Annals of Cycling – 13

An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.

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THE PUCHER REPORT

Rutgers Prof. John Pucher just released the final version of his major research report for the U.S. Department of Transportation that reviews trends in cycling levels, safety, and policies in large North American cities over the past two decades.  (Quick summary here.) Vancouver is included, and comes off pretty well.

The number of bike commuters in the USA rose by 64% from 1990 to 2009, and the bike share of commuters rose from 0.4% to 0.6%.  Over the shorter period from 1996 to 2006, the number of bike commuters in Canada rose by 42%, and the bike share of commuters rose from 1.1% to 1.3%.  From 1988 to 2008, cycling fatalities fell by 66% in Canada and by 21% in the USA; serious injuries fell by 40% in Canada and by 31% in the USA.

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THE FIRST FUNNEL

An April Fools Day item in the Courier about an Underwater Bicycle Tunnel for Vancouver’s False Creek:

Well, guess what.

The first tunnel under the Tyne River wasn’t for cars at all, it was for cyclists and pedestrians.  The Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnel is nearly 60 years old and is a Grade II listed building.  Cyclists and pedestrians are separated: with a tunnel section each.

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SIXTY MINUTES ON HORNBY

Ken Orhn shoots one hour of cyclists on the Hornby cycle track:  “Thursday March 24, 2011 (0736 to 0836 AM) during which I strolled from Drake to Dunsmuir. ”

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HAND-MADE LANES

Frustrated and unsatisfied with the city’s efforts in promoting bicycle infrastructure, bicycle advocates in Guadalajara, Mexico took action into their own hands by informally painting bike lanes along the city’s roads through a community event called Ciclovía Ciudadana.  (The video is in Spanish, but that doesn’t matter, as you’ll see.)

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NORTH/SOUTH PERSPECTIVES

Ezra Goldman notices the differences at the Velo-City conference in Seville:

There is a growing cadre of professionals who would like you to believe that a bicycling culture is something that can be readily “transferred”. It’s easy. Simply find somewhere that lots of people ride bicycles, copy the infrastructure and policy that “worked” there in your home town and then stand back and wait for people to start riding.

But guess what? What works in Copenhagen may not work in Cape Town.

What I heard from many people coming from the global south in particular was that they didn’t really care much about what was going on in Europe. What they wanted was to share knowledge between cities in the global south. South African cities probably have more to learn from cities (and rural areas) in India than from Europe.