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Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center - case studies

In communities across the world, there is a growing need and responsibility to provide options that give people the opportunity to bike—to bike more often, to bike to more places, and to feel safe while doing so. The benefits of riding a bicycle-whether for utilitarian or recreational purposes—can be expressed in terms of improved environmental and personal health, reduced traffic congestion, enhanced quality of life, economic rewards, as well as others. This section provides an overview on why it is important to bike and what we can do to make it easier to bike more often.

• Bikes on Buses
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  Connecting bicycle transportation with buses offers many opportunities for expanding user access to transit. Front-mounted bike racks are the most common way for transit agencies to carry bicycles on buses. It is best to equip every bus with a rack, rather than select buses based on route choices, so that any bus can be used for any route, and bicyclists are always assured there will be a bike rack.
• Bikes on Trains
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  Bicycle access on trains is rather limited in the United States. When allowed, bicycles are often restricted to a maximum number per car, limited to certain hours of operation, and prohibited on full cars. Access, however, has improved over the last 20 years with most major rail systems providing some accommodations for bicycles. Check your local transit agency for its specific policies regarding bicycles on trains.
• Intermodal Transportation Planning and Development: A closer look at linking transit to bicycling and walking
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  Can communities reduce the length or number of car trips by making better intermodal connections? An intermodal trip involves more than one type of transportation, such as walking and transit, bicycling and transit, or driving and transit. Communities interested in offering commuters more transportation choices in an age of rising gas prices and concern about climate change can learn from the plans, policies and programs implemented by the City of Tucson.
• Quantifying Countermeasure Effectiveness Orlando and Orange County, Florida
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  Pedestrian and bicycle professionals sometimes encounter resistance when proposing crash countermeasures, due either to competing interests along a corridor or the desire to cut costs. Quantifying the effectiveness of corridor-length countermeasures such as medians, lighting and bicycle lanes will help proponents make a better case for these elements.
• Creating Active Rural Communities, Haliburton County, Ontario
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  There are many challenges unique to creating active communities in rural places, and yet there is very little literature or research to guide a community that pursues this goal. Some of the obstacles a rural community faces include large distances between destinations (20 km/12 miles or more); a prevalent "car culture"; an extensive road network and a small tax base, so that the focus on transportation is to maintain existing roads for cars, rather than to create or improve walking or cycling infrastructure; and limited capacity or expertise within municipal governments (staff and elected representatives) to make planning for active communities a priority.
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center - Case Studies
  • Pedestrian Bike and Travel Policy Kentucky State
    Kentucky created the Pedestrian and Bicycle Design Guidance Task Force in response to the then new USDOT publication "Design Guidance Accommodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel: A Recommended Approach."  Visit SiteThe task force was headed by the Multi-modal Programs division. Its goal was to develop policies to guide the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on when, where, and how to include bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The Task Force included representatives from a variety of state departments, including the University of Kentucky Department of Civil Engineering, FHWA, the Kentucky Planning Commission, Kentucky Heritage Council, Bicycle Coalition of Kentucky, and more.
  • Bike-station Long Beach, California
    In the early 1990s a proactive citizen of Long Beach, CA researched how cities in Europe and Japan achieved high levels of bicycle and transit ridership despite these barriers. His most compelling discovery was the public cycling or bike-transit center, a model that he brought back to Long Beach and convinced the city and other agencies to embrace. The concept promoted alternative transportation choices by using bike parking and other services to help people connect to transit and downtown areas. 
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