On December 5th, 2024, a couple members of the Bend Bikes Board joined a couple of people from ODOT to speak at the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Summit. Our presentation was titled “Community Connections: Biking Between and Through Central Oregon Cities.” We covered what active transportation is, why it’s important, how it counts as recreation (and vice versa), how to plan for it, and presented some example projects. The following is a summary of our presentation.
Biking is part of Active Transportation
What is active transportation? The term gets used a lot but is a big jargony and might not be clear to everyone.
- Active transportation is human powered movement used to get from one place to another.
- Includes people walking, biking, or rolling on scooters, wheelchairs, etc.
- Includes transit (taking public transportation)
- Multi-modal trips
Almost every trip is a multimodal trip. Even when you drive to a place you are going to, you have to park and get into the building. Thus the walking connection is important as well and make the trip a multi-modal trip.
Why Choose Active Transportation?
Owning and operating a car is expensive.
I costs $12,000/year to operate a car which equates to $600,000 in the 50 year life of a family. Other things to consider for costs, even if you can afford the car itself, can you afford the repairs? the gas? insurance? the cost of parking?
Active transportation can help your physical and mental health.
Getting active in daily life helps prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease. Regular physical activity, such as biking, can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
“I spent a lot of hours sitting in traffic, and I can tell you that it doesn’t make you a better person.
I think biking around outside does make you a better person.”
-Mike Hamilton, Nov 9, 2022, Bend Bulletin article by Anna Kaminski
Neighborhood Connectedness is greater with less traffic.
In the late 1960s, Donald Appleyard conducted a renowned study on livable streets, comparing three residential streets in San Francisco which on the surface did not differ on much else but their levels of traffic. The 2,000 vehicles per day street was considered light streets, 8,000 vehicles per day were medium streets, and 16,000 vehicles passing per day were heavy streets. His research showed that residents of light streets had three more friends and twice as many acquaintances as the people on heavy streets.
Climate change is real and is in large part caused by vehicle emissions.
Biking reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, improving air quality and mitigating climate change. Increased biking can alleviate traffic congestion, leading to less time spent commuting and improved quality of life.
Active Transportation is Recreation
Some people think that commuting to work by bike is a commute whereas riding your mountain bike on a trail is recreation. Where is the dividing line between when being on your bike is a commute versus recreation? If you take the longer and more scenic way home on your commute, does it then switch to recreation? The answer is that all of these things are recreation. Being on your bike is recreation because the underlying factor is that you are having fun. People don’t talk about sitting in traffic in their car as having fun, but biking from place to place is fun! It is a slower pace of life where you can learn more about the place you are in.
Land Use and Transportation go Hand-in-Hand
So if active transportation (or recreation) is so great, why aren’t more people doing it? Since WWII, our dominant growth pattern for cities has been single family homes, often called suburban sprawl. These are the lowest density urban areas ever built in human history.
Sprawl leads to:
- Long distances to shops, work, schools
- More driving
- Large, busy roads
- Hard to walk and bike
- Poor transit ridership
- Higher city infrastructure costs: roads, sewer, water
- Loss of open space, wildlife habitat
We have a car culture because we built our cities that way.
Making Active Transportation More Accessible
Despite how fun and great active transportation is, barriers exist that prevent some people from doing it. What can we do to make the outdoors more inclusive?
The outdoors is anytime you leave your house, commuting to work by bike is being in the outdoors. An inclusive outdoors includes people of all shapes and sizes feeling comfortable and a sense of belonging while being outdoors.
One third of people don’t drive and can only access the outdoors through active transportation.
What barriers might exist for a person trying to access the outdoors through active transportation? Physical barriers like poor road conditions and lack of safe infrastructure can be addressed with route planning. Social barriers like a negative perception of people on bikes can be addressed with promoting a diverse bike culture. Economic barriers can be addressed with free bike share programs, bike repair nights, free transit. Environmental barriers like ice and debris on the roads can be addressed with road maintenance of bike lanes, sidewalks, and multi-use paths.
By addressing these barriers, we can create more equitable and accessible outdoor spaces for everyone.
Often people have a perception that the people commuting by bike will move “up” to a car as soon as possible. Driving doesn’t have to be the norm. All forms of mobility need to be socially acceptable.
Moving Forward with Active Transportation
Getting more people on bikes will require safe infrastructure for all. 60% of people who do not ride now are interested in doing so but are concerned with being safe and comfortable. Land use patterns that make biking, walking, and rolling possible need to be addresses. A culture shift where people who need or want to walk, bike, or roll are normalized is necessary. And all of this will bring large benefits to people personally, for their communities, and globally.
Planning for Active Transportation
When planning for active transportation options, paths that are safe and comfortable are a key component. Paths can reduce crash risks, increase the comfortable level of people walking, biking or rolling, and provide facilities for people of all ages and abilities. All of these factors go into planning paths that are more equitable.
Connectivity is also important for an active transportation network. Connecting people to essential services and destinations should be taken into account. Creating complete active transportation networks benefits everyone.
Paths bring community and economic vitality to an area. They can build a sense of identity and bring people to an area which helps with economic development
When planning for paths, it’s important to coordinate and collaborate with multiple groups that might have a stake in the projects. Can we consider wildlife crossings and how those can be factored into path building? What about transit access to trails and new trailheads? Might the need for electrification and eBikes be appropriate?
We can all work together to make new projects that work for everyone!