[sustran] Public bicycle planning, priorities, strategies

[Eric Britton]

This is an important point Stephen, and let me see if I can reassure a bit.

 

With a couple of dozen public bike projects already rolling on the street in
quite a range of different cities, configurations and cycling environments,
and with literally hundreds of cities and consultants raking through all
this with a view to developing sound plans for their own projects, one point
concerning policy and practice is soaring above all the rest. 

 

And that is that if any city or group tries to put on the street a public
bike project with broad public access without first ensuring at least
minimum conditions for safe cycling, this is not only a gross error but also
in fact a criminal act. Why? Well, because cyclists  who are all of a sudden
launched into a “car-war” environment are going to be injured and killed in
numbers way above the historic statistical mean.

 

1.     The supporting infrastructure must be there – and it must match with
the travel patterns of city cyclists

2.     This infrastructure must be carefully maintained to a high standard

3.     It must be properly signed and marked (street paint, etc.)

4.     The streets on which the cyclists transit must be adequately
protected by the police

5.     Effective educational campaigns must be launched, both for cyclists
and for motorists

6.     (And I believe personally that those people who make these decisions
should use the system only a daily basis themselves – thus ensuring the
tightest possible feedback loops if and when any troubles or anomalies
surface)

 

That I can safely offer is the state of the art as of 25 July 2008, and
anyone who launches a project without ensuring these preparations is not
only behind the curve, but dangerously behind the curve. 

 

The second part of this informal answer to your concern, is that a very
significant impact of public bike projects got right, is that they bring
more cyclists out on the street, which gives you both (a) strength in
numbers and (b) a proportionately higher profile for cycling which in turn
gets both media and policy attention. This is a very positive synergy and if
you look at the leading city bike projects you can see it at work. 

 

You last point: about how to make this work in “poor countries” is something
on which we a number of others are currently working. Stay tuned.

 

Eric Britton

 

 

 

From: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Plowden
Sent: Friday, 25 July 2008 07:09
To: No Reply; NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Public bicycle strategies for troubled
communities

 

Much as I admire the Velib and other similar initiatives, I am concerned
that the emphasis on public bikes may distract attention from the more
important issue of how to ensure safe and agreeable conditions for people to
use their own bikes, wich most people even in poor countries can afford. 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com 

To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com 

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 6:00 PM

Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Digest Number 1155

 

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Public bicycle <>  strategies for troubled communities From:
Andrew_Curran at translink.bc.ca] 

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Posted by: "Andrew_Curran at translink.bc.ca]" Andrew_Curran at translink.bc.ca]
<mailto:Andrew_Curran at translink.bc.ca]%20>    fekbritton
<http://profiles.yahoo.com/fekbritton> 


Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:52 pm (PDT) 


Curran, Andrew [mailto:Andrew_Curran at translink.bc.ca
<mailto:Andrew_Curran%40translink.bc.ca> ] 
Sent: Wednesday, 23 July 2008 19:04

In speaking with some colleagues from Mexico City who are considering a
Public Bicycle System, one of the main challenges is that credit card use is
not widespread and the majority of the population does not have any readily
available collateral to offer up as a guarantee that they will return the
bicycle. This challenge is the same for many cities in the Global South and
for poorer parts of wealthy cities. If a PBS is implemented in cities where
only a wealthy minority has access to the bicycles they will be the target
of serious resentment, vandalism and theft. 

Perhaps some kind of Grameen Bank-style model might work? 

The Grameen Bank provides micro-loans to poor women with no conventional
collateral. The women organize into homogeneous 5-person "self-help" groups
(to facilitate group solidarity). These primary groups of 5 are then
federated into local centres which are affiliated with the central Grameen
Bank. One woman in the group at a time is granted a small loan to undertake
a quick income generating activity of her choosing. The next woman in the
group is only eligible for a subsequent loan once the first woman repays her
loan. The Bank achieves close to a 99% repayment rate (far better than
conventional banks). The entire system works based on credit discipline
through collective borrower responsibility and peer pressure.

More info: 

http://www.grameen-info.org/

http://www.grameen-info.org/grameen/gtrust/replication.html

In a Grameen-style Public Bicycle System, users could organize into groups
of 5-10 and if one user fails to return a bicycle - their entire group is
responsible? Either the entire group would need to chip in and pay the lost
bike charge or the entire group would lose their bicycle privileges? It's
not as clean or as obviously work-able as the Bank model but perhaps there
is a seed of something here? Is there some way to set up a sustainable PBS
where bicycles are returned based on collective borrower responsibility and
peer pressure (as opposed to un-collectable fines or the heavy hand of the
law)?

Any other ideas to address this challenge? 

Cheers,

Andrew

_____ 

From: WorldCityBike at yahoogroups.com <mailto:WorldCityBike%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:WorldCityBike at yahoogroups.com
<mailto:WorldCityBike%40yahoogroups.com> ]
On Behalf Of Eric Britton
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:45 AM
To: worldcitybike at yahoogroups.com <mailto:worldcitybike%40yahoogroups.com> 
Subject: [WorldCityBike] Public bicycle strategies for troubled communities

Dear friends,

Here is an idea I would like to see if we can perhaps develop together, and
suggest that we do this in the new mobility café – i.e., you post to
NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com <mailto:NewMobilityCafe%40yahoogroups.com> .

Okay, We have pretty well established over the last several years of real
world hands-on experience that public bikes can do some pretty interesting
things . . . in certain kinds of cities. The basic conditions of success
include the usual: topography, climate, land use, quality of supporting
infrastructure, street safety, etc., etc. All of that we have gone into
amply here.

But one thorn in the side of this great new mobility idea is: how if at all
do you make it work in communities that suffer from certain kinds of social
and economic dysfunctionality? For example areas with very high youth
unemployment and the social behavior that does along with it.

The trick with the public bike is that they are out on the street and we can
be sure that if there is any residual anger within the community, they are
going to suffer. Even in calmer cities, vandalism and theft are always very
much there are requiring the fullest attention of the city and their public
bike partner. 

Until now the pattern response that I keep running into when we speak with
people from the Global South mega-cites for example (but not only them) the
public bike idea does not get too far before it gets tossed out the window
for a lot of “practical reasons”. 

Hmm.

Your thoughts on this?

Eric Britton