someone writes:
> In the most bike friendly city in the world: Armsterdam.
> 38% uses bike as everyday transporation.
> 23% uses auto as everyday transporatio.
> 30% uses bus or tram as everyday transporation.
> In the least bike friendly city in the world: Los angeles, NY,
> Chicaco, any big city in US.
> 0.5% uses bike as everyday transporation.
> 90% uses auto as everyday transporation.
> 2% uses bus as everday transporation.
The most bicycle friendly community I have experienced is the Stanford
University campus. LSJU has a free bus system (full sized transit
buses) with counter rotating regular service that loops around the
campus from the local bus/train station. Little auto parking is
offered for general use with most faculty and student parking by
permit in outlying areas. Auto accessible inner campus areas offer
only short term parking.
Therefore, the campus has little car traffic and many stop signs, none
of which are required stops for bicyclists except in the event of
contention with other bicycles (and motorized traffic including the
bus). Inner areas around the academic buildings are
pedestrian/bicycle malls only. In this mode, high speed bicycling is
out of place as is keeping to the right. It's a smoothly working
scramble amble with bicycles and pedestrians.
Depending on the density of foot and bicycle traffic, maximum bicycle
speed is about 15mph. The system has been working well for years now
and from what I see, I'm sure other schools with as much space as
Stanford has, probably have similar systems. This is the truly
bicycle friendly community as I see it.
Lastly, I don't think the statistics cited above are related to
whether a community is bicycle friendly or not.
Jobst Brandt
