Civil & Environmental Engineering Lessons About Sustainable Transportation Peter Furth, Northeastern University Prof. of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Civil & Environmental Engineering 1. Being bikable is a HUGE asset to a community Recreation & Quality of Life Less Car Use Children

Civil & Environmental Engineering 2. Mass bicycling requires a connected network of low-traffic-stress bike routes Stand-alone paths Roadside bike paths (cycle tracks) Montreal (Rue de l’Université)

Civil & Environmental Engineering Bike Lanes? May be high-stress San Diego (Camino del Norte)

Civil & Environmental Engineering Low-Stress Criteria from the Netherlands Lane configuration Daily traffic (vehicles/day ) Street type and speed limit Urban local street Urban through street Rural local road Fast traffic road 30 km/h (19 mph) 50 km/h (31 mph) 60 km/h (37 mph) 70+ km/h (44+ mph) Two-way traffic with no centerline <2500Mixed traffic a Bike lane b or cycletrack c Advisory bike lane d Cycle track or low- speed service road 2000–3000bike lane b or cycle track e 3000–5000 >4000Bike lane or cycle track Bike lane or cycle track c Two lanes (1+1) anyBike lane or cycle track Bike lane or cycle track c Four lanes (2 + 2) or more any(Does not exist) Cycle track or low-speed service road a For designated bike routes, a bike lane or advisory bike lane is optional. b May be an advisory bike lane on road sections with no centerline. c Cycle track is preferred if there is parking; cycle track is recommended for designated bike routes. d Although CROW (2007) gives “mixed traffic” for this cell, the default \is to mark advisory bike lanes. e Cycle track is preferred for designated bike routes.

6 San Jose Street Network, All Levels of Stress

7 Stress Level 3 or Less

8 Stress Level 2 or Less

9 Stress Level 1

Civil & Environmental Engineering 3. Safe Bicycling Infrastructure is Feasible, and while it isn’t expensive, it isn’t cheap, either NOT $1-2 per person (bike infrastructure, Boston) NOT $500 per person (transit subsidy, Boston) NOT $ per person (highways & roads) But $20 per person per year

Civil & Environmental Engineering 4. Only high speed and/or high frequency transit, coupled with transit oriented development, can attract large numbers of choice travelers Invest in a limited number of high speed quality lines, and concentrate development around them  Congestion protection (bus lanes) & signal priority  Off-vehicle fare collection  Widely spaced stops Low speed, low frequency bus has a role for social service, but won’t accomplish “mass use” of transit Bicycle is a superior mode for access to rail stations

Civil & Environmental Engineering Bicycle is superior to local bus for access to train / metro Slide 12 Bicycle share of access to train, NL Home to train: 40% by bike Train to work: 12% by bike Delft (population 90,000) has 7,500 bike parking spaces at its two train stations, increasing to 9,000

Civil & Environmental Engineering 5. While urban-area bike paths will be used more for transportation than for recreation, it’s politically wiser to promote them for recreation