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Bicycling is big business, just ask Iowa

By bikeleague | January 27, 2012

Large rides like RAGBRAI support local economies by bringing thousands of riders to small communities (Photo: Christopher Gannon/The Des Moines Register) Bicycling generates $364.8 million in direct and indirect benefits to the…

House Bill Threatens to Eliminate Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding

By bikeleague | January 26, 2012

By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes For the past 20 years, the federal Transportation program has included dedicated funding for biking and walking. Over the course of twenty…

Safe Passing for Safe Streets

By bikeleague | January 26, 2012

Yesterday we heard about the great news of the Pennsylvania Senate passing HB 170, the Safe Passing Act and sending it to Governor Corbett’s desk for his signature. Just in…

PA Senate PAsses safe PAssing

By bikeleague | January 25, 2012

Too much with the PA joke? Sorry. Anyway… Big news today out of Pennsylvania. The PA Senate passed House Bill 170, the Safe Passing Act by a vote of 45 to…

2012 Benchmarking report out now!

By bikeleague | January 24, 2012

Bicycling and walking make up 12 percent of all trips and 14 percent of all traffic fatalities and yet receive only 1.6 percent of federal transportation funding. What more do…

Apply now to host a federal funding workshop

By bikeleague | January 18, 2012

Advocacy Advance is now accepting applications for its 2012 Action 2020 Workshops.   These workshops bring together advocates, agency staff, and elected officials and are designed to ensure that participants have…

See-Rent-Ride: Bikeshare changes the way people see the city

By bikeleague | January 12, 2012

Not long ago, a man in his sixties was visiting Washington, DC, for business. One afternoon with a little free time to kill, he came across a Capitol Bikeshare (CaBi) station. Minutes later, after his first exposure to CaBi, he was off exploring the city by bike. It had been 35 years since he had last ridden a bicycle.

 

Spontaneous rides like this one provide visitors and casual bicyclists a new way to see the nation’s capital, bring in revenue for the bikeshare system, and introduce new people to urban bicycling. To learn more about these users, whose data are not automatically captured in as much depth as the system’s annual users, CaBi and the transportation departments of Arlington, VA and Washington, DC asked a team of graduate students from Virginia Tech (VT) and Assistant Professor Ralph Buehler to conduct a survey and do research on the habits, characteristics, and opinions of casual bikeshare users.

 

A DC resident uses a 24-hour Capital Bikeshare pass rides the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes towards the U.S. Capitol Building. (Photo: Darren Flusche)

“Bikesharing is like a big advertisement for bicycling,” says Darren Buck, one of the VT students. “Folks walking by who don’t consider bikes in their daily routines are given an opportunity to ask, ‘Well, why not go for a bike ride?’” The survey found that the overwhelming number of people who decided without any pre-planning to go for a bike ride, a phenomena Buck calls “See-Rent-Ride.” Most respondents learned about CaBi by seeing the stations or bikes in use.

The final report, “Capital Bikeshare Study: A Closer Look at Casual Users and Operations,” included an analysis of other bikeshare systems in the country. “The comparison of CaBi with other systems showed that CaBi is at the cutting edge in many areas,” said Ralph Buehler, Assistant Professor in Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, despite it being a relatively new system compared to some of the others examined.

 

Virginia Tech students survey CaBi users about the system. (Photo: Ralph Buehler)

The report also included several suggestions to improve the system, including improving technological approaches to redistributing bicycles, expanding repair facilities as the system grows, and providing maps and increasing the visibility of stations. The students recommended concentrating marketing around “under-served and counter peak” stations. They concluded that the system could grow ridership by concentrating and promoting in times and places where people are not riding now. Currently the heaviest use takes places during rush hour, attracting more weekend tourists gets more rides out of the system without taxing capacity.

 

The CaBi fleet on its first day. (Photo: Darren Flusche)

Friday video: Giant sponsors everyday riders (in Australia)

By bikeleague | January 7, 2012

Thanks to StreetsBlog and Khal Spencer for drawing our attention to this Giant advertisement airing in Australia. A good reminder that there is room for everybody in cycling. Let’s celebrate and…

Happy Holidays from the League

By bikeleague | December 23, 2011

Everyone at the League would like to wish our members, bicycle advocates, Bike League Blog readers and all the cyclists out there a happy holiday and New Year! We have…

University of Cincinnati Wins League Peopleforbikes.org Pledge Contest

By bikeleague | December 15, 2011

Today, we announced the winners of the League’s Peopleforbikes.org Pledge Contest. The goal of Peopleforbikes.org is to unite a million voices in support of a better future for bicycling in…