Final Project (With Introduction): How a Suburban City Can Become a Bike Friendly Community

Allie Johnson

Section 302

Final Project (With Introduction)

Sustainability is not something that can be achieved on a global scale all at once. For this reason, I sought to try to accomplish a sustainability project on the local level. I tend to think of sustainability through an environmental lens, and thus I wanted to complete a project that addressed environmental concerns. Dependence on cars is one of the main reasons why suburban communities lack in sustainability. One of the best ways to begin creating a sustainable society is change the habits of citizens of that society. One habit many Americans need to be cured of is their dependence on automobiles. Green technology in cars is one option, as well as public transportation. However, bicycling is an alternative to both of these. In many suburban communities, bicycling is a viable alternative to fossil fuel fueled automobiles. Thus, this project will undertake the task of installing a bicycling initiative in a traditional suburban community.

I grew up in a suburban community, and until arriving at the University of Wisconsin Madison, I didn’t realize that my hometown was the poster child of how not to be a sustainable community. After further investigation I came to the conclusion that the majority of suburban societies faced a similar problem. I wanted to tackle the idea of making suburban communities more sustainable. One way to target sustainability was to focus on reducing the wasteful self-oriented habits of the citizens of these communities. Many Americans live their lives in pursuit of instant gratification. They want to get to their destinations as fast as possible, regardless of the consequences. Many people who live in my hometown are unaware or aware and don’t care about the effects their choices have on greater society. By using cars as their primary mode of transportation, citizens are wasting both resources and money that could be used in a more sustainable way. In narrowing my possible targets, I found biking to be a viable candidate for a sustainability initiative. Biking facilities are a public good, and this allows biking to be an activity that is accessible to all types of people (Krizek 2007). Suburban communities are compact enough that a short bike ride will allow a person to get from point A to point B in a short amount of time. Furthermore, the roads in a suburban community are both wide and safe enough to accommodate bike lanes. Bike lanes introduce people to biking on roads and allow them to feel as though bikes are treated as equals o drivers or pedestrians. Additionally, it allows them to see bike riding as a safe practice. Taking into account the fact that Apple Valley does not yet have a plan to develop a bike friendly community, I have decided to use this as the target city in which to implement my project. The city of Apple Valley will be the model for a traditional suburban society. It is located about 25 miles from the Twin Cities, the major metropolis area of Minnesota. It has a compact downtown area, with its many housing developments stemming from all sides.  This makes the installation of bike lanes and other bicycle-friendly initiatives more reasonable.

The ultimate goal of this project is to introduce the idea of biking as an alternative to riding driving cars. Bicycling should begin to replace cars as a mode of transportation around the community. With such a compact community such as those that exist in suburban cities, each person driving a car to reach their destination provides much unnecessary waste. Thus, the destruction of the environment is increasing more rapidly by the wasteful dependence on cars in certain communities. The goal is to garner the support of a community for the use of bicycles in daily life. By the completion of this project bike lanes should be installed and awareness of the benefits of bicycling should be spread. Citizens should see bicycling as both a physically, economically, and environmentally enticing alternative to the cars that contribute to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution in our environment.

In order to develop the parameters of this project, a definition of sustainability must be established. This definition must be given in terms of the project at hand and be clear regarding how the concept relates to the problem. Sustainability can be defined as changing the motivation behind our choices from that of instant gratification to a consideration of long term effects. This is applicable to the situation in the suburbs discussed previously because the choices that are made by citizens in suburban cities are, for the most part, self-motivated. This includes the choice of driving. For example, in reality, driving to the local grocery store is not a necessity. The store is no more than two miles away from any house in the city of Apple Valley. This is well within bicycling distance. However, citizens choose to drive because they are more concerned with how quickly the can complete their task, rather than being concerned with environmental footprint they are leaving behind. In this way sustainability, as previously defined, can be achieved through this project.

Since I am currently at school here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I am disconnected from my hometown. This made implementing an applied project a difficulty. Therefore, I decided to take a more scholarly approach to my sustainability project. First, I looked at the benefits that choosing bikes over automobiles can bring to the average citizen and case studies of where similar cycling initiatives have been implemented. Then, I looked at the feasibility of introducing a bike riding initiative into the community of Apple Valley, Minnesota. Lastly, I collected data and formulated the steps that would need to be taken in order for this project to be possible.

The concept of replacing automobiles with bikes is not a novelty. In fact, in the state of Minnesota alone bike riding initiatives have been researched and attempting in multiple cities. In the future, a movement towards cycling as a primary mode of transport seems inevitable, with the rising costs of fuel, population density, and the abundance of environmental concerns plaguing our society (Davidson, 2010).  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines sustainable technology as “one which meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Davidson, 2010).  Bicycles fit this definition because they meet the all the needs of those that will utilize them, and the impact they have on all aspects of society does not hinder the future generations but in fact could make it more likely that they will be able to meet all of their own needs. The importance of introducing bicycles as a main mode of transportation in society lies with the many benefits that bicycling has to offer. The benefits of cycling can contribute to helping people live overall more sustainable lives. These benefits can be analyzed in three categories; physical benefits, economic benefits, and environmental benefits.

First, bicycling offers many physical benefits to society. “A more complete network of walking and bicycling trails in the Apple Valley community not only offers greater opinions for moving about the community, but it promotes community health by providing trails and sidewalks that encourage people to be active” (City of Apple Valley 2011). The activity involved in biking is provides numerous health benefits to those who take part. “The Surgeon General recommends that adults have at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, and that children have at least an hour each day.  While it might not seem to be a significant commitment of time, most Americans fail to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendation” (City of Apple Valley, 2011). The physical benefits of biking also contribute to sustainability under the definition previously established. This is because the increasing the health of citizens feeds into a feedback loop. The world is realizing that it does not have unlimited resources. Healthier citizens consume fewer resources. They do not need as much medical care, and as far as obesity is concerned, they are not consuming as much food. All this means that there will be more resources in the future generations to use. In addition, there will be less money spent on caring for citizens, and this money can be used to further support the needs of future generations. The physical benefits of cycling feed into sustainability.

Furthermore, increasing biking in suburban communities has numerous economic benefits to those who choose to partake. With increasing fuel prices, citizens are looking to be more economically conscious in their choices. Gasoline for automobiles can range from $2-$4 a gallon. Using a bicycle requires no gas, and therefore is an economically viable option for people from all income brackets. Bicycles, in comparison to automobiles, cost less to purchase and less to repair.  The opportunity cost of a bicycle is also low, because in buying a bicycle the consumer is sacrificing saving time by driving. However, the consumer is gaining the opportunity to save more money because they will not be spending money on fueling and repairing their car. (Krizek 2007). This also ties into the definition of sustainability. The economic benefits of biking contribute to sustainability because if a consumer considers the long term effects of their choice to bike, they will see that they will be saving more money in the long run by doing so.  Thus, the economic benefits of biking outweigh those of driving.

Lastly, the environmental benefits of biking are additionally supportive of sustainability. The use of automobiles depletes natural resources. Citizens of suburban communities are wasting valuable and exhaustible energy and natural resources to fuel their lifestyle. By making the choice to bike instead of drive, citizens are doing a small part to save the environment, thus allowing the population of our world to survive longer. Bicycles do not rely on gasoline or other non-renewable resources to move, they are powered entirely by the person using them. Bikes do not contribute to air or noise pollution. In fact, the use of bikes could reduce carbon emissions in places such as Europe by as much as 25%. In comparing the carbon emissions of bicycles and automobiles it has been found that there is “a total of 21g of carbon emissions per passenger kilometer travelled for a bike, as against 271g for people in a car and 101g for a bus. The impact of electric-assisted bicycles, a boon for older or infirm riders, was almost as low, at 22g” (The Guardian, 2011) According to the League of American Bicyclists, more than 82% of all trips five miles or less are made by a personal automobile. 60% of the carbon emissions created by personal motorized vehicles occurs in the first few minutes of operation. This means that shorter car trips are more detrimental to the environment on a per mile basis than are longer car trips (League of American Bicyclists, 2011). In terms of this sustainability project, this means that the use of cars to navigate around a condensed suburban city is contributing increasingly more to environmental pollution. In addition, they are less wasteful because unlike cars, only certain parts of a bicycle need to be replaced after many miles, rather than replacing an entire car. Overall, bicycles have almost zero negative impact on the environment, and the use of them can fuel a sustainable society.

After examining the benefits of bicycling, I continued my research by examining the bicycling habits of several European countries, as well as the city of Minneapolis in Minnesota. Denmark provides one of the best examples for a bicycle friendly country. This is because Denmark, along with Germany and the Netherlands, offers safe and convenient bicycling facilities. This is the key to promoting a bicycle friendly atmosphere and enticing citizens to utilize bicycles as a mode of transportation. In Denmark, 37% of short trips, meaning short distances of travel, are undertaken by bicycles. This is compared to 2% of short trips in the United States (Buehler, 2008). What makes bicycling so appealing to the citizens of these European countries is the fact that the government provides the adequate facilities that allow cyclists to feel safe sharing the roads with automobiles. These governments have worked to expand bike lanes rather than expand motorways and to make their cities more people-friendly (Buehler, 2008). In addition, Minneapolis, Minnesota is another city that has succeeding in incorporating bicycling into daily life. In 2010, Minneapolis was dubbed the number one bike friendly city in America by Bicycling magazine. Minneapolis earned this title for several reasons. First, there are 127 miles of bikeways in the city of Minneapolis. The city chose to invest its time and resources in making safer areas for bikers, and the results were an increased number of people using the amenities the city provided. Furthermore, there is more bike parking per capita in Minneapolis than in any other city in the United States. Lastly, Minneapolis has extensive infrastructure for bicyclists. There are greenways, bike-pedestrian bridges, and a new bike share program (City of Minneapolis, 2011). An analysis of what makes a bike friendly area shows that safe bike riding facilities and a commitment to improving the lives of bikers as well as motorists improve the attractiveness of cycling in an area.

The next section of my project involves feasibility. This section analyzes whether it is possible for my hometown of Apple Valley, Minnesota to implement a bike riding initiative in the city. First, Apple Valley provides the perfect location for introducing bike riding into everyday life because the majority of trips that are made in the Apple Valley are short distance trips. My research has found that biking is most useful in a community where there is less distance to travel in order to reach a destination. In Apple Valley, the downtown area where the majority of shops and restaurants are located is very condensed, and all the housing developments and neighborhoods surround it. These neighborhoods are no further than three miles from the downtown area in any given direction. To further highlight this point, see the map provided below. The red outline shows the condensed downtown area.

A bicycling initiative is also feasible due to the fact that the city of Apple Valley Parks and Recreation department is currently working on improving the gaps in the cities bike paths. They want to improve the accessibility of bike paths to the average citizen. One of the most important factors in the success of a bike friendly community is the support of the local government. Currently, the city of Apple Valley is open to adapting it roads to incorporate bike lanes (City of Apple Valley, 2011). This project is also feasible because the community has support for it. There have been previous initiatives similar to this that garnered support for walking to school, rather than driving. These were successful in marketing their ideas to the public, and the same principles can be applied to biking. In conclusion, Apple Valley has all it needs to join the ranks of bike friendly cities.

The steps needed to accomplish this are as follows:

• Determine the best routes for to workplaces, schools, recreational facilities, shopping centers, and restaurants.
• Reduce travel lane widths of current roadways to accommodate bike lanes, or widen roadways to accommodate bike lanes.
• Create a bike share, which allows citizens to rent out bikes from public location at any given time. This allows bikes to be more accessible to anyone at any time.

• Install bike racks in more public locations, particularly around the downtown area.
• Create more bike parking spaces.

• Raise awareness of the benefits of biking and how safe and convenient it is for the average citizen.
• Find ways to encourage citizens to purchase bikes, through sales at local stores, bike resales in the community, etc.

In all, from this project I learned about all the aspects of biking that are beneficial to our everyday lives. However, more importantly, I learned that projects have the greatest chance of success if they have the support of an entire community behind them. Minneapolis would never be the most bike friendly city in America if it did not have the local government working to improve its bike facilities, and the citizens of the city working to bring biking into their lives. The city of Apple Valley will not succeed in also becoming a bike friendly community without that same support. In the end, I also learned that the definition of sustainability is not narrow. It is not limited to solely environmental sustainability. Sustainability also involves examining the impacts of our choices on our society. One of the simplest choices we can make to make our lives more sustainable is choosing a bike over a car, especially for those short trips.

Works Cited

Buehler, Ralph, and John Pucher. “Making Cycling Irresistible.” Transport Reviews 28 (2008): 495-528.

Davidson, Kristiane, Ned Lukies, and Debbie Lehtonen. “Green Transport Infrastructure.” Sustainable Urban and Regional Infrastructure Development. IGI Global. 2010.

Friedman, Steve. “#1 Bike City: Minneapolis.” Bicycling. Accessed on December 10, 2011. <http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/1-bike-city-minneapolis>.

Krizek, Kevin J. “Estimating the Economic Benefits of Bicycling and Bicycle Facilities: An Interpretive Review and Proposed Methods.” Essays on Transportation and Economics. Springer Link. 2007.

“Active Living.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011. <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=193>.

“Bike Walk Apple Valley.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011.  <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=193>

“Cycle like the Danes to cut carbon emissions, says study.” The Guardian. December 12, 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/12/cycle-like-danes-cut-emissions?newsfeed=true>

“Minneapolis Named America’s Best Bike City.” City of Minneapolis. Accessed on December 10, 2011. <http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/news/20100406BestBikeCity.asp>

“Parks and Recreation.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011. <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=35>.

“Ride for the Environment.” League of American Bicyclists. Accessed on December 10, 2011 <http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/why/environment.php>.

Bike Riding Initiative in a Suburban Community: An Introduction

“Walk to School, It’s Really Cool!” This was the motto for a walking initiative in and around the community of Apple Valley, Minnesota a few years ago. While the idea of walking to school, or other locations around the city, was an excellent way to reduce obesity in the children of the community, it was not a successful program in terms of reducing dependence on cars. Dependence on cars is one of the main reasons why suburban communities lack in sustainability. One of the best ways to begin creating a sustainable society is change the habits of citizens of that society. One habit many Americans need to be cured of is their dependence on automobiles. Green technology in cars is one option, as well as public transportation. However, bicycling is an alternative to both of these. In many suburban communities, bicycling is a viable alternative to fossil fuel fueled automobiles. Thus, this project will undertake the task of installing a bicycling initiative in a traditional suburban community.

I grew up in a suburban community, and until arriving at the University of Wisconsin Madison, I didn’t realize that my hometown was the poster child of how not to be a sustainable community. After further investigation I came to the conclusion that the majority of suburban societies faced a similar problem. I wanted to tackle the idea of making suburban communities more sustainable. One way to target sustainability was to focus on reducing the wasteful self-oriented habits of the citizens of these communities. Many people who live in my hometown are unaware or aware and don’t care about the effects their choices have on greater society. In narrowing my possible targets, I found biking to be a viable candidate for a sustainability initiative. Biking facilities are a public good, and this allows biking to be an activity that is accessible to all types of people (Krizek 2007). Suburban communities are compact enough that a short bike ride will allow a person to get from point A to point be in a short amount of time. Furthermore, the roads in a suburban community are both wide and safe enough to accommodate bike lanes. Bike lanes introduce people to biking on roads and allow them to feel as though bikes are treated as equals o drivers or pedestrians. Additionally, it allows them to see bike riding as a safe practice. Taking into account the fact that Apple Valley does not yet have a plan to develop a bike friendly community, I have decided to use this as the target city in which to implement my project. The city of Apple Valley will be the model for a traditional suburban society. It is located about 25 miles from the Twin Cities, the major metropolis area of Minnesota. It has a compact downtown area, with its many housing developments stemming from all sides.  This makes the installation of bike lanes and other bicycle-friendly initiatives more reasonable.

The ultimate goal of this project is to introduce the idea of biking as an alternative to riding driving cars. Bicycling should begin to replace cars as a mode of transportation around the community. With such a compact community such as those that exist in suburban cities, each person driving a car to reach their destination provides much unnecessary waste. Thus, the destruction of the environment is increasing more rapidly by the wasteful dependence on cars in certain communities. The goal is to garner the support of a community for the use of bicycles in daily life. By the completion of this project bike lanes should be installed and awareness of the benefits of bicycling should be spread. Citizens should see bicycling as both a physically, economically, and environmentally enticing alternative to the cars that contribute to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution in our environment.

In order to develop the parameters of this project, a definition of sustainability must be established. This definition must be given in terms of the project at hand and be clear regarding how the concept relates to the problem. Sustainability can be defined as changing the motivation behind our choices from that of instant gratification to a consideration of long term effects. This is applicable to the situation in the suburbs discussed previously because the choices that are made by citizens in suburban cities are, for the most part, self-motivated. This includes the choice of driving. For example, in reality, driving to the local grocery store is not a necessity. The store is no more than two miles away from any house in the city of Apple Valley. This is well within bicycling distance. However, citizens choose to drive because they are more concerned with how quickly the can complete their task, rather than being concerned with environmental footprint they are leaving behind. In this way sustainability, as previously defined, can be achieved through this project.

The concept of replacing automobiles with bikes is not a novelty. In fact, in the state of Minnesota alone bike riding initiatives have been researched and attempting in multiple cities. The importance of introducing bicycles as a main mode of transportation in society lies with the many benefits that bicycling has to offer. These benefits can be analyzed in three categories; physical benefits, economic benefits, and environmental benefits.

First, bicycling offers many physical benefits to society. “A more complete network of walking and bicycling trails in the Apple Valley community not only offers greater opinions for moving about the community, but it promotes community health by providing trails and sidewalks that encourage people to be active” (City of Apple Valley 2011). The activity involved in biking is provides numerous health benefits to those who take part. The Surgeon General recommends that adults have at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, and that children have at least an hour each day.  While it might not seem to be a significant commitment of time, most Americans fail to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendation” (City of Apple Valley, 2011). The physical benefits of biking also contribute to sustainability under the definition previously established. This is because the increasing the health of citizens feeds into a feedback loop. Healthier citizens lead to less money spent on caring for citizens which in turn leads to more money that can be spent by the government on sustainability initiatives, which may have the side effect of further increasing the health of citizens.

In addition, increasing biking in suburban communities has numerous economic benefits to those who choose to partake. With increasing fuel prices, citizens are looking to be more economically conscious in their choices. Biking instead of driving is one of those choices. Besides the purchase of a bicycle, there are little to no costs associated with biking. The opportunity cost of a bicycle is also low, because in buying a bicycle the consumer is losing the opportunity of saving time by driving. However, the consumer is gaining the opportunity to save more money because they will not be spending money on fueling and repairing their car. (Krizek 2007). This also ties into the definition of sustainability. The economic benefits of biking contribute to sustainability because if a consumer considers the long term effects of their choice to bike, they will see that they will be saving more money in the long run by doing so.  Thus, the economic benefits of biking outweigh those of driving.

Lastly, the environmental benefits of biking are additionally supportive of sustainability. The use of automobiles depletes natural resources. Citizens of suburban communities are wasting valuable and exhaustible energy and natural resources to fuel their lifestyle. By making the choice to bike instead of drive, citizens are doing a small part to save the environment, thus allowing the population of our world to survive longer. In comparison to cars, bike use more physical energy for transport, but less fuel. Bikes do not contribute to pollution, nor do they use fuel that harms the environment. In addition, they are less wasteful because unlike cars, only certain parts of a bicycle need to be replaced after many miles, rather than replacing an entire car. Overall, bicycles have almost zero negative impact on the environment, and the use of them can fuel a sustainable society.

This project aims to be accomplished in several ways. First, extensive research will go into a proposal for the city of why and how the use of bicycles should be implemented in the community. This will include proposals for bike lanes and incentives for the local community to purchase bicycles. Furthermore, bicycling can only replace driving if the community is aware. An awareness campaign, similar to the campaign to increase walking to school for students implemented a few years ago, will be initiated to educate the community about all the benefits that biking has to offer. This project can be achieved if both the city and community of Apple Valley see biking as a viable option for the future.

Works Cited

Krizek, Kevin J. “Estimating the Economic Benefits of Bicycling and Bicycle Facilities: An Interpretive Review and Proposed Methods.” Essays on Transportation and Economics. Springer Link. 2007.

“Bike Walk Apple Valley.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011.  <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=193>

“Parks and Recreation.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011. <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=35>.

 

 

 

Project Proposal

I come from a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota where sustainability is not the main objective of daily life. In my city, just about everyone who can drive has their own car and they drive it everywhere. I am guilty of this as well. I have my own car which I will literally drive across the street to the nearby coffee shop, rather than walk or ride my bike. When I came to Madison I was amazed at the extensive public transportation system and the amount of walking people do to get to where they need to go. In the suburbs, people are not utilizing buses, bikes, or even their own walking capabilities. This is the problem. People in my city and in many suburbs across the nation are wasting energy and precious natural resources to fuel their lifestyle.

For my project I will try to implement more of a conscientious society regarding transportation by either working to create a more effective public transportation system that will service the suburbs or work to create a more bike friendly environment. Implementing bike lanes, encouraging the use of bikes, and creating the kiosks where bikes can be rented are several ways this project can be put into action. Furthermore, a city wide bus system with routes that hit all the important areas and neighborhoods of the city is another way to fulfill the goal of this project, as well as encouraging people to take the bus into the Twin Cities for work, rather than driving themselves. This will address the problem of sustainability because we will be making conscious choices that help our environment and our lifestyle by being both environmentally and economically efficient.