Bicyclists on their way through the city are part of city life. They can, with ease, switch between being bicyclists and pedestrians. Photos by Jan Gehl.

Editor’s note: This is the final installment in our series this week featuring Danish architect and livable streets luminary Jan Gehl. The pieces are excerpts from his book, “Cities for People” published by Island Press. Donate to Streetsblog SF and you’ll qualify to win a copy of the book, courtesy of Island Press.

Bicyclists represent a different and somewhat rapid form of foot traffic, but in terms of sensory experiences, life and movement, they are part of the rest of city life. Naturally, bicyclists are welcome in support of the goal to promote lively, safe, sustainable and healthy cities. The following is about planning good cities for bicyclists, and is handled relatively narrowly and in direct relation to a discussion on the human dimension in city planning.

Around the world there are numerous cities where bicycles and bicycle traffic would be unrealistic. It is too cold and icy for bicycles in some areas, too hot in others. In some places the topography is too mountainous and steep for bicycles. Bicycle traffic is simply not a realistic option in those situations. Then there are surprises like San Francisco, where you might think bicycling would be impractical due to all the hills. However, the city has a strong and dedicated bicycle culture. Bicycling is also popular in many of the coldest and warmest cities, because, all things considered, even they have a great number of good bicycling days throughout the year.

The fact remains that a considerable number of cities worldwide have a structure, terrain and climate well suited for bicycle traffic. Over the years, many of these cities have thrown their lot in with traffic policies that prioritized car traffic and made bicycle traffic dangerous or completely impossible. In some places extensive car traffic has kept bicycle traffic from even getting started.

In many cities, bicycle traffic continues to be not much more than political sweet talk, and bicycle infrastructure typically consists of unconnected stretches of paths here and there rather than the object of a genuine, wholehearted and useful approach. The invitation to bicycle is far from convincing. Typically in these cities only one or two percent of daily trips to the city are by bicycle, and bicycle traffic is dominated by young, athletic men on racing bikes. There is a yawning gap from that situation to a dedicated bicycle city like Copenhagen, where 37 percent of traffic to and from work or school is by bicycle. Here bicycle traffic is more sedate, bicycles are more comfortable, the majority of cyclists are women, and bicycle traffic includes all age groups from school children to senior citizens.

At a time when fossil fuel, pollution and problems with climate and health are increasingly becoming a global challenge, giving higher priority to bicycle traffic would seem like an obvious step to take. We need good cities to bike in and there are a great many cities where it would be simple and cheap to upgrade bicycle traffic.

Bicycle traffic should be automatically integrated into an overall transport strategy. (Copenhagen).

If it is possible to take bicycles on the train, subway and by taxi, then travel can be combined over great distances. (Copenhagen)

A Whole Hearted Bicycle Policy

The cities that have successfully promoted bicycle traffic in recent decades can be tapped for good ideas and requirements for becoming a good bicycle city. Copenhagen is a compelling example of a city whose longstanding bicycle tradition came under threat from car traffic in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the oil crises in the 1970s were the catalyst for a targeted approach to inviting people to ride their bicycles more. And the message was received: today bicycles make up a considerable part of city traffic, and have helped keep vehicular traffic at an unusually low level compared to other large cities in Western Europe. The experiences from Copenhagen are used in the following to provide a platform for discussion about the good bicycle city.

In Copenhagen, a cohesive network for bicycles comprising all parts of the city has gradually been established. Traffic is so quiet on small side streets and residential streets in 15 and 30 km per hour/9 and 19 mph zones that a special cycle network is not necessary, but all major streets have one. On most streets, the network consists of bicycle paths along the sidewalks, typically using the curbstones as dividers toward the sidewalk, as well as parking and driving lanes. In some places bike lanes are not delimited by curbstones, but rather marked with painted stripes inside a row of parked cars, so that the cars protect the bicycles from motorized traffic. In fact, this system is known as “Copenhagen-style bicycle lanes.”

Another link in the city’s bicycle system is green bicycle routes, which are dedicated bike routes through city parks and along discontinued railway tracks. These paths are intended for bicycles in transit and are viewed  as a supplementary opportunity, a sightseeing possibility and a green option for bicycles. However, the main principle of bicycle policy is for bicycles to have room on ordinary streets, where just like the others in traffic, their owners have errands in shops, residences and offices. The principle is for bicycle traffic to be safe from door to door throughout the city.

Room for this comprehensive bicycle network has been largely gained by downsizing car traffic. Parking space and driving lanes have been gradually reduced, as traffic patterns have moved from car to bicycle traffic, and therefore bicycles needed more room. Most of the city’s major four-lane streets have been converted to two-lane streets with two bicycle paths, two sidewalks and a broad median strip intended to make it safer for pedestrians to cross the street. Roadside trees have been planted and traffic is two-way as before.

Bicycle paths are placed along sidewalks in the same direction as ve- hicular traffic, and are always on the right and thus “slow” side of vehicular traffic. That way all traffic groups know — more or less — where they have the bicycles, which is the safest system for all parties.

Bicycles as Part of Integrated Transport Thinking

The invitation to bike must mean that bicycle traffic is integrated into the overall transport strategy. It has to be possible to bring bikes on trains and the metro lines, and preferably in city buses so that it is possible to travel by combining bike trips with public transport. Taxis too must be able to transport bicycles when needed.

Another important link in an integrated transport policy is the possibility to park bicycles securely at stations and traffic hubs. Good bicycle parking options are also needed along streets in general, at schools, offices and dwellings. New offices and industrial buildings should include bicycle parking, changing rooms and showers for bicyclists as a natural part of their planning.

Traffic safety is a crucial element in overall bicycle strategies. A cohesive bicycle network protected by curbstones and parked cars is an important first step. Another key concern is the experienced and real safety of the city’s intersections. Copenhagen is working on several strategies. Large intersections have special bicycle lanes of blue asphalt and bicycle icons to remind drivers to watch out for bicycles. Intersections also have special light signals for bicycles, which typically give a green light to bicycle traffic six seconds before cars are allowed to move. Trucks and buses are required to have special bicycle mirrors and frequent media campaigns admonish drivers to watch out for bicycles, particularly at intersections.

Good bicycle cities know that good visibility at intersections is vital. In Denmark vehicles are not allowed to park closer than 10 meters/33 feet from an intersection for this very reason. The widespread American practice of allowing cars to “turn right on red” at intersections is unthinkable in cities that want to invite people to walk and bicycle.

The volume of bicycle traffic is one of the most significant safety factors for making bicycle systems safe. The more bicycles there are, the more it forces drivers to watch out for bicyclists and be constantly on guard. There is a considerable positive effect when bicycle traffic reaches a reasonable “critical mass.”

A Comfortable Network

It is also relevant to mention comfort and amenity value in terms of bicycle networks. Bicycle trips can be pleasant, interesting and free of unnecessary irritations, or they can be boring and difficult. Many of the criteria for good places to walk can be transferred to bicycle routes. It is important for bicycles to have enough room so that they won’t be pushed or crowded. Bicycle paths in Copenhagen vary in width from 1.7 to 4 meters/5.5 to 13 feet, with 2.5 meters/8.2 feet as the recommended minimum.

As bicycle traffic is gradually developed into a versatile, popular transport system, many new and wider bicycles appear on the street scene. These include three-wheeled transport bicycles for children and goods, handicap bicycles and bicycle taxis. All of these transport options require room, and senior bikers as well as the many parents who transport their children by bicycle need increased reassurance that they won’t be pushed and crowded. As bicycle traffic successfully develops  as an alternative transport system, more room is needed. Despite the new demands for more room, the bicycle continues to be the superior means of wheeled transport, which requires the smallest amount of room per person in the streets of the city.

A study conducted in Copenhagen in 2005 concluded that one of the city’s most pressing problems was heavy congestion on bicycle paths. The city council has since adopted an expansion of the width of bicycle paths in the most popular streets and is currently carrying out this policy.

Frequent interruptions are irritating and destroy the rhythm of the bicycle trip. Over the years Copenhagen has introduced several solutions to reduce the problem. Bicycle paths are often carried across minor side streets without interruption, which results in bicycle trips with fewer interruptions and lets drivers know they must wait. Introducing green waves for bicycles on selected street helps correspondingly to reduce irritating stops. In order to create these green bicycle waves, stoplights are set so that when bicycles bike at about 20 km/h (12.4 mph) they need not stop when they bike to and from the city during rush hour. That service used to be provided for cars. Another form of comfort and safety for bicyclists in Copenhagen is the city practice of snow removal. The bicycle lanes are always cleared before driving lanes to emphasize bicycle priority and the invitation to bike — despite the season.

Bicycle Cities and City Bicycles

In recent years, many cities have introduced various types of city bicycles that can be borrowed or rented from stands or depots. The idea is to reinforce bicycle traffic by making it easier for people to use bicycles for short trips in the city, while providing a collective bicycle system so that individuals do not need to buy, store and repair their own bicycles. Amsterdam’s white bicycle bike-share system came and disappeared quickly from the street scene in the 1970s. More stable and well organized systems were established in the 1990s, in Copenhagen, for example. Today Copenhagen has 2,000 city bicycles available at 110 bicycle stations in the city center. The bicycles are free, financed by advertisements. Users pay a coin deposit, which is returned when the borrowed bicycle is returned to one of the official bicycle racks. Copenhagen’s city bikes are used primarily by tourists, who can bicycle around town easily and safely, thanks to the well developed bicycle network. Copenhageners rarely borrow city bicycles, because they prefer their own bikes. In brief, the principle underlying city bikes in Copenhagen  is to enable inexperienced city bicyclists to ride around in a relatively safe bicycling environment.

City bike programs have by now been introduced in numerous European cities. In Paris, the pattern of use is different from that in Copenhagen. Under the Vélib program, city bicycles are used primarily by Parisians themselves. By renting a Vélib by the hour, week or year, they are able to ride a bike without the trouble of storing and maintaining it. The bicycle rental companies handle the bother in return for the rental fees they charge the bicyclists.

The idea of offering bicycles to bor- row or rent has spread rapidly (Lyon, France).

During 2008 the Vélib system in Paris was expanded to comprise 20,000 rental bikes parked in about 1,500 bicycle racks. In a very short time the Vélib bicycles have become a well-used service, primarily for short trips: 18 minutes on average. Here the idea is to enable many more or less experienced  bicyclists acquainted with the locality to bicycle in a network that is neither very safe nor well developed. Although there have been a number of accidents, the program has had the valuable result that more people now bicycle in Paris — on rental bikes and personal bikes. In only one year the number of trips on personal bicycles has doubled, an increase that has doubtless been inspired and reinforced by the bicycle traffic on the new Vélib bicycles. The Vélib bicycles accounted for one-third of all bicycle trips in Paris in 2008, and bicycles in total accounted for between 2 percent and 3 percent of all traffic in Paris.

Inspired by the development in Paris, among other cities, many new city bicycle systems are underway at this time, also in cities that have essentially no bicycle infrastructure or bicycle culture. The idea seems to be that easily accessible city bikes can kick-start development of more bicycle cities on the principle that first you send people out on city bicycles and then you gradually develop comfortable, safe bicycle networks. There are good reasons to be cautious about sending inexperienced bicyclists out on two wheels in cities where bicycle traffic and networks do not have the critical mass to allow city bikes to reinforce ongoing development. Bicycle traffic and traffic safety must be taken seriously, and experiences from good bicycle cities incorporated, before experimenting with cheap bicycle campaigns. City bikes must be a link in efforts to build and reinforce bicycle culture — not the spearhead.

On the Way to a New Bicycle Culture

A number of cities, particularly in Scandinavia, Germany and Holland have witnessed a considerable development in bicycle use in recent years. The number of bicyclists and bicycle trips grows gradually as it becomes more practical and safe to bicycle. Biking simply becomes the way to get around town. Bicycle traffic changes gradually from being a small group of death-defying bicycle enthusiasts to being a wide popular movement comprising all age groups and layers of society from members of Parliament and mayors to pensioners and school children.

Bicycle traffic changes character dramatically in the process. When there are many bicycles and many children and seniors among them, the tempo is more stately and safe for all parties. Racing bicycles and Tour de France gear is replaced  by more comfortable family bicycles and ordinary clothing. Cycling moves from being a sport and test of survival to being a practical way to get around town — for everyone.

This shift in culture from fast slalom bicycle trips between cars and many infringements of traffic regulations to a law-abiding stream of children, young people and seniors bicycling in a well-defined bicycle network has a big impact on society’s perception of bicycle traffic as a genuine alternative and reasonable supplement to other forms of transport. The shift in culture also brings bicycles more in line with pedestrians and city life in general, and is one more reason that bicycles have a natural place in this book about city life.

In New York City 300 km/180 miles of new bicycle paths were built from 2007 to 2009. A comprehensive program to introduce the idea of bicycling to New Yorkers was instituted at the same time. Car free “summer streets” are arranged in the summer months, so that residents of the city can experience the delights of walking and bicycling in comfort (Park Avenue, Manhattan, summer 2009).

Cities are wonderfully innovative in their efforts to strengthen a broader bicycle culture and demonstrate that bicycles are an obvious choice for almost everyone. Schools offer intensive bicycle training, companies and institutions compete to have the highest percentage of bicyclists among their employees, and information campaigns, bicycle weeks and car-free days are held. Many cities now open bicycle streets on Sunday in campaigns to develop bicycle culture. Sunday is a particularly good day for two reasons: car traffic is usually limited and people usually have more time for exercise and experiences. The idea of closing city streets to car traffic, turning them into temporary bicycle streets instead, has been popular in Central and South America for years. The extensive “Ciclovia” program in Bogotà, Columbia is one of the best known and best developed initiatives of this kind. In the post-millennium years, the idea of reinforcing bicycle traffic has spread to more and more of those cities where cars have dominated planning for decades.

Ambitious strategies have been developed to establish extensive bicycle networks in the large Australian cities Melbourne and Sydney. Planners in both cities are hard at work laying out new bicycle lanes and moving existing lanes away from traffic and into safer “Copenhagen-style bicycle lanes” where bicycles move inside the rows of parked cars. New York City planners are working on a new traffic plan that will make NYC one of the world’s most sustainable metropolises.

New York City’s building density, flat terrain and wide streets provide good opportunities for converting car traffic to bicycle traffic, and a new bicycle network of 3,000 km/1,800 miles of bike lanes is planned for the city’s five boroughs: Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Work on the new bicycle lanes started in 2007 and already in the course of 2007 – 2008 about one-quarter of the planned bicycle lanes have been established and significant growth in bicycle traffic is evident. In New York the idea of closing streets to car traffic on Sundays, which NYC calls “summer streets,” was introduced in 2008 as a popular link to the efforts to develop a new bicycle culture.

In the future, concern about sustainability, climate change and health will most certainly mean that increasingly more cities, like New York City, will double their efforts to develop a new culture for city life and movement. Increased bicycle traffic is an obvious answer to many of the problems cities struggle with worldwide.

Bicycles play an important role for transport and mobility in many developing countries.

Bicycling in Economically Developing Countries

Bicycle traffic already plays a key role in the overall traffic picture in many cities in economically developing countries. However, bicycle traffic is typically given poor and dangerous conditions. People bicycle by necessity, and individual mobility is often a prerequisite for being able to get to work and earn a living. In many cities bicycles or bicycle rickshaws handle the lion’s share of goods and people transport. Dhaka in Bangladesh has 12 million inhabitants, and the city’s 400,000 bicycle rickshaws ensure cheap sustainable transport as well as providing a modest but vital income to upwards of one million people.

Many of the cities that actually have extensive bicycle traffic today unfortunately also have forces at work to reduce bicycle traffic in favor of more room for vehicular traffic. In Dhaka, for example, bicycle taxis are considered a problem for the ongoing development of the city. Small motorcycles have replaced bicycles in many cities in Indonesia and Vietnam. Only a few decades ago, large Chinese cities were world famous for their volume of bicyclists, today bicycle traffic has in many cities almost disappeared from the street scene due to traffic reprioritization or even direct bans on bicycles.

In this category of cities, giving bicycle traffic a higher priority needs to be a key ingredient in a policy aimed to effectively utilize street space, reduce energy consumption and pollution, and provide mobility for the great majority of people who cannot afford cars. In addition, investing in bicycle infrastructure is affordable in comparison with other types of traffic investment.

New direction and reprioritizing of city policy is underway throughout the world. Fortunately, this includes prioritizing bicycle traffic in many cities in economically developing countries such as Mexico City and Bogota, Columbia.

Nicole Russo of the Downtown Alliance, David Byrne, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan enjoy coffee and mango lassis at Pearl Street's new pop-up café. Photo: Noah Kazis

The wooden platform of the café takes the place of a few parking spaces along Pearl Street, sitting on top of the roadbed. With 14 tables -- the same red model now familiar from Times Square -- and 50 chairs, the space will be able to absorb some of the neighborhood's lunchtime rush. Sidewalk cafés are generally not allowed in the neighborhood because the sidewalks are too narrow.

The name "pop-up café" is perhaps a bit misleading. No food is being sold in the space -- it's just public seating. This first café is sponsored by two neighboring restaurants, Fika, a coffeeshop, and Bombay's, serving Indian food, but they don't offer table service and anyone who likes may sit down. 

The "pop-up" bit, though, is apt. Ro Sheffe, the Community Board 1 Financial District Chairman, said DOT approached the board with the idea on July 7. "Thirty-five days later and there it is," he said. "I wish we'd got you involved in the World Trade Center." 

Photo: Noah Kazis

Local businesses are excited about the pop-up café and aren't worried about the handful of parking spaces that will be unavailable during the summer months it is in place. "It's going to benefit business," said Prashant Bhatt, the owner of Bombay's. 

"It's also the visibility," added the co-owner of Fika. "You can see from far away that something good is happening here," he explained.

The two restaurants split the cost of the café between them; the city didn't have to pay a dime. Architect Riyad Ghannam of RG Architecture, who designed the popular parklet in front of Mojo's Bicycle Cafe in San Francisco, donated his services. 

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan predicted that it would be used by as many, and as many kinds, of people as the new public spaces her department has created across the city. "Every time we put down just an orange barrel, people just materialize out of nowhere," she said. "If you build it, they will sit."

If DOT deems this first pilot to be a success, said Sadik-Khan, more such cafés could be installed next spring.

This is too fun not to post. John Leguizamo, who's been biking in New York since before the actual Summer of Sam, takes a CNN crew on a ride through Midtown and shares some pointers on NYC cycling. (Sorry about the BASF commercial you'll have to sit through before it gets started.) Leguizamo's big pitch to potential cyclists comes about two-thirds of the way through. While I think he might be overemphasizing the danger and thrills, it's hard to argue after you see the police nearly door him.

The evidence keeps mounting that smart
parking policy is an essential tool in the fight to curb traffic. A
new study of two German neighborhoods indicates that managing the
supply of parking can make streets more livable, even in places that
already have great infrastructure for transit, walking, and biking.
Eliminating mandatory parking minimums, the data shows, plays an
essential role in reducing driving. 

In Vauban, a German
neighborhood built for walking and biking, the lack of parking
requirements has helped reduce driving. Image: adeupa de Brest
via Flickr.

The new research comes from Freiburg, the city at the center of
Germany’s environmental movement and the national leader in energy
efficiency, water conservation, and green industry. Freiburg has built
160 km of separated bike routes, banned cars from the city center, and
attained an automobile mode-share about half the national average. So
when the city started booming in the 1990s, planners made sure to
channel its growth as sustainably as possible. The result was two
"eco-suburbs" — the neighborhoods of Rieselfeld and Vauban,
which are the subject of a study published this
month by Andrea Broaddus, a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley’s urban
planning department.

Both Rieselfeld and Vauban consist entirely of walkable, mixed-use
development. Each benefit from rail and bus transit, significant
investments in bike paths and bike parking, 30 kph speed limits, and a
road network that limits space for cars. Although Rieselfeld and Vauban
are small, with about 10,000 and 5,000 residents, respectively, they
have absorbed a generation’s worth of growth in Freiburg, according to
Broaddus.

There’s just one big difference between the two neighborhoods:
parking.

In Rieselfeld, underground parking lots were built to comply with a
German national law, on the books since 1939, that requires the
construction of one off-street parking space for each new residential
unit. Housing became more expensive because prices absorbed the costs of
parking. On-street parking remained free.

Over in Vauban, committed local activists fought to reduce the
amount of parking, over the objections of a skeptical city and
risk-averse banks. The eventual compromise required all residents to pay
for the land that their parking space would occupy, but gave car-free
households the option of giving it to a land bank instead of using it
for parking. The households who opted out of parking now use that land
for barbecues and soccer games. They also didn’t have to pay for parking
construction, saving 13,300 Euros on the price of their houses. In
addition, on-street parking in Vauban is scarce and metered.

The divergence in parking policy has made quite a difference. While
Rieselfeld has one of the lowest rates of car-ownership in Germany,
with 0.29 cars per person, Vauban has even fewer autos, with 0.17 cars
per person. That translates into more cycling and less driving in
Vauban, where automobile mode-share is five percent smaller than in
Rieselfeld.

Broaddus’s findings and methodology echo the conclusions of "Guaranteed
Parking — Guaranteed Driving" — the 2008 report from
Transportation Alternatives in New York City that demonstrated how the availability of
parking spaces at home leads more Jackson Heights residents to drive
compared to Park Slope residents.

The fact that most New Yorkers have access to good transit options
and walkable street grids should be all the more reason to pursue a
coherent parking strategy. Even in places that have seemingly adopted
livable streets principles across the board, parking policy is still a
powerful lever to make transportation
safer and more sustainable.

The L.A. StreetSummit kicked off last night with a rousing keynote address and slide show by the groundbreaking New York City DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn. Three levels of an Occidental College auditorium were packed with students, bike advocates from around the county, and others interested in Livable Streets to hear Sadik-Kahn talk about the changes that have come to New York City's streets under her and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's leadership in the past three years.

Sadik-Khan's lecture was continually interrupted by cheers and even gasps of astonishment for the "before" and "after" pictures of the now car-free pedestrian plaza in Times Square and Herald Square.

One thing that you could palpably feel from the NYCDOT boss was the sense of pride in how her department has changed the way people think about transportation and even about city government: The speech was peppered with New York City promos, my favorite of which came when she pointed out that "New Yorkers have one-third of the carbon footprint of the average American. If you're really serious about saving the planet, you should move to New York City," she said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and leaders from the Midtown business community announced this morning that the new public spaces along Broadway will become permanent features of the city's landscape now that an eight-month trial period has ended. The city will seek to build on the trial project's success by creating, in the mayor's words, "an enduring, world-class" street in the heart of Manhattan.

After weighing a dramatic decline in traffic injuries and data from millions of taxi trips showing an average seven percent increase in west Midtown traffic speeds, Bloomberg characterized the results of the trial as very encouraging. Safety improvements alone, he noted, were "reason enough to make this permanent."

In a rather extraordinary Q&A session that followed the announcement, Bloomberg fended off several questions from reporters who expressed skepticism that overall traffic speeds had improved. The mayor did not shy from the chance to frame pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements in a way that New Yorkers rarely hear from their elected officials.

“Are the roads for multiple uses -- everybody, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists,” he asked, “or are they just for motorists?” When it comes to streets that safely serve all users and create vibrant public spaces, he suggested, New York has fallen behind its competitor cities around the globe.

Data from the trial period [PDF] suggests that the changes in Midtown are helping NYC to catch up. Pedestrian injuries along the project corridor declined 35 percent compared to average injury levels from 2006 through 2008. The safety improvements were most dramatic at the major pedestrian plazas in Times Square and Herald Square, where injuries dropped by 40 percent and 53 percent, even as more people walked to those destinations.

Photo: NYCDOT

With more space to walk and socialize and fewer pedestrian conflicts with streams of traffic, public opinion of the area has swung upwards by a large margin. Surveys conducted by the Times Square Alliance revealed that 74 percent of people who work in the area today are satisfied with the experience of Times Square, compared to 43 percent in 2007. Three-to-one majorities of respondents -- both New Yorkers and suburbanites -- said they wanted the changes to be made permanent.

The transformation was aptly summed up by Dan Biederman, director of the 34th Street Partnership. "This is a 21st century idea," he said. "The 20th century idea was three lanes of noisy, annoying traffic."

Sadik-Khan, who called the observed improvements "an example of the results we want to deliver on the streets of New York citywide," said DOT would "move immediately to transform the plazas into iconic spaces worthy of their iconic setting." The permanent design of the plazas will incorporate new pavements, new seating, and event spaces.

As for those traffic speeds, the principal source of doubt had to do with methodology. DOT compiled one dataset by hiring drivers to travel straight on a selection of streets, using their own judgment to mimic the average speed of traffic. The hired drivers performed 5,723 time runs using this method.

A separate dataset came from millions of taxi trips tracked with GPS units, recording trip lengths and times to determine average speeds. The GPS data depicted faster travel times in every direction except southbound traffic, while the hired drivers produced more ambiguous results. Bloomberg expressed much greater confidence in the GPS data, which, he said, provided a huge sample size and reflected the real-world, zig-zagging complexity of traffic.

At one point, the prevalence of reporters’ questions about traffic prompted Times Square Alliance president Tim Tompkins to step up to the microphone. "I just want to say that the overwhelming majority of people who come to Times Square are not driving,” he said.

The new Broadway has succeeded because it functions much better for that supermajority of walkers and transit-riders. And don’t think other neighborhoods haven’t noticed. “There are other parts of the city where we are getting lots of calls from merchants who want the same kind of thing,” Bloomberg said. The widespread embrace of the historic re-purposing of Broadway, he later added, “gives you confidence in Janette’s innovation. It’s also building acceptance among the public, when they see that something new has worked.”

Video: Robin Urban Smith

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has released its 2009 Bicycle Count Report (PDF), which shows an 8.5 percent increase in the number of cyclists on the streets last year compared to 2008, and a 53 percent increase since 2006. That marks the third consecutive year of growth for bicycling in the city - every year since the MTA began conducting the annual counts in 2006. Though not as explosive as the 25 percent increase recorded between 2007 and 2008, it's a solid figure for a year in which many of the nation's top cycling cities saw growth in bike trips slowed down by a weak economy and depressed gas prices.

In light of the Bike Plan injunction in San Francisco that's been in place since 2006, the MTA is especially pleased with the continued growth. "Given the inability to make physical improvements to bicycling in San Francisco over the time period, we can only imagine how great an increase we'll have when we're able to implement the Bike Plan fully," said MTA spokesperson Judson True. "I think we're reaching a point in San Francisco where more and more people see bicycling as a primary means of getting around. That's a great sign for the future of San Francisco."

The SFBC's Andy Thornley felt the report deserved more public touting from the MTA, since it shows a 53 percent increase in bicycling since 2006. "We urge MTA to really come forward and make this a prominent report because it tells a really strong story of the city's success in achieving, or moving towards achieving, some of its mode shift and environmental goals," said Thornley. "During the three years and more that the city has been handcuffed from making any physical improvements for bikes, we've seen a 53 percent increase in bike traffic."

Click to enlarge. Relative Bicycle Volumes at Count Locations. Image courtesy SFMTA.

Thornley also pointed to specific intersections identified in the report that have seen bicycle volumes increase at even greater rates. "Page and Scott in the Wiggle in three years has seen a 63 percent increase in bike traffic. Fell Street at Scott has seen a 70 percent increase in bike traffic," said Thornley. "So, in certain parts the growth in bike traffic is even more astounding and gratifying."

For the past four years, the MTA has sent out interns to 33 locations throughout the city to count the number of cyclists passing through on an August day between 5 and 6:30 p.m. At the busy intersection of Market and 5th Streets, the MTA also counts cyclists from 8 to 9 a.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. The resulting data provides a snapshot of cycling trends in the city that complements data in the U.S. Census and American Community Survey.

If this year's 8.5 percent growth is a little disappointing compared to the 25 percent leap in 2008 and 14 percent increase in 2007, it's worth keeping in mind that Portland, the top bicycling city in the nation, saw its first dip since 1995 this year. That decrease of five percent compared to 2008 is still a bit less than the seven percent decrease in auto traffic, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

The economy and cheaper gas prices didn't keep bicycle traffic from growing in New York, however, as the New York City Department of Transportation reported a 26 percent jump in cycling in 2009 compared to 2008. Still, even with New York's aggressive commitment to improving its bicycle facilities, that's a less steep increase than the city reported in 2008, when cycling traffic grew by 35 percent over 2007. And with less than one percent of commuters choosing to travel by bicycle in New York, the city has a lot of catching-up to do, as San Francisco reached a 2.9 percent mode share for bicyclists in the 2008 American Community Survey.

Minneapolis, the nation's second most bike-commuting city according to Census and American Community Survey data, also recorded a slight dip in the number of cyclists at key locations in 2009 (PDF), suggesting that the growth of cycling slowed down nationally last year, as less travel, period, mitigated the growth of bicycling somewhat.

In addition to posting another consecutive year of growth, there's plenty to be pleased with in the MTA's 2009 Bicycle Count Report, including a continued increase in female cyclists, a number which increased by two percent to 29 percent of bicyclists counted, and a more robust growth rate of 11.1 percent in the volume of cyclists outside downtown. In downtown, where messengers also comprise a large number of those on a bike, cycling grew by a modest 1.7 percent.

Of the locations recorded, the intersection of 17th and Valencia Streets had the highest share of female riders, at 33 percent. The lowest was at Sloat Boulevard and Great Highway, where only one in five riders were female. Those figures aren't entirely representative, however, since the MTA didn't attempt to record riders' gender at the highest-volume intersections, where interns were too busy simply recording the number of cyclists.

While the helmet debate carries on among bicycle advocates, San Franciscans showed a slight increase in their tendency to wear one while cycling, from 67 percent in 2008 to 69 percent in 2009.

Daily Ridership Variation on Westbound Fell Street. Image courtesy SFMTA.

In a promising development for the accuracy and detail of such counts, the MTA plans to greatly expand the number of automatic bicycle counters in its streets over the next year. Its first (and so far only) counter was installed on Fell Street between Scott and Divisadero Streets last year, a pilot project intended to prepare the agency for more counters. This year, the MTA hopes to install 22 counters at 13 locations throughout the city, with a goal of eventually installing automatic counters at all 33 locations it includes in its annual cycling counts.

Automatic counters pick up bicycle traffic at all hours of the day, every day of the year, so the MTA will be able to gather far more detailed data in the future. According to this year's report, the inductive loop counters are installed one to three inches below the surface, and are able to distinguish between bicyclists and other users of the street. They require minimal maintenance, as their batteries last for about ten years.

The data in the 2006 through 2009 bicycle count reports, while not as extensive as that offered by automatic counters, provides a useful glimpse at the growth of cycling in the city, even as a court injunction kept the city from making improvements to its bike network during that time. That data could provide an extremely important baseline once the injunction is fully lifted and the city starts making improvements on a large scale again.

"As the court injunction against the bike plan is lifted and new bicycling infrastructure is implemented, future counts offer a unique opportunity for the SFMTA to document the impacts of that new bicycle infrastructure on ridership," the report notes. Partial relief from the injunction, granted in November of last year, means "the 2010 bicycle counts should help explain the impacts of new infrastructure on bicycle ridership."

The city's first bike counter, on Fell Street. Photo: Bryan Goebel.

City parking meters are a gold mine, and in Chicago, Morgan Stanley is rolling in parking riches. Secret company documents leaked to reporters show the company will rake in a 70 percent profit margin this year from its $1.15 billion, 75-year lease of Chicago's parking meters. This profit is on top of the millions Morgan paid to buy new, high-tech meters. The good times will keep on rolling for investors: In 2010, after another meter price hike, Morgan expects to make monthly profits of $4.8 million, roughly 55 percent higher than in 2009.

Graphic: New York Times/Chicago News Cooperative.

Streetsblog has been following the Chicago parking privatization closely because it is the poster child for all that can go wrong with Public Private Partnerships, or PPPs. The basic idea behind a PPP is that the government leases public transportation infrastructure -- say a bridge, highway, airport, or parking meters -- that can generate user fees. In exchange for the fees, a private investor pays the government a large upfront fee or assumes the cost of improving the infrastructure. PPPs are popular in Europe, especially at airports.

Sustainable transportation advocates should care about PPPs for a number of reasons. First, politicians and bureaucrats are captivated by the fantasy that PPPs are the ultimate free lunch, generating billions in transportation investment at no cost to the taxpayer. President Obama's euphemism for PPPs is "creative financing."

In New York, state officials have repeatedly presented a PPP as the way to raise billions for the astronomical cost of replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge. This is dangerous thinking. PPPs do inflict a cost, and it's a big one. Huge amounts of revenue that could be directed to public transit, or crucial road and bridge repair, is instead going to Wall Street.

The second concern is that PPPs allow public officials to skew the public planning and review process and put private profit before public benefit. A private investor has tremendous leverage over what gets built if they are the government's main financing option. The investor's goal is to make money, not to produce the greatest public benefit over many decades.

Despite the latest revelation, Chicago is only beginning to recognize the inherent problems with privatizations. According to the Times, Alderman Scott Waguespack introduced a measure that would require an "independent third-party valuation" of major asset lease proposals before any future privatization deal is completed. The legislation would require "a comparison of public retention and private leasing over the life cycle of the agreement." This could serve as an important safeguard, but so far, the measure only has 12 co-sponsors among the council's 49 other members.

She's back! Veronica Moss, D.C. lobbyist for the Automobile User Trade Organization (A.U.T.O.), recently returned to New York to get her first look at the new, pedestrian-friendly Times Square. Her views may rankle some in the livable streets camp, but we think it's important to note that some influential people out there just abhor walking, socializing, and the freedom to safely enjoy public spaces.

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer is one of Capitol Hill's strongest voices for walking, biking and transit. Soon after arriving in Congress in 1996, he started the Congressional Bike Caucus, now more than 160 members strong, and he's the founding chairman of the House's new "Livable Communities Task Force," which he announced two weeks ago here on Streetsblog.

Blumenauer's bike commute to the Capitol has become as much a personal hallmark as his predilection for bowties. So when he went to New York City over the weekend to stump for a progressive federal transportation bill, the congressman didn't pass up the chance to tour the city's evolving bike infrastructure with bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. Clarence Eckerson and his camera were there too, of course.

Watch this Streetfilm to hear Blumenauer's thoughts on the big federal transportation bill, the emergence of a national movement for safe biking and walking, and the difference between protected bike lanes and regular old Class 2 facilities. Then ask yourself: When will we get to see a congressperson or senator from California walk, bike, or ride the bus with Clarence?

Also, a reminder that Streetsblog San Francisco Editor Bryan Goebel and Reporter Matthew Roth will be in Portland, Oregon, this week, reporting on Congress for the New Urbanism's Project on Transportation Reform. Catch them on our Twitter feed and look for posts starting tomorrow.

This used to be the scene of gridlocked traffic. A pedestrian plaza was carved out the the old roadbed of Broadway in NYC's Times Square. Photo: berk2804

When Tim Tompkins took over as President of the Times Square Alliance, one of New York City's largest Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), the primary concerns were the security and cleanliness of the most iconic, if chaotic, public space in the world. Despite incessant traffic and pedestrian gridlock ("pedlock" to borrow Tompkin's phrase), his Board of Directors and city officials on the whole weren't initially interested in Tompkins' vision for transforming Times Square into a world-class public space, with less traffic and higher design concepts.

As Tompkins explained to a standing-room audience in the auditorium at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) building last week, his Board was content that there weren't regular stabbings and violent crime. The quality of public space seemed too esoteric.  Gradually, Tompkins built public support for dramatic changes, starting with the re-design of Father Duffy Square, the site of the TKTS Broadway ticket office. Working with New York City's Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), Tompkins began chipping away at the space allocated to cars and opening it up to pedestrians. Shortly after the completion of Duffy Square in October, 2008, said Tompkins, NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan approached him with the idea of closing down a portion of Broadway to vehicles to create public plazas.

The Times Square plazas have received acclaim from New Yorkers, tourists, and the often cynical press in New York City (The NY Post still hates the plazas, but what can one expect from a Rupert Murdoch rag?). Now, cities around the country are looking to the "Capitol of the World" for leadership in transforming their own under-utilized or overcrowded streets into quality pedestrian space. After meeting with San Francisco city leaders and officials (Great Streets Project Director Kit Hodge, who organized Tompkin's visit to San Francisco, said the meetings were very productive), Tomkins sat down with Streetsblog for an interview. Tompkins was very familiar with the Bay Area and had excellent advice for city policy makers and businesses.

Read interview highlights after the jump.

Matthew Roth: What in your opinion has been the biggest change in Times Square over the past decade?

Tim Tompkins: Well I think it was really recognizing that the challenge of Times Square as a public space had changed. It’s not enough that it's just sort of safe to be there, this is one of the world’s great public spaces, what’s missing?

I think over the last couple of decades we’ve learned a lot about how to make parks great, and that parks are important to life of the city. I think there’s been an evolution over the last decade thanks to organizations like [Streetsblog], and Project for Public Spaces, and Transportation Alternatives that have said, you know, “There is another part of the public realm, there is another part of city life that we need to pay attention to.”  And by the way it also intersects with, you know, green issues, and the whole urban environmental movement is something that pushed all of this along, where those just weren’t even considerations before.  So I think the larger world has changed.

The re-designed Father Duffy Square. Photo: TSA

This was kind of a variation, which was this is a place where you can be still, but you’re still in the city. You’re experiencing the city, but you don’t have to stand or walk through it the way you did before. Finally, we created a place for that observation to happen, for people to see what we called the second best show on Broadway, which is Times Square itself. It’s people watching people in this unique way. And so sometimes it’s about looking up, sometimes it’s about noticing the store across the street, but as much as anything it’s about watching this urban fugue, which is the special nature of a public space in the city, where you’ve got all these different things going on. Different people, different languages, different looks, and a little bit of chaos, but also a tremendous amount of energy.

MR: Now that you've closed portions of Broadway to cars and opened it up to people, what would you say to skeptics of pedestrianization and pilots that limit private vehicles?

TT: Well, I think… pedestrianization of a former roadway is a mixture of art and science. There are people who have studied this, you know, what do people do in public spaces, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It has to do with design, management, the nature of the space, what’s going on around it.  So it’s not an easy thing to get right.  One of the great things about this commissioner and [NYC] Mayor [Michael Bloomberg] is that they’re willing to experiment and see what happens, and this commissioner is doing it in the context of even having something like the streets as a public space be a part of the discussion, which is a kind of philosophical shift for an agency. Many transportation agencies often focus exclusively on the engineering of moving cars. So the discussion changed. 

And then we’re still learning how to make this work. How to bring some authentic sort of street style programming back to Times Square without overwhelming it, without it being too noisy for the office tenants, or the theaters.  How to have the furniture look good, but not be just like everything else… Even just how you keep it clean so it doesn’t look ratty.  Because when it was asphalt it’s like, well this is a street, it’s not supposed to look good. The second it was painted red asphalt, then there was this challenge, because people were no longer looking at it as a street that happened to have a chair on it, they were looking at it as a public space, and they were like, 'This is not Piazza San Marco, this is crap.'  And in some ways they’re right, but it’s a function of shifting expectations.

MR: What has the reaction been among businesses in the district?

TT: I think that there was definitely concern and fear during a time of economic vulnerability, and you’ve got to acknowledge that.  Longer-term interests, like somebody that owns an office building, they’re there for decades, but you know, restaurants in Times Square live hand to mouth. If Broadway tickets are down 20 percent, their business is down 20 percent. You have to pay attention to the reality of somebody’s economic situation. 

"The second it was painted red asphalt, then there was this challenge, because people were no longer looking at it as a street that happened to have a chair on it, they were looking at it as a public space, and they were like, 'This is not Piazza San Marco, this is crap.'  "

I think at the same time listen to what they say, and then modify the plan accordingly. There were some issues about theater access on 45th Street, and what was going to happen when you change the traffic patterns. We had conversations and DOT was great. They sat down and they said, 'Okay, we were initially thinking we wouldn’t let you make a right turn, but we’re going to modify the plan and allow that to happen,' and that addressed a really big issue.  So that’s another case where … it’s important to have the conversation between the private interests and the government that’s doing it.  And to say, you know, maybe that might not have worked, and then we would have had to say, 'Okay, we’re three weeks into it, let’s change something else.'

The other thing to keep in mind, though, is that you’ve got to think about your long- term competitiveness. A business understands that you’ve got a competitive environment.  What are your advantages versus some other place?  In a place like San Francisco, in a place like Times Square, they’re major tourist destinations, and people can choose to go somewhere else.  Just like whether it's an amusement park, or it's a beach resort, they’ve got to do some upgrades, they’ve got to pay attention to the competitive environment and say, 'What’s going to keep people coming here?'

MR: What advice would you give city leaders and business interests in San Francisco for transforming Market Street and other business districts? How can we learn from the example in Times Square?

TT: In a place like San Francisco, and in Times Square, especially when real estate and finance and banking are doing much, much worse, tourism is a major economic engine, and you’ve got to keep people coming, and you’ve got to make your product better…. You’ve got to think of your public spaces as these assets, which fundamentally as much as anything else shape peoples’ perceptions.  When Times Square was down and out and dangerous, New York was down and out and dangerous. When it was making a come back, then New York was making a come back. 

I’m sure it’s the same case with certain key places in San Francisco like Market Street. I think you’ve got a major perception problem on parts of Market Street that’s right on the edge of your tourist district. And that’s got consequences because part of what I say is you don’t know who’s NOT coming to your neighborhood. You may be scared that your business is going to get worse because cars are going to be inconvenienced a little bit, but there may be 20 percent of your potential business that isn’t even getting near your place because the larger public space environment is unpleasant, or unwelcoming....

Be patient, because it takes a long time for these things to happen, it takes a long time for people to accept a different way of doing things. Often times you’ll have a lot of concern for people whose economic interest is directly affected, and you shouldn’t just be dismissive, you’ve got to find out what’s actually going on with their customers, which of their customers arrive by cars. How do we make sure that we’re addressing those issues? 

Know your facts, know what’s actually really going on in terms of the economic activity, and the relationship between transportation uses for that public space versus a pedestrian use, and that means on both sides of the equation. People also may say “Oh well, this is going to kill the neighborhood.”  Well, do some surveys. Are people noticing retail that they didn’t before? So I think, you know, stick to the facts, but also be patient. And also experiment. 

This is a work in progress, no public space is exactly the same.  I mean, if every public space was the same, then every single park would work perfectly….  Each one is different, and has a different personality, has a different dynamic, and you’ve got to tinker with it to make it work. I think, most importantly, the core notion is understanding that this street or sidewalk has a multitude of potential uses, and can be an asset in a neighborhood for a bunch of different purposes.

Could cheaper fares fill these seats? Flickr photo: 24thcentury

"We might imagine that we offer discounts at later times, or we offer weekend discounts," Mr. Walder said in an interview on Wednesday. "Time-of-day pricing might be very attractive."

The goal would be to encourage use of buses and subways during traditionally quieter hours. And it would bring New York's subway system in line with local commuter rails, which charge a range of fares.

"We have an infrastructure that is set for the capacity of the peak," Mr. Walder said. "What we really want to do is use that infrastructure all the time."

The chairman ruled out charging higher prices for longer trips, a system used in cities like Washington and London, saying such a move in New York "would be a mistake."

That approach to encouraging off-peak ridership would be a marked departure from BART's proposed solution to peak-hour overcrowding a year ago. BART would have raised peak fares, in an attempt to more-evenly distribute ridership. Overcrowding has eased somewhat since the economic collapse, making the proposal more or less moot for now. But when riders do return en mass, BART director and Livable City Executive Director Tom Radulovich thinks an incentive to off-peak riding, instead of a disincentive to peak riding, might make sense.

"The staff [at BART] have been really conservative. They always think if you lower the price, you'll make less money," Radulovich said in an interview with KCBS radio. "But I think, as we're seeing in this economy, people are looking for value. Sometimes, if you lower the price in such a way that you got a lot more people to ride, then we'd come out ahead." He's asked BART staff to look into the possibility of charging less at off-peak hours.

While some Muni vehicles experience light loads in the evening, others remain packed. Flickr photo: juicyrai

Reducing off-peak Muni fares could be an especially equitable solution, since transit-dependent riders are more likely to ride during off-peak hours, according to a 2007 Metropolitan Transportation Commission memo [PDF] to the MTC's Minority Citizens Advisory Council. Non-peak transit users tend to be more price sensitive.

Time-of-day pricing is already used in many transit agencies, but discounting off-peak fares without raising peak fares at the same time is less familiar territory. If the economics work out, which is still far from a given, the issue of conveying a time-of-day-based fare schedule to riders would still remain. With the NYC MTA's Walder gung-ho on the concept, though, Muni might get a chance to see how making such a change works out before trying anything in San Francisco.

In some cities people are so desperate for bike lanes they'll mark their own. Elizabeth Press of Streetfilms in New York City, on the other hand, had this to say about the work the NYC Department of Transportation has been doing in her city: "It feels like every time I get on my bike there is a new bike lane -- sometimes on the left, sometimes buffered, and sometimes completely separated from automobile traffic."

For those of us who live in cities that haven't caught the bicycle infrastructure fever or have been prevented from such by a bicycle injunction, perhaps the best we can do is tag along with her as she rides the streets with NYC DOT bicycle infrastructure staff as they show off the many classes of bike lanes and inventive facilities they have added in the past few years.

Behold and be bicycle-lane green with envy!

BART, New York's LIRR, and Washington D.C.'s Metro plan to install the Maximo software, a program that anticipates and schedules preventive maintenance on rail cars, tracks, buses, and other equipment.

"There are thousands of people and parts responsible for making sure that our trains arrive on time and deliver our passengers safely to their destinations,” Randall Franklin, BART Program Director for Business Advancement, said in a statement. "Because we are managing an aging fleet while planning for the future, the efficiency of BART requires visibility across all of our assets to provide safe and uninterrupted railway services to our customers."

Flickr photo: kate at yr own risk

Like New York's, San Francisco's zoning code already requires new and significantly renovated commercial buildings to provide a certain number of bicycle parking spaces, depending on the size of the building. Amendments proposed by the Bicycle Plan would strengthen those requirements slightly, removing a loophole that exempted multi-use buildings from the requirement. Marc Caswell of the SFBC said he hopes to further strengthen those codes by increasing the amount of bike parking required and reducing the expenditure threshold when a renovation triggers the requirement.

The requirements are not retroactive, however, so they do not serve almost all workers whose buildings were permitted before 2001. Nearly half, 42 percent, of the cyclists responding to a recent SFBC member survey said they did not have bicycle parking at work. The lack of secure bicycle parking is the "number one reason seasoned bicyclists do not bike to work" in New York, according to surveys by New York's Transportation Alternatives.

San Francisco would surely see an increase in bicycle commuting if a version of New York's law passes here. How might the San Francisco version — and the politics around it — be different?

New York's law does not actually mandate indoor bicycle parking; it simply requires buildings to allow entry to bicycles if the tenant can store the bicycle in their rented space. It applies only to office buildings, not all commercial buildings, and only if the building has a freight elevator. Building owners may request an exemption if the freight elevator has peculiar issues that make it unsafe to carry bicycles or if there is sufficient, no-cost, indoor secure bicycle parking on the premises or nearby (and under control of the owner requesting an exemption).

These provisions probably mitigated some of the opposition from the Real Estate Board of New York, which opposed the mandate. Copying those same provisions in a San Francisco ordinance would result in fewer buildings being covered, because so many of San Francisco's downtown office buildings provide garage bicycle parking in conformance with San Francisco's strong garage parking requirements. But that's no substitute, says Caswell, because such parking is open to the public, it's next to impossible to make garage parking nearly as secure as bringing your bike into your office. Having your bike in your own view insures the safety of all of your components as well as your entire bike.

A San Francisco building access law could prompt better enforcement of the garage parking requirement, which is strong. It is retroactive, applying to residential and commercial garages of ten spaces or more, and requiring bike parking spaces in relation to the number of car parking spaces. Some garages are out of compliance and so far no fines have been levied to force compliance. Also, no standards ensure that the parking is something better than a U-rack in the dingy corner of the garage, hidden from the public except for the enterprising bike commuters and bike thieves who know about it.

A San Francisco building access ordinance will have to navigate likely opposition from the Building Owners and Managers Association, which historically has opposed mandates on building owners.

"Obviously this is a property rights issue," said Ken Cleaveland, BOMA's Director of Government and Public Affairs, "but I do believe that most owners want to work with their tenants in a way that keeps them happy, if it means accommodating bikes I can't imagine they wouldn't allow that. But they will want some level of assuredness that the building will be protected from damage, particularly in older buildings with historic elevators, like an additional deposit like you would pay with a pet."

Do they want a deposit "in case the bike pees on the carpet?" asked Noah Budnick, Deputy Director of Transportation Alternatives, who stressed the "grassroots and grasstops" organizing work the T.A. did to win passage of the law. "The difference between three years ago [when T.A. first introduced this bill] and today is marked. The time has come."

When New York City opened up new pedestrian zones in the heart of Midtown this summer, naysayers predicted a traffic nightmare. Nearly two months later, we're still waiting for the much-feared Carmaggedon.

In this video, Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton takes us on a tour of Broadway's car-free squares and boulevard-style blocks, where conditions have improved dramatically for pedestrians, cyclists, and, yes, delivery truck drivers. As Mark says, the counterintuitive truth is that taking away space for cars can improve traffic while making the city safer and more enjoyable for everyone on foot. There are sound theories that help explain why this happens -- concepts like traffic shrinkage and Braess's paradox which are getting more and more attention thanks to projects like this one. While traffic statistics are still being collected by NYCDOT, there's already a convincing argument that Midtown streets are functioning better than before: To understand it, just take a walk down Broadway.

Participants in the Low-Car Diet at Justin Hermann Plaza. One participant in a random drawing won a Swiss Bike donated by Montague Bikes. Photos: Matthew Roth

In San Francisco, Zipcar provided each participant with weekly Muni passes and BART tickets as needed. Should participants need to drive at some point throughout the month, they can use a Zipcar.

Michael Uribe, General Manager for San Francisco Zipcar, stressed the economic benefit of not owning a car, saying that 19 percent of household income is spent on auto-related expenses. According to Uribe, Zipcar users spend only six percent of their household income on cars. He also said car-sharing in general is meant to chip away at the idea that owning a car is necessary, or that a family needs two cars when one is rarely used.

"Growing up, owning a car is really a rite in America," said Uribe. "This reverses that paradigm and frees up money to go back into the local economy. Also, for every one Zipcar on the road, we're replacing 15 to 20 vehicles."

Uribe himself is a recent convert to carlessness. "It took me a while to learn to live without a car," he said.  When asked how he finds the lifestyle, he smiled and said it was stress-free. "I don't think I'd ever own a car again. I don't have to pay for parking, I find myself exploring the city more, various neighborhoods. I find I eat better because I'm exploring different neighborhoods and buying locally grown organic foods."

"I eat a lot more," he added, but said he hasn't put on any weight given how much additional walking he is doing.

Zipcar San Francisco GM Michael Uribe takes personal car keys from participants.

Zipcar held events in cities around the country, including New York and Washington DC, and as far away as London, England. In the Bay Area, more than thirty participants are taking the challenge, most from San Francisco, though some reside in the East Bay and Dublin.

Many of the staff of the musical Wicked are participating, as is the entire staff of Virgance, a start-up social venture company that "seeks to promote world-changing activism campaigns using market-based methods."

Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Virgance, Rahul Prakash, said, "For us to be part of the Low-Car Diet, it seemed the perfect place for us to actually practice the values that we preach on a professional level and transfer that into our personal lives."

Other local business partners include Montague Bikes (which gave away a free Swiss Bike), EveryDayHealth.com, HealthCentral.com, ClubOne, Green Citizen, and Cartridge World.

Wade Crowfoot, Mayor Gavin Newsom's Director of Climate Initiatives, spoke in support of the Low-Car Diet, saying that the city was in the process of replacing some of its official vehicles with car-share subscriptions, which he expected to number around twenty initially and start by the end of the year.

"We want to encourage people to participate in car-share because it reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that come from transportation--transportation related emissions are about 54 percent of our carbon-related footprint."

Crowfoot said the city wanted to give initiatives like this more attention because many people didn't know about car-sharing.

"There's still a lot of work that the city can being doing in encouraging car sharing. We've told both [Zipcar and City-Car Share] that we want to support whatever creative ideas they have."

Toronto's Post and Ring solution for bicycle parking on old parking meter poles. Photo: David Baker

"This was the last breath of turning your back on cyclists. It was obscene," said East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC) Executive Director Robert Raburn, who admitted that they weren't prepared for the change and the effect it would have on cyclists, so their advocacy was "reactionary." 

The EBBC lobbied the Oakland City Council to retain what meters they could after the process had started. "What we were asking for was to make sure there was some integration between the installation of parking kiosks and bike parking," said Raburn

Jason Patton, Oakland's Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager, said that the initial problem stemmed from the fact that two divisions of two separate agencies within the city weren't on the same page about bicycle parking and so the provisional solution was the best they could do.

"The plan for the new parking stations didn't address bicycle parking. Really the only option we had in working on their timeline was to leave meter heads," said Patton.

Over the complaints of the parking division, the EBBC worked with Oakland's bicycle program to develop an interim policy of preserving a minimum of two meter heads per block space in the areas where kiosks were installed. The bicycle division then spent a good deal of time and money surveying bicycle use on every street where the meters were being replaced to maximize the benefit to cyclists. Parking managers removed the "guts" of the meter heads so that drivers were less confused and affixed small yellow stickers that remind cyclists to park their bicycles parallel to the curb.

Still, all sides agreed bicycle parking at meter poles is not ideal. "The problem with leaving the head on is that it's confusing and unsightly and often times the pole location is not an ideal place to park bikes," said Raburn. Through sales-tax funding, the EBBC and the Oakland Bicycle Program have collaborated to methodically add bicycle racks on sidewalks in front of businesses, parks, and other destinations frequented by bicyclists.

Toronto, Canada

Oakland's story is very similar to many other cities, though unfortunately it seems that few city managers are sharing best practice examples with each other.  Toronto, Canada, was an early adopter of multi-space meters and parking managers there learned quickly how to use the old meter poles for bicycle parking.

Daniel Egan, Manager of Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure for the City of Toronto, said the parking managers were on the same page with his division when they began installing multi-space pay stations in early 2001. "Any time they were taking out a parking meter head, we would review them," he said. "Sometimes they were too close to the curb or to other structures, so they were removed."

For every parking meter the parking authority removed it would pay for a retrofit to old posts, what has been dubbed the Post and Ring. The initial metal rings were $40 a piece and were attached to the existing meter pole with large bolts. The complete retrofit cost was about $80 per post if they were keeping the original post, $125 per post if installing a new post. 

Egan admitted that the original ring design was not as secure as it should be, so that crafty thieves had figured out how to break them off and remove the entire ring, which they would presumably cut off the bicycle when not in public.  "We had a problem a couple of years ago with people breaking them off. So now we put in a double ring, which looks good: two 250 lb guys from our staff couldn't break it."

Toronto currently has 16,000 of the Post and Ring bicycle parking poles, of which about were 8,000 paid for by the parking authority. "They basically agreed to put a ring on every post in the city," said Egan. 

Los Angeles has affixed a small, decorative top to old meter poles as it transitions to new mult-space pay statinos like the one at left. Photo:LADOT

Both Chicago and Los Angeles are trying out small pilot programs to convert meter posts to bicycle parking, though neither have developed a comprehensive policy to address every meter pole being removed.

In Chicago, the city is leaving one or two poles per block as conversions occur.  Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) spokesperson Brian Steele said: "Chicago is working with the bike community to identify high-priority parking locations, and continues to explore locations for permanent bike racks--our bike parking program has already installed more than 11,000 racks citywide."

As for meter conversions, he said they started a program this spring to leave one or two meter poles per block face and more in priority locations. When preparing a conversion, CDOT posts information on its Bike Program web site seeking input from the cycling community.  Additionally, they have a full-time student intern who goes to conversion locations to identify which and how many meter poles to retain for future retrofit as bike racks.

The policy was put in place this spring and further elaboration of it is a priority of the Chicago Bike 2015 Plan, according to Steele. "We are exploring equipment to retrofit the poles with an attachment to allow bike parking. We have received samples from at least two manufacturers and are currently testing them."

In Los Angeles, the city installed 285 new meter heads adjacent to multi-space pay stations two weeks ago, what they call the Meter Hitch Bicycle Rack. The new Meter Hitch racks are in eight neighborhoods along commercial corridors and cost the city $50,000 to install, money which came from sales-tax and property tax increments agreed to in voter initiatives. According to LADOT's primer:

The new bicycle racks take advantage of the work of the Smart Meter Parking Pilot Program and re-use existing meter infrastructure to convert old parking meters to new Bicycle Parking Racks. The Bicycle Outreach and Planning staff has worked very closely with the Office of Parking Management and Regulations, the six different city council offices affiliated with the installation areas, business improvement districts, and local businesses to complete the project.

In New York City, former Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Iris Weinshall embraced multi-space meters in the city's Central Business District, but wasn't so hot on bicycle infrastructure. As a result, much of Manhattan's business districts were converted to the multi-space meters without any consideration of bicycle parking.

When asked if NYCDOT has a policy to convert remaining single-space meters in other business districts in the city that still have them, NYCDOT Senior Policy Advisor Jon Orcutt said, "The ship sailed on that one before anyone looked at the policy. There's not much bike parking left to preserve."

Orcutt said the agency's priority now is installing new bicycle racks as quickly as possible throughout the city. In fiscal year 2008, the agency installed 1,377 racks, up from 320 the year before. They've set a goal to add 5,000 new racks over three years in addition to the current 6,100 racks. 

About retrofits, Orcutt admitted the agency didn't do as much as it could have. "We really should have gotten on that five years ago. When we looked at that universe, it didn't make sense to do retrofits. What we need to do is basically catch up with installing new bike racks and we'll try to be sensitive and coordinated with it."

Bicycle advocates are not thrilled with that response, however. "That's one rack for every 31 cyclists. That's completely inadequate," said Caroline Samponaro, Director of Bicycle Advocacy for Transportation Alternatives, who hopes that San Francisco and other cities look at New York to avoid the same issue. "Lack of bicycle parking is one of the biggest deterrents to bicycle riding in this city."

In San Francisco, the MTA is debuting its much heralded SFPark pilot program, which will affect more than 6,000 metered spaces. Though many of those meter poles will lose their heads or be removed completely because the agency doesn't think they are aesthetically pleasing and doesn't want to confuse motorists with pockets full of change, they will keep a number of meter poles for SFPark and simply retrofit the single space meters with radio technology.

MTA spokesperson Judson True said they are committed to providing better bicycle parking than what exists, but that they don't have a policy on meter pole retrofits. "We have all these strategies for bike parking that don't rely on meters. It's not to say we won't have an official policy, but we're not developing one now."

True added that they aren't rushing out to cut off the heads of all the meters. "It's going to be a while before the meters are gone."

True wanted to focus instead on what his agency could do to try more dynamic bicycle parking options, such as converting vehicle parking spaces to bike parking on street, which has been successfully implemented on Grove Street in front of the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

Advocates said they have been discussing the issue with the agency for over two years and they've been given assurances that the MTA will not allow a decrease in available bicycle parking citywide. SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum agreed with True that more innovative parking like bicycle corrals in vehicle spaces is where they would like to focus.

"On-street corrals are the prize," said Shahum, who also noted that cleaning up clutter from sidewalks was important for her group and for pedestrian advocates. "One of the sub goals is to remove clutter from the sidewalk.  There's a goal of having more efficient bicycle parking and better parking management, but in terms of the clutter challenge, I think there's not enough consideration to the ramifications on bike parking in the city."   

She also said businesses were anxious to convert the vehicle parking spaces in front of their stores to bicycle parking to target their bicycle-riding patrons and maximize the number of customers that could park in the space. "Over a dozen businesses have expressed interest in removing the car space and replacing it with bicycle corrals," she said.

Matthew Modine founder of the advocacy group "Bicycle for a Day" held a fundraising party for this project recently at Solar One, New York City's first solar-powered “Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center.” Modine plans to recycle New York City's junk bikes and distribute them around the world so more people will be able to participate in "Bicycle for a Day." This project will debut in Iraq and Afghanistan. Modine was also joined by a whole host of cycling enthusiasts and promoters from the Consulate General of the Netherlands to Grammy Award winning beatbox artist Rahzel. Here is some what they had to say.