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Barriers to Municipal Planning for Pedestrians and Bicyclists in North Carolina Authors: Kelly R. Evenson, Semra A. Aytur, Sara B. Satinsky, Daniel A. Rodríguez Background: The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends implementing community- and street-scale urban design, as well as land use policies and practices, to promote walking and bicycling. To better understand barriers to municipal walking and bicycling projects and policies, we surveyed municipal staff in North Carolina.  Methods: We surveyed all 121 municipalities with at least 5,000 persons, and 62% responded. We also surveyed 216 of 420 municipalities with less than 5,000 persons, and 50% responded. The municipal staff member most knowledgeable about walking and bicycling planning was asked to complete the survey. Responses were weighted to account for the sampling design, to reflect prevalence estimates for all North Carolina municipalities. Results: Common barriers to walking and bicycling projects and policies were selected from a 14-item list. For walking, barriers included lack of funding (93% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (66%), and staffing challenges (65%). For bicycling, barriers included lack of funding (94% of responding municipalities), other infrastructure priorities (79%), automobile infrastructure priorities (73%), issues were not high priorities for the municipality (68%), staffing challenges (68%), and insufficient support from residents (63%). Barriers generally were more prevalent among rural municipalities than among urban municipalities (9 of 14 barriers for walking and 5 of 14 for bicycling; P < .10). limitations The study relied on 1 respondent to report for a municipality. Additionally, job titles of respondents varied with municipality  size.  Conclusions: Health professionals and multidisciplinary partners can assist in overcoming the common local- and state-level barriers

Abstract: Pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure such as sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails, can all be used for transportation, recreation, and fitness. These types of infrastructure have been shown to create many benefits for their users as well as the rest of the community. Some of these benefits are economic, such as increased revenues and jobs for local businesses, and some are non-economic benefits such as reduced congestion, better air quality, safer travel routes, and improved health outcomes. While other studies have examined the economic and non-economic impacts of the use of walking and cycling infrastructure, few have analyzed the employment that results from the design and construction of these projects. In this study we estimate the employment impacts of building and refurbishing transportation infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. We analyze various transportation projects and use state-specific data to estimate the number of jobs created within each state where the project is located.

"Sarah McCullough, a graduate student at the University of California at Davis who researched how people's feelings about biking - happy, scared, sad, etc. - relate to their likelihood of actually riding a bike. (She's finding that people with stronger emotions about biking - and not necessarily just positive ones - are more likely to do it. And people are more likely to bike when they perceive it as safe and socially normal.) "Just understanding how changes in cultural infrastructure have to accompany changes in physical infrastructure; it's not necessarily enough in many communities just to put in a bike lane. You also have to create a culture where people feel comfortable using it.""

Global Site Plans - The Grid Combining infrastructure and public art is something I'm passionate about. It just seems so obvious, both aesthetically and financially, to combine the two harmoniously. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho has accomplished just that. Coeur d'Alene ("KOR-duh-LANE") Idaho is about a forty-five-minute drive East on I-90 from Spokane, Washington.

From 2000 to 2010, bicycle commuting rose 40 percent in the U.S. But, in the 38 largest BFCs, the rise in bike commuters was almost double the national rate, growing a staggering 77 percent over the same time period. Cities like Portland, Ore.; Boulder, Colo; Davis, Calif., and other leading BFCs are almost ready to join the ranks of world-class bike communities - and the League has been working with BFC representatives to envision a higher standard that challenges and charts new heights for bicycle-friendliness in the United States. "If it sounds like we are moving the goalposts, it's because we are," says Andy Clarke, League President. "Communities are doing so much more, and the state of the practice in innovative infrastructure and programs has developed so rapidly in recent years, that it really is time to challenge communities to do even more to make biking better." Attaining Diamond designation will involve an individualized challenge tailored to each community. The League will conduct a detailed audit for each city and work with community leaders to create clear 5-, 10- and 15-year goals for important factors like bicycle mode share, land use, crashes, network connectivity and bike culture. The primary measure to Diamond designation: The number of people riding and citizen satisfaction. Cities will delve into a more detail evaluation of ridership and level of service, using standard methods of measure like the American Community Survey and National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, but also more challenging and broader tools such as Copenhagen's Bicycle Account. The end goal: American communities that rival top international cycling cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam with world-class facilities, like protected bike lanes - and so much more. "In Portland, bikes mean business," says Tom Miller, Director of the Portland (Ore.) Bureau of Transportation. "Our commitment to bike-friendly streets has helped to attract a wealt

Keep in mind for creating bike rack and bike infrastructure maps to place public transportation stops and other locations.

Guest Blogger Adonia E. Lugo is an anthropologist and activist who uses ethnographic research on bicycling to advocate for social justice in urban sustainability. A doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine, she is currently writing a dissertation about human infrastructure for bicycling in Los Angeles, where she co-founded City of Lights/ Ciudad de Luces (now Multicultural Communities for Mobility) and CicLAvia.

"The National Association of City Transportation Officials publishes its own, much more cutting-edge, design guide for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure."

"Biking boomed in communities across the country, doubling from 1.7 billion trips in 2001 to more than four billion trips in 2009. That growth is being pedaled forward by youth, women, and people of color - who are playing a key role in shifting transportation demand towards safe, accessible, and equitable bicycling infrastructure."

This is a 2009 report by the League.

By now, we all know that cycling is good for health, fitness, cutting road accidents, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing energy security (and so on, and on). But what about biking's economic impact--its cyclonomics, if you will? The League of American Bicyclists put a map together to publicize a recent report by its policy director Darren Flusche. Flusche says the most important pieces of evidence for bicycling's economic impact come from business district studies, including ones for downtown Memphis and Long Beach, California. Research (PDF) covering Portland, Oregon, meanwhile, showed that bicyclists spent more over a month than either motorists or walkers. "Those arguments are critical for convincing businesses to allow bike infrastructure in front of their shops, because they are very aware of parking, and they have the perception that most people arrive by car. That's not always the case. You can fit many more bikes in a spot than cars," Flusche says.

The festival should be completely self organized, there should be no "orga-team" providing all the necessary infrastructure or dominating the discourse. Bikekitchen Vienna just organizes basic infrastructure, the rest we do all together. It should also be as cheap as possible, no profit should be made.

Reporting on the value of investing in Bike/Pedestrian Infrastructure.

Assuming a one-to-one tradeoff between vehicle trips and non-motorized trips, the DOT report estimated that the program conserved 1.67 million gallons of gasoline and averted more than 30.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions between 2007 and 2010. The report also noted that the increase in non-motorized travel and the decrease in automobile trips resulted in notable reductions in other air pollutants that contribute to health problems. It estimates that boosting the amount of pedestrian and bicycle activity in these communities reduced the economic cost of mortality by about $6.9 billion in 2007. Doctors and the broader public health community have long been advocating increasing opportunities for biking and walking as a cost-effective strategy to reduce illness and wasteful spending on reactive health care. The U.S. DOT report, "Report to the U.S. Congress on the Outcomes of the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program", is available at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/ntpp/2012_report/final_report_april_2012.pdf.

New York may have dropped in a recent ranking of cycling cities. But it does have some world class infrastructure, including a "complete street" on 9th Avenue, with a protected bike lane. Built in 2007, it was controversial at the time (like everything else bike-related in the city). But a study by the Department of Transport finds that it's paid dividends economically. Local stores between 23rd and 31st streets have seen a 49% increase in sales, compared to an average of 3% for Manhattan as a whole. The DOT doesn't give an explanation. But other research has shown similar things. While bikers tend to spend less per visit than drivers, they spend more over a month, according to one Portland study. Bike advocates note that you can park more bikes in a limited space than you can family-sized vehicles.

Bicyclists Are Serious Shoppers A 2012 study of shoppers in New York City's East Village district - which had recently installed protected bike lanes - found that, per capita per week, cyclists spent the most money at local businesses. Bicyclists: $168 Pedestrians: $158 Car drivers: $143 Public transit: $111 The "so what?" argument may seem valid here. The East Village is particularly dense, with especially high mode shares of bicycling and walking. So of course that will be represented in total retail sales for the area. But the phenomenon does not exist in a single-neighborhood vacuum; cities in every region across the country are seeing positive results from increased bike infrastructure.

Sharrows: the consolation prize of bike infrastructure. Dick van Veen, a Dutch bike engineer who is currently working in Ottawa, says cyclists often ask him about this symbolic gesture toward bike safety. He says in America, sharrows are often painted on an otherwise inhospitable road.

Infrastructure!