[sustran] Re: Local cycling environment indicators: More on . . .

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

Hi,

Chris Bradshaw wrote:
> Todd's rejoinder to my earlier comments about whether modes compete or are 
> compementary to each other could benefit from the "green transportation 
> hierarchy.'
>
> It suggests that favouritism/priority be accorded in accordance to the 
> relative 'footprint' of each.  That puts them in the order:
> - Walking (and for walking handicapped, rolling)
> - Cycling (and in-line skates, skateboards)
> - Transit
> - Vehicle sharing (taxi, car-rental, ridesharing, carsharing, and informal 
> sharing of cars where parties share expenses)
> - Private car
>   
SURE, that works, except of course better without cars...

> As far as using the Internet to avoid going out at all, I am of the mind 
> that walking is still superior to that, since vital streets play an 
> important role, and so do co-workers seeing each other, even if not every 
> day.  And, after all, some stay-at-home activities generate vehicle trips by 
> others, e.g., delivery vehicles, which add little conviviality to streets.
>   

OK
> This hierarchy means that one does not accommodate a mode at the expense of 
> a mode _above_ it on the hierarchy.  For instance, I have always found that 
> bike racks (and bikes with their 'protusions') on buses makes the front of 
> the bus very ped-unfriendly in the case of a collision between the two. 
>   

SEEMS dangerous perhaps but in the over-litigious USA there has not been 
ONE lawsuit etc. against maker of the rack or the bus operators which 
use them. In 14 years of use, hundreds of thousands of trips per month. 
I think basically it is not good to get hit by a bus, and, statistically 
at least, the racks dont seem to make it worse. Emergency rooms dont 
record special info about the racks making things worse, emergency 
doctors assoc. is not concerned. But talk to a European traffic expert 
and they will tell you there are no problems in the USA or Canada 
because NO one walks.


> Could buses not be designed for bikes to be carried outside in another way? 
>   
I AM open to ideas. But for city buses they need to be in front so 
driver and cyclist ¨can see bikes, cyclist can tell driver he or she is 
putting bikes on rack,etc.

> For this reason, I find carrying a well designed folding bike on-board, or 
> using shared city bikes to avoid having to take a bike along on the transit 
> portion of the trip, to be superior choices.
>   
FOLDING bikes are great, shared bike are great, bus bike racks are great....
> I have found that most of the 'choices' governments offer never seriously 
> create any competition for car-use or car-ownership.  Rather, the measure is 
> usually transit-dominant, with almost no effort to mix/match the other three 
> modes above the private car, so that multi-mode trips are possible and 
> comfortable.
>   

RIGHT.

- T
> Chris Bradshaw
> Ottawa
>
>
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>   


-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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