urban rider

My city is experiencing major financial problems, it will run out of money by April 2012. So in the wisdom of the city leaders it has made major cuts in the bus system. So people will have to wait 3-4 hours before getting to work or anywhere else. I think this is a great time to encourage people to consider bike commuting as an alternative method for transportation.

How has your city supported people who bike to work?

coldfeet

Interesting definition of "Support"

Calgary isn't too bad for cycling/transit, always room for improvement, but overall, we do better than a lot of others. Pathways are swept, at least major ones leading into the core, and they've improved the road plowing this year.

FanaticMN

Minneapolis

buzzman

I commute in and out of Boston pretty much every day. And sometimes I live and work in New York City. Boston I've lived in since 1980 and NYC, off and on, since 1990.

Both cities are far better now than they were when I first started biking in them for more than 20 or 30 years. New York started it by doing the following:

-building the west side bike path

- adding bike lanes to avenues and streets

- closing Central park to traffic at certain times

- putting in more bike racks

-printing a NYC bike map

- certain politicians and city administrators have been supportive of efforts to promote cycling.

In Boston:

Finally making Improvements to the Charles River bike path

Adding bike lanes to Commonwealth Avenue

adding more bike lanes in the city

The Mayor has been an advocate.

tsl

Rochester Bicycle Master Plan

I was one of several citizens who worked with the city on the master plan. I was skeptical going into the first meeting. I became a convert when they said, "This is supposed to be about using bicycles as transportation. There are plenty of other agencies and organizations working on recreational cycling. We don't intend to interfere with or duplicate their efforts."

It was quite gratifying to watch the implementation of the plan unfold through the season last year. I was just plain giddy when a sharrow appeared on the street in front of my building.

The city has supported employee commuting in several ways. All newer city buildings have showers in the locker rooms. (Mine, built in 1973, does not.) For as long as anybody can remember, Library policy has been that staff get indoor bike parking. Most other departments allow the same.

To make life easier for everyone, I offered to buy a rack to hang my bike on at work, if they'd have maintenance install it. The boss said fine. So I have one of the nicest parking spots in the city.



Comes with a ferocious guard snake.

modernjess

Indeed, it's always a good time for that. However from a city's standpoint it takes a commitment at a fairly high level along with resources ($$$) to support, foster, and promote cycling. Something your city seems to be in short supply of. As logical as it may seem it can be a very tough sell even in the best of times.

Despite our reputation for cycling support in Minneapolis the push back against spending money on it is massive. There are lots of people here who are not supporters and go out of their way to rail against cycling infrastructure spending at every turn. They are pathetically uninformed and have a very narrow and car centric view of the world. But there are a lot of them and they are loud. So spending aside, without a commitment from government leaders it will never get done. We've been lucky enough to have many cycling advocates as elected officials for a long time and we are continuing to progress because of it.

FunkyStickman

It doesn't. At all.

alan s 

My city built and maintains roads for all types of commuters, but not specifically for bike commuters. I benefit greatly from this effort, because the alternative would probably be gravel or mud. Beyond that, they've added paint in certain areas to mark off bike lanes, but not much else, as far as I can tell. I'm pleased with the result.

Bigdaddy021970

Neither does mine. I could elaborate and rant but I'll just leave it at that. I make do with what I have.

Besides I have fun taking control of the lane and making cage drivers move over.

JPinWI

The pushback is remarkable...but mother nature will not compromise...I look at all those miles of roadway as future bike path!!

Zrane

My commute? Not at all, other than a new (and too small) 3 feet sign that I noticed.

They're starting to get better, though. There are some Sharrows on a road inappropriate for them(45+mph and high traffic) because it's a route for the sunday morning group rides going out into the country. There are some new, as yet unconnected to anything, bike paths by the river and word has it bike lanes are going in down town.

Now if they would just put some money towards the trails master plan and link the ones we have and add some more, I'd be happy.

Also, a ped/bike bridge over I-235 would be nice. I hate getting over that thing, the only options are dangerous.

erg79

I ride in two cities: Los Angeles, and Santa Monica.

LA, though not quite the temple to automobiles that people make it out to be, has had to been nudged and pushed into supporting cycling. They're not doing things perfectly, but things are slowly changing. Downtown LA has more bike lanes now, the city installed sharrows on some streets throughout the city, and the LADOT (dept. of transportation) has a website where you can request bike racks to be installed.

Santa Monica is smaller, has a more liberal and progressive city government, and is in better fiscal shape than LA. The city adopted a Land Use Circulation Element plan a few years back that emphasizes public transportation, cycling, and making things better for pedestrians, and they're trying to keep car trips in the downtown area flat in future years. Santa Monica recently adopted a bike action plan (LA has a bike plan as well, but the drafting of it and implementation has been torturous drawn out). More bike lanes are going in, and one street that already has bike lanes on both sides will eventually be switched over so it has a separated cycle track. Bike racks are quickly installed, and most shopping areas have multiple bike racks on each block. There's also a new bike center that opened in one of the parking garages in downtown, where you can buy a membership and have access to showers and lockers, or if you aren't a member you can just go and lock up your bike inside and have it watched by staff. Not really commute-related, but on the weekend one of the popular farmer's markets has a bike valet for free.

Neither city has any building codes for showers, so once you're at work you still depend on what your employer or the building has available (the same goes for racks as well--maybe you're lucky and your work is near a bike rack on the sidewalk, but maybe you aren't and you have to put up with a crappy wheel-bender rack that the building has installed).

SuncoastChad

Pinellas County, Florida, is getting so congested you can't discuss a single community. The Pinellas Trail (rails-to-trails) has been a success for years. There are now extensions being built in eastern Pinellas along East Lake/McMullen Booth road. The Long Trail between the Long Center and Phillipe Park in Safety Harbor gets a lot of use and has an underpass at the RR crossing and a bike/pedestrian overpass over McMullen Booth (6 lane commuter artery). Bike lanes are added when possible and signage has been put up where the lanes can't be added. I use the Progress Trail, still under construction, almost daily. When completed it will connect with the East Lake trail and run down central county and then to Weedon Island preserve in St. Pete. When completed this Progress Energy trail will be just over 20 miles in length.

nubcake

Just moved to Colorado Springs recently and continue to be impressed by the number of greenways and bike lanes in this city. There are also bike racks all around the city and outside of many businesses. There is even a bus system with a bike rack on front that runs from the springs to Denver. I love it here.

NWS Alpine

Glad to see the City not wasting efforts! I grew up in the are and went to RIT. Also nice Nalgene bottles! I have boat loads as my Dad was an executive and ran the plant for a while in Rochester. Moved on take over some other stuff after the Fisher and then Thermo takeover.

Seattle Forrest

They paved roads for me to ride on.

enigmaT120

Paved roads: another example of wasted taxpayer dollars.

I got that off a BMW R100GSPD dual sport motorcycle pannier sticker, but it sort of applies to both of my bikes too.

tarwheel 

My city (Raleigh, NC) recently completed a new cycling master plan, which I haven't reviewed, but addresses plans for cycling routes, paths and other infrastructure. They solicited advice from cyclists in developing the plan. We don't have much a bike path network aimed at commuters, altho we have an extensive greenbelt system of MUTs that is designed more for recreational use. Altho there are few bike lanes or paths along commuting routes, the city has designated cycling friendly routes that are marked by little green bike signs and neon yellow "Share the Road" signs. The city also has printed a nice map for many years showing all of the MUTs as well as cycling friendly routes, and I follow one of those routes on my daily commute (but again, I am not separated from vehicle traffic).

Our local greenbelt system is supposedly one of the best and most extensive in the Southeast and is heavily used by joggers, walkers, etc. in addition to cyclists. Most of the paths follow streams or go around lakes in city parks, so they are fine for recreational use but generally aren't useful for commuting unless you just happen to live near one that heads toward your place of work. One of the nicest paths will eventually run 30+ miles along the major river through our area (Neuse) and will make it possible for me to ride a metric century totally separated from traffic, which will be cool altho dodging joggers is always a challenge. So far, only the first 7 miles of this path has opened, but it is supposed to be completed sometime in 2013. It is first-class construction with 10-wide path, bridges over creeks, underpasses at major roads, and picnic tables and benches along the way.

One issue the city doesn't seem to have addressed is traffic light sensors that do not detect bicycles. Some of them work and others don't. I have sent emails to the city listing the locations of signals with malfunctioning sensors but never got a response. Ironically some of these signals are along city-designated cycling routes, but the signals absolutely will not detect a bicycle no matter what you do. So you are forced to either run the light or wait for a car to come along.

jeffpoulin

In Geneva, Switzerland, most of the major streets have bike lanes on each side. The city prints a map of all bike lanes and cycle paths, and this map is available for free at the tourist office (and online too). Bikes are welcome on public transportation. Starting this summer, the city is offering free bike rentals for up to 4 hours/day. Every year in June, Geneva hosts its "bike to work month" where people join teams of cyclists and prizes are given out. About 50,000 people participate (the city population is around 200,000). In the winter, bike paths are plowed/salted just like the streets. Most drivers are tolerant and yield to cyclists who have the right of way. The scenery is not too bad, either.

Rockfish

My city has refrained from dumping boxes of nails and tacks on the road, and refrained from hiring people to smash glass bottles all over the place. Other than that, nothing.

MK313

That's hilarious! One of the best responses I've read on these forums.

NWS Alpine

Boca Raton actually has done a decent job with bike lanes lately. Very smooth paved areas and when needed the crosswalk buttons actually beep and do something. Can't say the same for Fort lauderdale. It sucks riding down there compared to Boca.

mikeybikes

Denver has a bike sharing scheme, excellent bike route system including on-street and off-street infrastructure, bike parking program and other things I'm probably missing.

They recently ran a campaign called Denver Moves to update the bicycle master plan. They received a lot of input from city residents about how to improve bicycling infrastructure.

jr59

You can come on over any old time.

New Orleans has done a LOT of things to help the commuters!
New bike lanes, Chevrons on the road and so forth, withmore planed.

The biggest is this;
https://www.wwltv.com/news/lafittecor...135617473.html

This will be a BIG project and am thankful for all that have worked on it!

ThermionicScott 

I haven't gotten hit yet!

Oh, they have added some sharrows.

- Scott