Active Right of Way

Happy Halloween!  The Willamette Pedestrian Coalition advises those who walk about the city to voice support for better walkways:

Think Out Loud: Pedestrian Safety
Monday, 1 November 2010
9:00am

This coming Monday OPB’s Think Out Loud will be discussing pedestrian safety during their “Foot Traffic” show.  Ray Thomas will be on the program talking about walking rights and responsibilities.  The show is particularly timely, as Daylight Savings Time is just around the corner, a time that tends to have more crashes.

As walking advocates, your voice is important!  Please contribute to the statewide conversation on their blog:
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/foot-traffic/

Thanks to Ray and to OPB for raising awareness about walking safety at a timely hour.

You can comment ahead of the show!

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico – Guadalajara is building momentum on their bicycle mobility movement. They have many rides that occur weekly attracting a wide range of people. These social bike rides have been occurring for less than a year and a half, but regularly attract hundreds or thousands of participants. Guadalajara’s sister city, Portland, Oregon claims title to “bike fun,” but Guadalajara is using social bike rides for a different purpose, to build a “social movement for urban mobility, culture, and public spaces.”

Al Teatro en Bici's fleet of bikes to loan with their stereo trike in front. ©Ryan H.

Al Teatro en Bici is one group of cyclists that hosts two different cultural bike rides every week. Their Tuesday rides pedal throughout the city to watch theatre and their Thursday rides, called “Bicinema,” head off to enjoy artistic cinema. When we attended both the Tuesday and Thursday bicycle rides they rivaled any bike fun rides held in Portland. The riders were extremely diverse in age, gender, and style, from elementary school students to grandparents. There was a very festive atmosphere, but no apparent drinking before the ride. It was a welcoming environment for everyone. The rides are well organized, with ride leaders of many different ages wearing reflective vests and keeping riders in the right lane, ‘a la derecha, por favor.’

An homage to a departed bike clown. (On a mini bike!) ©Ryan H.

The Tuesday we attended Al Teatro en Bici, it was a tribute to a recently deceased member of the cycling activist community, Chino Cappuccino, a bike clown.  Many of the participants and organizers wore clown noses in tribute.   Instead of the usual destination of an outdoor plaza or theater, this night had a very different destination. The 5km route was a circuitous loop that climaxed at the funeral home where all the pedalers applauded respectfully for their deceased friend and his mourning family.

read more »

A Bikla Bike Share Station with a bike map and cycling directions. ©Ryan H.

In Guadalajara, a group of bicycle activists called Bicipublica have created a completely new form of bike sharing system. They were inspired by Velib in Paris and Bixi in Montreal, but in Guadalajara, there was little political support for creating a municipal bike share system. Instead they funded their own system by selling bike racks called “Cycle Ports” to local businesses. Their system is much more affordable and easier to implement than existing bike share models. The cycle activists use the resources of existing businesses to check bikes in and out to bike share members. This economical and innovative approach to bike sharing is a model that these Guadalajara cycle activists believe can be copied all over the world.

The Guadalajara system is called Bikla and is different from all other common modern bike sharing systems. The Bikla system does not rely on government subsidies, advertising contracts, or GPS & SIM card tracking devices. Bikla relies on members & existing businesses that want to promote cycling and their location.

The Bikla bike share system works very simply. People purchase a membership for around $15 USD a year. They are given a Bikla ID card that lists the 21 bike share stations and their hours of operation. Each of the participating businesses is required by Bikla to have internet access and a Cycle Port or “staple” style bike racks. These businesses are cafes, restaurants, bookstores, etc. throughout central Guadalajara. When a Bikla member arrives at one of these businesses to check out a bike, the staff logs onto the Bikla website & enters the members ID number. The member is assigned one of the bikes that are locked up outside and the staff of the business gives them the corresponding key. When the Bikla member is done with the bike, they can return it to any of the participating businesses, lock to the Cycle Port, and have the business staff log the return of the bike and deduct “Bike Time” from the user’s card. read more »

This Ciclo Puerto was built by Bicipublica and is designed for 6 bikes to fit in the space of one car parking spot. ©Ryan H.

When cycling activists in Guadalajara, Mexico were frustrated with the lack of bike parking in their city, they decided to build it themselves! A group of Cycling activists in Guadalajara, Mexico called Bicipublica have taken an innovative approach to the lack of cycling infrastructure in their city. These cyclists decided to start an enterprise building bike racks and selling them to local businesses. A win-win situation for the community, Guadalajara now has 230 “Ciclo Puertos” or ‘Cycle Ports’ at businesses throughout the city and the sales of the racks help fund the activists and their cycling ambitions.

We met with Mario Delgado Padilla and Sra. Itcell Islas, respectively the director and graphic designer for Bicipublica. Their organization was started from a group of Industrial Designers that would commute by bike. These designers were interested in issues regarding mobility and urban design. At their workplaces, there was no bike parking and they began to devise ideas to create efficient bike parking. Mario Padilla told us how, “Our idea was to design bike racks that were capable of fitting as many bicycles as possible in the space of one automobile.”

“Initially, our plans were without political support from the government, so we designed bike parking to sell to private businesses.” They designed a very odd looking, but efficiently designed rack that held each bike at a different height. This allowed more bicycles to be parked, by having the handlebars of each bike at a different level. Each of the Cilco Puertos could hold six bikes in a former car parking space.

Bicipublica successfully marketed, sold, and installed these Cycle Ports to private businesses around the city. Each Ciclo Puerto has a sign printed with the logo of the business, a bike map, and cycling route finding for the area around each business. Because of the City Government’s failure to envision other modes of transit, it was up to individual businesses to install infrastructure to attract customers traveling by cycle. Bicipublica filled this void and has installed 230 of these cycle ports throughout Guadalajara. read more »