If you would like to see more Federal money spent on local projects to promote and make safer more bicycling and walking, call your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to be a co-sponsor on H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act. It is important to make the call this week, in support of the National Bike Summit.

Perhaps it is ironic that I follow an angry post about generationally-irresponsible recovery spending with a call to borrow more money against the future, but there is a big difference between investing to leave something for the next generation vs spending money to help the current generation cover the mistakes of the present.

The Active Community Transportation Act would make grant money available to communities for investments in infrastructure that promote walking and biking.

I want to keep this post positive, but I cannot ignore the sense that many people feel biking and walking are recreational activities and should therefore be lower priority. But in fact, because the impact of small investments here can be so large, they should be a higher priority.

The types of projects grant money like this could support could include components as small as improved crosswalks. For about $10,000, we could install a solar-powered pushbutton-activated flashing light and repaint a crosswalk so that dozens of kids and their parents would feel safe walking to school. We could deploy several of these across a busy, wide stretch of road that serves to divide part of our community and effectively "knit" the town together and reduce reliance on car trips. We could make it easier for people to choose to ride the commuter rail and walk to church by bringing the focus down to the sidewalks and streets and investing is small things that pull our communities together.

The benefits are not just aesthetic. We have a childhood obesity epidemic to combat. We have a national health crisis that, regardless of what insurance companies may or may not be doing, is driving the cost of health care higher and higher. We have recurring cycles of foreign oil dependency and occasional bouts of awareness with global warming, carbon emissions, and general sustainability. Do more than buy a Prius. Thank about ways to change the way we live to be more sustainable and more responsible to the future and then ask what stands in the way?

Active Transportation is a path through the obstacles. It's a part of the solution that, unlike many government projects, is more efficient and has "externality benefits" rather than costs.

It's efficient because this kind of grant program encourages community-based action. Our local advisory committee would gather information, talk to our neighbors, participate in the grant application process and assist in project managing and monitoring the implementation. The overall grants will be designed to support networks of improvements costing $5 to 15 million each.

"Externality benefits" are the intangible things like improving the strength of a community. It would be impossible to measure the economic impact on house prices down to such a micro level, but I would bet that over time, the increase in walking and perception of safety across a divisive roadway would translate into higher home values. I know we moved from one house because the street was busy and didn't make an offer an another because it was "on the other side" of the road that we'd have to cross to get to school. Not everyone will share these valuations...but when small projects like these are happening all over the country, the sum effect has to be a net gain.

Will there be boondoggles and "bike paths to nowhwere?" Perhaps. But at least then we can start talking about the best way to do things. How many bike paths could have been built with the money that was used to make it possible for me to drive to the airport in 30 minutes instead of 45? I'm guessing a few hundred thousand.

Here is a short video of some serious critical cycling mass in Copenhagen, Denmark...

I'm wrapping up a final list of bike racks for our town to obtain through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) Regional Bike Parking Program. Today is the deadline to order bike racks which are then reimbursed by this program. Our town administrator and school officials are excited to get the racks and hopefully, this will be another small step towards increased biking and walking in Westwood.

Here's one of the racks we hope to replace/improve:

Every horrific death of a cyclist leads to rounds of recriminations and a brief "coming together" of the cyclist community to draw attention to how, in the battle between car and bike, bike (and biker) always loses. In Toronto this summer, a prominent politician (former Attorny General of Ontario, Michael Bryant) engaged in an altercation with a cyclist--the end resulting being the cyclist clinging to his car and eventually being dragged under the rear wheels and killed. The cyclist, a 33-year old father of 3, was a bike courier.

The Toronto Cyclists Union, after some initial reaction and anger and protest, is adopting a very different and positive campaign to attempt to get drivers to notice and respect cyclists--described in the YouTube video below:

The Cyclists Paving the Way campaign aims to "flip" the negativity and emphasize positive driver behavior by encouraging bike riders to hand out little "Thank You" cards to drivers who do "small" actions that acknowledge and respect cyclists...little things like looking before opening a car door or clearly checking for a cyclist when turning.

I like the idea and although I'm not sure about the logistics of handing out cards in busy traffic, I know that I've observed--even in Boston--some standout behavior from people driving cars that should have been thanked. I was shocked one day, at the Mass. Ave and Columbus Ave intersection, to observe a driver asking a guy on a bike about whether or not he (the driver) was OK to be using a lane with a bike drawn on it for his right turn. (Yes, the bike lanes convert to "sharrows" at major intersections.) I've also noted a number of times when I could feel cars patiently waiting for me to "clear" an intersection as they approached from behind to make a right turn...and many times when cars at 4-way stops waved me through as I slowed to pause...

We tend to remember the negative 10 times more than the positive, it seems. The story of the person in a car who buzzed me or yelled at me for no reason--that sticks in my mind for weeks or months, but really, most of the time, most people in cars are actually trying to co-exist. When I have crashed a few times over the years, I've had people jump out of their cars and offer to drive me somewhere--I was embarassed, actually--it was no big deal--but we tend to forget or cynically refuse to believe that actually, most people out there are kind and considerate. If they were not--you wouldn't be able to get a mile down the road without being killed as the opportunities for mayhem are so great...and, as I said in the beginning, in a conflict between car and bike, the car always wins.

I hope the Toronto experiment works. It's not always going to be practical and presumably a cyclist motivated to be this kind of "goodwill ambassador" will be safety-conscious enough to give out these little cards without creating a distraction. But it would be great to see those kind of interactions happening--with less emphasis on the demands for enforcement, penalty and road justice that color most discussions of how bikes and cars get along.

Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists announced their updated list of Bicycle Friendly Communities. The closest town to Boston is Brunswick, Maine...and, in the past, Burlington, Vermont has been a winner. Both communities won the Bronze designation.

Despite some recent improvements, the City of Boston is not on the list yet. I would argue that their recent efforts make them a strong candidate, but the reality is cycling in Boston is still perceived as a life-and-death adventure and an award, at this point in time, would stretch the credibility of the League.

To win designation as a Bike Friendly Community, a community of any size (award winners range from Chicago and New York City down to Sitka, Alaska and Oxford, Mississippi) submits an application to report what has been done to make their community more bike friendly. It can be both a recognition of efforts and a promotion to encourage more residents to consider cycling.

The 28-page application is, itself, something of a roadmap for change. As communities review the application, they will quickly self-select whether or not they should be applying yet--and gather ideas for steps to take towards making an application credible.

We should be putting Massachusetts on this map. If Sitka and Oxford can be bike-friendly, then, with a bit of work, so can Westwood. Other towns like Brookline, Newton, Milton, Concord and Lexington are probably farther along, but all share significant cycling and cycling advocate populations and official town advisory boards. I would love to see one of these signs posted at the entrance to our town...of course, I'd love to see some bike lanes first!

Of course it would not be fair to just post signs without having made things any safer or friendlier. But as we deploy bike racks, involve our advisory committee in the repaving of roads (a small project next week on Gay Street is taking into account our committee's recommendations), promote our schools participation in Safe Routes to Schools, and look for more and more ways to support and encourage cycling, I believe we should make these efforts as visible as possible--not to "claim credit" but to send a message that bicycles are a welcome part of our community.

Last Wednesday, Westwood schools postponed their participation in International Walk to School day due to a torrential downpour. This morning, we await the dawn to melt the first frost of the season, as the thermometer at my house reads 34 degrees and the Norwood airport reports 28. But clear skies should make this a spectacular fall day.

Meanwhile, the concerned parents and bureacrats in Saratoga have eeked at bit closer to permitting kids to ride bikes to school at Maple Avenue Middle School. The Board of Education did in fact strike down the 1994 policy forbidding bike riding, but transferred authority to the local school principal to determine whether it was safe or not. Advocates for change aren't thrilled--it simply transfers the issue to the local school where administrators may continue to say it is not safe, nothing has changed, etc. But I think this is a victory as it opens the door to a local discussion and changes the conversation from "bike riding will not be tolerated" to "how can we make this school safe?"

The reality is that the perception of bike riding as an unsafe activity persists no matter what official policy is adopted. Parents are not going to encourage/allow their kids to ride bikes if they feel it is unsafe. Adults will not bike commute to work if they fear for their lives. Those who extol the virtues of active transportation must find solutions to real and perceived dangers through a combination of what are described as the 4 E's of planning: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Encouragement. Additionally, a 5th E, Evaluation, is critical to success of Safe Routes to Schools programs as it "closes the loop" on making sure great ideas, as they are implemented, actually work.

These success stories from communities that have improved their walkability illustrate the key theme of inclusion. Change must "bottom up," it cannot be imposed from above or simply "fixed" by changing a law or building a sidewalk. How we get there is vitally important to success.

To encourage more people to bike, ask women what they want. And make it safe for kids to ride their bikes to school. These approaches would dramatically increase the utilization of cycling as a mainstream activity.

According to an article in the October Scientific American, women are an "indicator species" for bike-friendly cities. Those of us who bike frequently are familiar with the lycra-clad warrior mindset and the urban bike messenger culture, but we are also familiar with comments like "I'm surprised your wife 'lets' you ride to work." We have learned to temper our tales of close calls and have adopted an extremely defensive approach to bike commuting--out of a necessity for survival.

The Scientific American story reviews some of the first bike infrastructure studies done in the US and concludes that when women's concerns about safety and utility are addressed, cycling adoption increases. On-street bike lanes do not adequately address safety concerns because they do not separate bike from automobile traffic. Cyclists must still negotiate tricky intersections to get anywhere useful. And most bike paths are constructed in useless park areas--supporting the idea of cycling as a limited recreational activity, but not helping anyone get a bag of groceries home.

The studies will raise some gender bias eyebrows, but in the aggregate, we should acknowledge that gender roles do still exist and if we want to see more bikes on the road, we should ask what women want.

Kids don't need much encouragement to ride bikes, but their parents need to know they will be safe. The Safe Routes to Schools program has been very successful not only at encouraging kids and parents to walk to school, but has also increased the comfort level of parents around allowing their kids to ride their bikes to school. Among other activities, SRTS and MassBike conduct bike safety workshops at schools (and also bike commuter workshops for adults) and promote inprovements to bike infrastructure around schools.

We are a long way from what has become routine in the Netherlands where nearly every child bikes to school, but if you notice in the photos of kids and parents, you will not find them competing with cars, but traveling their own separate bikeways. I have posted this video before, but I just love it:

Finally, for those who question, why bother? Here is a clip from a Safe Routes to Schools presentation here in Westwood that illustrates how the rates of obesity have grown over the past 24 years.

Integrating bike transportation into our daily lives would help raise our overall level of activity and help us adopt healthier lifestyles. But to work, it needs to be practical and safe--something people choose to do not as a separate chore like going to the gym to work out and lose some weight, but as a preference to driving. We the lycra-clad road warriors are on the margins...advocates and planners should look to the mainstream needs of women and children for clues to achieve truly radical change.

I believe our most fundamental challenge is to restore a sense of community--a building and strengthening of the ties within our neighborhoods and between our communities, especially the neighboring towns where development is uncoordinated and often in opposition to the interests of the next town over. But what can any of us really do about that on a daily basis? It's not even really my problem--it's a theoretical observation, an explanation for some frustration about how our society can't seem to solve big problems like ensuring health care for all citizens or delivering accountability and integrity from our government.

So instead of dreaming up "macro solutions," perhaps we should consider some basic, day-to-day activities that permeate (or could permeate, with greater participation) civic life: walking and bicycling -- what many term "active transportation."

Boston has begun to improve the cycling infrastructure with new bike lanes, a bikeshare program, and bike commuting promotions like Bike Fridays. We should support, advocate, encourage, and educate about the benefits and practicality of cycling in the city with the dream of transforming participation into something like what the Netherlands experienced over the past 30 years. My ride in from Westwood is a physical way I feel more connected to the city, and I think the more people who share that kind of connection, the better.

For walking, we need to get out of our houses and apartments and onto the streets. Our kids need to feel safe walking to school. We should meet and know our neighbors. Walkable communities are not only safer, they are stronger--and the more people who share this experience, the more a sense of "connected place" will develop.

There are plenty of problems to solve and things to improve in our society, but where do we start? I think a sustained emphasis on encouraging and making safer these modes of active transportation could have systemic benefits to facilitate all other efforts while providing immediate improvements to our quality of life.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have not managed to ride my bicycle, but I've heard a ton of noise and incitement in the Boston Globe and on the Boston Critical Mass email list to which I subscribe. The Globe has run two controversial articles describing what they perceive as a growing conflict and tension between drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

First, the Globe ran a story about how urban bike riders have attitude and fail to follow the rules of the road. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that some cyclists run stop signs and red lights.

But this conflict-baiting op-ed piece attempts to place the blame for driver misbehavior on scofflaw cyclists and suggests that the "cure" is just to get cyclists to obey the law.

A while back, I read a great blog post entitled The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist and I wish all these frustrated, angry motorists would go read that first before they leap into their attacks on the bike riders. I'm not saying that people who fail to follow the rules are without blame, but I do believe blame is irrelevant.

An op-ed piece today make the point about road safety...the author observes that our roads are designed to kill people. His point is that we should modify our infrastructure to increase safety by doing things like installing speed humps, center lane divider strips, and rotaries to calm traffic.

What bothers me about these stories is the reactions--the continuing, irrelevant discussion of right and wrong, of blame and personal responsibility. Cyclists should obey the laws just like cars (fail to do). Drivers are inconsiderate. Cyclist/Bikers are jerks. (Other) People (than me) are stupid, inconsiderate, etc., but, hey, until you start following the rules, who can really blame them?

Enough already. As someone who rides a bike in the city, I went through a period of paranoia and indignation but this was cured by a few crashes where I realized that if I end up in a conflict with a car, it doesn't matter who was right or wrong because I won't be around to argue about it. My crashes didn't involve cars--they were road hazards and I was lucky. But I know that irrational attitude--on both sides--that can develop. And it can end in death.

We need to change the road, not the rules. We need to stop believing that education and common sense are enough to protect us as a society from the tragedy of accidents. We need to say, OK, drivers and cyclists alike are breaking the law and endangering each other, so what can we do to make it less likely they will do that?

Can we start by accepting a proposition that our roads are for people, not vehicles? That some people will choose to run, walk, bike or drive on these roads and we should make the roads safe for ALL those modes of transportation?

Can we adopt a realistic attitude with respect to compliance?

Why do people drive "too fast" on a given road? It is not just that they are busy on their cell phone, sending text messages, or rushing to some important event. They drive as fast as they feel safe driving. So the fact that they are speeding is probably evidence that the speed limit is not realistic. The road is too fast.

Why do cyclists run red lights and stop signs? Most of them don't do it while issuing a middle-finger salute to the cars around them. It's not a brazen defiance of authority, but rather a choice, based on a belief that what they are doing is safe under the circumstances. Individually, you can say "stupid choice." But en masse, random stupidity cancels out and you are left with empirical evidence that these traffic controls fail to provide believable safety for people on bikes.

I'm not saying there is zero value in education and enforcement. But when you see rampant disregard for existing laws, why would you think more laws or more education would help?

Finally, a beautiful day and time to ride. I even managed to record a short video:

Here's a link to a GPS tracked map of the route I traveled...from my iPhone, courtesy of RunKeeper.