Cycle City, U.S.A.
Portland, Ore. lives the dream of car-bicycle equality.
Excerpt:
It could always be better
As far as Portland has come, city officials there are still working hard to get even more people on bikes.
Last fall, Portland city officials flew to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where an estimated 33 percent of all trips in the city each day are made by bike. They marveled at the number of cyclists and bike parking lots in the city. They noted that schools in Amsterdam even teach bike education.
In Portland, an estimated 5 to 6 percent of trips made each day are done by bicycle. City officials wants to boost that number to at least 15 percent.
Some Austin bicyclists would be happy with less than that.
“Austin has the potential, if we’d just break the inertia,” says Robin Stallings, executive director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition, a statewide bicycle advocacy group formed 15 years ago and based in Austin. “It’s not rocket science. Even Bubba likes to ride a bicycle.”
You can read more at the Austin American Statesman…
