Just found this interesting graph on ballenablanca.es. Makes one think how much money is being wasted.
Transit prices comparison
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The Cambridge Guided Busway
Street users pyramid
Every day you share the street with other people who walk, use a wheelchair, ride a bike or drive a motorcycle, a car, a van, a truck, etc. There is a myriad of ways of moving from one point to another. I like to think it as a pyramid regarding the protection each group should have. On the bottom of this gradation, there would be walking people and wheelchair users since each and every person belongs to this group and are the most vulnerable. Next, bikers and skaters would take up the second step. They go faster than most of walkers. This fact determines they should ride in a different, separate space in the street in order to avoid accidents and troubles. Then, we have the motorcycle drivers. Obviously, the speed they reach is the higher up until now, but they are fragile compared with car drivers. It is no difficult to imagine who would be worse off in an accident between a motorcycle and a car. On the top of this pyramid I put car, van and truck drivers. Since they move in the heaviest machines, the potential damage they can cause in road accidents is the most important. Indeed, it is common that most of deaths in road (at least in Western countries) are car drivers.
Portland Innovates
San Francisco: Reclaiming Streets With Innovative Solutions
Sidewalks and bikers
One of the main problems when surveys are done regarding urban mobility is the conflict between bikers and pedestrians. Riding on sidewalks (outside bike-lines) is fined in a lot of countries. The bike is logically considered as a vehicle and thus it should move on pavement or bike-lines. Bikers who ride their bikes on sidewalks probably do it because:
– They act as pedestrians, following the same paths and mental schemes as if they were walking. But not, they are riding and this can cause problems due to the higher speed than human step and/or the potential accident caused by the fact that it is an almost noiseless transport.
– This kind of bikers also can present fear to ride on pavement. This fear is understandable in some cases specially in avenues in which cars and motorcycles do not usually respect the speed limit. This reason makes it difficult to convince those bikers to move to the pavement since the more bikers on it, the more calmed traffic we will enjoy. In order to avoid going around in circles, government actions on sustainable mobility should calm traffic and, at the same time, bikers should take the pavement.
San Francisco: Removal of the Embarcadero Freeway
Peatónito is in NYC
The 2017 World Bike Forum
A World Bike Forum (WBF) is a yearly event in which most of the issue related to urban cycling and mobility are discussed. One can find planning of cities, innovative actions on bike infrastructure or the main tendencies in urban cycling. It started in 2011 as a result of the tragic collision first anniversary. On the eve of the Critical Mass in Porto Alegre, a mad driver deliberately collided with around 20 cyclists on February 25. The next year, the first edition of the World Forum took place in the very same city. The Brazilian city repeated as WBF host city the next year. In 2014, another Brazilian city organised it. Then, it moved to Medellin (Colombia) in 2015 and Santiago (Chile) in 2016. This year Mexico city will be the city host of the WBF.
Among all, the best way to define it is freedom. The key principles are:
– Freeness: All the activities in the Forum are free
– Horizontally: The organizing work is done by volunteers, all the information is public and only flat organisation is allowed
– Most of the activities are self managed
– It is done by people for people, hence no publicity, logos or trademarked brands are allowed
The event will take place in Mexico in April 19th-23th 2017. It is so important that even the United Nations has cover its press conference launching (http://webtv.un.org/watch/launch-of-the-sixth-world-bike-forum-in-2017-in-mexico-city-press-conference-habitat-iii/5176866406001?page=1). You can’t miss it!