A slide from Blumenthal’s presentation.
Tim Blumenthal of Bikes Belong (an industry-backed, non-profit bike advocacy group) helped kick things off here at the 2011 Oregon Active Transportation Summit in Salem today by sharing a presentation titled, 12 Trends That Will Help Bicycling Grow.
Here’s the list:
- Bike sharing systems linked with infrastructure investment: “It’s a promising trend and a trend that’s coming to cities in your state too.” (News to me. Maybe Tim’s in on a secret?).
- Stronger commitments from government officials and more urban bike trips: “There’s no substitute for great support from Mayors.”
- More expensive gasoline and population growth: “A more realistic, higher price of gasoline is definitely in the interest of bicycling… The U.S. right now is 312 million people or so… We’re heading toward 400-450 million. Regardless of highway investment, we won’t be able to build our way out of congestion.”
- Cyclovia/Sunday Parkways/Open Streets events
- Every bike trip saves money. Every car trip costs money
- Converting car parking to bike parking
- Tax incentives for bike riders and bike-friendly businesses
- The 60% who are interested, but concerned
- Bikes and equipment that are specifically designed for shopping and short trips: “Anything we can do to make those short trips more practical and possible is a great thing.
- People for Bikes: The national signature gathering campaign launched by Bikes Belong two years ago now has over 200,000 names.
- More childen on bikes: “Safe routes to school for kids are safe routes all day, every day for everybody.”
- Bicycling is at the center: a global solution
Nationa