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

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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. Although the initial rides caused quite a

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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 route, frequency and time, like you would an event on

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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

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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 bike

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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 Vancouver, Canada. After sponsoring a do-good website,

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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 at any official station. Like car sharing,

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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 close

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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 it’s like car sharing:
- There are permanent parking

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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 a one-of-a-kind kinetic meeting experience,

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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 1-2 hours a day in traffic, and safer

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They’re back! ...and people are glad to see them again, for the country had a love affair with them before the infamous streetcar funeral pyres in the early 20th century via GM’s relentless agenda to replace them with their buses.  But they’re not back for the reasons people may think - nostalgia.  No siree, for believe it or not, cities are bringing back these lovable people movers because they make economic sense, and a lot of it as well.

Read more in this USA Today article, and check out

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Those people who think they’re more likely to die from sharks than deer (you’re 300 times more likely to get killed by a deer via car collision), are probably the same who think you’re more likely to get hit and killed by a car in New York than in Arizona or South Carolina. See the graph above - not true.

Yes, there are a lot of cars in Manhattan (and Boston), for instance, but there are way more pedestrians.  Not only that, only half of Manhattanites have a driver’s license, and there are

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There is probably no greater diversity or activity over a given time period than at your city’s train station. So, which ones do the best at inspiring people to linger, want to return, or regret leaving?  Here are some examples, with a primer provided by the UK’s Guardian and their local favorite in London.

Clockwise from the top left:

Grand Central Terminal, New York, 1913 - There’s a reason why it’s featured in so many movies, referred to by The Guardian as the world’s most romantic

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That’s the thing about mass transit isn’t it?  It’s extremely practical and environmentally-conscious, but sooooo uncool. Well, one of the only uncool things left about city living is destined to change in a few years as well.

Almost two years ago, this website profiled the benefits of bus rapid transit (BRT), and how it is able to operate on both high-speed paths and regular roads.  Well, mass transit is evolving pretty quickly in light of the renaissance of cities around the world, and the

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Since transit-oriented development (TOD) sites are the most logical for initial investment in city downtowns, the Urban Land Institute (ULI, the leading organization for real estate developers) brings us an update on TOD demand, trends and incentives in TODs: Location, Location, Collaboration.

Demand - By 2030, the nine-county SF Bay Area will experience added potential demand for 248,000 housing units near transit (source - ABAG, while the same demand in Denver is expected to grow to more

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Ok, so maybe this image of a pedestrian-only street, sleek streetcar and Smart car sharing is the future rather than the present in the U.S. (it happens to be a current image in Germany), but maybe not so far down the road.  Progressive efforts like in Arlington County, Northern Virginia, helps.

Two years ago, I highlighted the car sharing program that Arlington County was piloting.  So, how’s it doing?  Some of the results:

- Car sharing membership, featuring Zipcar and Flexcar, tripled

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...the Smart car would be it, and as of yesterday, it’s officially coming to the U.S. (finally) in less than two years… and speaking of Dublin’s medieval pedestrian-only streets in yesterday’s entry, this is probably the only car in the U.S. that would fit, not that they’re allowed in the Temple Bar district.

Though not quite stackable, Smarts are found all over Europe, especially in the narrowest streets throughout Italy where pedestrians come first.  They were originally designed to be as

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In our tribute to Jane Jacobs this week, the following is classic Jane.  Here’s a favorite study conclusion she included in her last book, Dark Age Ahead (pg. 75.)  The question is what happens when you close roads?  The study findings from over sixty cases worldwide:

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London’s Telegraph article, The fond farewells to four wheels, says it all here:

“Ms Cameron and Ms Jones are part of a new generation of homeowners being lured away from their cars. It’s a fast-growing trend. There are already quite a few developments - mostly urban new-builds - that aim to diminish car use among their residents, if not to phase it out entirely.“

One of the developments profiled is Carlton Drive, a 22-unit downtown green building. (pictured)  Is there a market?  The place

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What happens when you cross car sharing with a shopping cart?

The people at MIT have an answer that poses such a question - the city car... and it’s set to be built as a prototype by GM.

Stackable like a shopping cart to save space, the electric two-seat city car is designed for pedestrian-oriented communities (ie cities) that suffer from single (or double) occupancy vehicle congestion and a dearth of parking.  With independent wheels, it ‘drives like a computer chair’, thus making parallel

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I’ve mentioned transit-oriented development (TOD) a few times, and felt it deserved its own entry.  The term was popularized by the renowned town-planning firm, Calthorpe Associates, and now represented by an organization, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.  It’s also makes for one heck of a business plan for an investor.

Here’s a cooltown point-of-view of Ten Common Sense Rules for TOD by Bruce Liedstrand of Liedstrand Associate, another highly respected TOD planning firm:

1.

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g src=“/images/carfreeday.jpg” alt=“Car Free Day”
There’s even a website dedicated to the special day at www.22september.org, though it seems to cover the topic of car-free living so comprehensively that they forgot to mention Sept. 22.

I was in Madison, WI on Car Free Day last year, and I remember it well as I saw the city’s mayor give a sincere and impassioned speech that morning on how important it was to Madison’s progressive culture.  Wait a minute, I think I blogged

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Understanding the target market is imperative to building places that they would embrace, or in business terms, buy or lease.  Here’s a look into a ‘year in the life’ of a Chicago family man who decided to give up their only car.

His full account is here.  Here’s an excerpt:

“...Why not just turn our car in when the lease expires and see what it’s like? If it doesn’t work out, we can go lease a new car anytime we want. Meanwhile, we’ll save a lot of money…

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Ever notice that taking pictures of streetlife without having cars in the way is often much easier in other countries?  Or that some of the most popular streets in the U.S. (and the world) are pedestrian-only?

There is a demand for these kinds of people-oriented places, but the supply of auto-oriented places far exceeds them. Why?  Because, as economist Donald Shoup states in his newly published book, The High Cost of Parking, city governments decree that parking be free, and it’s making

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