A Bikeable City is a Beautiful City

I’ve been reading the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030, which was approved by the city this last February.  It is the vision of what Portland will look like in 20 years, and the role of the bicycle in that vision.  Portland mayor Sam Adams (below) writes in the forward, “a Portland with the bicycle as a pillar of its transportation is truly a beautiful city.” 

I am struck by two aspects of this statement – first, the concept of biking as a pillar of transportation, which has all kinds of implications, and second, the linking of transportation mode with the beauty of a city. The Plan is very clear: the goal is to make biking a critical component of the city’s transportation system, so that Portland will be cleaner, healthier, attracting tourists and business and keep more money circulating in the local economy.

“Pillar of Transportation”:

To do this, the Plan proposes the city create “conditions that make bicycling more attractive than driving for trips of three miles or less.”  More than half of trips in Portland are currently less than 3 miles, a trip that can comfortably be met with a bicycle. 

Think of the implications of this bold vision:

• The city will triple the number of miles of bikeways, from the current three hundred to 962 miles; density of bikeways encourages ridership for short trips.
• With the goal of 25% of trips taken by bicycle, there will need to be a strong consideration of road space for these large numbers of riders, including new paths that separate the riders from traffic.  Another great phrase in this plan: “safe and comfortable”.  Riders need to feel safe and comfortable if a large proportion of residents are going to use their bike.  Bikeways need to be designed to provide this sense of saftey and comfort.
• The 20 minute neighborhood: the Portland City Plan promotes mixed use neighborhoods, where residents live within a short walk or bicycle ride to daily destinations.  This requires city zoning that allows shops and homes to coexist – a challenge for many neighborhoods.
• Where there are more bikes, there need to be more bike parking.  Bike garages, corrals, racks all need to be expanded.  I hadn’t given this much thought before, but bikeway development and bike parking development have to go hand in hand.  Cities have to use space typically planned for car parking and convert it to bike parking.
• The city will need to convert residents who currently are not riding into routine bicyclists.  This means increasing ridership among the young, among women, and among seniors.  Teaching children bicycle skills at school, and building neighborhoods with safe routes for biking and walking will be important.  Many schools today don’t have bike racks nor do they encourage kids to bike.  Encouragement of biking will require campaigns, resources and cityscapes that feel safe and comfortable.

So there are all kinds of implications about the work of the city that lie underneath the phrase, “bicycles as a pillar of transportation.”  It requires strong political leadership and a commitment to fundamental change to make this happen.

And it’s all worth it, in order to build a beautiful city!  Bikeable streets are often calmer streets, with people on the sidewalks, interesting shops to see, and slower car traffic.  Building places that bicyclists and pedestrians want to visit make for a more beautiful city, which is what everyone ultimately wants.

Does your city have a bold vision for bike transportation?  A simple phrase with profound implications for city building?

Sunday Parkways

“Opening our Streets, Connecting our Communities” is the tag line for Portland’s Sunday Parkways, an event modeled after the Cyclovias first developed in Bogata, Columbia, where streets are closed to cars and opened to people.  Walking, biking, skating, boarding are all encouraged.  Portland will host 5 Sunday Parkways events this summer, each in a different neighborhood.  This last weekend the event was in North Portland, where I am staying.  Each event is expected to attract between 10 and 20 thousand participants.

The Sunday Parkways closed off 7 miles of residential roads, forming a loop, and included three parks.  Food carts, booths, live music, activities for kids and families were set up for the enjoyment of the neighborhood.  The absence of traffic made this particularly appealing for families with young children – lots and lots of kids riding at a slower pace, enjoying the day. Among the various activities, a couple was married and took a ride around on a decorated tall bike!

This community event hopes to get people out enjoying their neighborhoods, and provides a safe environment for individuals who rarely use a bicycle to try it out.  The event familiarizes people in the neighborhood too with the local bicycle boulevards, which are part of the loop, so that they can see where to ride their bikes for local trips. 

I have had conversations with bike advocates in Denver regarding holding such an event in our city, and the price tag of the event (with many police officers directing traffic and assuring safe crossing of streets) seemed high for a one time spend. Now having experienced it, I am having a change of heart.  This event seems like an important marketing tool for active transportation.  It encourages biking and walking as a fun community event and makes a statement that bikes are an important transportation option.  They help build the fun bike culture that is part of Portland’s active transportation success. 

My Sunday Parkways ride began by meeting a group of young riders that were hosted by the Community Cycling Center of Portland.  The CCC helps to make bikes available in lower economic neighborhoods and is based in North Portland.  We spent time adjusting bike seats, fitting helmets, and attaching front and back lights to the children’s bikes.  We rode off as a group to the Parkway and headed to the park.  This was a great example of the human commitment it can take to help someone who doesn’t ride a bike to become a cyclist, if even for a day.  It’s clear it isn’t enough to build a city that makes biking easy, or for organizing events like Sunday Parkways. There remains the people work of one person helping another person to become comfortable with biking safely.  There doesn’t seem to be a short cut for this kind of encouragement work.

The Soft Stuff: Having Fun on a Bike

North Portland History Tour

This weekend marks the end of Pedalpalooza, a two week celebration of all things fun on a bicycle.  I attended a history tour of North Portland this afternoon with about 40-50 other cyclists.  We toured around North Portland, making a series of stops at historic locations, hearing from local citizens about how the neighborhood had changed over the last 4o years.  Mixing two of my loves – history and biking – made for a great afternoon!  Needless to say, my kids did not choose to attend.

Pedalpalooza is a grass roots initiative that promises “2 weeks of bikey fun”, and almost 300 events scheduled.  If you can think of something fun to do on a bike, then it should work.  The zoobombers race mini bicycles down a hill from the zoo.  The Star Wars vs. Star Trek ride is described as the following:

Time to choose sides. Do you think Han Solo can kick Kirk’s ass? Would Spock take down Yoda? Time to get your light sabres or tricorders and dress up for some serious nerd quotient. Decorate yourselves and/or your bikes and battle it out on the streets of Portland, the skies over Endor, and wherever else the ride takes us. Sound systems invited, kids welcome for the early part of the ride, but later on, the silliness may get too much for them. This ride is free, but we understand Starfleet Academy might assess penalties.

 You get the idea.

On our historical tour (interesting, but nobody dressed as Yoda), we heard some great personal stories from local citizens about the shipyards, the Vanford flood of 1948, the African American neighborhoods and their fights to improve the quality of their neighborhoods.  Our ride was slow, through neighborhoods, with nice conversations.  We managed to stop at some nice food carts for a snack or a drink.  I learned more about the city of my ancestors: my great-grandfather left Norway at the turn of the 20th century to fish on the Columbia river and live in a Norwegian neighborhood in this area.

This was about having a fun afternoon, and it happened to involve bikes.  It’s clear that making bikes fun is an important strategy for increasing bike ridership.  Biking the neighborhood gave one a more intimate look at the neighborhood, a slower look, a chance to daydream a bit about what it must have been like to live here 40, 60, 100 years ago.  I got to have conversations with other riders and hear their take on the biking life in Portland. 

Multiply this experience by 300 events, add the Sunday Parkways when streets are closed to cars and neighbors walk and bike to parks, and you have fun on a bike.  My town of Denver has many summer events, but nothing like this.  Building the soft stuff for a fun bike culture explains some of the success Portland is having with bike transit.

Building a Bike Friendly City

“Can you see that big bird over the river? It’s either a bald eagle or an osprey.”  I was overlooking the Willamette river with Councilor Rex Burkholder, from the Metro regional government, listening as he explained to me the changes made in the last few decades to the waterfront.  “We’re seeing more bald eagles around Portland – they have made a great comeback from when I was a kid.”

The same could be said about biking in Portland.  Fifteen years ago, biking here was not much better than in other American cities.  Now, bikes are an important part of the transportation strategy for the city.  So the bald eagle and the bicycle are both thriving here along the Willamette.

 After 5 days in Portland, I can already see that cities can be transformed to include bikes as an important way to get around.  Back home in Denver, it can feel like this is an impossible task.  But Portland cries out: Take heart!  It can be done!

I have had some great conversations with various players in the Portland bike transportation world including Rob Burchfield, City Traffic Engineer; Mark Lear, City Safety Program Manager; Mia Birk, CEO & Principal at Alta Planning & Design (along with her colleagues); Councilor Rex Burkholder of the metro regional government and staff; and Dr. Jennifer Dill from Portland State and IBPI.  They have all shared their view of the transformation of Portland.  It’s clear there are different domains or facets of the bike movement that need to be nurtured and grown in order for the transformation to succeed.  I have listed my summary below.  Look for a new book by Mia Birk of Alta Planning & Design that is coming out this fall that will explain how to make this transformation of our cities.

So what are the components?

Vision: A clear, bold plan for what the city wants to become is needed.  These plans should challenge us to make an important transformation and not be incremental.

Leadership:  Leaders in the city and elected officials need to continue to drive the change even when it gets hard to support it.  Just as important as the elected officials is the city staff – are they supportive of bike and pedestrian transportation?

Demonstration Sites: Cities need to show what this could look like.  Find a visible place for transformation and show off the active transit use that it creates.

The Hard Stuff (roads, intersections, trails): There’s no getting around it – the city has to invest in the infrastructure of road and intersection improvements.  But it is an investment, which will pay back dividends.  Building bikeways is much less expensive than building new roads.  So a commitment of money is required.

Strong Bike Advocacy Groups: Since the leadership and the money are not often committed to bike transit in our current state, our citizens need to ask – sometimes loudly – for these resources.  Organized advocacy groups also help support the politicians and city staff by providing them cover: the city planners and engineers are more likely to invest in a major transformation if there are crowds of citizens requesting this at city council meetings.

Measurement: Are we making progress?  Where are we now?  Being able to demonstrate progress through measures is required.  Bike counts with “tube counters” over the bridges here in Portland have demonstrated increase ridership over the years, and this has in turn made for a great graphic or chart that politicians can use to further their bike transit efforts. 

Origins & Destinations (Land Use): I first heard this phrase in Seattle, where bike ridership improved when the infill development of downtown occurred.  People need destinations that are close to where they live if they are going to consider biking as an alternative transportation mode.  This can be particularly challenging in the suburbs, where you typically need to drive to destinations.

One More Cyclist: Even if you build a bike friendly city, transforming a person from someone who hasn’t ridden a bike since childhood into a citizen who is willing to ride their bike often requires hands-on support.  This is hard, human intensive work.  Can a current cyclist help mentor, coach and model bike use to another? Help them with the basic questions of what streets to ride, how to wear a helmet, how to bike safely.  This is increasing bike mode share one more cyclist at a time.

Of course, you also need the long view!  Just as it has taken 40 years to see the success of our nation’s efforts to save the bald eagle, so too will it take 15+ years before we’ll see serious change in the bikability of our communities.  But it can be done!  Portland is the proof!

Bikes Everywhere!

1850: 20 Miles in One Day 2010: 20 Miles in 18 minutes

After three days of driving from Denver to Portland, we unloaded the car and bikes and went looking for dinner.  My family and I were immediately impressed by how many people were riding bikes to their Saturday night destinations.  The neighborhood in which we will be living looks like many established Denver city neighborhoods, except there are bikes everywhere.  This feels quite different from the Denver experience, where bikes are primarily on the trails and recreation areas.  It’s clear that bikes are an important mode of transportation for this city, not something limited to hard core cyclists.

I met with transportation specialists from the city of Portland today and asked them what they would do if dropped in to Denver with the task of improving bike transit.  I heard a number of ideas:

* Build neighborhood greenways: These are streets with a low volume of traffic that have low-cost changes made so that they encourage biking and discourage auto throughway driving (also called bike boulevards).  Put in soft speedbumps; change the stop sign direction to make it easy for a cyclist to ride without stopping; make the intersections safe.  “Repurpose the asset”, meaning take advantage of a street (the asset) that is not being used very much, and with a relatively small investment, make it friendly for a family to ride.  These boulevards can be short – one to two miles – if they help people reach destinations of interest (library, coffee house, video store, rec center).  They can be long, providing a method to get downtown or to the office.  It doesn’t take a big budget to build bike boulevards (contrast to bike lanes or separate bike trails) yet can be effective at increasing ridership.  See http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=50518&a=263487

* Set clear goals:  In Portland, I heard the goal of having 80% of households living within a half mile of a family friendly bikeway in five years (current: 25%).   The city also measures bike use across its bridges as a measure of bike use.  A traffic engineer I met with today felt that when Portland’s cyclists made 5% mode share, “you almost saw a bike on every trip.”  When this happened, bikes began to have a meaningful role in the transportation discussion, and the role of bicycles in city transportation changed.  There are legitimate conversations about bikes as a mode of transportation.  Sounds like a tipping point? Once the city hit this level of ridership, conversations about how far they could go with a bike transit strategy grew, looking to the experiences of European cities as potentially feasible.

*Encourage Community Bike Fun:  While true advocacy for legislative change is important, the drive for continued bikeability can also come from an active bike culture.  I’ve certainly seen that in the 2 days I’ve been here: The Pedalpalooza is “2+ weeks of bike fun” (www.shift2bikes.org) with all kinds of events/rides underway.  The Multnomah county bike fair is this Sunday, following the Sunday Parkways event in North Portland, when 8 miles of North Portland streets will be carfree, encouraging cyclists, pedestrians and neighbors to get out and enjoy the roads without cars.  There are five Sunday Parkways events planned over the summer, and they each can attract 10,000 people.  They are an effective way of getting people who don’t think of riding or walking out into their neighborhoods.  This is all fueled by fun rather than by some sense of sustainability or health.  And it makes it easy to support bike transit.

It’s clear I picked the right week to be visiting Portland.  While my family and I enjoyed our first dinner out in Portland this last Saturday, we did miss the WNBR – World Naked Bike Ride – in downtown Portland, 13,000 riders strong!  I’m not sure of the health value from riding without clothes on a cool Portland night, and don’t plan any studies of this while here!

How to Increase Bike Commuting

Welcome to One More Cyclist, a blog devoted to sharing ideas and strategies on how to increase bike ridership.  My name is Dr. Eric France and I am the Chief of Population & Prevention Services for Kaiser Permanente in Denver Colorado.  I leave tomorrow, June 17, 2010 to spend two months in Portland Oregon where I will learn what this city has done to make it easy to ride your bike.  I will be meeting with many of the leaders in bike transportation while there and will blog on my learnings.  My goal for this sabbatical is to identify the key steps a community can take to increase bike ridership.  I hope to come back to Denver with a clearer picture of what local bike enthusiasts should be working on in order to have a meaningful impact on ridership.

I will be based at an academic center at Portland State University, called the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (see http://www.ibpi.usp.pdx.edu/), which is housed in the Center for Transportation Studies. 

As a physician, I often get funny looks when I speak to people about my interest in transportation issues – doesn’t sound very medical.  Truth is, there are few things as important for the health of our citizens than how we build our cities.  Can I bike to work?  Walk to school or the grocery store?  My day job at Kaiser Permanente has me building care delivery systems that make it easy for our members to get their mammograms, flu shots, cancer and heart screenings.  While these are important facets of health, the real upstream drivers of health are limited to a notable few: healthy eating, active living, moderate alcohol intake, no tobacco use.  Less than seven percent of Americans can say that they don’t smoke, AND are eating 5 fruits/veg a day, AND undertake 150 minutes of exercise a week, AND drink 1-2 alcoholic drinks a day (good for the heart!).   So more than 9 of every 10 Americans has an opportunity to improve their health behaviors.

Make the right thing the easy thing!  An important strategy for increasing physical activity is to incorporate it into our daily routines.  And what better routine than going back and forth to work? Or to school? Or to any of the daily trips we make?  The challenge here is that the right thing – active transportation to and from our routine desitinations – is anything but easy for many of us.  It’s easy if we drive, but is plain hard and maybe even dangerous if we try to walk or bike.  I believe this needs fixing – we need to get to work on transforming our cities into places where it’s easy to bike or walk to our destinations.

Portland is one of the most successful cities in encouraging active transportation.  I have ideas as to why, which I will share with you over the next few months.  Denver, Colorado, my home town, definitely has opportunities for improvement.  Here’s a town famous for its recreational lifestyle, and yet less than 2 percent of its citizens ride their bikes to work.  The Editors of the Denver Post newspaper wrote just today about the need for a better downtown infrastructure for bicycle commuting (see http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_15303628).  They raise the question, does increase bike commuting lead to increased traffic congestion when the cyclists don’t have bikeways and must block traffic by riding in car lanes?

This and other questions I hope to address on this blog!  Thanks for reading and thinking with me about this topic.  I look forward to your topics and comments as we go.  Here’s to one more cyclist!