About a decade ago, Colombian traffic "experts" were planning to build a second story of roads above congested streets to make way for more vehicles driven by one person.
Officials finally discarded the expensive, unsustainable, and ludicrous idea -- maybe after they found out about the Big Pig, I mean Big Dig, here in Boston.
Instead of spending billions of dollars [sound familiar?] to make way for more and more cars, they attacked the problem from a different angle, and created a network of bus rapid transit lanes connected to bikeways to transport the city's 7 million people.
TransMilenio moves 1.3 million people a day on buses going 17 to 25 mph, compared to 6 mph average for NYC buses. Bogata is close enough to the Equator to avoid rugged winter weather. They have a significant population of people unable to afford to own and operate cars.
Take a look --http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/bus-rapid-transit-bogota/. The video shows attended parking lots of bikes next to the TransMilenio stations. Using bus-only lanes, buses pull up to elevated platforms so strollers and wheelchairs roll right on. It's like an above-ground subway, built at a fraction of the cost.
Buses run continuously and dependably throughout the day and night. The system is so good, commuters from all walks of life use it. The main complaint is too many people use it!
Bikes are foundational to the system. TransMileneo encourages bike commuting to the station because it eliminates the need for neighborhood buses to bring people to the TransMilenio, and saves money by requiring fewer local buses to get people to the main stations. What's really impressed me is attended bike storage facilities at the transit stations.
Many commuters prefer public transit over carpooling because carpooling is so, personal. Riding a bus is impersonal. You have your private space, thoughts and music. You don't have to talk. You can take an earlier or later bus without conferring with your carpool partner. Great public transit enables the great American value of "Freedom of Movement," when I want it, where I want it.
Buses are typically disdained as lower class. People prefer rail and subways, which are expensive to build and not as flexible as buses. Bus Rapid Transit provides a cost-effective solution.
America- we're behind the trend. We need to go to Colombia to copy an idea worth importing.
Showing posts with label bike commuting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike commuting. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Look Ma, No Car!
"I'm here to say that the [bike] ride's almost always the best part of my day. If you're willing to make some minor lifestyle changes, it can be for you as well."
That is my favorite line in Ty Burr's column "Ditch the Auto, Saddle Up and Reduce your Commuting Costs to Zero" in Sidekick, July 21, 2008 Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/07/21/look_ma_no_car/ He's the Boston Globe's film critic.
People laughed at me yesterday at the lunchroom of a multi-national company when I suggested bike commuting when they told me they live less than 10 miles from work.
It's my job to work a table at big companies in MetroWest Boston to promote carpooling, bike commuting and taking public transit to work. Commuters often laugh out loud when I say, "Why don't you bike to work?"
The idea is so crazy, so far outside of their paradigm, they think it's ludicrous. They're missing out on Ty Burr's secret: Biking to work is almost the best part of the day.
I call bike commuting the TRIPLE GOOD commute: you look good, you feel good, and you're doing good for the earth.
For three summers, I bike commuted 8 miles between Westford and Concord, MA, about twice a week, in those glory days when gas was less than $2/gallon.
Battling the hills, inhaling the sweet odors of wild grapes and freshly mowed hay, and getting lost in the scenery, made me forget everything else. The ride home was particularly sweet and unpedaled me from the stress of work.
Yet people can't even entertain the notion of abandoning their car for a bike commute.
1/3 of the problem: biking is low-status (unless you get a high status bike and the gear to accompany). For the most part, biking is for people with few options, the young, or the fitness-crazed.
1/3 of the problem: biking is physical. We Americans are lazy slugs who would rather drive to the gym rather than plan to bike commute. And bike commuting requires planning ahead.
1/3 of the problem: we lack the infrastructure -- streets wide enough to accomodate bikes, bike lanes and paths, bike storage areas, showers at work, bike racks on buses, bike safety awareness by drivers. People feel unsafe and vulnerable when biking on many roads.
Contact me and I'll come talk to your group about getting started bike commuting. I tell a funny and informative story about "my first day of bike commuting." It gets you laughing, thinking and planning for your first day of bike commuting.
Once you start bike commuting, you'll be laughing, too, because it's so much fun, and the mental and physical benefits far exceed sitting in a car.
That is my favorite line in Ty Burr's column "Ditch the Auto, Saddle Up and Reduce your Commuting Costs to Zero" in Sidekick, July 21, 2008 Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/07/21/look_ma_no_car/ He's the Boston Globe's film critic.
People laughed at me yesterday at the lunchroom of a multi-national company when I suggested bike commuting when they told me they live less than 10 miles from work.
It's my job to work a table at big companies in MetroWest Boston to promote carpooling, bike commuting and taking public transit to work. Commuters often laugh out loud when I say, "Why don't you bike to work?"
The idea is so crazy, so far outside of their paradigm, they think it's ludicrous. They're missing out on Ty Burr's secret: Biking to work is almost the best part of the day.
I call bike commuting the TRIPLE GOOD commute: you look good, you feel good, and you're doing good for the earth.
For three summers, I bike commuted 8 miles between Westford and Concord, MA, about twice a week, in those glory days when gas was less than $2/gallon.
Battling the hills, inhaling the sweet odors of wild grapes and freshly mowed hay, and getting lost in the scenery, made me forget everything else. The ride home was particularly sweet and unpedaled me from the stress of work.
Yet people can't even entertain the notion of abandoning their car for a bike commute.
1/3 of the problem: biking is low-status (unless you get a high status bike and the gear to accompany). For the most part, biking is for people with few options, the young, or the fitness-crazed.
1/3 of the problem: biking is physical. We Americans are lazy slugs who would rather drive to the gym rather than plan to bike commute. And bike commuting requires planning ahead.
1/3 of the problem: we lack the infrastructure -- streets wide enough to accomodate bikes, bike lanes and paths, bike storage areas, showers at work, bike racks on buses, bike safety awareness by drivers. People feel unsafe and vulnerable when biking on many roads.
Contact me and I'll come talk to your group about getting started bike commuting. I tell a funny and informative story about "my first day of bike commuting." It gets you laughing, thinking and planning for your first day of bike commuting.
Once you start bike commuting, you'll be laughing, too, because it's so much fun, and the mental and physical benefits far exceed sitting in a car.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Carpooling and Gen Y and Gen X
Carpooling requires planning ahead. Carpooling requires having a relationship with your carpool partners. When you have a relationship, good communication is essential. Thinking about the needs of others is also fundamental to a relationship, which doesn't come naturally to younger people, namely Gen X and Gen Y. They have been raised with entitlement.
Bike commuting or taking public transit don't require relationships, planning ahead or sharing our personal space in your car. Bike commuting and public transit allow flexibility of work hours -- you can set your own schedule, a luxury most Americans live by, cherished by Gen Xers and Gen Yers. They've never known a workplace without flexible work hours.
In suburban settings -- the modern industrial park designed for the autombile era -- carpooling is typically the most viable alternative to reduce the number of cars on a road during rush hour and to improve air quality.
Yet, carpooling is the hardest "sell" to commuters over bike commuting or taking public transit.
Only about 25 percent of a typical car's mileage is for commuting. However, commuting is a regular event, so it's easier to predict and plan for. A generation ago, everyone worked the same schedules, and fewer people owned cars, so carpooling was endemic.
Today, companies often offer time, which makes carpooling much more difficult. Not only do carpoolers have to live and work near each other, they must also be on the same bio-rhythm.
And many people are not flexible about this bio-rhythm. They want to work when they want to work. They want to play when they want to play. Carpooling must fit into their schedule, even with $4/gallon gasoline.
Especially attuned to their personal needs is Generation Y, which has just entered the workforce, on the coattails of Generation X. Gen Xers and Yers have often grown up being chauffeured everywhere, so it's abhorent to even think of not having a personal vehicle at their disposal. To them, carpooling is particularly distasteful.
At least they have the technology to facilitate carpooling. E-mail and cell phones make carpooling so much easier when you're waiting for someone to show up at a meeting place, or plans change. We know Gen X and Gen Y is wired up!
To their credit, Gen Xers and Yers yearn for the city. They love the bustle, the bars, even the buses, because it means they don't have to own a car. City living is meant for pedestrians, people on the go, who like to go out. Center cities were built without cars in mind. Even outlying neighborhoods were laid out along now-defunct streetcars lines.
Cities have public transit, which Gen Xers and Yers take advantage of. When Gens Y & X have children, and buy a house, they have some hard choices that might lead them to the suburbs where the housing is bigger and schools "better."
Which might also lead them to carpooling to work, eventually.
Maybe by the time they buy houses and have children, Gen Xers and Yers will have re-aligned their priorities and be able to think about someone else; be flexible enough to adjust their schedule and share their cars. Maybe by then, our cars will be powered by greener energy. We're counting on their techno-skills to engineer solutions to the green crisis.
Bike commuting or taking public transit don't require relationships, planning ahead or sharing our personal space in your car. Bike commuting and public transit allow flexibility of work hours -- you can set your own schedule, a luxury most Americans live by, cherished by Gen Xers and Gen Yers. They've never known a workplace without flexible work hours.
In suburban settings -- the modern industrial park designed for the autombile era -- carpooling is typically the most viable alternative to reduce the number of cars on a road during rush hour and to improve air quality.
Yet, carpooling is the hardest "sell" to commuters over bike commuting or taking public transit.
Only about 25 percent of a typical car's mileage is for commuting. However, commuting is a regular event, so it's easier to predict and plan for. A generation ago, everyone worked the same schedules, and fewer people owned cars, so carpooling was endemic.
Today, companies often offer time, which makes carpooling much more difficult. Not only do carpoolers have to live and work near each other, they must also be on the same bio-rhythm.
And many people are not flexible about this bio-rhythm. They want to work when they want to work. They want to play when they want to play. Carpooling must fit into their schedule, even with $4/gallon gasoline.
Especially attuned to their personal needs is Generation Y, which has just entered the workforce, on the coattails of Generation X. Gen Xers and Yers have often grown up being chauffeured everywhere, so it's abhorent to even think of not having a personal vehicle at their disposal. To them, carpooling is particularly distasteful.
At least they have the technology to facilitate carpooling. E-mail and cell phones make carpooling so much easier when you're waiting for someone to show up at a meeting place, or plans change. We know Gen X and Gen Y is wired up!
To their credit, Gen Xers and Yers yearn for the city. They love the bustle, the bars, even the buses, because it means they don't have to own a car. City living is meant for pedestrians, people on the go, who like to go out. Center cities were built without cars in mind. Even outlying neighborhoods were laid out along now-defunct streetcars lines.
Cities have public transit, which Gen Xers and Yers take advantage of. When Gens Y & X have children, and buy a house, they have some hard choices that might lead them to the suburbs where the housing is bigger and schools "better."
Which might also lead them to carpooling to work, eventually.
Maybe by the time they buy houses and have children, Gen Xers and Yers will have re-aligned their priorities and be able to think about someone else; be flexible enough to adjust their schedule and share their cars. Maybe by then, our cars will be powered by greener energy. We're counting on their techno-skills to engineer solutions to the green crisis.
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