Washington DC: green lane to connect rail trail with transportation hub

By David Cranor

Running north from Union Station, 1st Street NE is quickly becoming the main street of one of Washington, DC's newest neighborhoods, NoMa. Short for "North of Massachusetts,"  NoMa has risen from long-ignored former rail yards to become the east end of downtown. In the last decade, the area has added its own Metro station, a grocery store, a mix of residential, office and retail space and the Metropolitan Branch Trail - a unique rail-with-trail that will eventually connect downtown with the Maryland suburbs. 

The District's Department of Transportation (DDOT) is planning a complete reconstruction of…

The recipe for a world-class bicycling network

By Zach Vanderkooy

When it comes to making the bike a safe and comfortable choice for everyday transportation, no place on the planet has had more success than the Netherlands.

There are a lot of reasons why the Dutch are world leaders in getting people on bikes for everyday trips. The history, cultural context and political decisions that led to bicycling being a rational and mainstream mode of transport in the Netherlands offer many relevant lessons for American cities, and the Green Lane Project is helping to share those lessons.

In my opinion, the biggest reasons…

Protected bikeways are far safer than just paint, study shows

By Michael Andersen

Bike lanes separated by planters, posts or parked cars aren't just more popular and less stressful than bike lanes or back-road bike routes, an important new study shows. They're safer – far safer.

As reported Monday by Atlantic Cities, researchers found that in Vancouver and Toronto, protected green lanes reduce non-fatal road injuries by 90 percent.

That's a huge impact. When it comes to reducing major injuries, these findings suggest that converting a painted bike lane to a separated cycle track…

Memphis on Broadway

By Anthony Siracusa

Maybe you saw Memphis when it landed on Broadway in October 2009.  Or, maybe you read earlier this month about Warner Brothers' plans to turn the "tale of two star-crossed lovers living in segregated Memphis in the 1950s" into a motion picture.  After all, the Broadway performance of Memphis netted four Tonys in 2010 - including honors for best score and best musical.

Well, Memphis returned to New York earlier this month - though with noticeably less dancing and markedly more bicycle riding. 

Bicycling Means Better Business

By Jay Walljasper

Cities across the U.S. discover that good biking attracts great jobs and top talent to their communities

“Biking is definitely part of our strategy to attract and retain businesses in order to compete in a mobile world,” says Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as we glide across the Mississippi river on a bike-and-pedestrian bridge—one of two that connect downtown to the University of Minnesota. “We want young talent to come here and stay. And good biking is one of the least expensive ways to send that message.”

As we turn onto to a riverside bike path to inspect…

Chicago: What do people really think of the green lanes on 55th St?

By John Greenfield

Bike planners and advocates get excited when green lanes appear on city streets, but how do regular folks feel about them? To get a better idea, I pedaled to 55th Street in Chicago’s Hyde Park community, where the city recently built new protected bicycle lanes.

A square-mile of land on the city’s South Side, surrounded by parkland to the west and south and Lake Michigan to the east, Hyde Park is famous as the home of the University of Chicago, the Museum…

‘Empowered bureaucracy’: 7 questions for Portland’s Geller

By Michael Andersen

If anyone in the United States understands how big-city policies can support biking, it's Roger Geller. In 12 years as Portland's bicycle coordinator, he's overseen a 250 percent spike in bike commuting and helped the city top countless bike-lovers' lists.

Geller could probably make more money elsewhere – he brings home about $80,000 – but from his Portland perch, this multidisciplinary bike bureaucrat has been able to shape the national cycling debate with influential concepts like his "four types of…

Memphis: Building a Better City, One Green Lane at a Time

By Anthony Siracusa

Memphis, by virtue of its place among 5 other Green Lane Project cities, is a leader in the development of bicycle infrastructure in the United States. 

And while many cities across the United States stack up mile after mile of bike lanes, if we measure progress only by the total number of bike lanes constructed we run the risk of obscuring the best part of the story. In Memphis, though we've built a respectable 45 miles of bike lanes in the last two years, understanding the municipality's about-face helps frame the Bluff City's recent progress -…

Washington, DC proposes extending the 15th Street green lane

By David Cranor

Washington, DC's Department of Transportation (DDOT) recently presented a set of preliminary concepts for extending the 15th Street green lane north for 1/3 of a mile and improving the intersection through which it passes, including adding more bike lanes. The 15th Street green lane is a one-mile long,  bi-directional cycletrack extending from iconic Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House and through Lafayette Square to the hip U Street neighborhood. Opened in 2009 and modified in 2010, the cycletrack has been a huge success.  A 2012 evaluation of the cycletrack’s use showed a 205% increase in bicycle volume on…

San Francisco City Leader Learns Lessons in Denmark

By Alexis Chavez

By Alexis Chavez

Over the summer, a group of city leaders spent a week in Denmark for a bicycling study tour, sponsored by the Green Lane Project. Delegates spent time in the cities of Odense, Aarhus and Copenhagen, observing and exploring bicycle infrastructure, planning and promotion. In Denmark, one out of every five trips is made by bike. In downtown Copenhagen, half of daily trips are made by bike, and delegates experienced a robust and mature bicycle transportation network firsthand.

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Livable Streets Section Leader Seleta Reynolds was one of the city leaders…