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Commuting by bicycle?
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I have a confession to make. The day before I got my driver's license was the last day I was on a bicycle--and that was many years ago. But even when I was able to drive, much of the time I decided to walk. I had always been a avid walker. I walked to college and I walked to work.
After moving to Rochester, I stopped walking. While I have always lived within walking distant from my job here in Rochester, I rarely walk. I live in a pedestrian unfriendly town. There are no sidewalks between my apartment and work. Most intersection I need to cross don't have crosswalks or crosswalk signalling.
Now, with the ever increasing visible evidence of global warming and the rising cost of gasoline, I am hoping that our elected officials are taking a long hard look at the future of transportation.
Since this website owes its existence to Howard Dean, I'm hoping to promote "people-powered" transportation. By this I mean walking, biking and rollerblading as a way to commute to work or accomplish any of their daily activities. However, much needs to be done, in my opinion, to make people-powered transportation truly safe and enjoyable.
Before millions of dollars are spent on light rail or anything as grand as that, can we have a dedicate network of bike paths? If Bogata, Columbia can do it, why can't we? The answer is we can, but our elected officials aren't thinking about that yet.
In a place with snow, such as Rochester, we might need to be a little more creative. Are underground tunnels feasible? Could part of the existing subway tunnel be use? We've already got the awesome canal path as a starting point for a network of paths. Let's develop it!
Oh, I'm fired up.
Have you seen what was done in Bogota in just one three-year term of one mayor? It just goes to show you what can be done when someone puts their mind to it. The Bogota story is interesting. In some centercity locations, the car congestion was over the top. Parking lanes had been made into driving lanes and the extra wide sidewalks became the parking lot for the wealthy people in their Mercedes.
Enrique Peñalosa, made room for the bike path by taking away the sidewalk parking. I love any leader who isn't afraid to piss off the wealthy people! So the car lanes, bike lanes and walking lanes are all seperate and safe.
American cities need to dream as big.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogotá's_network_of_bike_paths
and will post a link in the wc. thanks again!
living in a nice home, driving a good car and sending your children to a good college.
DFA is targeting races in 15 rural states this election cycle. You may want to consider traveling to one by bike to help them out. And then you may want to re-consider your communting mandate for America.
- I live in a very rural area. Communting by bicycle is not very practical.
By Susan Rowe on Aug 21, 2008 7:31 AM EDTMost folks in my area travel at least 50 miles into the city for work. Riding a bike to work in 108 degree heat is also not very wise. I do know a person who does communte by bike. He lives in the city and normally needs to take a shower before the meeting we were attending. He also likes to bring his bike into the meeting with him. When our members of congress start riding their bikes or wearing rollerblades to commute then I think may be the American people might consider it too. I wonder how many toddlers or infants you can get on a bike so you can drop them off at the sitter or pre-school before work.
for folks who like run or bike to and from work or on their lunch breaks. they even supply all the soap, shampoo and rinse, if you care to use it!
now watch this get moved to the wc as someone at hdqtrs is sure to think that it's not specific to this thread topic!
Barack Working on Women's Issues ...With the economy in the toilet and a lack of daycare programs, it's been hard for women to get by and provide for their children (especially single mothers). Because women only get seventy-seven cents for every dollar a man makes, the struggling economy has made things worse for them. Barack has a plan to fund daycare and after school programs for children and has supported laws that will help women earn equal pay. Since women are also most likely to live in poverty, he has plans to give poor women better health care and programs that will help them get the skills to obtain a job. He also promises to help fund programs protecting women and children who are victims of domestic violence. So many women are afraid to ask for help in a domestic violence situation, and Barack will make sure that they will be protected and get the help they need.[...]
"From the first moment a woman dared to speak that hope - dared to believe that the American Dream was meant for her too - ordinary women have taken on extraordinary odds to give their daughters the chance for something else; for a life more equal, more free, and filled with more opportunity than they ever had. In so many ways we have succeeded, but in so many areas we have much work left to do.” ~ Barack Obama, Speech in Washington, DC, 11/10/05
and they subsidize our transportation and /or parking - bus and train passes are paid for and drivers have half their parking covered. they encourage car pooling and public transportation. a couple of the vp's who live quite a ways from Burlington use the bus connections to encourage others to do the same. it probably adds more than an hour to their daily commute but they feel it's worth it. they give bonuses to folks who suggest cost saving/energy saving measures for the company and then implement them.
I could go on and on - they treat us really well and in turn we appreciate their efforts and give '110%' all the time.
but I don't think sidewalks and bike trails are mutually exclusive of other needs
try the bike to work route on mid-winter snowdrift jumping
I'm all for bike paths as a part of the mix, even more for pedestrian friendly measures.
See, I'm thinking BIG. I'm thinking about underground tunnels for those of us where winter lasts about 6 months. Rochester NY once had a subway system, believe it or not. Parts of the tunnels still exist. Some want to preserve them for their historical value, some want to put shops and restaurants in the tunnels and the city just wants to fill the tunnels in with dirt.
Several years ago, the dream of our former mayor was to have ferry service between Rochester and Toronto. I know the ferry boat itself cost over 42 million dollars. Within two summers of service and lawsuits and endless problems, the ferry was sold for half its purchase price and the city will be paying the debt for at least the next 25 years.
Continued.....
My point in telling this story is that some big dreams are expensive and stupid and wasteful. Commuter bike paths and better pedestrian paths are probably much less expensive and infinitely more practical. Certainly, a network of bike paths will do little to serve a remote rural area. And I don't believe that will ever be a really practical choice. But when you live in a city the size of Rochester and deal with a mess of traffic everyday, the desire to commute via bike, blades or on foot would solve so many problems. It would cut air pollution, traffic congestion, improve parking, cut back on the need to build more parking garages and the two most important issues addressed would be global warming and personal health.
Continued....
I've mention this somewhere before, but currently, our county is proposing the largest public works project in the county's history. Renaissance Square would be a satellite community college campus, a transit bus hub and a performing arts theater. No where in this project is transportation actually addressed. No thought is given to what transportation might look like in 10 to 20 years. It would simply be a building through which busses and people would pass. The project has gone through numerous designs and redesigns and each time more money is spent(wasted) and all I see is less money and less thought given to what is really important.
Now is the time for bold leadership and bold ideas. Failure now to plan for the future, which is actually now as well, is not an option.
Lance Armstrong is going above and beyond in promoting bike commuting. He just opened a bike shop in Austin, TX called Mellow Johnny's. For $1 per day, you can park your bike, get a locker and take a shower. http://www.mellowjohnnys.com/
Here's another interesting website: http://www.completestreets.org/
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- excellent Thomas!
By Jo*in*Vermont on Aug 21, 2008 6:44 AM EDTBurlington has a wonderful network of bike paths and bike lanes have been added to the roadways where there is the depth of a right-of-way to make it feasible. options - we all need these options!
good luck - I'll try to find the story of Howard's fight for the bike path and give you a link - perhaps it will 'fire you up'!