Carbon Trace

Christopher McNeese, of A & B Cycle, created a petition recently for more bicycle lanes in Springfield. Local bicycle shops are circulating the petition now.

Petition language:

We the concerned citizens of Springfield, Missouri and the surrounding areas do respectfully ask that our City Council members direct Springfield Public works to establish bicycle lanes. There are many streets currently wide enough to support bicycle lanes. We ask that enough bicycle lanes be established to make commuting in Springfield feasible.

We ask that this happen at any such time that funds are available. At very little expense this will decrease injuries and loss of life for bicyclists, decrease motorized congestion on our roads, increase the quality of our air, decrease obesity and its health related problems, and decrease the resources that must be spent to maintain current roadways and establish new ones to handle population increases.

McNeese brought the petition to the attention of the bicycle advocacy committee at last month’s meeting. Members were generally enthusiastic, but also concerned about how to define “bicycle lane.” As Carbon Trace readers are aware, not all lane painting is appropriate.

The following is a Q & A I conducted with McNeese by e-mail. My commentary follows.

What prompted your petition?

I have been to several areas of the country, like Boulder, Colorado or Madison, Wisconsin, where bicycling is not just tolerated, but supported; where bicycling isn’t an afterthought but a way of life; where bicyclists aren’t a fringe group, but are a pandemic of health and environmental awareness. This is in contrast to Springfield, Missouri that contains thousands of bicyclists, but only the beginnings of an infrastructure. I suppose the tipping point, though, was the recent 1/8-cent sales tax that was passed. Somewhat suddenly there was more than a million dollars available for capital improvements like sidewalks, greenways, route connections, ped/bike bridges, and bicycle lanes. Now Springfield has a great many roads wide enough to safely add bike lanes to them, and paint for that sort of project isn’t that expensive in the scheme of things. I thought surely a little bit of that money might go towards a greener more sustainable infrastructure. That was when I found out that there was resistance within the city to the creation of bike lanes at all.

Some people associate bicyclists with one of two groups. The first group has lost their license or car and has been forced to commute by bicycle. The second group is comprised of Lycra-wearing folks that can get in the way of traffic, at least from the automotive perspective. Some people do not feel much sympathy for either of these groups. Also, within the traffic engineering profession there is no small amount of debate as to how best to support a bicycling infrastructure. In some cases bike lanes are appropriate. In other cases sharrows (share the road signs emblazoned on the pavement) might be better if there are parked cars on the street that would endanger a bicyclist within a bike lane.

When I realized that the question was more a matter of willingness than money, I created the petition for bicycle lanes. I am not trying to force anyone to do anything. But, our city leaders need to know just how many thousands of people there are who desire a bicycle safe infrastructure within Springfield, Missouri.

How long has it been in circulation and where? How many signatures do you have so far, and how many do you hope to get?

The petition has only been in circulation for a [couple of weeks] at the local bike shops. This is a pretty slow time of the year for bike shops everywhere, so they don’t have the kind of foot traffic they will in the summer. But, even so, I think we have passed two hundred signatures, and ultimately I expect to gather between three and five thousand.

When do you plan to present it to the City Council?

I expect to gather signatures throughout the summer of 2009. If there is a significant amount by the fall, that might be an appropriate time. If people flood in to sign the petition due to efforts like this, then all the better, and all the sooner.

What have your customers told you about the need for bicycle lanes and other cycling infrastructure?

What I hear aren’t needs exactly. What I hear are horror stories about how someone nearly lost their precious life because a motorist didn’t perceive them. I hear how someone else is in the hospital with a broken collarbone because they were driven into a ditch. I hear how someone wants to ride their bike to work everyday to save gas, and help with global warming, but how it’s just too dangerous in Springfield. I hear these stories all the time. You know, if the amount of people that are injured by automotives every year in Springfield were being held hostage, and their life threatened, in a stucco three story building surrounded by concertina wire, we would call in the Marines, helicopters, streaming news over the internet, and the President would address the nation. We just want some paint on the streets.

How much interest in using bicycles as basic transportation are you hearing from your customers?

Of course there is a groundswell of people interested in commuting. Gas was just four dollars a gallon, and most people expect it to return to that kind of price. They aren’t growing oil in those fields, and when they are dry, they will be dry. And of course Al Gore’s tremendous effort to heighten awareness that our planet is in danger, and that we can expect wholesale weather changes, natural disasters on the coast lines, and probably great loss of life, and certainly immense human suffering is on the minds of many people. Global warming transcends political issues. We have started to realize that as humans we are in trouble, and somewhat behind the curve in terms of reacting to it. Bicycles aren’t the total solution to such a large problem, but they are a good solid place to start.

Your petition asks for “bicycle lanes.” Can you put a finer point on that considering that some controversy exists concerning what constitutes an appropriate bicycle lane?

I use the phrase “bicycle lanes” specifically because bicyclists are not traffic engineers or professional bicycle advocates, and that is the most well known way of speaking of a bicycle friendly infrastructure. When people around town talk about wanting ways to commute safely they don’t debate the advantages of sharrows over bicycle lanes or vice versa. They speak of wanting bicycle lanes, so “bicycle lanes” was my rhetorical choice. Ultimately I expect professional traffic engineers to decide which type of markings would be the safest in which areas. This petition is neither a legal instrument, nor an implementation instrument. What it is, hopefully, is a means to raise awareness. I don’t know if you have ever read the children’s book by Dr. Seuss, “Horton Hears a Who”. The little bitty Whos are on a speck of dust, and they all end up yelling as loud as they can, “We Are Here! We Are Here! We Are Here!” It is something like that.

Have you encountered any resistance to your petition? Have you gained any prominent supporters?

In terms of supporters I wouldn’t say so yet, but I do appreciate having a little airtime here. I am hopeful that the local Springbike bike club, and the members of Ozark Greenways will get behind this, just to name two large groups. It is early enough in this process that most of their members don’t know about it yet. I hope their leadership will help spread the word that now is the time to stand up, and ask for what you want. I have not encountered any resistance yet. The first person I asked if they wanted to sign hurried across the room in surgical scrubs saying, “Oh, hell yes!” I knew at that point that we were in the right lane.

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I signed the petition. And I urge Carbon Trace readers to do the same.

Between now and the time that it’s presented to the city, however, I think we need to keep the conversation going about what constitutes appropriate cycling infrastructure. You may wish to review my recent survey of bicycle lanes in Springfield. What I found were many of the typical mistakes a city makes when it paints lines without thinking. Some of these mistakes are moral failures because they quite obviously put cyclists in harm’s way while at the same time encouraging them to think they are safe.

I understand that some people don’t feel safe riding bicycles around Springfield. In the four and a half years I’ve lived here and been commuting full time, I have always felt safe. But my circumstances will explain that: I moved from Kansas City — not a cycle-friendly community. By comparison, Springfield is easy. And I intentionally purchased a home within a 2-mile radius of MSU and downtown in order to use my bicycle and my feet as my primary modes of transportation. So in a very real sense, I have it easy.

I wonder if others have it easy, too, and just don’t know it. That’s why I’m pushing this idea of the 1-mile radius. Commuting to work isn’t always possible. But how many trips within one mile of home could people make by bicycle or on foot instead of by car? Just start with one trip per week — to the store, to a friend’s house, to school. The payoff is actually huge. In a recent comment on Carbon Trace, PM Summer, author of Cycle*Dallas, explains:

Andy, the 1-mile radius of access is incredibly important for the future of cycling as a transportation mode. Historically (meaning, back to the 1970s), cycling planning and advocacy in the US of A has focused on long trips, mirroring the thinking of other transportation planners (roads and rail). Not only is it easily within the range of most adults and children (as opposed to the “super-man” appearance of the typical media-model bike commuter), but it actually has a greater impact upon air and life quality. Given the low pollution impact of modern automobiles (once the catalytic converter has warmed up) the elimination of multiple automobile “cold starts” is of far greater value than the elimination of a 10-20 mile drive.

The quality of life improvement is a wonderful by-product, and results from people reconnecting with their neighborhoods. It’s hard to notice needed street-scape/neighborhood improvements when you are encased in a steel cocoon.

Cyclists need to be comfortable in the street as part of traffic to accomplish this. Again, I understand the fear. But let me make this promise to would-be commuters and utility cyclists: I’ll help you. I’m trying to help now by writing this web log. But I’ll also meet you for a ride. Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll help you get there.

For more Carbon Trace coverage of bicycle lanes, see:

Righteous Vandalism

Springfield: The Next Great Cycling City?

A Tale of Two Infrastructures

On Getting Yelled At

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