UC Berkeley chemical engineers have used an old way to make explosives to make biofuels more efficiently. They are using a technique that can turn sugar-rich plants (like corn and some grasses) into a liquid that acts like gasoline does know by providing a tiny explosive force when ignited. The
Continue readingTag: Transportation
Things Are Good: On Solving Traffic Jams
Cities around the world have problems with vehicular traffic moving slowly. Slow moving cars negatively impact air quality and the ability for road-based mass transit. So what do we do? Jonas Eliasson, who hails from Stockholm where they’ve implemented congestion charges six years ago, provides some insight how cities can
Continue readingThings Are Good: Urban Density Decreases Car Use
It’s well established that people living in urban areas use cars less frequently than their suburban and rural counterparts. Some argue that it is thanks to better transit services that urbanites don’t drive but there is another reason for success. Population density alone can make a striking impact on how
Continue readingThings Are Good: Futuristic Things That Became Reality Last Year
It seems that most ideas in the realm of Science Fiction stay as fiction but it’s not too rare that “out there” ideas from Sci-Fi can become real. At the Sci-Fi blog IO9 they have complied a list of some seemingly crazy things that turned out to become real last
Continue readingWalking Turcot Yards: Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner
Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner
Continue readingEarthgauge Radio: Interview with John Bennett of the Sierra Club
Click the audio player to hear my interview with John Bennett, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, about the federal government’s proposed changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Bennett explains why so many people and organizations, including the musicians Sarah Harmer, Gord Downie and Feist as well as Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown and Mountain Equipment Co-op, […]
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Stop Signs as Yield Signs for Cyclists – Ontario Cycling Strategy and The Idaho Experience
The following, based on a previous blog post, was submitted to the Ontario Cycling Strategy public consultation process. Stop Signs as Yield Signs For Cyclists – The Idaho Experience I am proposing that as part of the Ontario Cycling Strategy the Highway Traffic Act be amended to adopt the policy
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Greener Asphalt
Roads are often overlooked when it comes to the impact of cars on the environment, but we can’t ignore the roads have on the environment when discussing the practicality of cars. Asphalt is used to make roads and the process of creating asphalt is very energy intensive. In Vancouver, they are looking into ways to […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Solar Powered Combustion Engine May Be in Your Future
This may sound counter-intutitive, but researches have begun a project to build an internal combustion engine (a common car engine) that runs off of solar power. Instead of using gas to ignite everything they want to heat water, add a dash of oil, to create a replacement to the overused pollution producing machine that is […]
Continue readingArt Threat: SkyMall Liberation: White vs Non-White
Ethnographic data visualizations of the Skymall catalog made in flight with non-sharp objects.
Continue readingThings Are Good: NYC Mayor Bloomberg Loves Bike Lanes
As Toronto fights smart planning and removes sustainable transportation infrastructure (indeed, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so), New York City Mayor Bloomberg continues to espouse how great bike lanes are. In NYC they have added a lot of miles of bike lanes and found local business get more business, neighbourhoods become nicer, […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Free Transit Can Improve Cities
A small city in France had a problem: their transit system was failing and it was expensive to run. Their solution was to make ridership free for all, and it has turned out to be a success that other cities are looking into.
The motivations for making a transit system free are obvious. Increased ridership […]
Things Are Good: Better Block is Bettering Cities
The Better Block initiative was started in Dallas, Texas as a rapid urban revitalization project of an underused, nearly abandoned block of old buildings along an old streetcar line. They project takes the “pop-up” business model to completely revitalise old city blocks with storefronts, community events, and cafés, and sustainable
Continue readingThings Are Good: Fight Fat with Urban Design
People in urban centres walk more and are generally more active than those who live in the suburbs, which is great for urbanites but not so great for the health of suburban dwellers. Years of poor urban planning in the suburbs have had a negative effect on the health of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bike Lanes Save Lives and Lower Risk from Cars
It should come as no surprise that bike lanes are safer than merging bicycle traffic with heavy metal boxes on wheels. A new study from the University of British Columbia confirms this and goes one step further by analysing which type of bike lane is in the safest. Well designed
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bike Lanes Help Local Economies
As a cyclist the fact that bicycle infrastructure helps business makes senses to me. Bike lanes encourage more cyclists which can bring more people to an area, drivers on the other hand seem to just keep driving though. I hope the backwards thinking politicians in Toronto see this study since
Continue readingThings Are Good: An Extra 32 Minutes a Day for People in Greater Toronto
Your32 is an effort by CivicAction to promote a financially sustainable and more efficient transit solution for people living in the greater Toronto area (GTA). This project is a great way to engage the people in the GTA as the region is regressive when it comes to transportation, even going
Continue readingopenalex: Seriously Cycling: Bikes Are Getting More Attention All Across Canada
[Here’s my latest post over at @SustainableCitiesCanada ] Anyone who has been cycling in Canadian cities over the past fifteen years knows that things are changing. When I left Montreal for Vancouver in 2002 the city’s streets were still an aggressive dance between bike couriers, cars, and cyclists who wanted
Continue readingopenalex: Seriously Cycling: Bikes Are Getting More Attention All Across Canada
Anyone who has been cycling in Canadian cities over the past fifteen years knows that things are changing.
When I left Montreal for Vancouver in 2002 the city’s streets were still an aggressive dance between bike couriers, cars, and cyclists who wanted to ride like couriers (I’ll sheepishly admit to being one of them). Downtown cycling was only for the brave.
But by the time I returned in 2010 a sea change had occurred: in less than a decade the city had added over 600 kms of bike paths, many covering crucial commuter corridors that connect the length and breadth of the island.
It was like being in another world. Instead of weaving through traffic, I found myself in a curb separated lane with my own set of traffic signals. Cycling – in other words – had become an integral part of the city’s transportation strategy.
Unlikely Leaders
During that time a similar shift began in municipalities all across the country, and it continues to develop as I write. This week Toronto unveiled its first curb separated bike lane, with more to come (although simultaneous plans to remouve other routes have caused controversy). Last year Ottawa became the first city in Ontario to put in similar infrastructure, and has nearly doubled its cycling network since 2000.
Winnipeg has quintupled the amount of money it spends on active-transportation corridors and it will start work on an active-transportation master plan next year. Quebec city is about to adopt a cycling master plan. And this weekend Halifax will conclude public consultations on plans to create its first crosstown cycling corridor. All of these projects are the result of dedicated local activism combined with new interest among local officials.
Recognition that cycling is a real transit solution has spread well beyond traditional leaders. You’d expect Vancouver to be at the front of the pack, but Calgary?
This summer the municipality hired Tom Thivener as its first full-time cycling coordinator. Thivener hails from Tucson (Arizona) where he helped increase bike ridership by 58% between 2009 and 2010. Under his guidance, Calgary is poised to spend $20 million over the next three years to improve commuter cycling infrastructure.
New York city is probably the best example of this trend of unlikely leaders. Would you bike through Manhattan? Following a campaign to introduce cycling infrastructure and reduce conflicts between cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians, cycling increased 26% between 2008 and 2009. Every day more than 200,000 people now bike to work in the Big Apple.
If You Build It (right), They Will Come.
Investments in cycling infrastructure is clearly linked to overall ridership. But there is still a long way to go. Only a small percentage of people in Canadian cities bike to work. The average for most mid-sized and large cities is close to 2%.
There are many reasons to do better. For starters a large portion of urban greenhouse gas emissions are transportation related. But – picking up a thread Sarah posted on earlier this week – bikes are also a great example of the type of holistic solutions that will help us build deeply sustainable cities. Increased cycling, supported by proper cycling infrastructure, has positive impacts on health, air quality, street safety, and overall liveability.
Cycling is a transit option that is accessible regardless of income level. Studies have also shown that building cycling infrastructure creates more local jobs than a comparable amount spent on traditional auto-centric roadways.
Future Cyclists: Women
So what should our objectives be?
Specific targets will vary from city to city. But understanding who cycles now is one powerful way to try to increase future ridership. Currently young men represent the dominant group of cyclists in most cities. A better metric for success is women.
Cycling researchers have highlighted female cyclists in particular as an “indicator species” for the bike-friendliness of a given area. This may have some direct impacts on how we design the next generation of cycling infrastructure. In Tucson, for example, Thivener significantly increased female ridership by focusing on the type of facilities they preferred and putting in place “bike boulevards” rather than on-street bike lanes.
One way or another, creating infrastructure that is safe and appealing to a broader demographic is our next challenge.
openalex: Seriously Cycling: Bikes Are Getting More Attention All Across Canada
[Here’s my latest post over at @SustainableCitiesCanada ] Anyone who has been cycling in Canadian cities over the past fifteen years knows that things are changing. When I left Montreal for Vancouver in 2002 the city’s streets were still an aggressive dance between bike couriers, cars, and cyclists who wanted
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