FIVE EUROPEAN “bicycle ambassadors” wound up in a very
foreign land last Thursday, October 1: a business luncheon at Beaverton
City Hall. The location of the ambassadors’ pro-bike presentations, as
much as the content, highlighted how far the Portland metro area will
have to go to become a truly green capital. Beaverton City Hall is
built in a vast parking lot behind a strip mall on a four-lane
highway.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams is not shy about proclaiming that Portland
will become “the Copenhagen of America,” aiming to be comparable to a
city where 55 percent of residents commute by bike. With grant money,
Metro hosted the five bike experts—one Danish, one French, one
Belgian, and two from the Netherlands—last week, hoping their
homelands could serve as models for the future urban planning of
Portland and its suburbs.
Over lunch of organic greens with local huckleberry vinaigrette
served on paper plates with a side of bottled water, the Amsterdam
official described his city, where riding a bike is as common as eating
a slice of bread and the government gives residents $1,000 every three
years to purchase a new bike. While Portland has the highest bike
commute rate of any large city in the United States [“We’re #1! Not
Good Enough!,” News, Oct 1], the Rose City’s 6.4 percent bike commute
rate is paltry compared to Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
Making Portland seriously bike-friendly would mean making major
changes, say the European bike experts. While Portland talks up its
bike friendliness, bike projects still make up a measly .7 percent of
the city transportation budget. Copenhagen, for comparison, spends 25
percent of its transportation budget on bikes.
“Government acts too slowly,” said Amsterdam traffic expert Hans
Voerknecht, who said private business should be a major force behind
getting people on bikes. Seventeen major companies in Amsterdam,
including US-based Microsoft and IBM, signed a pact to reduce employee
car travel by 10 percent by 2008. The businesses offered cash for
employees to buy bikes and other incentives, finding that they saved
money because biking employees took 10-12 percent less sick leave.
At the end of the luncheon, Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle asked
Voerknecht what would happen to Amsterdam if people stopped riding
bikes. “The city would come to a standstill. There would be no economy.
Because of traffic, you could not get from point A to B,” said
Voerknecht.
Copenhagen traffic planner Niels Jensen recommends hooking
Portlanders on alternative transportation while they’re young. “Teach
children how they can bike to school and, perhaps more importantly,
start discussions with their parents,” said Jensen.
Apart from Beaverton business lunches, Jensen was impressed with
Portland’s dynamic bike culture. In his city, says Jensen, biking is so
normal that cyclists do not identify as a community. Bike-fun events
like themed rides are unheard of. “The good thing is, in five or 10
years, many people will bike,” says Jensen of Portland. “The bad thing
is, that special culture will not exist anymore.”
“The city would come to a standstill. There would be no economy. Because of traffic, you could not get from point A to B.” <--- Isn't that really the key lesson, here? I've been to several of those cities, and it's true. The streets are tiny, there's no parking, and people just physically CAN'T drive anywhere. So why hold them up as experts? Their citizens aren't necessarily any different than ours, they don't necessarily WANT to ride bikes any more than ours do - it's just the only option for them. Maybe the reality is just: "If people can make a choice, about 6.4% will choose to ride bicycles. If it's impossible to drive for short distances, up to 55% will give in and ride bicycles."