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Carbon Neutrality by 2050 - Susanne Rasmussen
- 1. Carbon Neutrality by 2050 & No Fatalities or Serious Injuries VISION Cambridge streets will be designed to accommodate bicycling as a mode of transportation for people of all ages and abilities.
- 3. Cambridge Community Survey 81% of all bicyclists and 68% of concerned bicyclists feel “very comfortable” on separated bicycle facilities. How comfortable do you feel with these bicycle facilities on busy, commercial streets? All Respondents “Concerned” bicyclists
- 5. Evaluation
- 6. Moving People vs. Vehicles Buses = 3% Bus riders = 55% Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge - AM Peak Hour
Editor's Notes
- Cambridge has set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and has also committed to preventing fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes. Making it safe for people of all ages and abilities to cycle on Cambridge streets is key to achieving both of these goals As secretary Pollock mentioned yesterday, currently more than half of all trips under a mile are made by car Such short trips lend themselves to be made by bike – if the streets are safe and, importantly, perceived to be safe there is a strong potential to convert a lot of trips from driving to biking
- When you analyze crash data in Cambridge you find that the crashes happen on major streets – because that’s where most of the cyclists are And they are there for the very same reason the cars are on these streets: they represent the shortest distance between all the key destinations in the city: schools, universities, jobs, retail If cyclists can’t be there, they will have to ride greater distances to get to where they want to go – which creates a deterrent to going by bike AND many people never even consider cycling because they perceive it to be too dangerous, which explains why cycling commuting rates in US cities still are in single-digit rates including in Cambridge – although we are in the top five of cities our size in the country
- Research from Cambridge – and elsewhere were similar research has been done - shows that very few people are comfortable riding on busy commercial streets unless they have protected or fully separated bicycle facilities These charts show the degree of comfort with no designated bike facility to the left and protected facilities to the right. But, if such street had separated bike facilities cyclists in general and almost 70% of the less confidents cyclists would feel comfortable riding.
- While the ultimate goal is to create a fully connected network of separated facilities in the City But progress had been slow because separation was only happening through major street reconstruction projects Last year, following two cyclist fatalities, city leadership made a decision…. To accelerate action on both safety and GHG emissions reduction and we created separated bike facilities on 5 street segments in less than 12 months, using only paint and plastic stanchions, including this one on Cambridge St which leads directly to the city’s high school and serves 100s of youth on bikes and had higher than average crash rates The project was made possible by removing half the parking which served both residents who have no off-street parking and adjacent institutions and small-scale retail How could this be done? Parking studies showed that the residential parking utilization rates were actually far from capacity Additional meters were added on side streets near retail
- Impact was immediate: number of cyclists went up – both during typical school and commuting times, including a 60% increase between 6-7pm It is too early to assess the impact on crashes, but we also observe that vehicle speeds have gone down – which generally leads to the lowering of both crash rate and severity of crashes Some concern has been expressed that removing vehicle parking spaces in retail areas will hurt business, but we know from research from elsewhere that cyclists tend to shop and spend more dollars locally than people with access to a car – we are hoping to participate in a study with 7 other cities in the coming year to test the connection between installation of bike facilities and retail sales and establish local data
- In addition to working to improve bicycle safety increasing the bicycle mode share, we are also embarking on an effort to create queue jump lanes and signal priority for buses on key routes There is very significant potential to improve mobility by bus through such interventions for large numbers of people and make it convenient to travel by bus For example, on Mt Auburn St in Cambridge during the morning rush only 3% of the vehicles carry more than half the people
- - Safe streets, fewer cars, lower GHG