Bike-To-Brown

Bikes @ Brown

This past Monday, a new student run service was launched called Bikes @ Brown

Brown’s first bike-share program is starting this week!  For a $5
membership for the year, you can rent bikes any time you want for free!
Come by Faunce 032 (old UFB office) M-F, 12-1 or 4-5 to get a
membership, rent a bike, or check out our office.

Email BikesAtBrown@gmail.com for more information.
Sponsored by the Brown Outing Club

I’d encourage everyone to take a stroll by their office, check out what’s going on.

Spring Break Bicycle Removal

Did everyone notice the Morning Mail announcement this morning re: Spring Break Bicycle Removals?  In particular, the following jumped out at me:

If possible, please secure your bicycle during this 5 hour period in your office in order to avoid the possible removal of your bicycle. We all thank you for your cooperation in advance.

There must be a better way to deal with this.  Perhaps, if police and security, as they are patrolling the campus took note of what bikes haven’t moved in months, they could proactively determine which ones have been abandoned.  I for one am going to be really miffed if my bike gets cut off as I’m in a meeting somewhere on campus.  Thoughts?

Bikes @ Brown

The February 5th addition of Morning Mail mad a passing comment about a new Bikes @ Brown effort.  Numerous people commented on whether we new anything about this program, so I went ahead and contacted the group.  Here is what I heard back:

Yes, this program is very new- we are actually not quite off the ground yet. For now, we are separate form RISD. We have 7 bikes but are hoping to grow pretty quickly. We also have a storage room in Faunce. The next few steps are to build a wall bike rack (which we have a a design and all of the supplies for), paint the bikes, publicize the program and wait for it to get a bit warmer. We are hoping to launch the program by beginning of Mach. I have created a listserv bikes@listserv.brown.edu.

Apparently, there was an article in the BDH that I completely missed introducing the program.  Best of luck to this group as they try to get a program started.  Hopefully we will see fleets of brown, or pink, or yellow bikes flying around campus come March.  I’ll certainly try and post more info as I learn more about the program.

Bike Commuter Benefits Act

As many have probably heard by now, the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act was signed into law by President Bush this past Friday.  A Cyclelicious article states that:

Congressman Blumenauer of Oregon included a bike commuter benefit provision in HR1424, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package that passed the house today and was signed by President Bush shortly afterward.

I’m really not a fan of por-barrel amendments, the fact that this benefit is now law could well help increase the benefits for bicycle commuters.  From the article:

The benefit — up to $20 per month — begins with the new year in 2009. Employers may reimburse employees, tax free, for “reasonable” expenses related to their bike commute, including equipment purchases, bike purchases, repairs, and storage if the bicycle is used as a “substantial part” of the commuter’s trip to work for the month. If you already receive another commuter tax-free fringe benefit (like a Commuter Check or EcoPass), you don’t qualify, so multimodal commuters are out of luck.

I think it’s time to approach the University and ask that they support us when the law becomes a reality in 2009.

One Less Car Day

According to an article on UF News, the University of Florida is challenging their students, faculty, and staff to use alternative transportation on One Less Car Day, October 17th.

In meeting the challenge, faculty, staff, and students will pledge to commute by an alternative to single-occupancy vehicle travel on One Less Car Day and as often as possible throughout the fall semester. Departmental teams will be able to track their collective commitment online. Individual participants will receive a One Less Car T-shirt to wear on Oct. 17 and a button indicating the mode of transportation they have pledged to take, which can be worn throughout the year.

What a great idea, why didn’t we think of this at Brown?  I for one thing we, Bike-to-Brown should work with the University as a whole to promote this day and a similar event.  I’ll try to track down who at Brown we could work with, but will probably need some more help if we are going to pull this off.

Cycling Injuries Research Study

We reported a while back about a study being prepared by Mark Greve, MD.  The final version of the survey is now online and I’d encourage everyone to set aside a few minutes and fill out the survey.  The purpose of the study is to collect data about people

who ride their bikes for fitness, fun, competition, commuting or delivery of goods and services.

The study is one of only a few to focus specifically on cycling injuries. Our goal is to help improve and promote cycling for health and transportation.

Mark is an attending physician and researcher in the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital and is also the faculty sponsor of the Brown Cycling Club.

Information will be collected via an online confidential survey. Participants will be anonymous.

A Most Convenient Truth

The Project for Public Spaces posted an intersting article entitled A Most Convenient Truth: The unexpected, amazing revival of the…bicycle.  It highlights a bicycle revolution starting to take hold in Europe which

is based upon the “City Bike”, or Public Bicycle System, which is probably today the fastest growing transportation innovation in the world. The basic principle is that a city creates a public transport system based on free (or almost free) bicycles which you can pick up at many points around the city, ride to get you where you want to go, and then leave at another handily located station.

The current system in Paris was created

under the name Vélib’ (roughly free bike). There are more than 15,000 currently in service and with the full fleet up to 20,000 by the end of this year. Other large systems are in operation or underway in Barcelona, Lyon, Rome, Berlin, and in North America there are several dozen cities looking carefully at this idea, with projects about to be launched in Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, Vancouver and Washington DC.

While I’m sure this type of service isn’t even on the radar in the Providence government, why can’t it be tried at Brown?  I’ve said it before and I still think it’s true, Bicycling magazine has a current program called Bike Town, why wouldn’t they be interested in a Bike Campus program?  Perhaps Brown could this “velolution”.

WI College Gives Bike to Freshman

Someone posted a link to this article on the Bike Providence website:

A tiny liberal arts college here hopes it has found an answer to a nagging shortage of campus parking: a bicycle giveaway.

If incoming freshmen promise not to bring a car to campus for a full year, Ripon College will give them a Trek 820 mountain bike, a helmet and a lock — a $400 value.

He hopes the 1,000-student campus’”Velorution Program” will protect it from building more parking lots.“We obviously live in a car culture. That’s not about to change,” Joyce said. “But if a significant number of students learn that a car isn’t a necessity at this stage of their lives, that’s good enough for me.”

I’ve often wondered what would happen if Brown University, in an official capacity, approached someone like Bicycling Magazine to start a Bike Campus program.  They’ve created a viable Bike Town program over the past five or so years, this seems like a logical next step.

RIDOT Asking to Ban Bikes on Henderson Roadways

RIDOT has a request listed on the agenda for the February 13th, 2008 meeting of the State Traffic Commission (STC) to:

approve the restriction of bicycles to use the sidewalk area only on the Henderson Bridge.

Naturally, this causes some problems:

1. bicycles can’t legally ride on the sidewalks, the railings are too low
2. the sidewalks don’t go far enough for people traveling farther East than Massasoit Ave

The meeting is a 10am on February 13th at the State House, Room 203.  We should definitely arrange to have one or more people attend.

Proposed Bike Parking

We received a draft proposal from facilities with their recomendations for additional bike parking.

They are all exterior racks with the exception of the one in the Power Street parking garage and one at the 222 Richmond parking garage. When we last met, one primary request was secure bike parking. I am pricing the Power parking garage option as a high strength mesh cage with swipe card access. Because of the expense of this set up, I am proposing that we use Power Street as a test, and if it is well utilized, then additional secure cages could be added.

Facilities would appreciate feedback on their proposals. This is a chance for YOU to make a difference on the future of bikes around campus, so if you have some feedback, please let us know. I’ll compile all the feedback and communicate it back to facilities.