More from the Toolkit:
1. Homework (Let's have a look)
2. World City Bike Toolkit
3. Implementation Partners
4. Check out Vélib example
5. The Vancouver project
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| City Bike Planning and Implementation Dialogues/Master Classes | |
Summary: An Accelerated Learning Session is a focused interactive two-way presentation and dialogue, organized over one or several days in a host city and with as its goal to address and advance for the sponsoring city one very specific new mobility concept. Think of it as a kind of "Master Class" led in a collegial fashion by associates of the World City Bike and New Mobility Agenda team, in parallel with and actively supported by local sponsors, and bringing together participants with a broad range of interests and competence in the areas that need to be covered to make such project succeed.
Over 2008 we are proposing to organize presentations and consultations looking specifically at the challenge of how best to plan and implement city bike projects, taking them from the specific vantage of host cities, public authorities and agencies. (For full information on the information and program background against which these consultations are being organized, kindly check out the main site of the World City Bike Implementation Strategies program.)
What is a City Bike is NOT? (Let's be very clear about this - it's a key.)
We have to start here from this strategic implementation since this may not be immediately self-evident. A city bike program is best thought of in strategic terms not as "one more good bike project". But rather . . . .
- A significant public transport project;
- A roads and infrastructure project of some considerable dimensions;
- A public health project whole impacts you are going to stretch hard to fully comprehend;
- A city center economic development project that can win back the center; and yes!
- A climate project that can set you apart from all the rest.
(And a terrific visiting card that will for sure bring people to your city.)
Now these are hardly trivial distinctions. Because at the end of the day these are the central deciding issues (once you have got the bike part right, which today is ever less of a challenge given the espanding array of serious qualified partners out there for you to work with) and the scales of resources needed to deal with our challenges. It is, to repeat, not just one more nice bike project. It's a city-transformation project, a leading edge to more to follow to create the mobility systems needed for sustainable cities.
The New Mobility Agenda
Each of these city projects needs to be investigated and prepare in itself, but at the same time the planning team and city need to bear in mind that this is only one part of a greater whole: the city's entire mobility system. Thus, a properly planned, well working city bike project cannot simply be grafted onto a passive unchanging old mobility context. If it is to work fully it has to be understood and accommodated as part of a major overhaul of all mobility arrangements within the city. Otherwise it will simply be "one more nice little bike project".
Who gets involved in the process?
In each case participation will be decided by the event sponsors, but it is our recommendation that the outreach be as wide as possible and that a broad group of competences and interests be brought around the table for your city. (If you click to http://ecoplan.org/briefs/general/local-actors.htm you will see a detailed checklist that is intended to be useful in figuring out who needs to be involved. Since city bike projects are both city-wide and moreover at their best will actively involve many interests and players within the community, public and private, business and volunteer, and above all lots of women and parents. The broadest possible outreach at all stages is strongly recommended for all the reasons you will see when you do it.
Event Organization:
If the host city decides on a one day project to get discussions underway, emphasis will center on the preparation of the working session. When possible it is preferable to organize a three day event, with the workshop in the center preceded by a series of contacts and exchanges with smaller groups and individual organizations and key players. And on the day after the workshop, to follow-up with debriefs and "What's Next" exchanges with the key actors and eventual direct participants in a city bike project in that place.
In the remainder of this section, we propose to you a pair of checklists that will hopefully give you a better idea of the kinds of things that the dialogues should be given over to. The first of these asks: Is your city going to be a good place to create a public bike project?
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| Is your city going to be a good place to create a public bike project? | |
Here are some of the basic indicators and conditions that need to be discussed and decided for your city, and looked at together with the participants in the main sessions.
- Is this to be a full scale city-wide daily mobility system? Or a pilot, test or tourist project?
- It makes a big difference. Above all in the level of commitment.
- Is your city government 100% behind project? (e.g., are all the key players willing to commit fully to all aspects of the project)
- e.g., Are they ready to commit to necessary infrastructure expansion to support?
- This ineeds to be iron-hard verified at the very early stages of your eventual project. If all the key players have not bought in . . .
- Is the necessary supporting infrastructure in place?
- Kms of safe cycling access are a good indicator
- Safe cycle parking (These two modes , public and private, work together)
- And is city ready to extend its cycling infrastructure as needed?
- What about your weather?
- Cyclable months/year: (for average person)
- Are you willing to consider a winter of seasonal shut-down if your weather demands it?
- Topography?
- % city area easily cyclable: (Rough estimate will do)
- Size/Urban form/Activity mix?
- Do you have a sufficiently sized area and the activity density (mixed use) needed to take advantage of theseshort trips?
- Road condition/maintenance?
- Cyclists need good road surfaces to cycle safely
- Vandalism/bike thefts, public attitudes to public facilities?
- These bikes and stations are out on the street 24/7
- Extent, density and quality of public transit system coverage:
- Public cycles are a form of public transport - they work in synergy with the rest. And is that rest there in your city?
- Cycle clubs, environmental, user and support groups:
- These are the knowledgeable allies who will be needed for success.
- Driver attitudes and skill levels?
- Bringing a system online will require the re-education of all those who today share the road. This process involves many actors and steps.
- Degree of city's commitment to sustainable development?
- If it's not ther 100% and in blood, your project has little chance for real success. You have to be very very sure, otherwise give it a miss.
Once you have a feel for how the above look in your city, you should already have a pretty good idea as to whether it will be worth pursuing this idea. Or not. That will be a good start. But now the real work begins.
| Implementation issues, checklists | |
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