Dirty Old Town

In lieu of the actual post I had planned on writing today (coming soon, promise)...I give you a friend's Facebook status update:

Bubblin' in Dublin

My recent trip to London also afforded me a chance to visit some good friends on an all-too-short 24 hour whirlwind to Dublin, via a cheap ticket on Ryanair (speaking of whom, this may the best argument yet for investing in a high-speed rail network). This marks my third visit in the last 2 1/2 years, and I must declare that I am rightly impressed with the progress that has been made in developing a bike network. During each subsequent trip, the number of bikes on the street seems to grow exponentially. It is doubly impressive considering that my first visit in May 2008 coincided with the entry into a recession which struck Ireland even harder than most countries, and from which it would appear they have some distance to a recovery. Still, the tail of the Celtic Tiger meant that several large capital projects have been underway for some time and are beginning to come online. Dublin Airport's expansion project is nearing completion (for fans of airport architecture, I might add that the new terminal is absolutely stunning) and traffic improvements include new separated cycletracks along the airport approach.




On the bus to An Lar, I made note of the infrastructure; shared bike/bus lanes and bike boxes at intersections were common even in more suburban car-oriented neighborhoods. Pedestrians were abundant as well, areas that don't look much different from any suburb in the States had a life on the streets that would make any New Urbanist green with envy. I reckon this owes to Ireland's economic history more than anything, the culture of car ownership is relatively new and by the time most working-class people could afford one, Dublin was already a densely-built city.

Upon arrival in the Phibsboro neighborhood, it wasn't long before I came across a dublinbikes docking station...an entirely new development since my last visit, run by JCDecaux, who also operates Paris' Vélib' and who was the original first choice to run Chicago's system back in 2007. The scheme would appear to be a resounding success, having drawn 40,000 subscribers in the first six months. Users pay just €10 for an annual hire card, which then allows them to check out bikes from forty stations across the city centre. The first half hour is free, and given that it's possible to walk pretty much all the way across town in that time it means that subscribers are seldom charged. Best of all, the bikes are branded with only a small Dublin City Council logo, as one of the chief complaints toward London's program is the rolling advertisement for the corporate sponsor. That said, I still think London's bikes are better than Chicago's, given that they are much more noticeable coming down the street. While I like the B-Cycles from an aesthetic standpoint, they would be difficult to pick out by somebody unfamiliar with the program. The "Boris bikes" for all their faults are at least also advertisements for the service itself.

Check out this excellent post over at Copenhagenize for more, along with some great photos of Dublin. I really need to get myself a decent camera.

Les Bicyclettes de Londres

Back from 'the Smoke' with a tale or two to tell. I wish that I had better photos to document but my camera was constantly malfunctioning. I landed right at the peak of last week's 24-hour Tube strike and set about making my way to the city. Upon alighting the Heathrow Express at Paddington Station, plans called for me to catch a bus to meet the friend I was staying with and collect the keys to her apartment.
Once I reached the street, the chaos of a million disrupted commutes became apparent, as I encountered a mob of hundreds waiting for buses. When mine came up and I realized it was already packed to capacity, and that cabs were in short supply and high demand, I decided that suitcase or no I'd have an easier time of hoofing it to Belgravia. Along the way I passed a rather picked-over cycle hire station, as well as a couple of Londoners with yet another transport alternative:



Unfortunately, the bikes were not an option for me, as you currently need to purchase an annual subscription to the service to use them:



As the empty racks can attest, the bikes were in great demand. From my observation perch on the upper deck of a London bus, it would seem that the highest demand is coming from business guys in suits. They were hardly the only bikes on the streets though, and watching people weave through London traffic gave me an entirely new perspective on just how much street width is needed for a proper bike route. Most London streets have just a few inches clearance between the traffic lane and the curb and yet cyclists were out using those inches in force.



The photo at right gives you an idea of the general alignment, though here in Hyde Park there is a wider-than-average traffic lane and a separated cycletrack alongside. Most streets do not have such a luxurious expanse off to the side, just picture a bike following those yellow stripes. The exception is on streets with bus lanes, which are open not only to cyclists but motorcycles as well, and in some instances, black cabs.


By the following day, the strike had ended and most Tube lines were running pretty much as normal. The shared bikes were still in high use however, and seemingly still mostly by these dashing Savile Row types. I took time to do a mental inventory on the types of private bikes being ridden about the city and it was a little surprising; while most riders tended to be on hybrids, there was a rather large contingency of home-grown Pashleys and similar upright models, a huge number of folding bikes, and the number of fixed-gears I encountered could be counted on one hand.

All in all, it would appear that cycling is thriving in old London town. I arrived just a couple of days after the Mayor of London's Sky Ride, which drew upwards of 85,000 participants this year. As I stood on the sidewalk...er, pavement, on Essex Road in Islington during the evening rush hour, the number of two-wheeled commuters passing me by was astounding. It makes perfect sense to me, in a city where it can take fifteen minutes to move two blocks by motorized vehicle (no joke).

I have a few more posts to wring out of this trip, on Dublin's growing bike infrastructure and on how my learning of Daley's impending retirement colored how I looked at things. Oh, it's good(?) to be back.

I Won't Share You

Flickr photo by James Cridland

Chicago joined the ranks of bike-sharing cities last week to much hoopla. Da Mayor cut a ribbon, a couple of newspaper articles were written, and hooray, we have 100 bikes that cost $10 an hour. The bikes are nice, but if you don't happen to pass by one of the six stations (all in the Loop and lakefront tourist bubble), you probably wouldn't even know they were out there. Meanwhile, London launched their Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme (rolls right off the tongue) with 5,000 bikes across the center city and more to come.

I've got a real problem with the way this is rolling out, and I don't have very high hopes that this "trial" will be too successful. If the assumed goal of a bike sharing program is to get people onto bikes who haven't used one in a while, making them available only in the traffic-choked downtown core probably isn't very enticing. If the stations were in actual neighborhoods where actual Chicagoans actually live, people then might decide to try one out, and then realize that riding a bike isn't so bad. This is precisely what has occurred in Paris, since Vélib’ was introduced, sales of adult bicycles have increased.

Over at Urbanophile this week, Aaron Renn has a post on uneven development within cities, a topic which is often on my mind. This is a classic example in my opinion. Chicago's neighborhoods can't get their potholes filled or have their recycling picked up, but the corporate owners of the Willis (née Sears) Tower can get multimillion dollar tax subsidies, and the Loop can get 100 bikes (so long as the city doesn't have to pay for them).

Bike sharing in selected cities by the numbers:

May 1995 - Copenhagen City Bikes - 2,500 bikes, 110 stations (soon to be replaced by a new system)
May 2005 - Lyon Vélo'v - 3,000 bikes, 350 stations
March 2007 - Barcelona Bicing - 3,000 bikes, 400+ stations
June 2007 - Montpellier Vélomagg - 750 bikes, 59 stations
July 2007 - Paris Vélib’ - 20,600 bikes, 1,639 stations
May 2009 - Brussels Villo! - 2,500 bikes, 180 stations
June 2009 - Montreal BIXI - 3,000 bikes, 300 stations
February 2010 - Mexico City Ecobici - 1114 bikes, 84 stations
April 2010 - Denver B-Cycle - 400 bikes, 40 stations
May 2010 - Melbourne BIXI - 610 bikes, 52 stations
June 2010 - Minneapolis BIXI - 700 bikes, 65 stations
July 2010 - London Barclays Cycle Hire - 5,000 bikes, 315 stations (so far)
2011 - Toronto BIXI - 1,000 bikes
July 2010 - Chicago B-Cycle - 100 bikes, 6 stations

Chicago is the third-largest of the cities listed above in population, yet with the current numbers there is roughly one shared bike for every 28,000 residents. That oft-repeated Chicago axiom (falsely) attributed to Daniel Burnham comes to mind..."make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized". Even the much-maligned SmartBike DC program is more widespread. It may all be in vain anyhow...if the predicted Tea Party electoral gains actually materialize this November, at least Denver's system could be in jeopardy. A gubernatorial candidate in Colorado apparently believes bike-sharing is part of some devilish UN plot to subjugate Real Americans. The future looks bright, friends.