• Motorists works 2 hours each day to pay for a car.
• Bicyclists work 3.8 minutes each day to pay for their bicycles.

(Obviously the costs are different depending upon one’s circumstances. The well-to-do work fewer hours for their cars. The poor work more.)

Yep, getting rid of my car gave me a huge pay raise. And it got me out from behind the wheel sitting in traffic — one of the top things Americans have cited as making them unhappy. It’s also a heath issue — all that sitting and all that stress. Win-win-win for me!

I have said this before: Using a bicycle for basic transportation in Springfield is easy. So easy. OMG it is easy. If it weren’t easy, I might not have stuck with it (because I just assumed it would be hard and that I’d end up driving a lot).

One thing, however: It helps to live close to your major destinations. That’s not a requirement. But if you live in a far-flung suburb surrounded by nothing but large traffic sewers, well, it’s going to be less easy. You can still practice the 1-mile Solution.

Technorati Tags: 1-mile Solution, bicycle advocacy, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, cycling, green transportation, utility cycling

Some advocates are willing to do almost anything to increase participation — including putting novices in danger.

There’s a “but”: It appears rather clear that the more people who ride bicycles in a given area the safer it is to ride a bicycle on the road (convincing novices that the riding in traffic is already safe requires education). A new study recently published in Environmental Practice reinforces the safety-in-numbers thinking and adds a bonus: More people on bicycles makes the traffic system safer for all road users.

There’s another “but”: It appears that bicycle lanes play a minor role in encouraging people to ride bicycles (hoo-ray for that). This new study suggests that narrow streets, a dense grid pattern, and traffic calming are the real keys in the American context (or, in the case of this study, the California context).

Today I want to discuss one of the findings: intersections per square mile. The study shows that safer, high-cycling cities have more intersections per square mile than do less-safe, low-cycling cities. Safe, high-cycling cities in the study averaged 114.2 intersections per square mile suggesting a dense grid pattern. The following graphic illustrates common street patterns. It’s easy to see why grids have more intersections and why grids would tend to calm traffic.

Now let’s take a look the square mile at the heart of downtown Springfield (defined by me as the area surrounding Park Central Square).

That’s a rough estimation using Google Maps. By my (very rough) count using this map, downtown Springfield has 127 intersections in this square mile. Further, the speed limit is 20 mph on most of the roads you see there (exceptions include Grant, Jefferson, Kimbrough, Benton, and Chestnut Expressway).

The four safest cities in the study share something else with Springfield, but the study does not mention it — and I think it is important: The safest cities are all home to universities — Berkeley, Chico, Davis, and Palo Alto. On this Springfield map, MSU is just off the southeast corner, and OTC and Drury intersect the map to the north and northeast.

I’m only discussing grid density now. But this begs the question: Why, then, has Springfield not achieved the kind of bicycling numbers as, say, Davis, California? We have active advocacy (STAR Team) and a cooperative (even enlightened) public works department and police force. We have encouragement and education programming. While facilities such as bicycle lanes play a minor role according to the study, we have some of those, too. That square mile area has several bicycle lanes plus a growing greenway.

I think one important reason we’re not seeing the kinds of bicycling numbers as those California cities is because there are damned few employers of the kind that attract the creative class (notice the income data in the study). Yes, we have entertainment — mostly at night. Yes, we have a growing number of lofts. Yes, MSU is moving into more and more downtown buildings (e.g. Park Central Square Office Building, Jordan Valley Innovation Center, Brick City). Yes, there are banks and churches and stores and restaurants and other small businesses. But there are precious few large employers who employ highly-skilled, creative people of a kind that MSU, Drury, and OTC attempt to produce.

In short, the reasons to bicycle downtown right now are largely confined to after business hours (re: my first post today).

Our urban challenge (one of many): Encourage more employers of the creative class to move downtown. MSU’s movement into downtown is a great start. Now others must follow. Tax breaks help bring employers. Can we, however, save these breaks for employers that bring high-wage creative jobs to town instead of employers who bring low-wage, low-benefit jobs to town.

Our Urban Challenge Series:

• First in a Series
• Getting Started
• Green Density
• Networks
• Barriers
• Free Parking
• The Good Life
• Cost of Living
• Build It First
• Make It Awesome
• The Euro Thing
• Middle of Nowhere
• Young Professionals
• The Big Disconnect
• Where to Live

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling, pedestrian safety, Springfield Missouri, traffic design, transportation, Transportation Planning, urban design, urban development, Urban Planning

It’s cool to do it for a week. It’s truly epic to keep it up — maybe not everyday, but maybe one or two days per week. Ease your way in. Pretty soon you’ll be selling a car and giving yourself a big $$$ raise. And losing weight. And enjoying your community. And saving the environment.

Technorati Tags: 1-mile Solution, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, cycling

Why do women commute by bicycle in smaller numbers than men? Is the lower ratio an indication of safety issues that women have with bicycling in traffic? Do we have any proof that a lower ratio is a function of safety? Could cultural or economic issues also play a role? The article in Scientific American (linked above) raises all these questions. I don’t think the answer is as simple as women need bicycling infrastructure to feel safe. I suspect they primarily need a culture that privileges bicycling and/or a culture than treats road users as people rather than objects.

An anecdote and observation: My wife works at home, so she has no commute (unless you count the walk from the kitchen to her desk). But she does ride a bicycle for many trips away from home — when the weather is nice. She navigates the entire Springfield urban core, but is usually not keen on traveling outside that area except to go to church or to the farmer’s market at the mall. (Geez…can we please get that thing moved downtown? A mall parking lot is just soooo not an appropriate venue). So how do you count her in the ratio for Missouri? Well, she doesn’t count. Neither does my daughter who rides to school. Neither do female college students who ride to various destinations other than jobs.

What about utility bicycling? Why is it always about commuting? What would the female-to-male ration look like from a utility perspective? Are we hurting our cause by ignoring (what I think is) a sizable number of participants?

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, bicycle safety, cycling, transportation

Here are the first few paragraphs:

Expanding local trails, banning public smoking and confronting the city’s lack of diversity are ways for Springfield to attract and retain young professionals, according to a presentation Tuesday to City Council.

The suggestions came as part of a report from The Network, a Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce group for workers age 21-40.

Following up on a 2009 consultant’s report ranking Springfield in categories important to a young, educated workforce, a Network task force developed ideas for improvement.

“We came up with four things we think are really do-able initiatives,” said Ryan DeBoef, a local attorney who chaired the task force.

The first suggestion, he said, was the continued expansion of city trails and bicycle routes for recreation and transportation.

“Trails are parks to young people,” DeBoef said. “People love these trails and it would be great if we could use them to get somewhere.”

DeBoef said the group found that many young professionals want to be able to bike to work, but existing trails and urban bike routes are insufficient.

Seems like a no-brainer. If you want to attract (or keep) talented young professionals, then it’s a good idea to create a living (urban) environment that meets exactly the needs listed in this article. As listed today in Editor David Stoeffler’s column:

• Expand trails and bike routes for recreation and transportation.
• Enact a smoking ban in bars, restaurants and other public places.
• Improve wages by supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.
• Address the lack of diversity through increased awareness and support for minority-owned businesses.

This is what the young professional themselves say they want as articulated by The Network. Perhaps we should listen.

Reading the 165 comments, however, is a bit disheartening.

Our Urban Challenge Series:

• First in a Series
• Getting Started
• Green Density
• Networks
• Barriers
• Free Parking
• The Good Life
• Cost of Living
• Build It First
• Make It Awesome
• The Euro Thing
• Middle of Nowhere

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle commuting, bicycle culture, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle trails, cycling, urban design, urban development, Urban Planning