The League of American Bicyclists’ National Bicycle Summit starts March 8 in Washington DC. A strong Minnesota delegation will be calling on Minnesota’s Congresspeople. The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota promises updates via Facebook and Twitter.
Closer to home, the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition will meet March 8.
On Wednesday (March 9), the Richfield Bicycle Task Force will be meeting
On Thursday (March 10), the Bike Edina Task Force meets.
Additional racing, educational opportunities, and even the weekly #bikeschool chat on Twitter are all featured on Ride Boldly’s Minnesota Bicycle Event Calendar for your convenience and delight.
Bike Commuters by County — Interactive map built with 2010 Census data showing bike commuting by county.
#bikeschool Question from a Florida Bike Commuter — Blog post describing the dilemma of a Florida bicycle commuter being targeted by gangs, seeking advice. So far, the best advice really has been to mitigate risk and not bike commute. Any ideas for him?
A friend Tweeted this video the other day, and I feel the need to share. This is an excellent video about teaching a child to ride a bicycle on his/her own. The techniques shown would work equally well as part of an adult education class oriented to adults who never learned to ride as children for whatever reason — the need for this has increased in many cities with growing populations of immigrant women.
At the 2011 Minnesota Bicycle Summit, Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota staff member Nick Mason cited a study done next door in Wisconsin that suggested that if residents of Madison and Milwaukee replaced just 20% of trips under 2 miles currently taken by car with trips taken by bicycle or foot, the state would save $319 million dollars in health costs (BFW, Adventure Cycling).
This plays into so much: Most Safe Routes to Schools programs focus on the kids who are within a mile of their school, and getting them cycling or walking is considered a way to help deal with the rise in obesity in young populations (17% of children are obese, per the Centers for Disease Control). But I think the thing I love most about this study is how quantifiable and reasonable it is. It looked at two metro areas — so, obviously, if it extended beyond such areas, the savings would be greater. And it only looks at a vehicle trip reduction of 20%! As I’ve stated before, a common red herring about bicycle advocates is that we are anti-car, and in general that’s not true.
I mean, I GET IT. I live less than a mile from a major source of food and home objects, but I recognize that a bicycle just isn’t going to work when I have to take a 13-week old infant and pick up a case of diapers, 2 gallons of milk, toilet paper, and a turkey. I know some people who could make it work, but in a broad sense it’s not a reasonable request. But that’s okay. The measured goal is based on cutting just 20% of trips, so the trip with the baby for milk and diapers can stay safely in the other 80%. Everyone still benefits via traffic calming, reduced CO2 emissions, and reduced congestion.
$300 million dollars buys a lot of engineering, encouragement and education for cycling. It just remains for local, state and federal leaders to try to seize it in a broader sense, rather than via piecemeal programs.
March 3, 2011
by julie Comments Off on Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program: What’s Next for Minneapolis?
When Congressman James Oberstar made the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) a part of 2005’s SAFEATEA-LU bill, the premise was simple: Try to accelerate mode-shift in four communities — including Minneapolis — and study the results. The final report was due in September 2010, although it hasn’t come through yet. An interim NTPP report was published in April 2009.
The environment in which the report now will be made is different. Republicans now control the House of Representatives, and cost-cutting is a top priority for them. Several current members of the House Transportation Committee think bicycling shouldn’t be a part of committee work. In the Senate, several members are already talking about transportation funding being restricted to roads, or that “bike paths” aren’t infrastructure. It appears that the House wants to restrict infrastructure spending to the dollars in the highway fund from the 18.5-cent gas tax — which has failed to keep up with needs and demands for even basic road upkeep, let alone new programs and ideas.
It is almost a sure thing that a report on the program will find it to be successful in Minnesota. But in the current environment, it’s hard to imagine it receiving continued federal funding beyond the initial grant. While Minneapolis has benefitted from additional grants and funding sources, Bike Walk Twin Cities (the local program administrator) has largely been spending federal dollars — over $10 million of them. Once the program cuts off, neither the city of Minneapolis nor the state of Minnesota has the cash to fund similar spending levels for a long time.
It may be very interesting to see how or if the momentum created by the original funds can be continued with a smaller revenue pot from which to pay for staff, projects and education.
