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Upcoming SMART Events (SAVE THE DATE!) |
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About SMART |
Dear Friend of SMART:Welcome to Issue #4 of SMART’s e-NEWS briefs in which we profile cycle transport enterprises to honor the season. We’ll also catch you up on some of the latest SMART news. To learn more about SMART’s mission, activities, and how to get involved, please go to ABOUT SMART. And we’d like to hear from you. Please send your comments, questions, related research, favorite innovations, case studies, and collaboration ideas to Susan Zielinski, Managing Director of SMART at susanz@umich.edu. For past issues of SMART e-NEWS, go to:
Case study briefsBike Sharing in the City of Love. New System Launches in Paris June 15th.
By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations, or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. The easy-to-use system allows a user to pick up a bicycle in one location, and return it to another station. These bikes will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Based on experience elsewhere (particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city which launched a similar system two years ago) regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free. The Lyon rental bikes, with their distinctive silver frame, red rear-wheel guard, handlebar basket and bell, can also be among the cheapest ways to travel, because the first half-hour is free, and most trips are shorter than that -- 95 percent of the roughly 20,000 daily bike rentals in Lyon are free because of their length. Lyon’s program is operated by JCDecaux’s Cyclocity, which has also won the contract to start up and run the program in Paris. JCDecaux is an advertising company which donates all of the bicycles in exchange for rights to advertise on the bikes and around the city. Theft is not a problem as users must submit their credit-card information to become a subscriber. Bike users must also give a deposit, which will be cashed if the bike is kept for more than 24 hours. Additionally, the bikes are equipped with anti-theft and bike maintenance sensors which immediately alert bike maintainers to any problems. The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano, is optimistic about the new “Velib” program, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image -- make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life." But there is a practical side, too, Dumesnil said. A recent study analyzed different trips in the city "with a car, bike, taxi and walking, and the bikes were always the fastest." Based on statistics from Lyon, company officials estimate that each bicycle in Paris will be used on average 12 times a day, for a total of about 250,000 trips a day, or 91 million trips a year. The self-checkout kiosks are eventually expected to work with a smart card that is already in place for other public transportation in Paris. This case study brief is based on an article in The Washington Post. For more information, see the following links:
http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/development/cycles/ Closer to Home: Pedaling Green Trash in Northampton
Northampton, Massachusetts, has no municipal trash or recycling pick-up. Residents must either deliver their own trash to central collection points, or pay for a service to collect it from their home or business. One company for hire collects customers’ waste using bicycles – not gas powered vehicles. Pedal People was started in December 2002 by Ruthy Woodring and Alex Jarrett. Both Woodring and Jarrett have always used bicycles as their primary means of transportation, and now they make their living with them as well. Through word-of-mouth advertising, as well as signs on the back of their bike-trailers, Pedal People has grown to six employees and over 175 customers today. Their bikes are equipped with a 6 foot long trailer, made by Bikes At Work Inc. of Ames, Iowa, each of which can carry up to 300 pounds. Pedal People’s website points out ten reasons to switch to their service. These include cost (they will match or beat any competitor's price), no pavement damage, pollution or noise, and the fact that a greater percentage of the fees paid to them stay in the local economy rather than supporting foreign oil. In addition to hauling trash or recycling, Pedal People delivers donations to Goodwill free of charge and also provides grocery delivery or other services. Recently, Pedal People have begun a compositing pick up service, and they have also started bike workshops and classes for their community. Pedal People has taught us that there is a cleaner way to pick up trash; one that is good for business, the environment, and the economy.
For more information, see: Cases selected and presented by Katya Seligman
SMART newsUpcoming Speaker June 21st from noon until 1:00pm:
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On July 15, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bicycles at hundreds of high-tech bike stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.
Have you ever wished that the way that your trash was collected wasn’t so, well, wasteful? Faced with this very question, one group, known as Pedal People, has decided to take action - and in their case, bikes mean business!
Mary Crass is a Principal Administrator and senior policy analyst for the Paris-based European Conference of Ministers of Transport. an intergovernmental organization within the OECD that has recently been transformed by its now 50 Member countries into the International Transport Forum.
On June 11, Dr. Lisa Aultman Hall visited us from the University of Vermont (UVM) to talk about travel behavior data needs for New Mobility, in particular the benefits and drawbacks of using GPS for gathering travel route data. Her presentation summary and PowerPoint will be available on our new website later this summer, along with summaries from the other SMART Distinguished Speakers. SMART is currently collaborating with UVM on a number of New Mobility initiatives. See future newsletters for details.