Good News From "Over There"
I've always had the impression that John Pucher has been a lonely visionary on his side of the pond with his tireless promotion of safe bicycle infrastructure. Things are changing, it seems.
Firstly, this recent post from Massachussets' MassBike spells it out in no uncertain terms that a paradigm shift in bicycle infrastructure is underway:
You may have noticed our recent strong support for bicycle facilities, like bike lanes on the Longfellow Bridge. In the past, MassBike garnered a reputation as an organization that was "finicky" when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. For better or worse, we sometimes got wrapped up in theoretical debates about bicycle facilities that, even if not perfect, were practical solutions to real problems. And our official policies at the time did not give us clear guidance on how to move forward.
But as times change, ideas change. We want everyone to know that MassBike is 100% committed to promoting bicycle infrastructure, even if that means taking some risks on new ideas. Moving forward, we want MassBike to be on the cutting edge of promoting bicycle facilities, so we have adopted a completely new policy on bicycle infrastructure. Drafted by our volunteer Technical Advisory Committee (whose hard work we gratefully acknowledge) and adopted by our Board of Directors, the new policy definitively says "YES!" to bicycle facilities - whether they are traditional, innovative, or even experimental. So while, for the last several years, we have been working hard to turn MassBike into a lean, mean, bicycle facilities promoting machine, we now have it in writing.
Our new policy will guide our future actions, and support our desire to get more bicycle facilities built and filled with happy bicyclists.
HANDY LESSONS FROM OVERSEAS
Another strong signal is sent from the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration in this lengthy article highlighting Handy Lessons from Overseas on Walking and Bicycling. A very strong signal, indeed.
The article covers the experiences gathered by a team that visited Copenhagen and Nakskov in Denmark, Berlin and Potsdam in Germany, Lund and Malmö in Sweden, Bern and Winterthur in Switzerland, and London and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It's about bicycling but also about liveable communities in general. Well worth a read.
The article had a glitch when I first saw it. A couple of the photos had bike helmets photoshopped - rather badly - onto the heads of cyclists. In particular, the photo from Copenhagen was a photoshop nightmare:
The writer of the article informed me that it was done elsewhere in the organisation and without his consent. The print version couldn't be fixed, but the online version has been. A correction was added at the bottom of the online version:
Correction: Public Roads originally added helmets to two of the photographs in this article, “Handy Lessons From Overseas on Walking and Bicycling,” (pages 29 and 32 on the printed version) to conform with U.S. bicycle safety practices. However, European practice is to focus on increasing safety by encouraging greater numbers of bicyclists through bicycle-friendly policies rather than focusing on helmet use. Public Roads regrets the photo alterations and has restored the original photos to this online version of the article.
Apart from that cultural faux pas, the article is quite visionary and a true sign that times they are a'changing.
13 thinking out louds:
That helmet photoshopping is so funny. They could have gone further and added some hi-viz clothing and then perhaps a 4x4 or pickup right behind the cyclist for the authentic US driving experience.
Wow, that photo-shop hack job is so bad I can't stop laughing. Nice to see some American organizations chomping at the bit to move forward on bicycle infrastructure, though.
Wonderful! Thanks for the note. Indeed, MassBike has been working to promote well-designed bicycle facilities. I would like to thank you for publicizing examples of good facility design elements. It is a constant struggle to get bicycle facilities designed correctly, and not just shoe-horned in as an afterthought.
~Brian Postlewaite
MassBike Board & Technical Advisory Committee Member
Don't forget that Portland also just approved and is actively looking for funding for a 20 year, $600 million bicycle plan, including around 300 miles of cycle tracks, trails, etc, and around 300 miles of bicycle boulevard (heavily traffic calmed streets), bicycle parking, education, and advertisement - we are also pushing to get more control over road design and regulation at the city level, rather than the state level (which has been a big problem in the past).
It's good to see these issues getting more national attention (though they still aren't getting any money at a national level, really), people are starting to realize that a bicycle is a perfectly reasonable vehicle for transportation of people and goods, and that, in fact, it has a number of distinct advantages over automobiles in our crowded, noisy, over-trafficked cities.
I'm excited to see where Portland, and the rest of the country, goes with this. I think Portland will be a very different city in 20 years.
"Cycle Helmets"? Noooo, give them their proper name: "Expanded-foam Polystyrene Hats". At least that is more in line with the physical reality!
Good to see some movement toward infrastructure there.
Good News? The MassBike announcement comes with very interesting comments. Unusable, bad, stupid and dangerous cycling infrastructure is still to be criticised!
Can't we just have Bicycle Culture 1.0 back?
I live in a city which has no bicycle infrastructure and hardly any bicycle racks but we're working with the city to make things better. Unfortunately we're next to a community who's bicycle advocates are outspoken Foresters. Don't they know it's not 1977??? Hopefully they will come around someday. It's always the same, somebody was hit by a car 30 years ago on a bike lane so there all evil. They even dig up stats on Copenhagen accidents as proof that bicyclists are injured or killed there, which I'm sure happens. I'm also sure it's no worse than the automobile accident rate in the US. That doesn't matter, vehicular bicycle riding is the only answer for them. Best of wishes to Massachusetts as they become a more progressive bicycling state.
Our eldest has just come home with a lot of advice on 'how to be safe' including much pro-helmet propaganda (of the 'you must be really silly if you don't wear a helmet' variety) There's a lot of ignoring that big metal motorised thing whizzing past and telling children to 'be safe' as if it's their responsibility.
The best is the highly improbable picture of someone falling backwards from a bike and hitting their head on a handy pole as an example of 'what could happen if you're a really stupid person who doesn't use a helmet' If they have to use such silly pictures to promote helmet use, why bother?
It's just amazing that someone thought they needed to photoshop a helmet. That kind of thing really makes helmet advocacy seem like a religion. I'm glad they came to their senses and used the original photo and I'm glad this organization puts the safety focus on the infrastructure.
We've had 4 cyclists killed by cars in our area in the last 5 months or so. 3 were wearing helmets but the media really jumped on the one who wasn't. When a pedestrian is killed by a motorist, nobody rages on about helmets. Such a blindness in this country to the true menace.
It's kind of an unspoken policy for American government types to feature photos only when all cyclists in the photo are wearing helmets.
I've experienced this - you might call me an American government type. I've never photoshopped one on, though, that's despicable.
But as times change, ideas change. We want everyone to know that MassBike is 100% committed to promoting bicycle infrastructure, even if that means taking some risks on new ideas. Moving forward, we want MassBike to be on the cutting edge of promoting bicycle facilities, so we have adopted a completely new policy on bicycle infrastructure. Drafted by our volunteer Technical Advisory Committee (whose hard work we gratefully acknowledge) and adopted by our Board of Directors, the new policy definitively says "YES!" to bicycle facilities - whether they are traditional, innovative, or even experimental. So while, for the last several years, we have been working hard to turn MassBike into a lean, mean, bicycle facilities promoting machine, we now have it in writing.
Translation: Debate has been stifled. Dissenters have been purged. All critical thinking is forbidden. Viva La Revolution!
Translation of translation: Sub-cultural whiners have been stifled. Time-wasters with 35 years of noise and no results have been purged. All car-centric thinking is forbidden. Viva La Revolution! Viva the Democratic Bicycle.
Sorry, Mikael, I can't agree with the philosophy that "Any bike facility is a good bike facility." And that's what Massbike seems to be saying.
Here in the US, I've come across many horribly designed facilities, and I know of resulting serious injuries. Those "taking some risks" will be the cyclists, but they'll be doing that without warning.
Traffic facility design is not for amateurs. Experiments on new designs need to be conducted carefully. Massbike is using "finicky" as an insulting synonym for "careful and correct."
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