Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

Cortes, Alexander

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVCU Scholars CompassGreat VCU Bike Race Book Student Blog Posts Great VCU Bike Race Book2015Bicycle Urbanism, Blog 3Alexander CortesVirginia Commonwealth UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bike_studentPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA4.0) License.This Blog Post is brought to you for free and open access by the Great VCU Bike Race Book at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted forinclusion in Great VCU Bike Race Book Student Blog Posts by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, pleasecontact libcompass@vcu.edu.Downloaded fromhttps://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/bike_student/2411/24/2016 Blog | Bicycle Urbanismhttps://rampages.us/bicycleurbanism2015/blog/ 1/3Bicycle UrbanismPart of the Great VCU Bike Race Book CourseBlogSeptember 30, 2015 Student Post dpittLast year I studied abroad for a year in Copenhagen, which is a city very well known for being bicycle-friendly. I did not truly understand what that meant until I had lived and interacted with the urbanlandscape for over a month or so. Before I knew it, I was picking up the rhythms of commuting bybicycle in Copenhagen, and I was loving it. I began to reflect on bicycling conditions back home inRichmond, Virginia. Richmond, as we know, has quite the bicycle culture; with its many bicycle shops,bike crews and group rides, bicycle coops, and even bicycle-related events and festivities. Eventhough this culture is very present in the city, it is not a bicycle-friendly city.For starters, the presence of bicycle lanes within the city is laughable, considering there arepractically none. The few protected bicycle paths are outside of the city, which are great, but do note��iciently connect those neighborhoods with the urban center of Richmond. I am aware of theRichmond Bicycle Master Plan, but the infrastructural improvements proposed for that plan are noteven set in stone. The safety and drive to improve bicycling conditions in Richmond is not of highpriority for city o��icials, and that is one thing that makes Richmond bicycle-unfriendly.Whenever I hop on my bicycle and go for a ride, it is like preparing for battle. The number of timesthat I have been harassed by automobilists while rightfully and safely bicycling in the street isuncountable, as is the number of times a car has passed me uncomfortably close. This brings to thepoint that the mindset of city residents and a society as whole is one aspect that makes a city bicycle-friendly. Contrasting horrible hit-and-run experiences friends have had in Richmond, I had nothingbut great experiences with drivers in Copenhagen. When one goes for their driver’s license inDenmark, bicycle-awareness is a big element in the test. They are taught that bicyclists have theright-of-way, unless marked otherwise, but one of the best characteristics of bicycling in Copenhagenis that one almost never felt in competition with cars.Bicycle access is another big element that creates a bicycle-friendly city. A city can have a largeportion of bicyclist-commuters, but if accessibility is absent then the e��iciency and e��ectiveness ofbicycles is thrown out the window. Bicycle access deals with bicycle parking, bike share programs, aswell as facilities such as showers or repair stations. Bicycle parking is an important element to getpeople to start bicycling. Just think about it, when plans were getting started for the Floyd AvenueBicycle Boulevard, the biggest concern of residents was losing parking spaces. It is engraved in theAmerican mindset that they must have space to park their vehicle: a car, truck, motorcycle, or in thiscase, a bicycle. Safe and e��ective bicycle parking is one where there are more than enough parkingspaces to fit bicycles on a busy day. It is also parking where there is lighting that makes people feelsafe, about the well-being of themselves and their bicycles. Another important factor of bicycleparking is protection from weather, such as precipitation and wind.These are all factors that contribute to the execution and existence of a bicycle-friendly city.Richmond has a lot of work to be done, with infrastructural improvements, as well as a change in themindset of its residents. This all starts by hopping on your bicycle and making sure your communityknows that bicycling can be an e��ective and e��icient mode of transportation.11/24/2016 Blog | Bicycle Urbanismhttps://rampages.us/bicycleurbanism2015/blog/ 2/3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAr5sB6aivkAlexander CortesSubmitted by Alexander3 thoughts on “Blog”BrittanyProsiseI like what you said about the American mindset and parking spaces. I never reallythought about how much we envy convenient parking. Living in the fan, I use mybike a lot to get to class, Carytown, grocery store, etc., and one thing that drivesme crazy is that there is no decent bike parking around my apartment. I have tolock my bike to handrails and street signs and then I feel bad when it’s locked nextto someone’s car door, I also imagine dogs might be inclined to pee on my bikewhen they walk by it attached to a street sign. It’s nice that restaurants and storeshave decent bike parking but it would be even nicer if some of the neighborhoodsin Richmond had a few racks scattered about.October 2, 2015 at 11:21 pmCarlisleWilkinsonI love the idea of requiring a section on bike safety on the driver’s license test. Ithink in order to encourage bicycle friendliness, a cooperation among legislativee��orts and infrastructure are a great means. A friend of mine from Germany wastelling me that in Copenhagen, they began by just building the necessaryinfrastructure and investing in bike share programs before the demand, and thepublic just started using more bike transit because it was readily available, and thecity was built for it!October 8, 2015 at 5:37 pmJustinGrenzebachawesome post and great video, I really like how the video captures the essence ofnon-physical/societal aspects of biking that are common among our class blog.Additionally I liked how the video recapped some foundation-level ideas to bear inmind when thinking about bikes as transit, that bikes are the fastest way frompoint A to B, and that there needs to be a focus on implementing ideas that workOctober 10, 2015 at 11:10 pm11/24/2016 Blog | Bicycle Urbanismhttps://rampages.us/bicycleurbanism2015/blog/ 3/3within cycling opposed to trying to squeeze bike infrastructure in wherever it ismost convenient for a specific city.

Bicycle Urbanism, Blog 3

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&amp;context=bike_student

Bicycle Urbanism, Blog 3

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

VCU Scholars Compass