| 01 February 2010
Posted in Environment

Driving Green

For a good part of the last century, America and its cities have been designed around the automobile as transportation. Local roads, highways, freeways, shopping malls, strip malls, suburbs, all these have been designed with the primary purpose of getting there by car, quickly and conveniently(then). After all, why would any sane adult want to walk or ride a bicycle somewhere when they could far more easily ride in the insulated comfort of an automobile? As we have come to realize the many downsides to automotive travel, forward thinking cities, counties and states have been devoting more and more resources to alternative methods of getting about, including bus, train, light rail, subway, bicycle, and foot. What has become clear in the last twenty years is that the success of any change to our transportation infrastructure requires specific intention, long-term planning, and, most importantly, public support.
As an example, the City of Portland, Oregon, created and began implementing a Bicycle Master Plan in 1996. Next to Davis, California, Portland is one of the most bicycle friendly cities of any size in the US, in spite of having cold rainy weather a good part of the year.  Each time a planning decision is made, staff specifically includes alternatives to getting there by car. For example, if you fly into Portland, besides the usual car rental and taxi options, you can also bicycle or take a local bus or light rail into downtown. All the bridges across the Willamette River, which bisects Portland, as well as those across the Columbia, have bicycle lanes. The Hanford Bridge, for example, is used by 7,000 cyclists a day during the week. That would be like half the adult population of San Luis riding to work each day! The League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group in its 110th year of existence, gives Portland a “Platinum” rating. Cities are rated according to engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation.
The City of San Luis Obispo has been playing catch-up in the bicycle and pedestrian planning department, but has achieved high marks in all League categories except enforcement, giving it a “Silver” rating. If you have ever seen a cyclist run a red light or fail to stop in front of a policeman you can see why it fails this category! With only 27 cities in California achieving any rating, Silver is still pretty darn good.
Two things are clear from these efforts. First of all, unlike auto usage, where unhappy commuters demand more lanes from Caltrans when their commute slows to a crawl, people will not ride to work or use their bike or walk on errands unless it is safe and convenient to do so. In other words, if the cities and counties make it easy and safe to ride, people will ride or walk. Until then only the foolish or die-hard cyclists will dare the crowded streets.
Secondly, long-term, coherent, intentional planning, accompanied by public support and the support of elected officials “paves” the way for any successful accommodation of alternative transportation. Efforts of the San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club, the Bicycle Coalition of San Luis Obispo County, and other groups such as the Sierra Club all help move our elected leaders and planning staff in the right direction.
For more information:
Portland, OR’s informative transportation web site www.portlandonline.com/Transportation
The League of American Bicyclists: http://www.bikeleague.org/
The San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club: http://slobc.org/