Boston cyclists have taken 15,000 rides since Boston’s bike share system, Hubway, soft-relaunched in early March. Memberships have grown to over 5,000. Today at noon, Mayor Menino and bike czar Nicole Friedman officially reopened the Hubway at a short ceremony/event in front of the Boston Public Library.

Hubway is back in Boston. After the mildest winter I can remember, with barely any snow, the paths are clear and, as the mercury passed 81 degrees today, I found myself breaking a sweat. I leisurely rode from my job near North Station, along the Esplanade to the new bike lanes on Mass. Ave to the bike lanes on Columbus to the Southwest Corridor park. I checked my bike in at Roxbury Crossing–currently the southernmost extent of the bike share network–then hopped on the T for the rest of the ride home.

Five years ago, that paragraph would have been science fiction. I was riding then–a Lycra and Spandex clad warrior of the bike commuter class–and it was a different world. The parks existed, but there were no bike lanes. Plenty of people rode bikes but we were usually solo riders–a few dorky commuters mixed in with students and hardcore messengers.

Today, I regularly see strings of 5-10 riders in the morning…queuing up at crossings and then stringing out again along the 50+ miles of bike lanes that have been added to the city. When Hubway re-launched, I immediately saw other riders. I had worried the success of last summer and fall might see its momentum lapse, but if my anecdotal observations are accurate…the success rides on!

Boston has a way to go still…even with bike lanes drawn on Mass. Ave, I still think it’s a treacherous weave that make Columbus seem like a virtual linear park in comparison. But the progress is palpable…regular people are riding their bikes in the streets of Boston. Their numbers are growing and what was once adventure sport is becoming the new norm. Who needs to move to Portland or Copenhagen…just give our city a decade and watch the world change.

Marshall is set to be a “T”-pro by the time he goes to high school. This year, he’s attending a preschool in Jamaica Plain (the next neighborhood up from where we live in Roslindale) and most mornings, I drop him off on the way to work.

It’s much easier than driving and it makes each morning a bit of an adventure…catching a bus first to Forest Hills, then one stop and a short (but slow with little legs) walk up the hill. I wish I could get him excited about riding in my bike seat, but he’s a bit big for that now and it’s a bit of a production to get all that together vs. walking 5 minutes to a bus stop.

One thing that makes it all manageable is the MBTAinfo app on my phone…so we always know when and where the next bus or train will be. So when you see me walking along and looking at my phone…I’m not updating Facebook–I’m avoiding a meltdown. Knowing what to expect, at least in one area, is priceless.

Electric bikes have been around for years but recent advances in battery technology and Bedford, Massachussets company Pietzo, may have finally made them practical for commuters seeking an environmentally-responsible alternative to gridlock. I test rode several today, and I encourage others to hop on one of these bikes and learn how it could change your life.

I’m a serious bike commuter–I’ve blogged about my commute into Boston on my fixed-gear, but I haven’t found too many takers on that urban adventure. I think these bikes could change that.

A hybid electric bike is a “bike with a boost.” It has a battery-powered motor that can assist pedaling or be used to exclusively power the bike. The smallest battery will hold a charge for a minimum of 20 miles–more if you are also pedaling. The Zephry model pictured is also a folding bike–allowing you to take it on the commuter rail or easily wheel into a workplace and up an elevator.

I was not sure what to expect as I hopped on this bike on a hot, humid June morning, wearing my khakis and Doc Martens. Usually my bike commute would involve “gearing up” into spandex, special shoes, etc. and planning on a 2nd shower (or just not riding on a day like today). What I found was an easy experience that left my shirt far dryer than it would have been if I had walked 3/4 of a mile. All in all I rode about 3 miles to test it out. And I’m still wearing the same clothes.

When I started pedaling, I felt the electric assist kick in–which helped me quickly get up to a decent speed on the busy Great Road in Bedford. I was not doing the typical “accelerate to avoid angry motorists” start. I tried the electric-only option for a while too, but I really enjoyed the simple assist coupled with my leisurely pedaling. At one point, when I needed to make a U-turn across a 3-way intersection, I was glad to have that extra electric acceleration so I could quickly and easily get going, get out of the way, and focus on navigating the traffic instead of pedaling up to speed.

Pietzo has a nice blog post about why avid cyclists would ride a hybrid, but I was more impressed by how this bike should appeal to the non-cyclist:

• No sweat. Seriously. Having walked to the commuter rail station many times in the heat of summer, I can honestly say this bike is better than walking and it extends your range dramatically for other short trips.
• Lightweight. The folding bike in particular is really just like a regular bike but with a battery. It’s not going to tip over and it is easy to maneuver out of the garage, out the back door, etc.
• Multi-modal opportunity for suburbanites. I live about 3 miles from another train station that has 15-minute trains to Boston. That is about a 15-minute bike ride (in cool weather, with special shoes, etc.) But on the Zephyr, I could simply choose the bike over the car and save $5 parking. Then I’d take the bike with me on the train for an easy ride from South Station up whatever hill I need to climb. That combination would be faster than any method of transportation I have been able to dream up in the last 5 years.

Electric hybrids make economic sense. Use the Pietzo savings calculator to see how much money you could save by bike commuting. I’ve done that calculation myself, but I had to add back in many other costs like bike clothes and lost time due to a mandatory wardrobe change on each end. The beauty of these bikes is they make everyday commuting feasible for the Lycra-averse professional.

Pietzo will be exhibiting at tomorrow’s Bike Friday in Boston and at the July 14 Mass Innovation Nights event in Waltham. More information is available on their web site at http://www.pietzo.com/

You might think painting a crosswalk is only slightly more complicated than putting a yellow line down the middle of the road. Take a look around at the faded and nearly invisible crosswalks in your community and you can begin to appreciate that it’s not that simple. I had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of a new surfacing technology a few weeks ago in Boston and found it fascinating to literally watch paint dry…no, seriously!

Nature and automobile are hard on Boston streets. I’d argue a greater hazard to cyclists than cars is the unpredictable but uniformly bad condition of pavement where potholes appear even before construction of new roads and bridges ends. The roadway is in a constant state of flux. To attempt to apply a layer of an additional material (paint) on that surface is destined for eventual failure.

The solution I saw demonstrated is called StreetPrintXD. At 6 1/2 minutes, my homemade video is long–if you want to see a short, complete install demo video, you can watch the one produced by Integrated Paving Solutions instead. But mine does put it in some perspective as you can see the workers installing on a busy Boston street in 90-degree heat.

First, the asphalt surface must be evaluated–if the road is more than a year or two old, you will need to do a “mill and fill”–to lay down a fresh coat of asphalt where the crosswalk will be. In the video, you can see how the roadway around the crosswalk is older and lighter.

The mill-and-fill is a big deal that will add to the cost of any project because a machine must be rented and traffic disrupted for half a day…and of course you will have to hire a police detail.

Once the surface is ready, a heater is used to soften the asphalt so the paint will stick. The “paint” is aggregate-reinforced thermoplastic. By incorporating aggregate into a plastic mixture, the material is made more like the asphalt surface in terms of its wear characteristics. Regular thermoplastics have glass beads instead of aggregate which mean they will move differently under stress and lack the irregular reinforcing characteristics of roadway materials.

Once the asphalt is soft, rather than simply apply the coating, a mesh template is hammered into the pavement. In the final product, this creates a look of brick, but it also creates valleys of indentation that will be shielded from the immediate friction of automobile traffic. This feature is a key attribute of another product, DuraTherm, which has been used to create more elaborate, patterned crosswalks instead of the traditional brick look. These patterns hold up well because the pattern is impressed into the roadway so car tires do not contact it.

After stamping out the pattern, the coating is applied as big plastic sheets, heated, and stamped down into the indentions in the pavement.

A coating of sand is applied while the coating is still wet to more closely match the traction of the asphalt. Maintaining traction is critical for safety–remember the Tour de France time trials in the rain a few years ago with cyclists spinning out of control on pavement markings? The key is to maintain the same coefficient of friction across the surface–not to create either an extra slippery or suddenly extra sticky surface. Changes in the coefficient of friction turn the momentum of a moving object into unexpected horizontal forces that can start a skid.

The final product is expected to last as long as the roadway surface.

Most crosswalks will not be able to afford this treatment. In the video above, we are looking at Melnea Cass Blvd which sees 30,000 vehicles per day. When it’s not that busy, it’s probably being salted, sanded, and plowed. So a quick spray of Krylon isn’t going to last a day out there.

But even on our less busy town streets, I see how quickly the traditional paint jobs fade. Each spring our DPW goes back to repaint lines and crosswalks as needed. Roughly speaking, for a 2-lane road, the treatment above should cost about $5-10,000 including the preparation work. A newly-paved road would be cheaper–the actual materials cost is $13-17/square foot and if you avoid the mill-and-fill, it makes everything faster and easier.

A fair question to ask–especially given this cost–is “why bother?” In the case of our town, we don’t have the funds and are applying for a grant. But the objective is to get the attention of motorists who blow through crosswalks even when school crossing guards are present. We have “knockdown” signs in the road which do in fact get “knocked down” all the time. Perhaps if we only deployed the beacons I blogged about yesterday, it might make enough of a difference. But part of the goal is to increase awareness and respect for walkers overall. As the paint fades we face a long winter/spring season before repainting eventually happens…unless it rains too much that year. If we could make a permanent infrastructure enhancement in the most critical locations, I believe we could begin to affect behavior norms by telling everyone: this crosswalk is here to stay.

For about $10,000, a community can install an eco-friendly system to make crosswalks safer for pedestrians and much more visible to drivers. A new type of lighting system, the Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon is proving even more effective because the flashing lights–more like police and emergency vehicle lighting–get the attention of motorists.

As my town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee researched ways to improve crosswalk safety, we noticed existing, effective crossings in neighboring towns. In Wellesley, busy route 135 can be crossed much more easily thanks to this crossing:

A newer technology–with a solar-powered option–is described below:

I obtained a quote for a similar system from Electrotechnics Corporation (ELTEC). Because the system is solar-powered and wireless pushbutton-activated, the installation could be as simple as planting two poles in the sidewalk. There is no need to run power to the system or trench the roadway for wires. Just install the poles and go.

RRFBs are new, but they have been embraced enthusiastically in St. Petersburg, Florida where, after obtaining interim approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, RRFBs were installed in 19 locations. A study of some of those locations and other deployments in Chicago and Washington, D.C. indicated “a highly significant level change following the introduction of the RRFB that showed no sign of decay over time.” A full report from St. Petersburg is available here. A video about the crosswalk program really punctuates their commitment to systemic, infrastructural improvements citywide.

But for smaller communities who are simply looking for ways to make particularly problematic crossings safer, this technology could be the answer on multiple fronts. The modularity of the solution eliminates a few hurdles–there is no need to coordinate with the electric utility or dig up the roadway. The deployment must still be “designed,” to ensure it complies with local and state standards. And it’s still at least a $10,000 project which can be tough to fund given the reality of level budgets and cost-cutting required in the current economy.

Google maps have helped our town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee by allowing us to project a satellite or streetview image on the wall for discussion. Using screencast software, I recently incorporated this into a presentation for a grant application to fund enhancements at two crosswalks:

I was looking for a simple way to share these ideas. I used Camtasia Studio from TechSmith because it allows for greater editing of the video, but an even easier solution is to install their free Jing software. Then you can capture a screen video–along with the audio you narrate. It will upload the resulting tutorial (5-minute limit on the free version) to a website and give you a short URL you can email or instant message to someone.

The coolest feature in the video above is the web browser integration with Google Earth. Simply click on the button at the top right of a map for “Earth,” install the plugin as prompted, and your map will turn into a 3D-ish representation that you can “flyover” using your mouse and scroll wheel to zoom in for greater detail. If a streetview exists, you can even drop down to the street level perspective and step through an intersection. In our meetings, this was invaluable to show members of the committee the automobile perspective approaching the problem intersections.

Another advantage of integrating this information into an online video is the power to share. I played the video (about 4-minutes) at the presentation I made to the group that decides what programs to recommend for funding, and although I think standing there next to the video of myself talking was a little strange, it was effective to be able to email that link out to other members of the group who were not present. Most presenters brought easels and cardstock, or handed out multi-page printouts.

The project was recommended to proceed to the next level. Tomorrow I will post examples of how technology can be used to actually improve the safety of these crosswalks.

If you would like to see more Federal money spent on local projects to promote and make safer more bicycling and walking, call your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to be a co-sponsor on H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act. It is important to make the call this week, in support of the National Bike Summit.

Perhaps it is ironic that I follow an angry post about generationally-irresponsible recovery spending with a call to borrow more money against the future, but there is a big difference between investing to leave something for the next generation vs spending money to help the current generation cover the mistakes of the present.

The Active Community Transportation Act would make grant money available to communities for investments in infrastructure that promote walking and biking.

I want to keep this post positive, but I cannot ignore the sense that many people feel biking and walking are recreational activities and should therefore be lower priority. But in fact, because the impact of small investments here can be so large, they should be a higher priority.

The types of projects grant money like this could support could include components as small as improved crosswalks. For about $10,000, we could install a solar-powered pushbutton-activated flashing light and repaint a crosswalk so that dozens of kids and their parents would feel safe walking to school. We could deploy several of these across a busy, wide stretch of road that serves to divide part of our community and effectively “knit” the town together and reduce reliance on car trips. We could make it easier for people to choose to ride the commuter rail and walk to church by bringing the focus down to the sidewalks and streets and investing is small things that pull our communities together.

The benefits are not just aesthetic. We have a childhood obesity epidemic to combat. We have a national health crisis that, regardless of what insurance companies may or may not be doing, is driving the cost of health care higher and higher. We have recurring cycles of foreign oil dependency and occasional bouts of awareness with global warming, carbon emissions, and general sustainability. Do more than buy a Prius. Thank about ways to change the way we live to be more sustainable and more responsible to the future and then ask what stands in the way?

Active Transportation is a path through the obstacles. It’s a part of the solution that, unlike many government projects, is more efficient and has “externality benefits” rather than costs.

It’s efficient because this kind of grant program encourages community-based action. Our local advisory committee would gather information, talk to our neighbors, participate in the grant application process and assist in project managing and monitoring the implementation. The overall grants will be designed to support networks of improvements costing $5 to 15 million each.

“Externality benefits” are the intangible things like improving the strength of a community. It would be impossible to measure the economic impact on house prices down to such a micro level, but I would bet that over time, the increase in walking and perception of safety across a divisive roadway would translate into higher home values. I know we moved from one house because the street was busy and didn’t make an offer an another because it was “on the other side” of the road that we’d have to cross to get to school. Not everyone will share these valuations…but when small projects like these are happening all over the country, the sum effect has to be a net gain.

Will there be boondoggles and “bike paths to nowhwere?” Perhaps. But at least then we can start talking about the best way to do things. How many bike paths could have been built with the money that was used to make it possible for me to drive to the airport in 30 minutes instead of 45? I’m guessing a few hundred thousand.

I’m excited that our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee was able to work with our town to secure almost $3700 in reimbursement funding to buy bike racks. And our monthly meetings are defintitely raising awareness about Pedestrian and Bike Safety issues and beginning to build a coalition of people in town who share a desire to make improvements. But it is really inspiring to read this story of how a group in California, over the course of a year, obtained $800,000 in grant money to improve sidewalks in their neighborhood.

It can happen, even in difficult economic times. We confront a budget crisis here and the likelihood of multiple property tax override campaigns next year. Despite recent good news about the fact that state aid for school funding will not be cut, even “level-funding” of Town departments has become the best we can hope for. The question is not what will be cut, but how much will be cut. Many people are going to oppose those overrides because times are hard for everyone and it’s a reasonable case to say, why can’t the town just “tighten their belts” like the rest of us…and postpone new expensive projects?

In such an environment, talk of sidewalks and other improvements that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, faces an impossibility argument–but only if we assume the money has to come from the existing budget. When people are truly behind an idea, they can make it happen.

Tomorrow, our town of Westwood is dedicating a Veterans Memorial park that has been in the works for many years. Originally, Town Meeting approved $25,000 for the park, but it took the efforts of many people over the years to make the project happen. Then, when it became clear that $25,000 was not going to cover the project, the town conducted a brick sale–selling memorial bricks to residents to honor Veterans. Within a few weeks, hundreds of bricks were sold and in total, the Town raised over $45,000 of additional private money.

Figure out what needs to be done first. Get true consensus and involve as many people as possible so the idea is not just a good idea, but something many people want to happen and believe in. Then, find the money and make it so.

It’s easy to get sidetracked by negativity. Did you see how $9 million of Federal stimulus funding is being used to construct a footbridge to connect parking lots to Gillete Stadium? That is NOT my idea of walkability–to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize private development of a project nobody asked for? Meanwhile, we need this bridge fixed so people can walk under it from one side of town to the other and not be killed:

Instead of griping about things though, let’s think of the question in a more optimistic manner…if Robert Kraft can get $9 million for a parking lot bridge, why CAN’T we get this bridge improved? What can I do to make it happen? Shall I go back to that bridge with a stroller and videotape what it is like to push a baby carriage along under that bridge? Shall we form a neighborhood group to advocate for fixing the bridge? How do we make this thing “shovel ready?” I don’t think it would be that hard to light a fire around this issue, but we need other people to step up and a relentless focus on positive solutions…then, we will find the will to make it happen, the consensus to do something that is supported by the entire neighborhood, and the funding to accomplish the impossible.

Here is a short video of some serious critical cycling mass in Copenhagen, Denmark…

I’m wrapping up a final list of bike racks for our town to obtain through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Regional Bike Parking Program. Today is the deadline to order bike racks which are then reimbursed by this program. Our town administrator and school officials are excited to get the racks and hopefully, this will be another small step towards increased biking and walking in Westwood.

Here’s one of the racks we hope to replace/improve:

The popular understanding of the origin of street design in Boston goes back to the original wisdom of cows pastured on the common and commuting home to farms. Although this is more folklore than fact, it does reflect the liklihood that streets were developed piecemeal in response to short-term needs and not as a part of an organized plan.

Such is always the case, unless a community has a blank canvas upon which to write…and millions of dollars of funding…and popular support for centralized design and planning of an urban utopia. Expect that confluence of opportunity sometime in the next century. In the meantime, improvements are opportunistic: a bike lane here, an updated intersection there…a new development bringing potentially more problems but at least some cash to manage solutions. When those micro-opportunties happen…advocates need to be ready to propose improvements, but these improvements should be seen NOT as accomodations for interest groups, but as opportunities to develop “complete streets” – recognizing that…

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.–National Complete Streets Coalition

Increasingly, communities are adopting policies to incorporate this new kind of paradigm. Even as they do so, however, they are not immune to the misunderstandings of those who view these measures as expensive luxuries that detract from “fixing potholes.” What opponents fail to realize is that today’s potholes were yesterday’s bogs and other “cow obstacles.”

Complete Streets is not about a master plan to impose a new design on cities, but an effort to develop a shared use strategy that recognizes how our needs are changing. We need safer ways for active transportation to be supported in our communities. Partly, it is “aspirational”–we do want to encourage more walking and biking–but successful change looks for real needs: where are people currently trying to walk and bike? It can never be about “build it and they will come,” it has to be “thank goodness they finally did something about that bridge!”

Adopting a Complete Streets strategy means coming together as a community to adopt a policy that commits to a vision of the future where the needs of all users are considered. It provides a reference point for “why do we want to do this?” and “why are we doing this?” so that changes/improvements are not seen as accommodations or concessions to appease a minority of outlier users, but as necessary steps towards ensuring a better future for all.

A few Halloweens ago, I picked up a barrel of “Halloween Pretzels” from Costco–mini-pretzels in orange and black bags in a big plastic container. About the ONLY one happy about that choice was our dog who got into the “treats” when the untouched bowl was left on the floor inadvertently. I believe we finally choked down the last remnant sometime in the following spring. Having learned my lesson, I am happy to see a giant bag full of candy in the kitchen now awaiting Saturday night.

Thousands of empty calories await as we prepare to march our children around the neighborhood in this annual ritual of excess. Given the explosion of childhood obesity in America, am I worried? Not really.

I’ve been following a number of stories in the past few weeks connecting the obesity crisis in America to health care. CBS’s Sunday Morning devoted an entire show to “Size Matters.” A radio program on NPR last week devoted an hour to a discussion of Overweight America. The radio show considered, in particular the question of how we advocate for weight loss without “blaming” overweight people.

We focus far too much on symptoms of a problem that has much deeper roots than can be addressed directly. For solutions, we leap to radical and drastic methods like surgery or the search for medications that will fix us. We guilt each other into diets or pursuing unpleasant exercise routines we hate…and then we watch the food we eat selectively–seizing on the most minute reports of the bad or goodness of a particular food, while oblivious to a landscape of excess that surrounds us.

But I digress. The folks at Zillow, where you can look up the value of your neighbor’s house, have created a Trick or Treat Housing Index for Seattle (their company location) neighborhoods. It’s basically a list of affluent, walkable neighborhoods–big surprise–but what I find interesting is the walkable connection.

A 30-minute walk once a year with your kids is not going to compensate for eating thousands of calories in a glorious choco-fest of indulgence this weekend, but perhaps living in a place where this traditional activity is easy will. 20-minutes of walking to a train and from the station to work everyday does make a difference. Deciding, several times per week, that it would be enjoyable to go for a walk around the neighborhood adds up to many miles of exercise. Hopping on a bike with a kid in the bike seat to go to the library occasionally…it all adds up to an active lifestyle that is foreign to many Americans who have become isolated in car-dependent housing developments.

So I look forward to enjoying Halloween and the “fruits of our labor,” so to speak, with no guilt or worry. We will eat crap and be happy. We will join our neighbors in this annual tradition that fills our side streets with parents and children walking from door to door, meeting each other, and collecting candy. It’s a great American tradition, but what is great about it is not just getting the candy but the whole experience that is fundamentally-rooted in an active, community-engaged lifestyle that reminds us of how simple, safe–and relatively healthy–our lives were before we over-thought and over-did everthing.

Every horrific death of a cyclist leads to rounds of recriminations and a brief “coming together” of the cyclist community to draw attention to how, in the battle between car and bike, bike (and biker) always loses. In Toronto this summer, a prominent politician (former Attorny General of Ontario, Michael Bryant) engaged in an altercation with a cyclist–the end resulting being the cyclist clinging to his car and eventually being dragged under the rear wheels and killed. The cyclist, a 33-year old father of 3, was a bike courier.

The Toronto Cyclists Union, after some initial reaction and anger and protest, is adopting a very different and positive campaign to attempt to get drivers to notice and respect cyclists–described in the YouTube video below:

The Cyclists Paving the Way campaign aims to “flip” the negativity and emphasize positive driver behavior by encouraging bike riders to hand out little “Thank You” cards to drivers who do “small” actions that acknowledge and respect cyclists…little things like looking before opening a car door or clearly checking for a cyclist when turning.

I like the idea and although I’m not sure about the logistics of handing out cards in busy traffic, I know that I’ve observed–even in Boston–some standout behavior from people driving cars that should have been thanked. I was shocked one day, at the Mass. Ave and Columbus Ave intersection, to observe a driver asking a guy on a bike about whether or not he (the driver) was OK to be using a lane with a bike drawn on it for his right turn. (Yes, the bike lanes convert to “sharrows” at major intersections.) I’ve also noted a number of times when I could feel cars patiently waiting for me to “clear” an intersection as they approached from behind to make a right turn…and many times when cars at 4-way stops waved me through as I slowed to pause…

We tend to remember the negative 10 times more than the positive, it seems. The story of the person in a car who buzzed me or yelled at me for no reason–that sticks in my mind for weeks or months, but really, most of the time, most people in cars are actually trying to co-exist. When I have crashed a few times over the years, I’ve had people jump out of their cars and offer to drive me somewhere–I was embarassed, actually–it was no big deal–but we tend to forget or cynically refuse to believe that actually, most people out there are kind and considerate. If they were not–you wouldn’t be able to get a mile down the road without being killed as the opportunities for mayhem are so great…and, as I said in the beginning, in a conflict between car and bike, the car always wins.

I hope the Toronto experiment works. It’s not always going to be practical and presumably a cyclist motivated to be this kind of “goodwill ambassador” will be safety-conscious enough to give out these little cards without creating a distraction. But it would be great to see those kind of interactions happening–with less emphasis on the demands for enforcement, penalty and road justice that color most discussions of how bikes and cars get along.

Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists announced their updated list of Bicycle Friendly Communities. The closest town to Boston is Brunswick, Maine…and, in the past, Burlington, Vermont has been a winner. Both communities won the Bronze designation.

Despite some recent improvements, the City of Boston is not on the list yet. I would argue that their recent efforts make them a strong candidate, but the reality is cycling in Boston is still perceived as a life-and-death adventure and an award, at this point in time, would stretch the credibility of the League.

To win designation as a Bike Friendly Community, a community of any size (award winners range from Chicago and New York City down to Sitka, Alaska and Oxford, Mississippi) submits an application to report what has been done to make their community more bike friendly. It can be both a recognition of efforts and a promotion to encourage more residents to consider cycling.

The 28-page application is, itself, something of a roadmap for change. As communities review the application, they will quickly self-select whether or not they should be applying yet–and gather ideas for steps to take towards making an application credible.

We should be putting Massachusetts on this map. If Sitka and Oxford can be bike-friendly, then, with a bit of work, so can Westwood. Other towns like Brookline, Newton, Milton, Concord and Lexington are probably farther along, but all share significant cycling and cycling advocate populations and official town advisory boards. I would love to see one of these signs posted at the entrance to our town…of course, I’d love to see some bike lanes first!

Of course it would not be fair to just post signs without having made things any safer or friendlier. But as we deploy bike racks, involve our advisory committee in the repaving of roads (a small project next week on Gay Street is taking into account our committee’s recommendations), promote our schools participation in Safe Routes to Schools, and look for more and more ways to support and encourage cycling, I believe we should make these efforts as visible as possible–not to “claim credit” but to send a message that bicycles are a welcome part of our community.

A few weeks ago, I set up an IdeaScale web site to gather suggestions for ways to improve Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety in Westwood. It has turned out to be an effective, easy way to collect ideas and our challenge now is to do something about those ideas.

The site is simple to use–that is its principal virtue. I have experimented with other online tools to help improve communication and/or organize things before, with mixed results:

• The WestwoodWiki went nowhere–I think mainly because it requires a great deal of participation, awareness, and faith that one’s investment of time will be meaningful. A wiki is a website anyone can edit–allowing group collaboration in drafting documents, etc.–and although I believe it can be a great tool to foster civic engagement, and there are great examples of this in larger cities like Melbourne, Australia or Davis, California, it is hard to get the ball rolling, so to speak.
• WestwoodBlog has been successful, but inconsistent. It totally depends on my effort to stir up news and events and is most valuable when there are “hot” issues in town. If I post something about Westwood Station–the controversial development project that is now stalled due to the economic slowdown–it generates a ton of activity. If I encourage and solicit candidates for Town Election to post their ideas, this generates some commentary. And the topic I created for Walkable Westwood, has been a good place for me to publicize our efforts on Ped/Bike Safety…but the blog is a very general purpose, news-oriented site that many read, but few contribute.

The IdeaScale Site has generated 44 ideas and included several hundred people participating by voting those ideas up or down.

• I seeded the site with many of the ideas our group had already been talking about. This gave us a place to document and discuss those ideas. We had talked about circulating spreadsheets and drafting a group report, but I found publishing the ideas moved us forward more effectively.
• The site was relatively easy to use. I had a few reports of difficulty…and very few people went to the trouble of creating a login account–but as anonymous, guest users, they were able to quickly submit ideas and comments (60-plus comments so far).
• The “discussion” has stayed on track. On the blog, things can go off on tangents since there is no overall purpose, but on the IdeaScale site, it is so focused on a single purpose, I think this has avoided some of the community management problems that could result from just posting a blog item and asking for feedback.

The big question is “what next?” I believe our committee has had great discussions so far and is building an increased awareness of active transporation issues in Town, but I want us to start creating some “small victories”–little accomplishments that demonstrate we are putting ideas to work.

At our last meeting, we began to work through the ideas submitted. I exported the ideas into an Excel spreadsheet and, based on suggestions from other members of the group, created scoring columns for urgency, population impact, and relative effort–summing a 3-point scale so that when addedd together, each idea received a score ranging from 3 to 9. Then, we can sort the ideas and identify the most urgent (immediate safety issues) ideas affecting the largest number of people with the fewest obstacles to implementation as projects we should form subcommittees or working groups to address.

We began by sorting the ideas by their IdeaScale vote score and then working down through the list. The process of discussion itself was valuable–given this framework for approaching it. I projected the spreadsheet on a wall from my laptop and edited it in real-time. For each idea, I clicked on the hyperlink from the spreadsheet to a web browser that allowed us to read the full idea submitted and see the comments. In another browser window, we used google maps to view satellite imagery of the specific locations involved.

As a group, we then reached a consensus on the 3 ratings for each item. Unfortunately, our meeting was already running very late, so we only managed to review the first ten ideas–but along the way we have already begun to identify some projects and priorities and talk about solutions with people in the room who can make a difference–e.g. the Town Engineer, Safety Officer, Town Planner, Planning Board members, PTA representatives, DPW representatives, and other interested people. At our previous meetings, we have had a lot of discussion, but I believe this more structured approach is leading us towards a more methodical review of ideas.

It’s early. This was just one meeting and as it approached 10pm, I was torn between the desire to get things done versus the reality that everyone needed to get home to their families. It was not a simple, “that’s a 1, this is a 3,” kind of discussion as people have many perspectives on each idea and it is incredibly valuable to hear that input as a group. But we began to get into a rhythm of discussion and then a conclusion that, ok, that sounds like it affects the whole town…or, ok that will require work, but it is not impossible…”

I’ll report more as we progress.

Last Wednesday, Westwood schools postponed their participation in International Walk to School day due to a torrential downpour. This morning, we await the dawn to melt the first frost of the season, as the thermometer at my house reads 34 degrees and the Norwood airport reports 28. But clear skies should make this a spectacular fall day.

Meanwhile, the concerned parents and bureacrats in Saratoga have eeked at bit closer to permitting kids to ride bikes to school at Maple Avenue Middle School. The Board of Education did in fact strike down the 1994 policy forbidding bike riding, but transferred authority to the local school principal to determine whether it was safe or not. Advocates for change aren’t thrilled–it simply transfers the issue to the local school where administrators may continue to say it is not safe, nothing has changed, etc. But I think this is a victory as it opens the door to a local discussion and changes the conversation from “bike riding will not be tolerated” to “how can we make this school safe?”

The reality is that the perception of bike riding as an unsafe activity persists no matter what official policy is adopted. Parents are not going to encourage/allow their kids to ride bikes if they feel it is unsafe. Adults will not bike commute to work if they fear for their lives. Those who extol the virtues of active transportation must find solutions to real and perceived dangers through a combination of what are described as the 4 E’s of planning: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Encouragement. Additionally, a 5th E, Evaluation, is critical to success of Safe Routes to Schools programs as it “closes the loop” on making sure great ideas, as they are implemented, actually work.

These success stories from communities that have improved their walkability illustrate the key theme of inclusion. Change must “bottom up,” it cannot be imposed from above or simply “fixed” by changing a law or building a sidewalk. How we get there is vitally important to success.

Is it my imagination, or has the Boston Globe been sentenced to some form of secret penance that compels them to run “the other side” stories every once in a while? First there was a report of Boston’s unruly riders–scofflaw cyclists who annoy and confound drivers with their callous disregard for law and safety. Now it’s the pedestrians turn as we learn that “Despite increased risks, jaywalkers abound on Boston’s busy streets.”

These enforcement actions are a good idea. Some communities have even obtained state grant money to support increased police presence to stop cyclists and pedestrians who fail to follow the rules. But I don’t accept the common explanation for people breaking the rules–that they are stupid or too self-centered to care. Too much of the commentary on these stories easily dismisses the situation as personally irrelevent because the problem is caused by other, “bad” people.

The real problem is courtesy–and unfortunately, these controversy-baiting stories only raise the temperature and harden the judgments of many. Remember that story last week about the Saratoga Springs school policy against kids riding bikes to school? Well tonight, the Board of Education will hear a report from a committee that has been working on this issue for the past four months.

…the committee is comprised of about 24 school and town officials, students, parents and representatives of Saratoga Healthy Transportation Network.

The group met five times over the summer to investigate current walking and biking access to every school in the district and develop a potential plan for safe, alternative routes. In addition, the advisory committee brainstormed options for how to promote biking and walking to school.

Will the policy change? Maybe. But more importantly, people in the community are working on this issue. The original news story talked of the school district having to “backpedal” on a policy from 1994, but it seems the local process is working.

Measuring a baseline is the first step towards assessing and ultimately achieving improvements to walkability. Walk Score has generated a ton of news lately–winning a Rockefeller Grant to improve their service, providing a quantitative basis for the CEOs for Cities study that illustrated a link between walkability and housing prices and providing a measuring stick for communities to compare themselves to one another. A quick lookup of our new home versus our old one confirms what I already knew: a 12% increase in walkability, although it feels MUCH greater.

Walk Score is imprecise–it depends on searching google maps for known points of interest like grocery stores and other amenities. But it gives us some relative basis for comparison and can prompt a discussion of what factors go into generating a higher score. Ultimately, when the Walk Score shows up in real estate listings, it becomes a “marketing tool,” and that’s not bad–it helps quantify the often vague assertions in home listings of “walk to shops, parks, trails” which could mean there is a patch of green grass somewhere withing 2 miles of a house. It helps get people talking specifics and reinforces the idea that walkability is a valuable topic.

I’m also impressed by what the League of Illinois Bicyclists has done in compiling a “Complete Streets” audit of road construction projects. They evaluated 46 recent Chicago area road projects for pedestrian and bicyclist safety and generated a 100-point scale that combines ratings for ped, bike, crossing and context to arrive at a “complete” score for the project. That study, published today, was cited by the Chicago Tribune to support their conclusion that “the best streets are built by those who will use them.” Projects administered by the state department of transportation scored lowest, while locally-planned and originated projects scored highest. Big surprise: central planning fails to serve the needs of the community.

These are two examples of data-driven analysis–and how it can influence the public debate. As we talk to our neighbors, we hear so many ideas and so many observations…but it is hard to get from talk to action. The big “deal breaker” of course is money–and I’d love to hear how cash-strapped communities have come up with funds to pay for projects. The short answer is that it is not a short process. There are grant programs that take time. The planning takes time and resources of busy people. At every step, there are questions of impossibility: how could we ever afford that?! The residents will not support it. Someone will object…whatever. These kinds of quantiative tools–combined with a more qualitative–quality of life–perspective and vision for the future are the best recipe for progress…

Over the years I’ve lived here, I’ve developed more and more respect for our Mayor, Tom Menino. Now it turns out he’s discovered cycling and goes for an early morning ride in the Hyde Park neighborhood every day. That can only be good news for those of us who brave the potholes and insane drivers of Boston as we try to bike commute. I would not characterize Boston as bike friendly, but it is a very bike-aware city. Drivers are familiar with cyclists, they just don’t like them. Here are some lifesaving tips for cyclists.

I enjoy riding my bike to work for two reasons. First, I like the activity…it is just fun to be able to ride a bike for a couple of hours on days that I ride in and out. Second, it gives me a different perspective on the city than I would have otherwise. I don’t claim to relate to the people of all the neighborhoods I ride through, just because I’m on a bike, but I see parts of the city I would never notice if you just got in your car and rode the MassPike from suburban Westwood in to work downtown. My daily ride takes me through Dedham, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, the South End, and parts of Southie. Sometimes I ride home through the Back Bay, out past Fenway and BU, Allston-Brighton, through Newton, Brookline, Needham, etc.

I’ve been listening to the bikescape podcast for a couple of years, and I finally managed to listen to last months podcast on Portland, OR. It really made me want to visit. Then, I watched the video on the bikescape website and it made me want to move there!

I’ve known Portland is a great place to live and work for some time and I’ve driven around the city going up and down the West coast, but I never stopped to visit. In the podcast, Jon (the amazing guy who has recorded over 60 of these hour long podcasts about cycling in San Francisco, New York, England, LA, etc.) narrates as he, his wife, and two kids cycle the neighborhoods of Portland and talk with local cyclists. I never realized how “Berkeleyesque” Portland was until I heard the local people talking about living there.

Bikescape is a great podcast. I’ve subscribed to a few “newsy” podcasts in the past, but got bored with them. Something about the “urban folksy” manner of Jon and the cool, laid back people he talks to really communicates a sense of “bike culture.” I listened to his podcast on fixed gear bikes a couple years ago and since then, I’ve become a fixie enthusiast myself. It is hard to explain to people why you would enjoy riding a bike with no shifting and no freewheel (no coasting; if the bike is moving, the pedals are moving your feet.) but when I listened to people talk about it, I found it infectious.

As I searched through his archives for a link to that Fetish for Fixies podcast, I realized the extraordinary memorability of so many of his conversations. I’m not really much of a part of the cycling community here, but listening to these people over the past couple years has helped me feel a bit connected to something larger.

The city of Boston is having a Bike Summit next week. If I can manage to take a few long lunches from work, I have to check it out and see what I can report back here.

Boston is currently conducting a “bike summit” to brainstorm ideas for making the city more bike friendly. I attended a public session today at city hall about bikes and economic development. I wish I could report that the session itself was worthwhile, but I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. However, the great news is that a lot of people came together in one room from many successful efforts across the country.

Part of the opportunity for economic development is in bike tourism. Jennifer Toole, of Toole Design Group in Washington, DC described how bike tourism has benefited Vermont, where a study indicated that the economic revenue generated by bike tourism exceeds maple syrup revenue. An economic impact study from western Canada discovered that mountain bike tourism is responsible for over $10 million annually. The image of cyclists as cheap vagabonds who cruise through town and buy a couple of bananas is way off. For Boston though…I have a hard time envisioning the city itself as a bike destination.

I think the greater value of making the city more bike friendly is in how it can transform our urban experience. Boston is already a “creative class” city–our culture and educational resources are a huge magnet. But Boston is expensive and rough around the edges. I love the city, but when you start to look at what other cities are doing to enhance their overall quality of life, you start to think, maybe I’m paying too much to live here. Maybe there is greater value to be found elsewhere.

Louisville, KY held a bike summit a couple of years ago and has launched an aggressive program to integrate bikes into the life of the city. A specific goal is “We want to attract and retain young professionals to expand the economic base in Louisville.”

In Chicago the McDonald’s Cycle Center offers bike commuters lockers, showers, repairs, rentals–you name it. But that’s just a start. Nick Jackson, of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation spoke to the Boston group today about the vision behind these efforts to transform the city over the coming decades.

Another Chicago project involves education and publicity efforts behind a program to encourage “Shop by Bike.” Bikes could extend our pedestrian radius within a city; consider that in any given city you typically have smaller “squares” that are local hubs of activity. These squares, like Porter Square, Inman, Davis, Harvard, Central, etc. are hubs of activity with retail/restaurants in the center and apartments above and around. If people felt they could ride their bikes half a mile to buy something, it would dramatically extend the development possibilities. Right now you have the problem of opening a restaurant that is too far away from the square…or in a no-mans land between two squares. But on a bike, a half mile is less than five minutes. Add a rack and bag to your bike–and find a secure place to lock it up…and it changes the way you view your neighborhood.

But we have a lot of work to do in Boston. I found it ironic that my effort to attend this workshop illustrates just how much of a fanatic you need to be right now to bike Boston…first, I rode my bike in to work–13 miles dodging potholes, being ever vigilant for crazy drivers, constantly watching for right-turners who would cut me off, timing things to avoid running over oblivious pedestrians, choosing to ride on the sidewalk at times, running stop signs and red lights as a lesser of evils choice to get out of traffic-pinching situations and, after riding a short stretch of interstate onramp that is the only way to get from the South End to Southie, finally arriving at work where I changed clothes in the bathroom and tried not to sweat too much.

At lunch, I rode over to Government Center through the financial district. Again, pedestrians everywhere, delivery trucks, one way streets…I hardly ever run lights, but I found that the safer course of action for me was to run the red lights and go the wrong way a few times. Then I got to government center with its many, many steps on the plaza that I got to carry my bike across.

Whew. It’s very different from riding in Vermont or upstate New York or even the western suburbs.

Can Boston be a bike city? I think so. There are a lot of cyclists, it’s just not quite mainstream enough yet. Sometimes, I reach a stoplight and am standing there with 3 or 4 other cyclists commuting to work. Sometimes there is a line of us making our way down the Southwest Corridor park, a multi-use trail that takes me from Jamaica Plain/Forest Hills all the way downtown. But we don’t have the culture of San Francisco, that’s for sure. And we’re not New York City–but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

Cities like Portland really amaze me–as I blogged about a few days ago. They seem to have the whole package of housing and transit. It would be great to live in a reasonable family neighborhood, with clean air and trees, then hop on my bike and ride 20 minutes to the urban core…instead of an hourlong adventure through some of the most depressed parts of the city.

I don’t think we’re moving anytime soon. But the bike component is a key feature for any city to achieve the kind of living balance that so many of us want these days. We don’t want to commute by car in from the suburbs. We want to be a part of where we live and work. The bike can really help that feeling of connectedness.

Following the Boston Bike Summit last October, the city has created a program, Boston Bikes, and is working to improve cycling in the city. I’ve been receiving emails from Nicole Freedman, Director of the City’s Bike Programs that are encouraging:

• This year, the city will recognize all businesses that complete some bike friendly requirements with Boston Bike Friendly Business Awards, as part of the overall city green initiative. It’s too late now to nominate a company, but it will be interesting to see how many qualified for this inaugural program.
• The city is creating a city-wide bike map, collaboratively with cyclists by publishing instructions on how to edit a google map that contains routes all over the city. Cyclists of all abilities will edit the maps to rate the streets to help the city compile a baseline map of how difficult or easy cycling in the city is.
• You can report road hazards online through a form on the city website.
• You can sign up for the city’s newsletter here to be notified of additional initiatives.

This is encouraging on several levels:

• It appears the city is finally taking cycling seriously. I know my opinion of Mayor Menino improved dramatically when I read about his own cycling efforts.
• The city is looking for ways to use technology and grassroots energy to make a difference. I was amazed at the use of google maps…and while the implementation is a little rough, it is very encouraging to see a city agency taking risks and inviting the public to come in and mess with these maps. A more typical governmental approach might be to hire a consultant to do a study or develop some expensive technology boondoggle that would take forever to develop and never be used. This kind of “scrappy” internet approach is a breath of fresh air in city governance.

During the Bike Summit this fall, I blogged about bikes and economic development–a topic that was picked up by some other urban/economic development bloggers like Wendy Waters at All About Cities and Richard Florida. I think there is something about cycling that really captures the passion of creative people–at all socioeconomic levels. It’s part of the secret sauce of developing cool places to live and work…

One good thing about high gas prices…they may be encouraging more people to consider bicycle commuting. And more people riding bikes means drivers will be more aware of bicyclists and perhaps those of us who ride already will be a little safer.

I’ve noticed more bikes on my commute to Boston as reported by this Boston Globe article, although I do take offense at the author’s comment that

For bicycling enthusiasts – once a subculture of bike messengers, car haters, cash-poor students, and eco-activists – it’s beginning to feel like a tipping point.

I didn’t realize I was part of that subculture. I thought I was more of a “lycra-clad effete euro-poseur” on my road bike than part of a fringe subculture. Thanks, Boston Critical Mass for the email update about that Globe article.

Whether or not gas prices directly correlate with bike commuting is the topic of a thoughtful post at Jason Welker’s wikinomics blog. I commented there about the additional factors I think go into the “rider calculus” for me at least.

Over at WestwoodBlog, I write about my vision for increased walking and biking in Westwood. I include the following list of resources that are great for anyone looking to improve pedestrian and bicycle transportation:

• Dan Burden’s Walkable Communities is a website with tons of articles about this topic. Walkability is not just for cities or small towns–and it is part of a whole sustainability movement. I could go on…but Dan does it better.
• Cambridge-based Livable Streets sends out a newsletter that compiles links to interesting articles on many transportation issues in the Boston area and nationally. They also hosts events such as this upcoming talk about how residents of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury fought back the big highway projects of the 60s to save their communities.
• walkBoston is not just about Boston; this resource hub is helping facilitate efforts in 58 communities across Massachusetts. walkBoston piloted the first Safe Routes to School program in 2000.

These are just a few resources to get people started thinking about improving the walkability of their communities. Here is a link to the topic thread of my blog posts on Walkable Westwood.

On a beautiful fall day in New England, who would want to drive a car to work? For some time, I’ve been meaning to carry a camera along my bike ride to work and take some photos. Last Friday, I got that chance.

My trip begins on Gay Street in Westwood–a wide, tree-lined street with farm/mansions at one end and houses like mine at the other. Usually, there is a line of cars up the hill from the stoplight, but on this day, I left a bit later and found no traffic. I was unable to snap a photo of the interminable bridge construction on Washington Street crossing route 128…but perhaps, before my kids start college, I will be able to ride my bike across a new, smooth bridge instead of dodging potholes and racing cars on the currently 2-lane bridge into Dedham.

I take Washington Street through Precinct 1 in Dedham, to Dedham Square.

After the square comes the circle–a terrible idea where Washington Street meets Route 1, resulting in a mess of concrete and asphalt that divides Precinct 1 and Dedham Square from East Dedham. Often, I avoid the circle by taking East Street, but that’s under construction too, so today, I braved the circle and charged on through and headed up Washington St past the former Dedham Mall.

Washington Street is a wide, 4-lane road that also serves a number of busses that make their way from the former Dedham Mall into the Boston neighborhoods of West Roxbury and Roslindale. In the moning, the traffic is not bad and although trucks and buses can sometimes come a little close for comfort, my bigger concern is dodging the ruts and potholes.

I always get caught at at least one light; this time, I’m left to look up the last stretch to Bellevue Hill and the West Roxbury Parkway/Eneking Parkway. I used to take the parkway because it is a nicer ride through Brookline, but Washington Street remains the most direct and efficient route, so I usually stick with that.

From the top of the hill, on a clear day, I can see all the way down into the city, from the clock tower at Forest Hills station on to the downtown skyline. The downhill ride is fast–sometimes 25mph or more. Coming home, this becomes a more leisurely ride, allowing ample time to experience the full ambiance of the housing projects along the way…

Forest Hills station is another cycling dilemma, not suitable for leisurely photo projects. The buses I have been competing with all down Washington Street converge on the station. But, after navigating through the maze of buses, taxis, and pedestrians, I cross the street and begin cycling down the southwest corridor multi-use path. The path take me through Jamaica Plain. The southwest corridor is a good idea…and most of the path is a great bike ride. But it can be challenging to cross certain streets. Some sections of pavement, especially around Green Street station, are so bad that most experienced cyclists opt for the road instead of the path.

The road also makes it easier to cross at Jackson Square. Jackson Square is the T stop abutting the Heath-Bromley projects. Some of these areas…I hear about them later on the news as crime scenes. But I’ve never felt unsafe riding through Roslindale and JP. On a bike, the biggest danger is your own lack of attention…then road/street hazards…then cars…then, maybe pedestrians.

The southwest corridar park takes me all the way to Ruggles station and the Northeastern campus.

As I ride up Columbus in the morning, I’m shielded from the bright sun by the campus buildings, then I cross Mass. Ave into the Back Bay on Columbus Ave.

I work my way through the South End via Warren Street and cut through on Waltham St to the “South of Harrison” artist district…past a big bus garage…until I encounter a highway mess.

The most difficult part of my ride is getting from the South End to Southie. It’s not a long ride, but I need to go up this 4-lane road to a left turn under the I-93 overpass and along roads under the highway until I can cut over to Southie on either the 4th St or Broadway Bridge. The problem here is that these roads are all ramps and feeders and not really suitable for bikes. I’ve tried other routes, but there is always a trade off and just too many on/off ramps in this part of town to avoid. I was shocked to see a woman running a baby carriage across this intersection, againt the light that I was afraid to cross against…insanity.

After crossing into South Boston, the final leg of my ride is up the Harbor walk along Fort Point channel, next to the Gillette Factory. Each morning I get an awesome view of downtown lit up by the rising sun and constantly changing as new construction projects alter the Boston skyline on a daily basis.

This ride takes about 50-60 minutes. I could probably do it faster, but I’ve learned that is the speed I can do without breaking too much of a sweat so I can still go into work without grossing everyone out. I hope.

Today is the last day in the world I’d ride my bike because it was -3 degrees when I woke up. But exciting things are happening in Massachusetts and Boston related to cycling:

Bicyclist Safety Bill

Governor Patrick signed the Bicyclist Safety Bill into law. This legislation has been underway for 8 years. MassBike has a detailed review of what the law means to cyclists and drivers, but some key items include:

• Motorists can be ticketed and fined $100 for “dooring” cyclists. That’s what happens when someone kicks their car door open in front of you and you crash into the door.
• The “right hook” is outlawed. That’s when a car passes you quickly so they can make a right turn in front of you. You die.
• Motorists must yield when making left turns in front of bikes. This is to avoid “T-boning” accidents where motorists don’t realize how fast bikes go and turn in front of them.
• Bikes CAN legally ride to the right of traffic and motorists turning left must yield. This is what happened to me a few months ago when I crashed my bike in Dedham. Under the law now, that motorist is absolutely at fault for hitting me.

I wish I could claim credit for helping pass this law, but the credit belongs with the cycling community and MassBike in particular.

Boston Bikes Update

The city of Boston has been making great progress towards its goal of becoming bike friendly. On Thursday, January 29, at 7pm, at the main branch of the Boston Public Library, LivableStreets Alliance will host the 1st annual “Boston Bikes Report” by the city’s Director of Bicycle Programs, Nicole Freedman.

This event is free and open to the public. The focus of the meeting will be on future steps needed to create the “world class bicycling city” that Mayor Menino has promised. There will be additional discussion about what could be done to significantly expand the cycling population — and its political influence — by attracting “traffic intolerant” bicyclists.

“Traffic intolerant bicyclists” means ordinary people who are not insane like me…who rides his bike 13 miles into Boston through conditions that prompt my wife’s friends to say “how can you let him do that?” The dream is that Boston will transform, during our lifetime, into a city where cycling and walking are pleasant, preferred activities that everyone does without fear.

My primary bike is still bent out of shape and frozen in the garage, but I’m looking forward to warmer days (and a job in the city!) so I can resume my bike commuting. In the meantime, I encourage everyone who can to check out the progress being made here in Boston.

There is a great article in the Globe today about the Charles River Wheelmen and their Saturday Morning Fitness Ride in Needham. The weekly ride has proceeded uninterrupted for 617 weekends, including a few during blizzard conditions.

When we first moved back to Massachusetts from California in 2002, we lived in Needham. Every Saturday morning, around 815am, I would suddenly see a brightly-colored peloton of riders turn down South Street. That inspired me to want to join. My wife and I had mountain bikes in California, but they weighed a ton and we never really got into it. But we went out and bought a pair of hybrid bikes and began riding.

The roads in certain areas of Massachusetts are inconspicuously marked with “arrows” signifying informal bike routes. The Saturday fitness ride is a simple inverted “T” pointing the direction of the ride and indicating where to turn. The northwest suburbs around Concord are serious cycling country as you will find intersections with four or more different symbols painted on the side of the road. Follow these arrows and they will take you on bike loops of 30-50 miles or more. While we found it difficult to make it to the start of organized group rides, we made an adventure out of going to the start of these rides and following the arrows.

The great thing about cycling in Massachusetts is how green the countryside is. Out in the suburbs, just past Route 128, there are miles and miles of roads past farms, fields, and conservation land, and passing through the many classic New England town commons. Ice cream shops make a great resting point. And occasionally you meet up with other cyclists.

As we had kids, we invested in bike trailers and bike seats to take the kids along for the ride. With three kids now, it is harder, but someday soon, they will be ready to start riding their own bikes!

The reason I say the Saturday Morning riders changed my life is that it led me to start a more active lifestyle. The irony is that I have never actually made it to that ride; I was always too late and now, I would have to ride over from Westwood (and leave my wife with 3 kids for hours!) But as we rode the beautiful country roads of Needham, Dover, Sherborn, Wellesley–and took trips out to Concord/Acton/Boxborough, we found something we loved doing that also made us healthier. I was 210 lb when we left California; I’m 179 now. I had been a smoker for years, but stayed quit and have no desire to go back. When it got too cold for me to ride, I started running and, because I was fitter to begin with, enjoyed it and started running marathons.

Another aspect of cycling is harder to quantify–it is the greater sense of participation in the environment. When I was working in Boston, I bike commuted whenever possible, and felt a much greater connection to the city because of it. It’s not just about saving gas or being healthy, there is a feeling of connectedness when we ride or run through our communities, taking time to absorb the sights, sounds, smells, and feeling of the environment through different seasons and different conditions.

I have not ridden my bike since my crash a few months ago, but it’s more due to weather, road conditions, and lack of time than injury (I am completely fine!). But I am looking forward to the day when the snow melts and I carve out some time again to return to the road. Until then, I run when I can.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have not managed to ride my bicycle, but I’ve heard a ton of noise and incitement in the Boston Globe and on the Boston Critical Mass email list to which I subscribe. The Globe has run two controversial articles describing what they perceive as a growing conflict and tension between drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

First, the Globe ran a story about how urban bike riders have attitude and fail to follow the rules of the road. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that some cyclists run stop signs and red lights.

But this conflict-baiting op-ed piece attempts to place the blame for driver misbehavior on scofflaw cyclists and suggests that the “cure” is just to get cyclists to obey the law.

A while back, I read a great blog post entitled The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist and I wish all these frustrated, angry motorists would go read that first before they leap into their attacks on the bike riders. I’m not saying that people who fail to follow the rules are without blame, but I do believe blame is irrelevant.

An op-ed piece today make the point about road safety…the author observes that our roads are designed to kill people. His point is that we should modify our infrastructure to increase safety by doing things like installing speed humps, center lane divider strips, and rotaries to calm traffic.

What bothers me about these stories is the reactions–the continuing, irrelevant discussion of right and wrong, of blame and personal responsibility. Cyclists should obey the laws just like cars (fail to do). Drivers are inconsiderate. Cyclist/Bikers are jerks. (Other) People (than me) are stupid, inconsiderate, etc., but, hey, until you start following the rules, who can really blame them?

Enough already. As someone who rides a bike in the city, I went through a period of paranoia and indignation but this was cured by a few crashes where I realized that if I end up in a conflict with a car, it doesn’t matter who was right or wrong because I won’t be around to argue about it. My crashes didn’t involve cars–they were road hazards and I was lucky. But I know that irrational attitude–on both sides–that can develop. And it can end in death.

We need to change the road, not the rules. We need to stop believing that education and common sense are enough to protect us as a society from the tragedy of accidents. We need to say, OK, drivers and cyclists alike are breaking the law and endangering each other, so what can we do to make it less likely they will do that?

Can we start by accepting a proposition that our roads are for people, not vehicles? That some people will choose to run, walk, bike or drive on these roads and we should make the roads safe for ALL those modes of transportation?

Can we adopt a realistic attitude with respect to compliance?

Why do people drive “too fast” on a given road? It is not just that they are busy on their cell phone, sending text messages, or rushing to some important event. They drive as fast as they feel safe driving. So the fact that they are speeding is probably evidence that the speed limit is not realistic. The road is too fast.

Why do cyclists run red lights and stop signs? Most of them don’t do it while issuing a middle-finger salute to the cars around them. It’s not a brazen defiance of authority, but rather a choice, based on a belief that what they are doing is safe under the circumstances. Individually, you can say “stupid choice.” But en masse, random stupidity cancels out and you are left with empirical evidence that these traffic controls fail to provide believable safety for people on bikes.

I’m not saying there is zero value in education and enforcement. But when you see rampant disregard for existing laws, why would you think more laws or more education would help?

I believe our most fundamental challenge is to restore a sense of community–a building and strengthening of the ties within our neighborhoods and between our communities, especially the neighboring towns where development is uncoordinated and often in opposition to the interests of the next town over. But what can any of us really do about that on a daily basis? It’s not even really my problem–it’s a theoretical observation, an explanation for some frustration about how our society can’t seem to solve big problems like ensuring health care for all citizens or delivering accountability and integrity from our government.

So instead of dreaming up “macro solutions,” perhaps we should consider some basic, day-to-day activities that permeate (or could permeate, with greater participation) civic life: walking and bicycling — what many term “active transportation.”

Boston has begun to improve the cycling infrastructure with new bike lanes, a bikeshare program, and bike commuting promotions like Bike Fridays. We should support, advocate, encourage, and educate about the benefits and practicality of cycling in the city with the dream of transforming participation into something like what the Netherlands experienced over the past 30 years. My ride in from Westwood is a physical way I feel more connected to the city, and I think the more people who share that kind of connection, the better.

For walking, we need to get out of our houses and apartments and onto the streets. Our kids need to feel safe walking to school. We should meet and know our neighbors. Walkable communities are not only safer, they are stronger–and the more people who share this experience, the more a sense of “connected place” will develop.

There are plenty of problems to solve and things to improve in our society, but where do we start? I think a sustained emphasis on encouraging and making safer these modes of active transportation could have systemic benefits to facilitate all other efforts while providing immediate improvements to our quality of life.

Today is International Walk to School Day–but not for some communities where walking and biking have been banned. Two recent news stories are discouraging on many levels, but do not represent the norm as more and more communities are, in fact, adopting alternatives to driving.

• In Saratoga Springs, NY, a woman and her 12-year old son are defying school officials who, on the day before school started, advised all parents that “walking and biking to school would not be tolerated.”
• In Marblehead, MA, the town’s participation in today’s event was cancelled while the school works out “issues related to program administration, safety, and liability.”

These stories are “easy targets,” for walkability advocates and that is my first complaint. The newspaper coverage of the New York story in particular follows the pattern that has become so typical of print-based media’s clumsy attempt to remain relevant in an online world. Controversy-baiting stories leave little room for reasonable discourse as dozens of intemperate commentors react to the story that has set up the town for criticism without providing adequate context to explain why presumably reasonable adults in the community made decisions and now find themselves on the online hot seat. Online media (including this post of mine, to some extent) jump on the bandwagon as the Sarasota Springs story makes it to the Huffington Post, shows up in my LinkedIn Groups, and will undoubtably be a feature item in the many Pedestrian and Bike update email newsletters to which I subscribe.

Maybe the folks in Saratoga Springs ARE idiots, but I suspect there is much more to the story…the policy has been in place since 1994. The parents and administrators are probably focused on 100 other issues and it is unfair-based on the limited information reported-to leap to conspiracy and anti-progressive theories. But it is more fun to do that and it sells papers and generates online traffic. Meanwhile, the parents and community members probably feel angry and misunderstood, but dare not venture into the online argument of anonymous people who know nothing and judge everything.

In Marblehead, the local newspaper, the Marblehead Reporter, does a better job of providing context. Parents, administrators, and school officials are not characterized as opposing walking, but it seems the promotional effort “got ahead of itself.” The town had recently experienced a tragedy when a high school sophmore was hit and killed by a motorist…then, a “Wellness Committee” coincidentally launched a promotion of Walk to School Wednesdays. School Board Chairman Dick Nohelty said that the program was not passed through the proper channels before launching.

The Marblehead story is a cautionary tale for walkability advocates about the importance of inclusion and consensus. These ideas–promoting walking and bike-riding–are not self-evident truths or causes “against” anyone. In fact Marblehead, like my town of Westwood, is fully signed-up for the Safe Routes to Schools program. School Superintendent Paul Dulac noted that he’d like to see that program “more integrated” before a walking campaign takes place.

It should not be controversial to organize a walk to school or choose to ride a bike. But anything involving the safety of children is an extremely touchy issue that, when it makes people uncomfortable for whatever reason, will prompt conservative reactions. I’m learning for our own committee, it is easy to make mistakes and to not include the right person, talk to people the right way, promote an idea prematurely, etc.–but I think it can be managed by maintaining a positive attitude and accepting criticism as a learning process. We can’t lose sight of our overall goals as we navigate the details.

Update: a torrential downpour here has cancelled today’s walk…so perhaps next week, I’ll report on how this went.

According to land use strategist Chris Leinberger, speaking at the Walk21 conference in New York City yesterday and reported on StreetsBlog:

If the American Dream of the Baby Boomers was all about being able to have a car and a house in suburbia, the new American Dream is having the choice between living in drivable suburban places and walkable urban ones.

This summer, CEOs for Cities released a study showing how the walkability of a neighborhood increased the value of homes in that neighborhood. In Charlotte, NC:

Controlling for all other factors including size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, age, neighborhood income levels, distance from the Central Business District and access to jobs, “if you were to pick up that house in Ashley Park, and place it in more walkable Wilmore, it would increase in value by $34,000 or 12 percent,” Cortright said.

But it is not an “either/or” challenge. Some important distinctions:

• According to Leinberger, “About the the same number of people want to live in a pedestrian-friendly environment as those who want to live in a drivable suburban one…” In other words, there are always many factors at play in the personal preferences of home buyers, but desire for walkability is playing an increasing role. It is not necessary that everyone be walking…but the trend appears to favor walking which is beginning to translate into measurable economic value.
• Most of the discussion so far has been about urban vs suburban–a distinction I find stereotypical and non-applicable in my New England town. Although we are only a dozen miles from the center of Boston, we have two “villages” separated by relatively rural spaces. It’s not quite “farmland,” but the town has set aside conservation land in a community that has evolved over several hundred years–limiting the amount of cul-de-sac sprawl. Getting across town on foot is currently impractical but within these villages, many amenities are accessible on foot. There is a great opportunity here.

We all know the potential advantages of living in an urban village, but most of us in towns and suburbs have weighed those advantages against much higher disadvantages which include the following perceptions:

• urban schools are unsafe and less integrated into the community
• urban living is more expensive
• parking is a nightmare and cars are still a necessity
• personal safety is a concern
• “anonymnity” is less desirable as we “settle down”
• most people still want “space”

I’m just listing those perceptions to illustrate, not to start a debate. Most people like where they live and it is an arrogant and presumptive mission to tell them they should change their attitudes. Instead, we should focus on the opportunities to get the best of both worlds.

We can transform our suburban towns into walkable communities, retaining the strengths and advantages of already desirable communities. When more residents can walk to amenities like shops, parks, schools and small local restaurants, the economic viability of these highly localized services will be strengthened. It does not mean “no more trips to WalMart,” but perhaps a few more customers per week at Cafe Diva or Islington House of Pizza will prompt them to stay open longer or be able to hire another person. Perhaps the foot traffic to these places will result in a new customer walking into the “Ski Shop” or choosing to drop off dry cleaning at the Crown Cleaners instead of using a chain store. As activity increases, perhaps a new business will open…

Over time, one new customer at a time, we grow. While we grow, our children become healthier as they walk to school and our playgrounds, spending less time in front of video games and more time outdoors. We see our neighbors more often and the strength of our community grows. Isolated houses sit on the market for months while starter homes on 10,000 sf lots get multiple offers. It all feeds together into an economic and social revitalization that begins, literally, with a few steps…

To encourage more people to bike, ask women what they want. And make it safe for kids to ride their bikes to school. These approaches would dramatically increase the utilization of cycling as a mainstream activity.

According to an article in the October Scientific American, women are an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities. Those of us who bike frequently are familiar with the lycra-clad warrior mindset and the urban bike messenger culture, but we are also familiar with comments like “I’m surprised your wife ‘lets’ you ride to work.” We have learned to temper our tales of close calls and have adopted an extremely defensive approach to bike commuting–out of a necessity for survival.

The Scientific American story reviews some of the first bike infrastructure studies done in the US and concludes that when women’s concerns about safety and utility are addressed, cycling adoption increases. On-street bike lanes do not adequately address safety concerns because they do not separate bike from automobile traffic. Cyclists must still negotiate tricky intersections to get anywhere useful. And most bike paths are constructed in useless park areas–supporting the idea of cycling as a limited recreational activity, but not helping anyone get a bag of groceries home.

The studies will raise some gender bias eyebrows, but in the aggregate, we should acknowledge that gender roles do still exist and if we want to see more bikes on the road, we should ask what women want.

Kids don’t need much encouragement to ride bikes, but their parents need to know they will be safe. The Safe Routes to Schools program has been very successful not only at encouraging kids and parents to walk to school, but has also increased the comfort level of parents around allowing their kids to ride their bikes to school. Among other activities, SRTS and MassBike conduct bike safety workshops at schools (and also bike commuter workshops for adults) and promote inprovements to bike infrastructure around schools.

We are a long way from what has become routine in the Netherlands where nearly every child bikes to school, but if you notice in the photos of kids and parents, you will not find them competing with cars, but traveling their own separate bikeways. I have posted this video before, but I just love it:

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Finally, for those who question, why bother? Here is a clip from a Safe Routes to Schools presentation here in Westwood that illustrates how the rates of obesity have grown over the past 24 years.

Integrating bike transportation into our daily lives would help raise our overall level of activity and help us adopt healthier lifestyles. But to work, it needs to be practical and safe–something people choose to do not as a separate chore like going to the gym to work out and lose some weight, but as a preference to driving. We the lycra-clad road warriors are on the margins…advocates and planners should look to the mainstream needs of women and children for clues to achieve truly radical change.