{"id":578,"date":"2011-06-20T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T23:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/2011\/06\/20\/ten-lessons-for-a-vibrant-city\/"},"modified":"2011-06-20T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T23:04:00","slug":"ten-lessons-for-a-vibrant-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2011\/06\/20\/ten-lessons-for-a-vibrant-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten lessons for a vibrant city"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Even though I’ve been back in Seattle for a week, my head and heart are still in Copenhagen, Denmark where I attended a study tour underwritten by the Scan\/Design Foundation<\/a>, and lead by i-Sustain <\/a>. The weeklong tour was a guided whirlwind of the best bicycling practices in a city known for its world-class bicycle facilities and biking culture.<\/p>\n

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10 Lessons learned from the seat of my 3-speed red rental bike:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1) Think out of the car and beyond the oil barrel<\/b> to energy independence. Denmark began planning for bikes, buses, trains, and subways during the oil crisis in the mid 1970s. <\/div>\n

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2) Really, truly you can share the road, and do so safely<\/b>. It’s about planning for “soft traffic” which means giving bike riders and pedestrians separate facilities–sidewalks and cycle tracks that get a “green” traffic signal before motorists.<\/div>\n

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3) Think beyond money<\/b>. Envision a vibrant, vital city which embraces biking as an inexpensive transportation option.<\/div>\n
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4) Arrive by bike, bus or train<\/b>. When I asked a city employee how he got to the meeting, he replied, “by bus, we’re not allowed to drive to meetings.”<\/p>\n

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\u00a05) Separated facilities have fostered a 37% bicycling rate<\/b>. Cycle tracks are a separate facility running on all major roads in Copenhagen. They parallel sidewalks, and traffic lanes. They have fostered a main street atmosphere with reduced noise levels.<\/p>\n

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6) Blue lanes through intersections<\/b> coupled with a green light ahead of motorists has reduced traffic conflicts and collisions. The lanes clearly show the bicyclist where to ride, and gives motorists a visual cue to watch for both people on bikes and on foot.<\/p>\n

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7) Biking skills are taught to every school child<\/b>. Red Cross and other non-profits teach bicycle skills to immigrants. Copenhagen is planning for a 50% bike ridership by 2015.<\/p>\n

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8) No lycra<\/b>–just people riding in jeans, skirts, shorts, suits, dresses.<\/p>\n

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9) Offer options<\/b>: not everyone wants to ride on the cycle tracks. Denmark doesn’t have steep hills but they do have open minds about providing options over and around obstacles.<\/p>\n
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10) Cycling should be as easy as walking.<\/b> I’m still processing what I learned; the study tour was an eye-opening experience. I’ve changed my thinking and I’m committed to working with my study-tour colleagues to bring some of these best practices to Seattle and other Washington cities.<\/p>\n
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Even though I’ve been back in Seattle for a week, my head and heart are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[16,18,49,32,51,27,45,56,13,15,28,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","category-advocacy","category-attitudes","category-bike-culture","category-complete-streets","category-education","category-bike-funding-policy-wa","category-go-by-bike","category-bike-infrastructure-wa","category-safety","category-share-the-road","category-transportation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTen lessons for a vibrant city - 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