Archinect - News

Bike racks are now being used as hostile architecture in Portland, Oregon

2022-06-17T20:06:00-04:00

On Wednesday, a reader shared with the Mercury a photo of 22 newly-installed single U-shaped bike racks on one block along the eastern sidewalk of NW Broadway. The city's homeless encampment reporting system shows that members of the public have repeatedly reported campers on the sidewalk that's now dotted with bike racks […] The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), which regulates sidewalk use and bike rack installation, said the new racks were completely off their radar.

Bike racks have also been deployed in Seattle to prevent tent encampments after that city’s campaign of police sweeps, which have been mirrored recently by its smaller Pacific Northwest neighbor. The owner of the vacant property adjacent to the racks is himself the developer of an adaptive reuse scheme that transformed a disused former city jail into a private shelter called Bybee Lakes and has lobbied in the past for the removal of encampments downtown, according to the Mercury.

Portland’s growing number of unhoused citizens has been victimized recently by the city’s installation of more common forms of hostile architecture as part of a $44 million public safety spending initiative passed in late November. Three months later, a damning report revealed that Portland’s former mayor Sam Adams (now one of Mayor Ted Wheeler’s top advisors) had been floating an eight-page proposal to warehouse the unsheltered population into three massive semi-temporary facilities operated using soldier...

A long-shot referendum has Berliners dreaming about a car-free future

2022-01-19T13:25:00-05:00

Berlin’s regional parliament is considering creating a car-free zone in the German capital in response to a concerted push from a local advocacy group. The car ban would apply to the space ringed by the S-Bahn train line, which circles the city center, an area larger than Manhattan.

Berlin’s mayor called the plan “unrealistic” back in May, aligning herself with the rest of the Social Democrats, who were joined by every other major political party in the country in their lack of support for the measure at the time of the September elections. A small group of German cities has banned diesel engine cars since the end of 2018.

Activists in the country have been pushing for a car-free city since 2019 when a group of lawyers formally drew up a plan known as the Volksentscheid Berlin autofrei. The group has since grown to over 50,000 supporters (enough to trigger the referendum) who believe the forced change of habit is necessary to ward off a lackadaisical state where 37% of the population falls victim to what organizers call the “dictatorship of the car.”

“It’s as much about our immediate environment as it is about the environment at large,” one of the group’s founders told The Guardian in October. “It’s about how we all want to live, breathe, and play together. We...

A Conversation with Alex Baca on City Engagement

2018-11-26T19:14:00-05:00

On this episode of Archinect Sessions we're joined with Alex Baca, a Washington DC-based journalist focused on smart cities, planning, bike advocacy and urban mobility devices. Recent news, and related controversy, surrounding Amazon’s newly announced move into New York City and Washington DC is what initially motivated us to bring Alex onto this show.

Listen to episode 133 of Archinect Sessions, “A Conversation with Alex Baca on City Engagement”.

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Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer, Oyler Wu appointed to design L.A. River Greenway in San Fernando Valley

2016-07-20T20:27:00-04:00

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office released a statement yesterday announcing that Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Oyler Wu Collaborative, and civil and structural engineering firm Psomas will design the final 12 miles of the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles River Greenway. The Greenway would allow Angelenos to walk or bike from Canoga Park to Elysian Valley.

No project renderings for now, as the designers will begin conducting a feasibility study over the next nine months. According to the press release, the Greenway “will address important objectives” in both the City’s/Frank Gehry's (still yet to be revealed) Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan as well as L.A. County’s River Master Plan, their Bicycle Plans, and Mayor Garcetti's Sustainable City pLAn.

The mayor and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will jointly fund the project, along with additional support from City Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Paul Krekorian, Nury Martinez and David Ryu, and the Depart...

How Portland State's TREC hopes to improve bike lane design regulations

2016-04-19T20:48:00-04:00

Even where protected lanes are in place, when they meet up with busy intersections, those protections typically go away, and the logic behind their design can quickly fall apart...Will more widespread standards for bike lane treatment at intersections ever emerge in the U.S.? The Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University aims to move that conversation forward with its newest study.

Portland State University's TREC research group is working to develop a resource that will aims to help transportation agencies in any city design the safest and most useful bike lane infrastructure for both cyclists and drivers.

Are raised bikeways enough to make the San Francisco's riders safer?

2015-11-24T12:53:00-05:00

Our urban centers were not designed with cyclists in mind; we’re a car-centric society. American cities can try piecemeal approaches, but the reality is that sharing the road is only a small part of the solution. Bikes and cars need their own dedicated thoroughfares to keep everyone as safe as possible, and to encourage people to choose clip-in pedals over gas ones...

San Francisco recently announced plans – under the initiative Vision Zero SF – to aggressively tackle traffic-related deaths in the city. Part of that plan includes incorporating elevated bike lanes, with Market Street as a pilot project.

But according to Jordan Crucchiola, who invokes the successful, large-scale bicycle infrastructure projects of Europe, "Until San Francisco, or any rapidly growing American city, is willing to make that commitment, every slightly raised bike path will just amount to a series of ad hoc fixes."

Related coverage:

Jakarta's "car-free days" are only the start of the city's long journey to becoming bike-friendly

2015-09-11T18:13:00-04:00

Ask a cyclist what it’s like to ride in Indonesia’s capital – a sprawling megalopolis of 10.2 million people...More than likely, they’ll tell you it’s outright dangerous...Car-free days may be popular, but there is almost no [cyclist] infrastructure... [However, there] is hope among cyclists that bike lanes will become a priority after the city’s [mass rapid transport] system is finished in 2019. In the meantime, several young innovators are taking matters into their own hands.

Australia's "biggest bike-lane skeptic" plans to remove a popular Sydney cycleway

2015-08-27T15:33:00-04:00

[Duncan Gay, self-described as 'the biggest bike-lane skeptic', and the] NSW government [are] about to get rid of a much-loved and much-used AU$5M protected cycleway in Sydney’s city centre...Gay’s move seems to go against the flow, with cycling increasingly feted as a potential congestion and pollution game changer in major cities around the world...But he is not alone.

Previous bike-lane news on Archinect:

Copenhagen Tops List of the 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities

As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanes

LA Gets its First Parking-Protected Bike Lanes

Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams If You’re Smart About Where You Build Them

Archinect's Lexicon: "Bike-Wash"

News cycle: August's noteworthy bicycle news

2015-08-19T14:59:00-04:00

Germany might still be a car-obsessed country, but it's starting to build an Autobahn for bikes.

From the U.S. to Germany, urban planners and major corporations are starting to purposefully design for bicycles instead of individually operated cars. In Munich, a proposed network of two-lane bike paths would radiate out from the city center to the surrounding suburbs, creating 400 miles of cyclist-only access. Meanwhile, according to WebUrbanist, international fast-food chain McDonald's has created an unfolding bicycle-oriented food transport container known as "McBike," which allows a bicyclist to visit the drive-through lane and comfortably transport a beverage and hot food home. The program was launched in Copenhagen, and may soon make its way to a Mickey Dee's near you.

Chicago to offer $5-per-year bike shares to low-income residents

2015-07-07T19:08:00-04:00

“In two years Divvy has grown to more neighborhoods and become a transit option for more residents, but cost was still a barrier for too many people,” said Mayor Emanuel. “Divvy only works when everyone has a chance to use it. Today we are bridging gaps by offering $5 annual memberships so more residents can benefit from Divvy, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Chicago's Divvy ride-share program is one of the most popular in the country. In its two-year history, a reported 9.25 million miles have been logged on more than 4.4 million trips. This Fourth of July alone, 24,500 trips were taken on the pale blue bikes.

Earlier this year, the City of Chicago announced that it would greatly expand the reach of the program, adding 176 stations and more than 1,750 bikes. This makes Divvy North America's largest bike-share program, both in terms of the amount of stations and its geographic reach. While other bike-share programs, like New York's Citi Bike, remain largely relegated to more affluent areas, the Divvy bikes can be found "as far south as 75th Street and as far west as Pulaski Road."

Today, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel announced that the city would offer $5/year memberships to the city's low-income residents. Specifically, the 'Divvy for Everyone (D4e) Program' will be made available to "Chicago residents with incomes below 300 percent of the federal ...

Copenhagen Tops List of the 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities

2015-06-02T18:19:00-04:00

The bicycle makes sense in cities. With rising urbanization, our cities need modern mobility solutions, and moving around on two wheels proves time and again that it can offer results [...] With each edition, the Copenhagenize Design Company’s Index of the most bike-friendly cities in the world evolves...This year, we considered cities with a regional population over 600,000 (with a few exceptions because of their political and regional importance, and to keep things interesting).

Copenhagenize is a design consultancy based in Copenhagen, Zurich, Brussels and Amsterdam that advises cities on how to become more bike-friendly, often through implementing strategies developed in the Danish capital (which consistently tops the list). These strategies are both infrastructural, for example creating dedicated and protected one-way bike lanes, as well as social, involving advocacy to increase social acceptance of bicycle culture.

This year, Copenhagen regained the top place from Amsterdam:

Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Utrecht
Strasbourg
Eindhoven
Malmö
Nantes
Bordeaux
Antwerp
Seville
Barcelona
Berlin
Ljubljana
Buenos Aires
Dublin
Vienna
Paris
Minneapolis
Hamburg
Montreal

Boris Johnson greenlights London's "Crossrail" bicycle superhighway

2015-01-29T15:10:00-05:00

Boris Johnson today confirmed he would build Europe’s longest segregated urban cycle lane through central London after delays likely to be suffered by motorists were reduced. The Mayor approved the “Crossrail for bikes” protected route through Parliament Square and along the Victoria Embankment and Upper Thames Street after it won overwhelming public support.

Atlanta plans big for bikes, and Atlantans turn out big time

2014-10-17T18:13:00-04:00

The massive Beltline and an impressive grid of protected lanes that will connect the trail system to key urban destinations are poised to remake transportation in the city that anchors the country's ninth-largest metro area. [...] As the video above shows, Atlanta's embrace of active space is part of a psychic shift in a city that's shaking off its old Sprawlville USA image with a combination of bike, transit and affordable housing infrastructure.

Similar bike-friendly development is underway in the South's other notorious mega sprawl metro area, Houston: The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston?

The PeopleForBikes Green Lane Project celebrates national kick-off in Indianapolis

2014-04-29T18:19:00-04:00

The Green Lane Project, established in 2012 by non-profit group PeopleForBikes, continues its ambitious mission to expedite the process of building more protected bike lines with six new U.S. cities in tow: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

The program celebrated its national kickoff in Indianapolis today with transportation officials including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, who discussed the Department's prioritization on improving bicycle and pedestrian safety as more Americans are looking for alternative methods of commuting.

Back in March, the program selected the six cities out of 100 that submitted letters of interest. In addressing each city's current situation, The Green Lane Project will provide each city with financial, strategic, and technical assistance in constructing the bike lanes, which are valued at more than $250,000. The on-street lanes are separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars, or posts to help organize...

Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams If You’re Smart About Where You Build Them

2014-04-16T13:45:00-04:00

New bike lanes certainly make life better for cyclists, but how do they affect drivers? This question is hotly debated, especially when a new bike lane replaces a lane used by vehicular traffic. It seems that unless a ton of people start commuting by bicycle, giving away a lane would cause increased car traffic. But is this really the case?

Protected bike lanes strengthen city economy, report finds

2014-01-22T13:07:00-05:00

According to a recent report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking & Walking, protected city bike lanes can actually encourage local business success. As trends show workers moving into U.S. cities (rather than out into suburbs), and businesses catering to a younger workforce that relies less on cars, cycling infrastructure has becomes integral to strengthening local businesses and encouraging long-term economic growth for the entire city.

A lot of what delays cycling infrastructure is the presumption that it only benefits cyclists. It can be hard to justify to citizens who don't cycle that bike lanes and bike-share programs will benefit the city at large, and not just the "cyclist" demographic. But cities have begun to take notice of the positive change that cycling infrastructure can help bring to their local businesses, in very concrete ways.

The report focuses on statistics from cities with expanding networks of protected bike lanes: Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA;...

Portland's "Bikescraper" breaks bike-parking record

2014-01-15T15:25:00-05:00

The 21-story, three-building apartment project now rising in Portland's Lloyd District will create more long-term bike parking than any other project in the nation, with four huge new storage facilities in four buildings and an on-site bike valet parking service to serve the biggest one. [...] Bike experts in Canada, Mexico and across the United States said they didn't know of any single project on the continent with more bike parking; Mexico's largest facility, at a train station, holds 800.

Portland, Oregon's new apartment complex by GBD Architects instates a new standard in bicycle infrastructure and planning, offering one bike parking spot each for its 657 housing units, plus underground parking space for as many as 547 bikes. That's 1,204 bike spots total, a number that assumes the average household will need to park 1.8 bikes. There will be 328 residential car parking spaces, squeaking by at roughly half a spot per household.

Known as Hassalo on Eighth (the four-block complex sits northeast of the corner of 7th and Holladay), the apartments fall in Portland's Inner East neighborhood, on the border of the city's center. Previously dominated by stretches of parking lots, the area could become a more active, walkable and dense neighborhood under GBD's plan. The building itself is not radically asserting the needs of "cyclists" -- a slippery and short-sighted demographic label that casts bicycle infrastructure as a radical objective of niche groups, and not just... a g...