Below is my pre reading responses to the readings as well as the 3 additional videos I watched
1. A cyclist ‘s mecca, with lessons for Boston, Boston Globe, Sept. 22, 2013
From this article published in the Boston Globe in 2013, I read about bicycling in the Netherlands based on a trip that civil engineering students from Northeastern University in Boston went on to the Netherlands in 2013. Throughout the article, the Dutch expertise when it comes to road safety and infrastructure for cyclists is praised and it seems like the question is always being raised as to how something like this could work for the city of Boston. I really liked some of the stats that they used such as that the, “likelihood of getting killed on a bike (in the Netherlands) is among the lowest in the world, about five times less than the United States”. I also liked that they pointed out that better infrastructure for bikes is not enough, but that education of both the cyclists and drivers is critical for a safer transportation network. In the Netherlands, kids are taught at a very young age how to bike and correctly follow the rules of the road. In this article, the claim is made that, “the key to keeping cyclists safe is keeping them separate from cars”. While I agree with this statement, I noticed that in the Netherlands, it is not always the case, as sometimes vehicles are sharing the roads with the bikes.
2. Bogota’s urban happiness movement, Globe and Mail, 2007.
Unfortunately, this article had been removed from the link provided.
3. Consumers Are ‘Driving Light,’ By Choice and By Accident, Forbes, August 4, 2013.
In this article, published in 2013, by Micheline Maynard, the move toward change in sustainable transportation in the USA is discussed. According to a study from the University of Michigan, “Americans are definitely driving less, and have been reducing the miles spent on the road for almost a decade”. This can be viewed as a positive, although I believe the economic downturn in the states can also be attributed to these results. One area that has really been striving for changing their outlook on transportation is the greater Boston area as alluded to in the Boston Globe article. In this Forbes article, some of the new projects for providing sustainable transportation option such as Zipcar and Hubwaybike are highlighted as being projects that have “accelerated the area’s move away from automobiles”. One quote I really liked from this article was from Jackie Douglas, executive director of Liveable Streets, “It’s not anti-car, it’s not about going car-free. It’s a trend of families going down to one car, instead of having a car for everyone in the household. The one person in the household who needs the car uses it, and everyone else takes the bus, or walks, or uses a bike.” I really think that for Canada that having this sort of outlook is important in moving forward towards more sustainable transportation. The Forbes article also talked about Hurricane Sandy and how it impacted Long Beach. After the disastrous hurricane, there was a change in the area as the damage provided a fresh start for people who some of them chose to only buy one new car. Honestly I did not think that this story really added to the article and overall I did not find it to be well written compared to the other ones.
4- “Bridging the Gaps: How the Quality and Quantity of a Connected Bikeway Network Correlates with Increasing Bicycle Use,” Birk & Geller, 2005.
In this paper, the bike network in Portland, Oregon is discussed. At 3900 words, it was quite the read, although there was a lot of important information to be uncovered. My favourite quote from the paper was, “since the mid-1990s Portland, Oregon has pursued a “build it and they will come” strategy by developing its bikeway network to promote increased bicycle use. Between 1992 and 2005 Portland increased its developed bikeway network by 215%, from 83 miles to 260 miles.”. I have been to Portland a few times and remember seeing how many bikers there were, so this can be attributed to their city planners and engineers doing a good job in designing and maintaining their extensive bike network. In the article, they also talked about their many methods utilized to collect data which I found to be interesting, epically their peak hour counts. It really proved how in Portland that people use their bikes to get to work, where I feel like in a city like Kelowna, the small bike network we have is mostly used for leisure. I would like to see Kelowna become more like Portland in the sense that our bike network is used for commuters as well, but this would require a far superior network than what we have currently. I also thought it was cool how they showed some of the major improvements and changes such as the changes to the Willamette River bridges they made in Portland to make their bike system better.
Along with the four required videos, I watch the following three videos from the Mark Wagenbuur
Bicycle parking at Leiden Central Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GXeUu_yhXA
Morning Rush Hour in the Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb7V1qtx8VE
Ride on the Nieuwe Heemstederbrug at Nieuwegein (Netherlands)
There was a really cool bike bridge in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrFe6cLl41w
