[sustran] Fw: [urb-eco] Re: Bike Developments

[David Mozer]

Public Innovation Abroad (Sept '98) reports:

The bike-friendly city of Grenoble at the foot of the French
Alps has bought over a hundred 'official' bikes for use by
council and staff members on their business appointments
around the community.  The bikes, to be emblazoned with the
city's coat of arms, will reduce the number of official duty
cars in the city's fleet.  A new city tender won by Peugeot
Cycles calls for gear box housing that will eliminate the
risk of grease stains on the trousers and dresses of city
officials who opt for this new form of official
transportation.

Deputy mayor Michel Gilbert who uses a city bike exclusively
for his official rounds, has been mainly responsible for a
fivefold increase in Grenoble's budget for bikeway
construction and maintenance over the past three years.  The
1998 appropriation is in the range of FFr 2.2 million about
US$400,000), another FFr 7.5 million (US$1.3m) has been
allocated by the metro region for bikeway initiatives.

Programs are happening in North America as well - though
there is plenty of room for expansion.  The following is
from the International Bicycle Fund's website
www.ibike.org/workbike.htm :

The following governmental uses of bicycles have been
reported:

In San Luis Obispo (CA, USA) the fire department use
bicycles to go out to building inspections.
Park rangers in numerous city and county parks use bikes to
patrol their trail systems and green spaces.
Seattle and King County (WA, USA) have "non-motor pool"
(bicycles) for employees to use when going out on business.
Five New York City Department of Transportation Street
Inspectors ride bicycles full-time to monitor pavement
conditions. [City Cyclist, NY]
As the Borough Engineer for Haringey, Darek Turner used a
bike for work trips. He has now been named London Traffic
Director. [London Cyclist, UK]
The building inspector for Port Townsend (WA USA) rides a
bike to the worksites.
Started in mid-1996, the Santa Barbara County (CA USA)
Marshal's Department implemented a program to use bicycles
to serve civil process in the downtown Santa Barbara City
area.  The marshal has the duty of serving civil papers,
subpoenas and other legal documents produced by the courts.


Paramedics in Phoenix, AZ, use specially equipped bicycles
for parades, festivals and sports events. The idea came when
paramedics noticed that at a parade police officers on
bicycle arrived at an incident requiring emergency medical
services much quicker that the paramedics themselves. The
EMS bicycles are designed to carry full advanced life
support equipment including heart monitors/defibrillator,
intubation equipment, oxygen, IV supplies and trauma kits.

In Seattle, area hospitals use bicycle messengers to
transfer critical blood supplies through congested city
streets. [Seattle Post-Intellegencer]

New Jersey hospital use bicyclists to deliver health records
like x-ray film.

The San Luis Obispo County, CA, Board of Supervisors
approved a program that offers a bicycle to county employees
for their exclusive use. In return, the employee must agree
to ride the bicycle to work at least two days per week.
Participants must sign a "Bicycle Use Permit". At the end of
one year of successful participation, the employee may
receive ownership of the bicycle. The bicycles are either
donated or are unclaimed theft recoveries. A month after the
first memo announcing the program a second memo was
describing the response as overwhelming and reporting a
shortage of bicycles.

In other actions, the county installed additional bicycle
racks, new bicycle lockers and personal lockers at various
county facilities to accommodate and promote the use of
bicycles. These efforts are in concert with the county's
Clean Air Plan and related trip reduction requirements. For
details: General Services Director, County Government
Center, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408.

-----Original Message-----
From: wgilmore at concentric.net <wgilmore at concentric.net>
To: urban-ecology at egroups.com <urban-ecology at egroups.com>
Date: Saturday, January 09, 1999 6:50 PM
Subject: [urb-eco] Re: Bike Developments


Would that a North American city were as forward looking as
Bordeau
officials. This article is a translation of a newspaper
article which
apperared on another list.
============================================

Bikes for the elected officials of the Bordeaux City Hall

BRODEAUX (AP) About twenty bicycles were placed at the
disposal
of the elected officials and department heads at the
Bordeaux City Hall,
it was announced Monday by the Deputy-Mayor of the City,
Alain
Juppe.

"Very often, officials or bureaucrats go about Bordeaux by
car.  They
therefore contribute to the rise of pollution in the city.
They will have
at their disposal bicycles in the courtyard of the city hall
so they can
go to other public service offices," declared Mr. Juppe in a
press
conference, after a tour by bike around the Place
Pey-Berland, across
from
the Bordeaux City Hall, in the company of a number of
elected officials
from the municipality.

"Its an experience.  If it works out it will then give us
personnel on
municipal bicycles," explained Mr. Juppe. However the former
prime
minister clarified that he would not give up his "official
Safrane
[Renault]", but that he would try to "be an example as often
as
possible"
by getting around on bicycle.

These two-wheeled machines were supplied by the office of
tourism of
Bordeaux, which uses them primarily in the summer.  This
operation is
a complement to the "Sunday Without Cars" organized once a
month
downtown in this capital of the Aquitane Department.





------------------------------------------------------------
------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/urban-ecology
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com