For a healthier city, add more bike paths
Dozens of bicycle accidents have occurred in recent years. Just weeks ago, an incident occurred that involved a mother bicycling with her two children on the North Shore. Earlier this month, a bicyclist was critically injured in a collision with a tour bus on Kamehameha Highway.
How many more accidents need to occur before more is done to protect our bicyclists and provide safer bike routes?
Bike to Work Week this week should remind us that Honolulu must pursue successful strategies proven in other cities to improve bicycling conditions here at home. These strategies can make biking a more viable and attractive option.
In 2006, Honolulu voters tasked the city with developing islandwide bikeway systems and making Honolulu a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly city a priority. Since then we have only made little progress. We need to do more. In one year, Hawai'i dropped eight points from the Bike League's Bicycle Friendly State rankings for all 50 states, moving from 14 to 22 in 2009.
Along with providing accessible infrastructure, the city must:
Many cities have redesigned roads to include shared roadways, shoulder bikeways, bike lanes, and bike parking. Portland improved bicycle safety by implementing the "Green Bike Box" program. This program addresses bicycle and car collisions on heavily traveled streets. This concept is in the city's draft plan, but we need it implemented.
To better integrate walkways and bikeways into the current and future transit system, routes can be constructed along rail lines or other public rights-of-way to encourage more people to bike and walk, similar to the program in Los Angeles.
More education is also needed. Along with the Hawai'i Bicycling League and its participation in the BikeEd Program for our fourth-graders, the city can partner with private organizations to educate the public about bike safety. The American Association of Retired People utilizes its vast network to promote bicycling as a form of mobility and low-impact form of exercise. And the American Automobile Association has a program that educates parents on properly fitting helmets, bicycle maintenance and the rules of the road.
Hawai'i currently spends nearly $300 million a year treating diseases related to inactivity. Bicycling could result in significant health benefits. Experts say that countries with safe bicycle and pedestrian transportation networks have healthier populations and spend less on treating chronic disease brought on by inactivity.
Bicycling and walking can also have a dramatic effect on our environment. Replacing car trips with bicycling or walking can provide significant environmental benefits by reducing pollution, decreasing our dependence on imported oil, and providing congestion relief. It can also reduce urban ozone levels and carbon monoxide levels.
Funding opportunities exist for cities to develop bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, but cycling advocates must get their cities to request these funds. The federal government has increased the amount of funding available to states and counties to increase bicycle use and encourage planners and engineers to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian needs in urban and suburban areas.
Bicycling was one of the earliest beneficiaries of stimulus funding, with portions of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act explicitly devoted to bicycling. States are required to spend 3 percent of their allocation on the Transportation Enhancements Program, which is a primary source of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure funding.
We need to take advantage of federal funds available to improve our infrastructure to accommodate bicycles and develop programs to make this city pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. With the right infrastructure in place, biking will become an affordable, safe, healthy and more viable transportation alternative that will help improve our environment.
