CABA’s Martin Zimmerman as Guest Speaker

Why is bike sharing the rage and where does Charlotte fit into the bigger picture ? With 236,000 bikes in 33 countries and still accelerating, bike sharing is on the move!  Martin has just returned from a study tour of Buenos Aires, Argentina where he experienced the bike share system and interviewed bike system managers, experts and local advocates. Prior tours of Paris, Lyon, and Strasbourg in France and Washington D.C. in the USA have rounded out his views of bike share’s merits and challenges. His article pending publication for Urban Land magazine highlights his findings. Martin has published over 80 articles and reviews on current issues of urban design, smart growth and mobility in the USA and abroad.

DATE: Tuesday, April 10.

LOCATION: Levine Museum of the New South, 200 East Seventh Street. Bike racks next door at Uptown Farmers Market. Half block from CATS light rail stop. Free gas guzzler parking in 7th St. parking deck.

Executive Director, Martin Zimmerman met last week in Buenos Aires with Andres Fingeret and Clara Rasore of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and Matias Kalwill, founder and director of the CABA’s sister organization, La Vida en Bici (“Life on Bicycle”). Martin is checking out the local bike scene in the context of overall sustainable transportation solutions. Lots of new on-road paths just built in a city infamous for its past aversion to the power of two wheels.  Photo above shows the popularity of the  ”Bicing” yellow bike share cycles in the Ricoleta district. Martin returns to Charlotte in time for the Urban Assault Ride this Sunday.

 Shenyang, China. (ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

Message from Martin Zimmerman, CABA Exec. Director  ~ ~ 

In mid-October I returned from a pretty remarkable 3 – week trip…..to Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg, three of the most successful “bike-sharing” cities in Europe. In Paris I interviewed Monseur Albert Asseraf, the JC Decaux company representative for the “Velib” bike-share system (20,000 bikes; usage increase of 20% over last year).  I met with him and the JCD maintenance and repair guys on a barge along the Seine just a stone’s throw from the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Met with other insiders and community activists in Lyon and Strasbourg whose successful bike share systems predate Paris’. Pedaled the systems in all three cities to gauge the quantity and quality of the bike infrastructure and check out what segments of society are actually using bikes on an everyday basis. (Lyon is about as good as it gets). I took the subways, trams, trains and boats (and of course walked for miles in each city) to view how the transportation systems were integrated.

Bike sharing systems are simply well-managed fleets of high-quality bikes available for short-term affordable credit card rental at various locations within cities. There are now more than 375 systems in 33 countries. (For more on bike sharing  - use the Search box on this page or CLICK: Bike Share.)

The results of this trip will be used by CABA as a public service to inform local decision-makers who are just beginning to consider its feasibility in the Queen City, possibly in concert with the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Dateline: November 4 – Washington Post and other sources

Zero emission vehicle. copyright Andy Singer cartoons

Year 2010 results are published. We first saw this on page 6A of the Charlotte Observer. Read this excerpt > ” We’d be facing much higher land temperatures — as much as a 5.5°C (10°F) rise in parts of the United States — plus a six-foot sea-level rise by 2100, along with large species loss, many more extreme weather events, and a big hit to the world’s food supply. Arctic temperatures could rise as much as 11°C (20°F), which would, among other things, speed up the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet…”

It’s increasingly difficult to find a ray of hope when confronted with data as alarming as these findings. CLICK: Dire warnings to read full Washington Post article.

View this YouTube video..

…then pass it on.

A brilliant analogy – presenting the thesis that “the computer is the bicycle for our minds“.

A younger Steve Jobs speaks on memory and the imagination for a Library of Congress documentary

Thank you to Treehugger online and others for letting us know.

And his more recent comments at the commencement exercises of Stanford University:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

*                 *                *

Steve Jobs’  inventive genius, commitment and profound passion to causes larger than himself will be sorely missed.

]]> http://charlottebikes.org/2011/10/15/in-memoriam-steve-jobs/feed/ 0 martinzimmerman8 steve jobs http://charlottebikes.org/2011/10/02/global-advocacy-updates/ http://charlottebikes.org/2011/10/02/global-advocacy-updates/#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:00:38 +0000 martinzimmerman8 http://charlottebikes.org/?p=7981 ]]> How to build a greener city 

• Dateline: Sept.12, Wall Street Journal – “Can cities be part of the environmental solution instead of part of the problem ? ……Bike lanes, micro wind turbines, pneumatic garbage collection—and other ways to make urban areas more environmentally friendly…” This is the lead article in today’s Environment section of the WSJ. For full article: CLICK: Urban Green.       

 Who is Janette Sadik-Kahn ? 

• Dateline: Sept. 11, New York Times –  Highly complimentary essay on New York City’s proactive bicycle advocate and visionary (and frequently demonized) , Janette Sadik-Khan/Transportation Commissioner. If urban biking can work in the Big Apple, it can work anywhere (!). Thanks to CABA member Harry Johnson for alerting us.   For full article CLICK: Big Apple WonderWoman.  For Utube interview CLICK: BAWoWo.

Across Europe, irking drivers is urban policy - Sorry. A bit late posting this one. But it’s a must read !

From NYTimes, Environment page, June 26: ” While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation…” Thanks to Shannon Binns of local CABA affiliate, Sustain Charlotte, for sending us this article. CLICK:  What’s your excuse ? to read the entire piece.

Imagine traffic lights in Charlotte for BOTH cars AND bikes. Now that’s REAL pedal power ! Bike lights are fairly common in Europe, but only two cities in the USA deploy them - from a recent tour by CABA Board member – Weldon Weaver

copyright Weldon Weaver 2011

]]> http://charlottebikes.org/2011/05/04/andy-singer-cartoon/feed/ 0 martinzimmerman8 1231870478_8ufid-S http://charlottebikes.org/2011/03/07/6567/ http://charlottebikes.org/2011/03/07/6567/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:00:24 +0000 martinzimmerman8 http://charlottebikes.org/?p=6567 ]]> Thanks to Shannon Binns for sending us this current article on the Grist website.

“In the many North American cities where two-wheeled transportation is taking off, a new bicycle economy is emerging. It’s amazing how much money can stay in your community when it isn’t being pumped into the gas tank, big insurance, and the Detroit fat cats. What will this new bicycle economy look like?…” CLICK: Tell me please, and find out.