Though no one is probably thinking about winter during this hot sunny
weather, here's an interesting approach used to encourage cold weather
riding. -cheers, Beth
*December 15, 2010*
Capital Bikeshare Winter Weather Warrior Contest Capital Bikeshare
encourages greater use of the system during the frigid winter months by
launching a contest.
http://www.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/About+DDOT/News+Room/Snow+Announcements/Capital+B…
(Washington, DC) Today Capital Bikeshare launched the details of its Winter
Weather Warrior contest, designed to encourage greater use of the system
during the frigid winter months. All Capital Bikeshare annual and monthly
members are eligible to participate in the contest which begins January 1
and lasts through February 28. The member with the greatest number of trips
in the two month span will be awarded with a three year extension of their
membership, two annual memberships to give away to family or friends, a $100
Hudson Trail gift card and a $25 Starbucks gift card.
Additional contests will take place to honor other cold-weather riders,
including monthly “Long Haul Rider” and “Most Saddle Time” contests. All
members who ride every day during the two month period will be given a prize
for perfect attendance. Photo contests and random drawings will also be
announced throughout the duration of the contest.
All Capital Bikeshare members interested in participating must opt in to the
contest. By opting in, members agree to be listed by name on the weekly
leader board, and on both Facebook and Twitter if they win any of the
various contests. For more details about the contest or to opt in, visit
www.godcgo.com/winterweatherwarrior.aspx.
Exhaust-ing ride for cyclists: Air pollutants trigger heart risk
In big cities around the world, cyclists breathe an array of pollutants
from exhaust-spewing cars. A new study has now found a link between cycling
on high traffic roads and heart risks. Even healthy cyclists had harmful
changes in their heart rates. Experts say cyclists should stick to their
two-wheels, however, pointing to simple solutions to reduce exposure.
By Brett Israel
Environmental Health News
July 6, 2011
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/exhaust-ing-ride-for-cyclis…
NEW YORK – Even by this city's standards, the Garment District is an
imposing place to ride a bike.
A never-ending parade of delivery trucks rumbles along 8th Avenue between
34th and 42nd streets, leaving a wake of gritty exhaust for cyclists to
feel, smell and breathe.
After riding in the Garment District, Robert "Rocket" Ruiz, a 13-year
veteran of the bike messenger business, would often look into the bathroom
mirror and see his face covered in grime.
"I remember having to wash my face three or four times a day," said Ruiz,
now the head dispatcher for Quik Trak Messenger Service. "There's nothing
but tar and smoke on your face." Ruiz, a star on the Travel Channel's bike
messenger show "Triple Rush," said he once had to miss a day of work to see
a doctor because of exhaust burning his eyes.
Pedaling behind pollutant-spewing cars and trucks may not seem as scary as
being hit by one, but scientists say it can pose invisible dangers.
Now, for the first time, cycling in heavy traffic has been linked to a heart
health risk, Canadian researchers reported last month. A new study found
cyclists in Ottawa, Ontario, had heart irregularities in the hours after
their exposure to a variety of air pollutants on busy roads.
Pedaling behind pollutant-spewing cars and trucks may not seem as scary as
being hit by one, but scientists say it can pose invisible dangers."Our
findings suggest that short-term exposure to traffic may have a significant
impact on cardiac autonomic function in healthy adults," the scientists from
Health Canada, Environment Canada and the University of Ottawa wrote in the
journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The study does not suggest that bikers would be better off driving, experts
say. Rather, the findings intensify the scrutiny on cyclists' pollution
exposure, and point to simple solutions for a cleaner ride, such as avoiding
busy roads like 8th Avenue whenever possible.
"It's something that actually concerns a lot of people that do cycle," said
Michael Brauer, a cyclist and atmospheric scientist at the University of
British Columbia who was not involved in the new study. "People want to
understand their risk. They're just thinking all the time, 'Is this good for
me? Is this bad for me? I'm doing my part, but there's this car that's
throwing this exhaust in my face.' "
For the study, 42 healthy, non-smoking cyclists wore heart monitors before,
during and after cycling for one hour on high- and low-traffic roads between
May and September last year. Instruments on the bikes' panniers measured
exposure to air pollution.
[image: 2011-0706cyclingmom] Brett IsraelStudy results point to simple
solutions for a cleaner ride, such as avoiding busy roads whenever possible.
Short-term exposure to heavy traffic significantly decreased heart rate
variability in the cyclists for up to three hours after they finished
cycling. Experts say reduced heart rate variability is associated with a
higher risk of heart attacks.
"A very healthy person is like a Ferrari," said Arden Pope, an expert in the
health effects of air pollution and professor at Brigham Young University in
Provo, Utah. "Step on the gas and it really goes fast. Step on the brakes
and it really slows down. The human heart, you want it to be like that too."
But with lower heart rate variability, the heart is behaving more like
a minivan than a Ferrari, Pope said, meaning that it is less able to respond
to stress.
Researchers are not sure how air pollution alters heart rate variability,
Pope said. One idea is that particles in the lungs cause inflammation, which
throws off the body's ability to carry out its automatic functions.
No respiratory effects were found in the cyclists. The researchers did not
find any significant changes in their lung function, probably because all
the cyclists were healthy, and most had no asthma or other respiratory
problems.
Around the world, researchers have found that whenever fine particles
increase in the air, deaths and hospitalizations from asthma, heart attacks
and other cardiopulmonary problems increase, too.
Hours to weeks of exposure to particles that are smaller than 2.5
micrometers in diameter, which peak during rush hours, can trigger
cardiovascular effects, according to the American Heart Association.
Researchers are not sure how air pollution alters heart rate variability.
One idea is that particles in the lungs cause inflammation, which throws off
the body's ability to carry out its automatic functions.For the Canadian
cyclists, when their exposure to certain pollutants, including ultrafine
particles, nitrogen dioxide or ozone, increased, their heart rate
variability decreased, according to the study.
Sheer proximity to tailpipes is one reason why cyclists have a high exposure
to the tiny particle pollutants, which are emitted by vehicles along with
thousands of other chemicals. Diesel buses and trucks are among the worst
offenders.
"The closer you are to the source of the fresh exhaust, the worse it is,"
said Patrick Ryan, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of
Cincinnati, who studies the health effects of traffic-related pollution.
Near the tailpipe, these particles are small enough to lodge deep in the
lungs, triggering heart attacks and hospitalizations from lung diseases such
as asthma. Tiny particles can also cross the blood-brain barrier,
potentially harming the nervous system. Farther away from the tailpipe,
these particles clump together, growing too large to lodge deeply, Ryan
said.
That's why even a small separation from cars, created by physical barriers
to traffic – something that's missing for most of 8th Avenue – is important
for cyclists.
Two white stripes of paint, with a few feet of cycling space between them,
is all that is reserved for bikers on this crowded street. Trucks commonly
idle on the bike lane. Heavy traffic creates a wind tunnel that traps
pollution on the road, according to a study by the California Air Resources
Board.
A 2010 study of cyclists in the Netherlands showed that hard-pedaling,
deep-breathing cyclists on busy roads inhale more of this dirty air. In many
cases, they also spend more time exposed to it compared to someone driving
the same distance.
"Those things add up and they give cyclists that cycle in traffic a high
exposure," Brauer said.
[image: 2011-0706cyclingpan]Todd
Mecklem/flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddmecklem/4994420417/>
Cyclists
brave not only traffic, but rain and oil-slicked roads in Portland, Ore.
But whether that exposure ups a cyclist's risk for heart or breathing
problems has been less well established. One small study of Netherlands
cyclists found a weak link between exposure to ultrafine particles and soot
and airway inflammation.
The new study of Canadian cyclists does not mean that people should lock up
their bikes and hop back into the driver's seat, said Brauer. Another study
has shown that drivers have higher respiratory problems than cyclists
because of their higher exposure to volatile organic chemicals in vehicle
exhaust.
"In stop-and-go traffic, [drivers] have more exposure than a cyclist who
stays 15 feet or more from the tailpipes," said Rebecca Serna, executive
director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, a cycling advocacy group.
The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks from air pollution and
traffic collisions relative to car driving, according to one estimate by
researchers in the Netherlands, where cycling is king. Taking cars off the
road also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents.
"In general, you're better off cycling than not," Brauer said. "The physical
activity benefits outweigh negative impacts. But you'd like there to be no
impacts."
Exposure to dirty air adds to the perception problem that cycling is unsafe,
said C.H. Christine Bae, an urban planner at the University of Washington in
Seattle, who specializes in how bike facilities affect air pollution
exposure.
The Canadian study authors have a simple solution. Avoid busy streets.
"In general, you're better off cycling than not. The physical activity
benefits outweigh negative impacts. But you'd like there to be no impacts."
*– Michael Brauer, cyclist and atmospheric scientist, University of British
Columbia*"When possible it may be prudent to select cycling routes that
reduce exposure to traffic and/or to avoid cycling outdoors or exercise
indoors on days with elevated air pollution levels," the research team
wrote.
Others agree.
"Our recommendations to cyclists would be to avoid busy as streets as much
as possible," said Dimitri Stanich, a spokesman for California's Air
Resources Board.
Of course, cyclists might want to avoid busy streets for a number of reasons
– fewer distracted drivers being one. But the busiest streets also have the
dirtiest air, with ultrafine particle and soot exposure highest on busy
roads, according to a recent study.
Bike routes should aim to minimize time spent on these high-traffic roads,
the Canadian researchers wrote. This would reduce exposures of riders who
may be more susceptible to the immediate health risks of traffic-related air
pollution, such as the elderly, children, and pregnant mothers.
A study of bike lanes in Portland, Ore., showed that lanes separated by
planters, not just by white paint, actually decreased cyclists' air
pollution exposure. A Belgian study of traffic pollution found that cycling
as little as several feet off the road gave measurable differences in
exposure.
Getting cyclists out from behind the cars helps, too. In Portland, when
traffic stops at a red light, cyclists have a designated area at the front
of the line of cars, called a bicycle box, which helps them navigate turns
and flee the tailpipe fumes.
[image: 2011-0706waitingspace] Spacing
Magazine<http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacing/1121822878/>Solutions
like this bicycle box in Portland help cyclists flee tailpipe fumes.
"Little things like that can help a lot to reduce exposure to cyclists," Bae
said.
If a little is good, more is better. Brauer says the preliminary results of
his lab's work suggest that bike lanes are best when built one block from a
major traffic artery. Despite the emerging research, Bae said that she does
not know of any cities that consider cyclists' pollution exposure when
designing bike lanes.
Including Vancouver, where Brauer cycles, many of the cities that built bike
lanes one block away from a major road thought about cost, not pollution.
"Most were done by accident, because they were cheaper," Brauer said. "But
they actually give you an air pollution benefit."
[As someone who thoroughly enjoyed cycling out to the Winnipeg Folk Festival
this past weekend via NE Pioneers Greenway, Raleigh and the Floodway trail,
I wholeheartedly agree with the need for this AT bridge over the Perimeter.
It's extremely dangerous trying to run/cycle across multiple lanes of heavy
traffic going 110+ kph! No matter how many times we do it, it's just as
scary every time. -Beth]
Active transportation supporters want greenway included in road project
By: Adrian Alleyne
Posted: 07/13/2011
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/herald/Active-transportati…
Some local active transportation advocates want to see the Northeast
Pioneers Greenway extended as part of a series of proposed roadway
improvements near Lagimodiere Boulevard and the Perimeter Highway.
The provincial government has proposed making changes to the intersection to
ease traffic congestion in the area.
Sigrun Bailey and Louise Balaban, co-chairs of the River East Neighbourhood
Network - Trail Committee, said the improvements would be an ideal
opportunity to extend the trail further north to Birds Hill Provincial
Park.
The avid cyclists said what they would like to see is a bridge built that
would allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Perimeter at Raleigh
Street, similar to the one that was recently built near Birds Hill.
A bridge would allow individuals to travel uninterrupted along the greenway
and connect to the Floodway Trail System that leads to Birds Hill.
"We’re trying to get a safe facility for non-motorized transportation," said
Bailey, who lives in North Kildonan. "It’s also a health issue, getting
people active."
The province’s plans include construction of a full interchange at the
intersection at an estimated cost of $80 to $100 million.
"Basically we would be building an interchange that would allow motorists in
all directions to go through that intersection of roadways without
stopping," said Don McRitchie, a spokesperson for Manitoba Infrastructure
and Transportation.
McRitchie cautioned that any extension of the greenway would have to be a
shared initiative between the city and the Rural Municipality of East St.
Paul.
Bailey said it would be a mistake not to include the active transit trail in
the province’s plans.
"They’re not considering active transportation, which is ludicrous," she
said. "They’re forcing people to be in their cars."
Balaban said the proposed bridge would make the intersection safer for both
cyclists and pedestrians.
"You can’t ride your bike on the shoulder with semitrailers going by at 80
km/h," said Balaban, an East Kildonan resident. "We need to have a trail all
the way to Birds Hill."
Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), said plans are already in place for the
greenway to be extended to Glenway Avenue once the construction of Chief
Peguis Trail is complete.
However, he said extending it to Birds Hill likely isn’t something the city
could consider at this time.
Bailey said she fears there might never be another opportunity to extend the
greenway.
"They all say they’re for it, but I’m afraid it will slip between the
cracks," she said. "It’s a win-win for everybody, so everyone should chip
in."
adrian.alleyne(a)canstarnews.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:51 AM
Subject: Active Transportation Canada - New Posts July 12, 2011
Dear Listserv Members:
More than 20 new items have been posted on the Active Transportation-Canada
Website. A complete list of titles may be found in the "Blog Archive" box,
located on the right margin of the Website.
Some sample new items:
1. Ottawa - Bike lanes earn rave reviews on first morning
commute<http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Bike+lanes+earn+rave+reviews+first+mo…>
2. Product review: Top five skateboarding helmets for ultimate protection
and safety <http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-8779805>
3. Moncton - Bike Battles
continue<http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1422093>
Active Transportation Canada URL:
http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com
A "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the
bottom of the page. With more than 1,000 items posted on Active
Transportation - Canada, there are links available to dozens of studies and
hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and the world.
If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome
suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community,
please share them with the other subscribers from Canada, the US, and
Australia on Active Transportation-Canada.
Thank you.
Michael Haynes
Director
TransActive Solutions
America's Top Cities for Bike Commuting: Happier, Too By Richard Florida
Jun 22 2011, 11:41 AM ET
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/06/americas-top-cities-for-bik…
*A nationwide analysis shows that towns where people bike to work are
richer, fitter, and more successful in many other ways
*
Riding a bike through a city, David Byrne wrote in his book *Bicycle
Diaries<http://books.google.com/books?id=5Ar9V-4z9PwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Bicycl…>
*, "is like navigating the collective neural pathways of some vast global
mind." Biking, he adds, "facilitates a state of mind that allows some but
not too much of the unconscious to bubble up. As someone who believes that
much of the source of his work and creativity is to be gleaned from those
bubbles, it's a reliable place to find that connection."
Cycling is one of my own great passions. I like nothing more than to get on
my road bike and just go. My bike is not just a great way to get around,
it's a great way to get to know cities.
It's also a good way to stay in shape, as witnessed by this
post<http://www.livingstreetsalliance.org/2011/05/americas-fittest-cities/>at
the Living Streets Alliance blog, which noted the uncanny overlap
between
the places listed in my
post<http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/05/americas-fittest-cities/239…>on
America's Fittest Cities and the cities where the greatest percentages
of
people who bike to work live. That got me wondering what other
characteristics of metropolitan areas might be associated with higher levels
of cycling. With the help of my colleague Charlotta Mellander, I took a
quick look at the numbers. We used data from the American Community
Survey<http://www.census.gov/acs/www/>(ACS) on the share of people by
metro area who commute to work by bike.
Nationally, less than one (0.6) percent of Americans ride their bikes to
work. But the share of bike commuters varies quite a bit across metros. The
gallery below lists ACS figures for the top 15 metros with the largest
shares of bike commuters. (These data cover entire metros; data for core or
center cities may be higher.) At the top of the list are Eugene, Oregon, and
Fort Collins, Colorado, where more than 5 percent of commuters bike to work.
College towns dominate the list—Boulder, Colorado, Madison, Wisconsin, Santa
Cruz, California, Iowa City, Iowa, Gainesville, Florida, and State College,
Pennsylvania, among others. But bigger metros like Portland, Oregon,
Honolulu, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose (Silicon Valley) also rank
highly. (Source: American Community Survey, Share of Commuters Who Bike to
Work) <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/>
Top Cities for Biking
Flickr/Kris Hurst
15 :: Iowa City, IA
*Share of Commuters who Bike to Work*: 2.22%
*Median Household Income*: $49,535
*Creative Class*: 32.46%
<http://www.census.gov/acs/www/>
All of this raises the question: What is it about these metros and others
where cycling to work is more prevalent? So Mellander and I compared these
figures on bike commuting to key social and economic characteristics of
metros. Though all we are looking at are associations—our analysis does not
infer causality and other factors may come into play—some of the findings
are rather intriguing.
First off, metros where more people cycle to work are more affluent. Metros
with a greater share of bike commuters have higher average wages (with a
correlation of .5).
They have higher levels of education or human capital (a correlation of .5)
and more knowledge-based economies as well. Cycling to work is positively
associated with the share of creative class jobs (.3) and negatively
associated with working class jobs (-.4).
They're more diverse. The share of commuters who cycle to work to work is
positively associated with higher levels of immigrants (.3) and even more so
with higher concentrations of gays and lesbians (.4).
<http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/richard_florida/Florida_biking2…>
Cycling to work also goes together with happiness. The percentage of cycling
commuters is positively associated with levels of happiness and well-being,
which we measure via Gallup surveys (with correlation of .5).
As for fitness, the hunch by the folks at the Living Streets Alliance was
right. Metros with a higher percentage of cycling commuters boast higher
rates of fitness on the American College of Sports
Medicine's<http://www.acsm.org/> American
Fitness Index™<http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/docs/reports/2011_afi_report_final.pdf>
(with a correlation between the two of .5).
Biking metros are richer, better-educated, and more fit than non-biking
places. They're happier, and, as exemplified by Mr. Byrne, more creative
too.
*Richard Florida is Senior Editor at **The Atlantic and Director of the
Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. *
**
[Friendly reminder about today's Open House at The Forks from 4-8 pm]
*WINNIPEG TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN*
*PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE
*
** **
The City of Winnipeg staff and consultant team invite you to attend the
second Open House for the Transportation Master Plan (TMP). Drop by to view
the main comments received from the public and stakeholders meetings and
review the key directions and opportunities for the following transportation
components:
- Transit
- Roads
- Goods Movement
- Active Transportation
- Transportation Demand Management
- Funding, Financing, and Governance
We would like to hear from you on this important stage of the process!****
** **
WINNIPEG TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN OPEN HOUSE****
Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 ****
Time: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM****
Where: The Forks Market Atrium (at the base of the Forks Tower)****
Format: Drop in anytime – no formal presentation. ****
** **
Staff will be on hand to answer questions and collect feedback you may have.
****
** **
Visit the following Website to view or download the latest version of the
TMP Newsletter: http://transportation.speakupwinnipeg.com****
** **
Please forward this email to anyone that you feel would be interested in
attending. Thank You!****
** **
Bicycling our way into work and out of the Great Recession
by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/people/Elly+Blue>
5 Jul 2011 10:29 AM
*
http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-07-05-bicycling-our-way-into-work-and-out-…
*
*This is the tenth and last column in the
Bikenomics<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy>series.
A new ten-part series will begin in two weeks, exploring some of the
different reasons people don't bike for transportation and ways these
obstacles to bicycling can be overcome. *
Conversations about transportation bicycling tend to revolve around work,
particularly commuting.
This is a good thing. We need to get to work; more of us need to get to work
by bike; and more bicycling means a healthier
economy<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy>,
a better workplace<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-05-09-how-employers-can-encourage-happy-he…>,
and even more jobs<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-14-building-bike-infrastructure-create…>.
* *
But the commutes in these conversations are an endangered species, part of a
type of work and lifestyle that's fading fast: the 9-to-5 lifetime career
with health benefits and pension, a commute from suburbs to central city,
and a hot meal waiting for you when you get
home<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-06-20-bicyclings-gender-gap-its-the-econom…>
.
The way we work has been changing for a long time, and our transportation
needs and options along with it. With the recent recession, fewer people are
working as much or for as much money, or as regularly -- or at all. More of
us are, in a word, poor.
We're the ones who need bicycling the most.* *Yet the broke and the
tenuously employed aren't always reached by bicycle transportation advocacy,
education, and services. When they are, the messages being promoted are not
always relevant or welcome.
The mainstays of bike advocacy organizations are the three E's: engineering,
enforcement, and education -- with a fourth E, encouragement, becoming
increasingly popular.
Encouragement is a kind of marketing. It's about selling the benefits of
transportation bicycling as though it were a product.* *It's appealing
because, to a large extent, it works, imbuing everyday transportation
bicycling with a certain cool cachet. Marketing, being what it is it, tends
to be best executed by businesses and blogs selling everything from imported,
upright city bikes <http://clevercycles.com/2007/06/26/dutchness/> to the
concept of cycling fashion <http://www.velovogue.com/> to the aesthetic and
lifestyle <http://momentumplanet.com/articles/this-is-the-bike-lifestyle>associated
with both of these.
But lately, advocacy organizations and even government agencies are
investing in encouragement initiatives and seeing a lot of success. A recent
example is the charming animated video made by the Cascade Bicycle Club
called "Will you ride with Sophie <http://www.cascade.org/sophie/>?" that
extols the environmental, social, and personal virtues of choosing to bike
instead of drive, even for just a few trips a week.
And that's the crux of it, what makes encouragement so appealing to some and
so frustratingly divisive to others: When you're broke, you simply don't
have the same choices. The risks you are willing to take are informed by
different factors. What one person might feel as a stirring call to action,
another might just as easily see as unwelcome and out-of-touch moralizing.
It's understandable, of course, that the pursuit of encouragement, as well
as the other E's, is informed by the concerns of the advocates themselves.
Part of the heritage of bicycle advocacy in the U.S. is recreational riding
-- an activity that suggests a decent enough income to have a nice bike in
the garage and the leisure, skills, and confidence to go out and ride it
whenever one chooses. U.S. bike advocacy is also imbued with a heavy focus
on individual responsibility as more important -- or perhaps more readily
achievable -- than social and infrastructure change, as exemplified by the
until-recently prominent vehicular cycling
movement<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_cycling>
.
Such initiatives tend to reach out to the people who ride -- or don't -- out
of choice rather than economic necessity, whose only barrier to getting on a
bike is motivation.
When you're already broke, you don't need to be encouraged to adopt someone
else's lifestyle. You need solutions that arise from your own circumstances
and community.
That means that simply choosing to hop on a bike isn't actually that
straightforward. Even as your car is sucking your savings dry and pummeling
your credit, at least it's the devil you know.
People living in low-income households are less likely to have access to a
working bicycle (only 29 percent of households making less than $15,000 do,
according to the NHTSA's most recent survey <http://www.nhtsa.gov/>). Aside
from the cost and learning curve of acquiring, outfitting, and maintaining a
reliable everyday bicycle, if you're broke your neighborhood is also less
likely to be graced<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/unhealthy-neighbo…>by
bike lanes, calmed traffic, and other facilities that are lauded for
their ability to raise property
values<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/nov/05/bike-st…>.
You're also less likely to have easy, central access to grocery stores and
other amenities.
Bicycling has a reputation as being dangerous, making it even less appealing
to those who lack health insurance. There's also a social stigma attached --
car ownership is a widely acknowledged symbol of success and adulthood.
Moreover, the pursuit of the three original Es -- education, engineering,
and enforcement -- demands some further sensitivity if undertaken in the
context of economic inequality.
When you're low-income, you may simply not have access to the amenities of
bicycle advocacy that others of us take for granted. Your concerns are less
likely to be solicited or lobbied for. Education initiatives and materials
about cycling laws and safety, what to do if you crash, and even how to ride
at all are less likely to reach you and may not even exist in a language you
read fluently. And engineering and enforcement are as likely to work against
you as they are to protect and serve your interests.
[image: Runs on fat]
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/carltonreid/4646637491/>Photo:
Carlton Reid <http://www.flickr.com/photos/carltonreid/4646637491/>These
concerns are hardly universal, but they're a sampling of what advocates need
to ask and engage about if they are serious about making bicycling more
widely accessible and attractive.
Of course, relatively elite bike advocacy organizations didn't invent
bicycling, and have much to learn from others who have already been doing it
a long time. Among people in the U.S. who already ride, residents of
socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods are already riding for
transportation rather than recreation. Bicycling is particularly
embraced<http://la.streetsblog.org/2011/06/01/bicycling-is-for-everyone-the-connecti…>by
recent immigrants from countries where bicycle transportation has long
been the norm.
There are a lot of bike organizations out there that are already driven by
the needs of low-income people and communities. Earn-a-bike
programs<http://oaklandlocal.com/posts/2011/06/oakland-bike-programs-give-youth-chan…>around
the country empower participants with a free bicycle and the skills
and knowledge to maintain and ride it well.* *Tamales y
Bicicletas<http://www.browningthegreen.org/>is a Minneapolis group run
by and for Latino youth to build job skills and
work for environmental justice. Ciudad de Luces/City of
Lights<http://ciudaddeluces.wordpress.com/>is a Los Angeles program
that provides free bike lights and bike safety and
maintenance education to working-class Latino immigrants. In Madison, Wisc.,
police work with bike advocates and businesses to install free bike lights
instead of writing costly
tickets<http://frontporchcoffeetalk.blogspot.com/2011/05/be-bright-helps-madison-cy…>to
those caught riding unlit at night.
As our economy shifts and bicycling becomes a more urgent economic
imperative both individually and socially, advocates need to start seriously
rethinking how their work can better serve the people who need it most.
Initiatives that presuppose motivation as a primary to barrier for
bicycling, or climate and public health concerns as a primary driver of
transportation choices, will necessarily be limited in their reach, and run
the risk of alienating people who, if listened to and engaged with, could be
powerful allies.
I propose a fifth E for the bicycle advocacy toolkit: Economics. Not
marketing, not the creation of wealth or the promotion of wealthy
lifestyles, but rather the awareness of economic inequality and its impact
on people's choices and lack thereof. When we wander down the path of
assigning moral value to lifestyle choices and take our policies cues from
gender and identity politics, we lose a lot of people -- and make enemies --
along the way. When we focus on communities' economic realities and the hard
numbers behind them, then we can provide concrete, material tools for
addressing the inequalities that are holding us all back.
The bicycle economy, after all, isn't going to make most of us rich, and
that's OK. We could use fewer people getting rich in this country and more
people getting by, feeling good, and having fun. Bicycling creates a little
wealth. But more importantly, it creates a lot of well-being. That's what
the bicycle economy is all about.
Elly Blue is a writer and bicycle activist
<http://takingthelane.com/>living in Portland, Oregon. You can also
find her on
Twitter <http://twitter.com/ellyblue>.