland, Oregon believes it’s the most bicycle-friendly city as well. Their evidence:

- In the 1970s the state passed a bicycle bill requiring that all facilities be built with bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.

- In the 1990s, city councilor Earl Blumenauer worked to establish a bike program in the city, who has since become the leading U.S. congressman speaking on behalf of bike and

read more…

While cities across Europe were growing their bike sharing programs, especially in Paris with 20,000 bikes and nearly a thousand stations, U.S. cities had yet to initiate even one. However, that’s about to change May 2008 when Washington DC becomes the first U.S. city to establish a bike sharing program.

Clear Channel Outdoor and the DC Department of Transportation are launching Smartbike DC, a modest but important introduction to bike sharing in the U.S. - with 100 bikes and 10 stations. 

read more…

Pub on wheels

A year ago we profiled the conference bike from the Netherlands, which allowed seven people on one bike together - and have a ‘conference’ at the same time. Be it no surprise that the Dutch now bring us the Fietscafe (pictured above), or the PedalPub as it’s known (and distributed) in the USA. If the world has a biking scene, it’s hands down in the Netherlands.

This time instead of seven, there are fourteen people that can ride at the same time, each of them pedaling at their

read more…

‘Third places’ for bicycle commuters

We know third places are that familiar social gathering place away from home and work, and we’re thankfully witnessing a renaissance of them in neighborhoods everywhere. So, it was inevitable that as more creatives turn to more natural means of transportation we would start to see third places for biking commuters, aka urban bike stations (thank you Springwise).

You’re in luck if you live in the following cities with urban bike stations, all of which

read more…

A ‘Google Maps for pedestrians’

Say you live in a walkable city and want walking directions as opposed to driving directions to a destination across town. You’re in luck if you live in London and perhaps soon in Boston, thanks to Walkit, a Mapquest for people on foot.

Check out the map above - notice how the suggested walking route cuts right through several parks and with no regard for one-way streets.  It even calculates calories and CO2 saved based on walking speed and compared to other

read more…

This isn’t your father’s light rail

...which is why in Europe they call them trams, apart from ‘light rail’ which is associated with those clunky, boxy trains you see in the U.S.  The tram in the video above debuted in November 2007 in Nice, France.

The Strasbourg, France line pioneered the sleek look in 2006 and has been an overwhelming success ever since, not to mention a favorite photo subject for tourists - now how often does that happen? Notice in the video above how its futuristic

read more…

‘Subways: The New Urban Status Symbol’

That’s the headline of this week’s BusinessWeek article, reflecting the fact that subways are the ‘new hybrids’, the ultimate status symbol of being a progressive major urban city.

According to a VP at Alstom, one of the largest transit car builders in the world, “You have in some cases a prestige issue, which is more the case in young cities in need of an image. Unless funding is an issue, cities usually will spring for a subway. The tramway [light

read more…

Evidence in favor of TODs (transit-oriented development)

Believe it or not there are still parties out there that argue against higher-density developments built around transit stations, predicting they will cause traffic congestion as a result of more housing units present.

Thankfully, research for the Transit Cooperative Research Program provides some evidence for the logic that assumes fewer auto trips will result simply because people will take transit or walk more often, and drive

read more…

I don’t know what it is, but this seems to be the year of the bicycle…

Based on criteria (see below, which are very U.S. oriented, thus skewing the rankings significantly) provided by the League of American Bicyclists, Virgin Vacations presents the 11 most bike friendly cities in the world:

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands - You have to check out the video on the site - amazing, though it may help to ignore the rather nerdy-sounding narrative. 40% of all trips are by bikes, and there are more

read more…

How can you tell a city really cares about bicyclists? By spending the money to design and install the world’s first and presently only bike lift to encourage biking to popular, but difficult to reach places. In this case, it’s a steep hill between the city’s main university and its downtown.

Built in 1993, the ‘Trampe’ (bike lift) has been averaging 46 uses/day since. Cities today can build one for $450-$550 foot, or as the company website says, “the same building costs as an ordinary

read more…

The stackable city car - revisited

Almost two years ago we profiled the wildly innovative, stackable, electric City Car, designed via the MIT Smart Cities program.

Think of it as a cross between car sharing and bike sharing, where you have the access to a dual-passenger car, but parked in a space not much larger than a bicycle.

It was pretty difficult for people to understand the concept based on images, so the folks at MIT finally produced a video to show how it works.

Considering most

read more…

Inspired by the huge political, social and economic success of Paris’ bike sharing system, U.S. cities are looking for ways to instill a more profound biking infrastructure and culture. In Europe, a woman in a dress on a bicycle is the norm, while in the U.S. it’s a curiosity.

In a USA Today article, Big cities try to ease way for bicyclists, several cities are at least talking about big changes to support a more authentic biking culture:

New York City is creating the first ;a

read more…

It’s a bicyclist’s world once a month

Starting out 15 years ago on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco as a group of 48 bike riders making a stand against traffic, Critical Mass has since become a cultural phenomenon in hundreds of cities and dozens of countries, from India to South Africa to Russia, and of course Hungary and Denmark.

Every last Friday of the month after work up to a thousand or so bikers meet at a common point in a city and take off on an unplanned ride through the city.

read more…

Spontaneous social excursioning like never before

Have you wondered who else among your friends was planning a trip to go hiking or watch a baseball game? On the other hand, do you find personal transportation costs getting a little unsustainable?

Then Goloco!

Robin Chase, the founder of Zipcar, is fusing the concept behind her progressive car sharing service with a bit of Evite, Facebook and eBay, turning social networks into fun trip-sharing networks.

How’s it work? 
1. Post your

read more…

One key metric in measuring a neighborhood’s triple bottom line is its walkability, and no site does that better than
Walk Score. Based on the number of retail businesses and amenities, you type in an address in its google-run system and it spits out a rating from 1 to 100 telling you just how walkable it is. Check out their rating system and benefits for scoring higher. One pretty darn handy feature is a left column list of the nearest common amenities, listed by distance.

As you can see

read more…

How popular is Paris’ recently launched bike sharing program, Velib (short for velo libre, “free bike”), after one week? 45,000-trips-a-day’ popular, and that’s just the beginning.

The basic facts:
- 10,000 bikes, 20,000 by the end of 2007
- 300 stations, 900 by the end of 2007
- 17,000 annual passes sold after one week
- 45,000 trips/day, with a goal of 250,000 trips/day
- $40/29 euros for an annual pass
- $1.40/1 euro for a half-hour trip, and the price increases over time to encourage

read more…

Companies now contributing to the bike share movement

We know that companies often drive positive change much more effectively than government (especially in North America), such as what Whole Foods has done for organics. This has been just the opposite when it comes to transportation, pitting the private sector auto industry vs public sector mass transit. Is there any sign of a shift at all?

Possibly, starting with a simple, but noble gesture from a triple-bottom-line bank, Vancity, in

read more…

NY follows France’s lead with bike sharing

Good ideas spread fast. It’s not official yet, but New York City is prepping to establish a city-wide bike sharing program like in France, started in Lyon and recently adopted by Paris with 10,000 bikes at 750 stations.

Today is the last day you can pilot the system during a test run of 20 bikes with a few stations. As described in our profile of the overwhelmingly successful French model, the first half an hour is free and you can leave the bike

read more…

El Paso, Texas is a big city (pop. 600,000) without much buzz outside of UTEP, and even worse, it had a less than envious reputation, according to one local representative, “City leaders were faced with a challenge: to get a poor city of overweight, sedentary people moving when there weren’t any parks or [bicycle] lanes. A national magazine declared the city one of the four fattest in the US, and that really got everyone’s attention.“

Welcome Ciclovia! Starting this month, the City will

read more…

You’ve heard of car sharing… how about bike sharing?

Car sharing has become standard equipment in many cities, but what about those of us who want something even quicker, less expensive, more convenient and healthier? Well then, there’s Cyclocity.

First of all, the caveat is that you have to live in Lyon (France’s third-largest city) or Paris (coming this summer), but this is just a sign of things to come. Perhaps it’s easiest to compare how it is, and isn’t similar to car sharing:

How

read more…

Redefining the routine business meeting

When you live in a cool town, this is how you have your business meetings.

Hey, it’s not called the Conference Bike for nothing.

It’s probably the only way to have a meeting, exercise, and get outdoors at the same time. 7 people share the pedaling, while one steers.  It’s got some heavy-duty specs, including Porsche rack-and-pinion steering and automotive disc brakes, so the rental rates aren’t cheap (up to $20/person/hour), but as far as providing

read more…

$2000 reward for living near your work

If you live in Baltimore MD, work for one of these companies and buy a home nearby, you’ll be rewarded $2000 via the Baltimore City Live Near Your Work Program.

That’s $1000 from the City, and $1000 from the employer.  The State used to contribute $1000 as well - don’t know what happened to that.  What’s in it for the City?  Less expense on public roads and transit.  What’s in it for the employer?  Happier, more productive employees who don’t waste

read more…