Boston is currently conducting a "bike summit" to brainstorm ideas for making the city more bike friendly. I attended a public session today at city hall about bikes and economic development. I wish I could report that the session itself was worthwhile, but I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. However, the great news is that a lot of people came together in one room from many successful efforts across the country.

Part of the opportunity for economic development is in bike tourism. Jennifer Toole, of Toole Design Group in Washington, DC described how bike tourism has benefited Vermont, where a study indicated that the economic revenue generated by bike tourism exceeds maple syrup revenue. An economic impact study from western Canada discovered that mountain bike tourism is responsible for over $10 million annually. The image of cyclists as cheap vagabonds who cruise through town and buy a couple of bananas is way off. For Boston though...I have a hard time envisioning the city itself as a bike destination.

I think the greater value of making the city more bike friendly is in how it can transform our urban experience. Boston is already a "creative class" city--our culture and educational resources are a huge magnet. But Boston is expensive and rough around the edges. I love the city, but when you start to look at what other cities are doing to enhance their overall quality of life, you start to think, maybe I'm paying too much to live here. Maybe there is greater value to be found elsewhere.

Louisville, KY held a bike summit a couple of years ago and has launched an aggressive program to integrate bikes into the life of the city. A specific goal is "We want to attract and retain young professionals to expand the economic base in Louisville."

In Chicago the McDonald's Cycle Center offers bike commuters lockers, showers, repairs, rentals--you name it. But that's just a start. Nick Jackson, of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation spoke to the Boston group today about the vision behind these efforts to transform the city over the coming decades.

Another Chicago project involves education and publicity efforts behind a program to encourage "Shop by Bike." Bikes could extend our pedestrian radius within a city; consider that in any given city you typically have smaller "squares" that are local hubs of activity. These squares, like Porter Square, Inman, Davis, Harvard, Central, etc. are hubs of activity with retail/restaurants in the center and apartments above and around. If people felt they could ride their bikes half a mile to buy something, it would dramatically extend the development possibilities. Right now you have the problem of opening a restaurant that is too far away from the square...or in a no-mans land between two squares. But on a bike, a half mile is less than five minutes. Add a rack and bag to your bike--and find a secure place to lock it up...and it changes the way you view your neighborhood.

But we have a lot of work to do in Boston. I found it ironic that my effort to attend this workshop illustrates just how much of a fanatic you need to be right now to bike Boston...first, I rode my bike in to work--13 miles dodging potholes, being ever vigilant for crazy drivers, constantly watching for right-turners who would cut me off, timing things to avoid running over oblivious pedestrians, choosing to ride on the sidewalk at times, running stop signs and red lights as a lesser of evils choice to get out of traffic-pinching situations and, after riding a short stretch of interstate onramp that is the only way to get from the South End to Southie, finally arriving at work where I changed clothes in the bathroom and tried not to sweat too much.

At lunch, I rode over to Government Center through the financial district. Again, pedestrians everywhere, delivery trucks, one way streets...I hardly ever run lights, but I found that the safer course of action for me was to run the red lights and go the wrong way a few times. Then I got to government center with its many, many steps on the plaza that I got to carry my bike across.

Whew. It's very different from riding in Vermont or upstate New York or even the western suburbs.

Can Boston be a bike city? I think so. There are a lot of cyclists, it's just not quite mainstream enough yet. Sometimes, I reach a stoplight and am standing there with 3 or 4 other cyclists commuting to work. Sometimes there is a line of us making our way down the Southwest Corridor park, a multi-use trail that takes me from Jamaica Plain/Forest Hills all the way downtown. But we don't have the culture of San Francisco, that's for sure. And we're not New York City--but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Cities like Portland really amaze me--as I blogged about a few days ago. They seem to have the whole package of housing and transit. It would be great to live in a reasonable family neighborhood, with clean air and trees, then hop on my bike and ride 20 minutes to the urban core...instead of an hourlong adventure through some of the most depressed parts of the city.

I don't think we're moving anytime soon. But the bike component is a key feature for any city to achieve the kind of living balance that so many of us want these days. We don't want to commute by car in from the suburbs. We want to be a part of where we live and work. The bike can really help that feeling of connectedness.