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Entries tagged: Consider Biking

In October 2010, Consider Biking put out the call to its members: Tell us where you’d like to see great bike parking in Columbus. Nearly 100 community members responded with their input.

Last week, almost exactly one year later, advocates celebrated the unveiling of the first of 16 large bike-parking shelters in key locations around Ohio’s capital city.

“With a growing number of people using bicycles for strictly transportation purposes, there is a growing demand for end-of-ride facilities,” Jeff Stephens, Executive Director of Consider Biking, said in a press release last week. “These bike parking structures meet that demand with elegance, functionality, and cost effectiveness. But most importantly, they send a highly visible message that bicycling is a viable and mainstream form of transportation, worthy of equitable investment in infrastructure needs.”

Part of the city’s Bicentennial Bikeways Plan, the first shelter is one of 10 that will be installed by spring 2012. The city chipped in $300,000 through its Capital Improvements budget to fund the parking facilities which feature rounded roofs and racks that accommodate six to 14 bicycles.

That’s just one piece of the overall plan to improve bicycling in Ohio’s biggest city. Thanks in part to the consistent advocacy of Consider Biking, the city has invested a cool $5.3 million in bicycle facilities since 2008, including:

• 286 new bikes racks
• Share the Road signs on 20 miles of roadway
• Sharrows on 18 miles of roadway
• Bike lanes on 6.4 miles of roadway

And it’s not just the city that’s making streets safer for all users. The unveiling of the new parking shelters included another accolade: Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman presented Ohio State University with its “Bicycle Friendly University” award from the League of American Bicyclists.

Read more about the progress in Columbus — including the Connect the Core campaign and discussion about bike sharing — on Consider Biking’s website.

In celebration of National Bike Month, advocates at Consider Biking in Columbus, Ohio are offering rewards and prizes to more than 100 bicycle enthusiasts who log their bike rides and commutes on RideNet.

RideNet is an established online tool launched in 2001 to serve the bicycle racing community. Consider Biking partnered with the online venture in September 2010, and today the website boasts 1,000 registrants and users, appealing to commuters and racers alike by providing ride logs, schedules for regional events and races, a community ride calendar, and advocacy tools. Registrants create rider profiles, and can publicize their rides through the RideNet feed at local businesses, encouraging others to hop on their bicycles as well.

In alignment with the organization’s 2 By 2012 Campaign, which aims to have each citizen of central Ohio commute by bicycle two days per month by the end of 2012, Consider Biking is offering perks and incentives to cyclists who log at least two rides during the month of May.

While this is great stuff for the bike rider, what’s most exciting is that Consider Biking is engaging the online tool to further promote cycling within the local community. In its newsletter last month, Consider Biking promised users that, by logging rides in RideNet, they can easily give back to the community without spending a dime. How does this work? “RideNet gives Consider Biking valuable data to use at the table in transportation planning meetings and legislative hearings.” So while RideNet may seem like just another social networking site to some, Consider Biking is using the online platform to enhance its work in making the mid-Ohio region safer for bicycling.

Is your organization using innovative ways to promote Bike to Work events or National Bike Month? E-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) so we can share your stories, ideas and successes, too. In the meantime, keep up-to-date with Consider Biking’s initiatives though the organization’s blog.

This month, Jeff Stephens had some fun with street paint.

With the city’s permission, of course.

Last week, the executive director of Consider Biking (pictured) helped officials in Columbus, Ohio, install sharrows on High Street. After a year of waiting, nearly 190 markers are now alerting motorists that cyclists have equal rights to the full lane. Much to Consider Biking’s liking, the sharrows are highly visible and placed only 200 feet apart along the 6.5-mile stretch.

That’s not the only promising development in Columbus, a city that has a strong complete streets policy that aims to make roadways accessible to all users.

In addition to the paint sprayer, Stephens wielded some scissors, helping Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman cut the ribbon on new improvements to Morse Street. A critical east-west corridor, that artery now has three miles of bike lanes.

So it’s no surprise that Consider Biking gives the city some love in its latest newsletter: “Experience across the country demonstrates that bike lanes help encourage more people to bicycle on the road. And we know that more bicycles on the road translates to increased safety for bicyclists, too. We applaud the City for their commitment to building ‘complete streets’ and look forward to helping unveil more dedicated bike lanes across the city as the summer progresses.”

Check out Consider Biking’s Facebook page for more photos.

On the first day of Bike to Work Week, Consider Biking launched a commuter initiative backed by Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and more than 70 business leaders across central Ohio. To get things rolling, “Bikin’ Mike” Coleman and dozens of CEOs demonstrated their dedication with a 2.5-mile bike commute to celebrate the start of “2 BY 2012.”

The “2 BY 2012” campaign aims to nearly triple bicycle commuting in the Columbus area and it’s already garnered some big-name partners, including JPMorgan Chase and Nationwide Insurance. Working with the central Ohio corporations, Consider Biking will provide consultation to engage employees and encourage bike commuting. In addition to a $295,000 grant from The Columbus Foundation, the “2 BY 2012” initiative has received support from the Alliance for Biking & Walking through its Advocacy Advance Grant program.

“This is definitely the largest show of CEO support for bicycle commuting ever held in the United States,” said Jeff Miller, President and CEO of the Alliance for Biking & Walking.

“The ‘2 BY 2012’ initiative is our goal to get as many central Ohio citizens as possible to bicycle to work two days per month by 2012, which is the Columbus bicentennial,” said Jeff Stephens, executive director of Consider Biking. “Bicycle commuting two days per month would make Columbus the greenest city in the country. And two days per month is a reasonable goal that many can aspire to.”

Check out Consider Biking to read more about today’s launch event and the “2 BY 2012” initiative.

According to Central Ohio’s Consider Biking, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) recently became the first large metropolitan planning organization in the country to adopt a solid complete streets policy. The complete streets policy, approved on April 8, 2010, will replace the region’s existing routine accommodation policy.

Complete streets are streets that are designed and operated with users of every age and ability in mind. Now every roadway project in central Ohio that uses MORPC funds must enable safe and comfortable access for pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, public transit, people with disabilities, delivery and service personnel, freight haulers, emergency responders, and other users. For more information visit ConsiderBiking.org.

Special thanks to Christopher Doenlen for contributing this member news.

Consider Biking has convened a Cycling Corporate Caucus representing more than twenty of Columbus’ largest employers. Since the formation of the caucus in 2009, Consider Biking has held meetings, and in partnership with Leadership Columbus, developed a “Two-Wheel Toolkit”. Consider Biking introduced the toolkit in a meeting with many of Columbus’ largest organizations’ CEOs, presenting information on encouraging employees to bicycle more and providing targeted resources for each specific audience within a business.

ConsiderBiking activated the caucus in late December in order to speak in unified support of a funding request on behalf of the city of Columbus to implement the Columbus Bike Plan. The caucus drafted a “case for support” that demonstrated why investment in bicycling is good for Columbus’ community’s health and economic efforts, but also for a business’s bottom line.

Consider Biking states “We had over 20 of our community’s most prominent business leaders & CEOs, sign our letter of support. No doubt - our business leaders “get it” We believe major organizations and workforces have the ability to affect behavior change quickly.  That’s why we’re placing a significant effort on our worksite intervention Mode Shift program. (Bike to Work and Bike Away from Work).”

For more information about the “Two Wheel Toolkit” and to learn more about how the caucus is affecting its community, visit http://www.considerbiking.org/activities/consulting/

On January 14, Consider Biking helped reinforce the right for bicyclists to ride in the road, and take the lane if necessary. The organization provided legal defense in Municipal Court for a cyclist who was incorrectly cited for “not riding as far to the right as possible.” According to Jeff Stephens, Consider Biking’s Executive Director, “We saw this case as a critical means to reinforce the excellent bicycling (traffic) laws we helped Columbus enhance in late 2008.”

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Smarter Cities, a Natural Resource Defense Council project that examines cities’ progress towards environmental sustainability, ranked Columbus in its top fifteen because of its commitment to being bicycle friendly. The Bicentennial Bikeways Plan calls to double the city’s 50 miles of bike lanes and trails by the city’s bicentennial in 2012 and sets goals for 200 miles of paths connecting greenways and activity centers by 2018 and 1,000 new bike racks by 2028. The plan is a result of the advocacy efforts of Alliance organization Consider Biking.

To read about Columbus and the other sustainable US cities, click here…

To read what Smarter Cities had to say about Columbus, click here…