Category Archives: bicycling

by | December 24, 2013 · 9:00 am

From Austin, Some Ideas For Anne On Transportation Choices

By Micheline Maynard

Andrew Hartford wrote for us recently about the ways he gets around Austin without a car. We asked him to provide our reader Anne in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with ideas for deciding whether to keep her 1998 Honda Civic, or go car free.

Hi Anne,

I have been in your situation before.  I’ve had car troubles in the past, and wondered if it was really even worth owning one (the cost and stress of maintaining it) considering I had other options of getting around.  Ultimately, I realized that not owning a car doesn’t mean you have to cut cars out of your life completely.

As much as I am an advocate for alternative forms of transportation (biking, walking, and mass transit), I understand that there are situations in which a car might be needed (much of the U.S. is still very car-dependent). Continue reading →

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by | November 27, 2013 · 12:55 pm

In Michigan, Redesigning A Campus For People, Bikes And Cars

In our latest student-written story, Curbing Cars intern Matthew Varcak at Central Michigan University looks at plans to redesign the campus for every kind of transportation use.

By Matthew Varcak

If you say Mount Pleasant to anyone in Michigan, the first thing they might name is Central Michigan University – a university that nearly doubles the city’s population from September through May.

CMU is a public school, whose campus covers 871 acres, and has 17,771 undergraduate students. This year, CMU had the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick, Eric Fisher.

Mount Pleasant also has a sprawling casino, resort and water park run by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, an ample public transportation system, and a picturesque small town atmosphere.

The city and the university, however, aren’t known for being bicycle or pedestrian friendly. But some people are trying to change this. They are redesigning the campus with an emphasis on how it will be used by people, bicycles and cars.

CMU’s 2013 Campus Master Plan, which sets the direction of the university for the next century, features plans to make the campus more accessible for bikes and pedestrians. (See the master plan at the end of this article.) Continue reading →

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by | November 16, 2013 · 9:00 am

Downtown, Campus Town: Bike Sharing Shapes Up For Ann Arbor

By Micheline Maynard

Heather SeyfarthBike sharing is exploding across the United States, with new programs popping up all over the United States. The nation’s bike sharing fleet has already doubled in 2013, and it’s expected to double again in 2014.

One of those new programs will be in my home town, Ann Arbor, MI. It seems an ideal spot for bike sharing, because of an active bike community, tens of thousands of students from all over the world, and a lot of bike lanes already in place over its 27.7 square miles.

This past week, I got some details about what’s planned for Ann Arbor from Heather Seyfarth, program manager for the Clean Energy Coalition, which is spearheading the local program. She and I spoke to the annual meeting of the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition (my talk focused on the Curbing Cars project).

Ann Arbor’s program, which is about to be named, will be similar to other bike sharing programs across North America, but it has one main difference: it isn’t associated with Bixi, which oversees the programs in Montreal, Toronto and New York, among other places, and which is on shaky financial ground. Continue reading →

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by | November 11, 2013 · 9:00 am

Can’t Bikes And Cars Just Get Along? Apparently, Not Yet

Chicago's bike lanes still result in bike-car conflict.

Chicago’s bike lanes still result in bike-car conflict.

By Micheline Maynard

Motorists and cyclists each have their own stories to tell about each other. Drivers complain that cyclists don’t obey traffic laws and dart out of nowhere without any warning. Cyclists feel like they have targets painted on their backs every time they’re out on the road.

Writing in Sunday’s New York Times, Daniel Duane tackled the situation in his op-ed piece, “Is It O.K. To Kill Cyclists?” Of course, the headline stretched things a bit. But for many of us, Duane nailed the issue in his lede paragraph.

“Everybody who knows me knows I love cycling and that I’m also completely freaked out by it,” he wrote.

After listing a bushel basket full of bike-car accidents, Duane made a salient point.

“The social and legal culture of the American road, not to mention the road itself, hasn’t caught up,” he wrote. “Laws in most states do give bicycles full access to the road, but very few roads are designed to accommodate bicycles, and the speed and mass differentials — bikes sometimes slow traffic, only cyclists have much to fear from a crash — make sharing the road difficult to absorb at an emotional level.” Continue reading →

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by | October 30, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Why Would — or Wouldn’t You — Wear A Bike Helmet?

As bike sharing gets more popular, public health officials are concerned people are on bikes without helmets.

As bike sharing gets more popular, public health officials are concerned people are on bikes without helmets.

By Micheline Maynard

When I bought my bike this summer, everyone I told about the purchase was adamant: you have to get a helmet. They were so insistent that I stayed off it until I had gone to REI and brought home a helmet ($32, on sale).

Many public health officials are concerned that as bike sharing spreads across the country, head injuries also will go up, as I wrote this week for Al Jazeera America. There are some pretty compelling statistics to that effect.

Greg Kagay, one of the backers of Curbing Cars, is a dedicated cyclist who’s been wearing a helmet since he had a bike accident in high school. He is eager to try out bike sharing, but he’ll only do so when wearing a helmet.

However, there are also some people who think the concern about cyclists wearing helmets is way over blown. One of them is Jana Kinsman, who is among the best known cyclists in Chicago, thanks to her project, Bike A Bee.

I talked with Kinsman at length for my AJAM story, and she presents a strong argument that helmets are not the point. The bigger issue, she says, is that bikes, cars and pedestrians all need to coexist.

Continue reading →

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by | October 14, 2013 · 9:00 am

Bicyclists: How Strongly Do You Feel About Wearing A Helmet?

These Bixi riders and cyclists at lunch in Montreal. Only one of them is wearing a helmet.

These Bixi riders and cyclists at lunch in Montreal. Notice that only  one of them is wearing a helmet.

By Micheline Maynard

A few weeks ago, Curbing Cars supporter Michael Leland wrote about his experience using Capital Bike Share in Washington, D.C. Michael is an avid cyclist who always wears a helmet at home in Madison, Wisconsin, but he didn’t have one with him during his trip. That caused him a little discomfort in using the system.

We’re wondering how strongly you feel about wearing a helmet when you cycle. Is it a must for you? Or, do you skip one on occasions when you’re taking a short trip, or using bike sharing?

Please take our poll. If you feel particularly strongly about this, we’d love to hear your helmet thoughts. Add them in comments, or email us at CurbingCars@gmail.com if you’d like to say more.

Click here to take survey

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by | September 29, 2013 · 9:00 am

How Millennials Are Transforming Philadelphia’s Transportation

Philadelphia has been installing bike lanes for over a decade. They're a big draw for its young residents.

Philadelphia has been installing bike lanes for over a decade. They’re a big draw for its young residents.

Our latest student-written story comes from a master’s degree candidate in the Business and Economic Reporting program at New York University

By Carl A. O’Donnell
Philadelphia newcomers like Shane Smith, 24, wax rhapsodically about the city’s “deep sense of community” and “awesome nightlife.” For Smith, the city is an escape from suburbia where “there are always large gaps between where you are and where you want to be,” he says.

In Philly, Smith doesn’t need a car because “You can walk out the door and find ten great coffee shops or restaurants on every other block.”

Smith’s attitude reflects a broader generational shift. More and more young people are abandoning suburbs and cars, prompting a migration to cities, according to the advocacy group U.S. PIRG.

This has had a dramatic impact on Philadelphia. In the past decade, the city has gained 50,000 residents aged 20 to 34, spurring the first net gain in population since the 1950s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

By 2035, Philadelphia anticipates another 100,000 new residents, said Gary Jastrzab, executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

As this flood of newcomers gradually reshapes the city, alternative modes of travel are experiencing a renaissance. Biking, car sharing and public transit have all seen significant bumps in usage. In some cases, this is shifting political or market forces in favor of new transportation investments. In others, it’s simply placing strain on an aging system. Continue reading →

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by | September 26, 2013 · 9:00 am

The Bicycling Backlash On Both Sides Of The Pond

By Micheline Maynard

How could anybody dislike bicyclists? They’re engaging in a healthy activity. They eschew fossil fuels. They allow garages to be used for storage.

It turns out that there’s plenty of antipathy for bicyclists, on both sides of the Atlantic. And it looks like cycling needs to do something to fix its image.

You don’t have to dig very deep to find someone who thinks bicycling is a bad idea. Not long after Citi Bikes got started in New York City, Wall Street Journal contributor Dorothy Rabinowitz went after the cycling system with both barrels.

Now, Jake Wallis Simons of the British newspaper, The Telegraph, is joining her with his own objection to the bicyclists who are flooding England’s streets. Continue reading →

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by | September 23, 2013 · 12:29 pm

Learning Lessons From A Car-Free Existence In Austin

In our latest student-written story, a chemistry major at the University of Texas talks about his car-free conversion.

Andrew Hartford with his bike.

Andrew Hartford with his bike

By Andrew Hartford

Before I came to Austin, Texas for college, I lived in a car-dependent suburb of San Antonio. During my high school years there, I bought a car, submitting to societal pressure and parental advice.

According to my dad, buying the car was an investment.  “You can’t get a job without a car,” he told me.  At job interviews, one of the recurring questions I was asked was, “Do you have a car?” lending to the notion that a car symbolized personal reliability and competence.  I was under the false pretense that cars meant freedom and that somehow without one, I’d be less attractive as an employee.

I worked long hours at a fast food restaurant, only to realize I was putting my paycheck directly back into the very thing that was supposed to help me earn money.  I began to grow disdainful about this costly thing that society seemed to be obsessed with.  I felt as though my car was a complete drag on my life; not only having to pay for it but having to maintain it as well.

In addition, I felt guilty  that it polluted the air and used up precious fossil fuels that take thousands of years to form.  This did not feel like “freedom” to me.

The final straw for my car ownership was when I got into an accident the summer of 2010.   Continue reading →

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by | September 17, 2013 · 9:00 am

Places Where People Bike Are Places Where People Are Happy

By Micheline Maynard

How to be happy? Ride a bike.

All this summer, I’ve slowly been getting back up to speed on a bicycle. I haven’t ridden regularly in decades, although I’ve tried just about every kind of exercise. But I made a vow that if I was going to lead Curbing Cars, I needed to feel comfortable on a bike.

It’s still pretty hard for me to pedal up the hills near my house. However, there’s a moment in every ride when I’ve felt the exhilaration of gliding along under the trees, waving to my neighbors, generally just enjoying myself.

So, I was pleased to find that the new World Happiness Report says people are happiest in places where bicycling is popular. According to the report, sponsored by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Denmark is the happiest nation on earth, followed by Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Sweden.

As the National Geographic puts it:

“Denmark and the Netherlands (the happiest and the fourth-happiest countries on Earth) are renowned for being the world’s most bicycle-friendly nations; the other most-happy countries are also famously bicycle friendly.” NatGeo makes the distinction between people who have to ride bikes because that’s the main mode of transportation they can afford, and those who ride bicycles out of choice. Continue reading →

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