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Wanderlusting No. 4: Copenhagen Cycle Culture
Chris Turner, Worldchanging
There’s been quite a bit of Bike-O-Rama talk around here lately, and Copenhagen –- home of probably the world’s best urban cycling infrastructure and maybe its most sophisticated biking culture -– provides a fine coda to that tune.
Copenhagen has hundreds of kilometres of dedicated bike lanes, separated from motorize traffic by small curbs or other barriers on major roadways. There are dedicated bike signals and designated “Green Wave” routes through the city where the traffic-light timings have been calibrated for cycling speeds. Recently bikes were given a few seconds’ head start and the stop lines for motor vehicles at some major intersections were pushed back a few metres so motorists couldn’t help but see cyclists before attempting a righthand turn. All of which has added up to 37 percent of the Copenhagen metro area’s residents (and 55 percent of the residents of downtown Copenhagen) commuting by bike –- about the highest rate you’ll find anywhere in the world.
In fact, cycling’s so seamlessly woven into the city’s fabric that it’s barely been talked about until recently. I only discovered the cycling culture of Copenhagen on my first visit in 2005 because I’d heard about the citywide network of free bikes…
(8 Sept 2009)
Zipcar – The best new idea in business
Paul Keegan, CNN
Zipcar has already persuaded young urbanites to share wheels. Now the movement is going mainstream – and players like Hertz and Ford want in.
. . . drivers who give up their cars and switch to Zipcar say they save an average of $600 per month. Car sharers report reducing their vehicle miles traveled by 44%, according to Susan Shaheen of the University of California at Berkeley, and surveys in Europe show CO2 emissions are being cut by up to 50% per user. . .
One thing everyone can agree on? The radical environmental benefits of sharing cars. The high cost of car ownership — AAA pegs the average at $8,000 a year — motivates people to drive even when they don’t really need to. (Hey, if you’re paying for the car, might as well use it.)
Paying by the hour, meanwhile, creates a strong incentive to cut back. The Canadian car-sharing service Communauto calculates a 13,000-ton reduction in CO2 emission by its 11,000 members in Quebec and says that number could skyrocket to 168,000 tons per year with widespread adoption in the province…
(2 Sept 2009)
A Hitch For Rail Riders: Getting To Final Destination (audio & trancript)
Adam Hochberg, NPR
Congress has approved $8 billion for high-speed-rail lines that, according to advocates, will make traveling by train faster than driving. But for high-speed trains to live up to their potential, planners also have to consider how long it takes to get to your destination after you get off the train.
“What you really need is a door-to-door trip,” says Susan Zielinski, managing director of the Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation project at the University of Michigan, a center that promotes sustainable transportation. “You should be able to combine your modes of transportation.”
Planners such as Zielinski refer to the concept as “multimodal design,” and they say without it, the whole idea of high-speed transportation begins to break down.
“It’s about connecting the dots,” she says…
(2 Sept 2009)
