Bellingham Rides Into Bicycle-Friendly Territory

Brendan McLaughlin is an environmental journalism senior at Huxley College of Environment Studies. In light of America’s increasing dependency on fossil fuels and rapidly shrinking petroleum deposits, he has become increasingly concerned with alternative transportation methods.

In recent years it has become near impossible for Americans to ignore the limitations of our petroleum-based economy. Besides the obvious concerns over global warming, climate change and polluting emissions, a transportation system based on private vehicles powered with fossil fuels cannot sustain the human population indefinitely.

As oil deposits are exhausted, alternative means of transportation become more and more important. The simple act of riding a bicycle for short trips is a viable way individuals can do their part to decrease dependency on a non-renewable resource. Both the city of Bellingham and members of the community are working hard to encourage biking in town.

Busy commuters in Whatcom County and elsewhere depend on cars because they convey them quickly and easily to their destinations. On the surface, cars travel at much greater speeds than bicycles. But as Ivan Illich explained in his book, “Energy and Equity,” actual speed fails to take into account the time spent parking, servicing, washing and doing paper work for commuter cars. Nor does speed consider the time spent earning the money to pay for the car and its various necessary services.

Add to this the cost of automobile infrastructure, law enforcement, roadside repair, tow trucks, ambulances and insurance services, and Illich has shown that commuting by car is far less efficient than at first glance. Of course, these calculations do not even consider the environmental consequences.

According to a study by the Florida Energy Extension Service of the University of Florida, every time a person walks or cycles one mile instead of driving they keep numerous pollutants from entering the atmosphere, including hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides. In this way, according to the study, a car-free person can prevent the release of over 20 pounds of polluting emissions per year.

According to the Florida study, car emissions create 90 percent of the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. Carbon monoxide disrupts the circulation of oxygen, impairs hand-eye coordination and can be lethal in high concentrations. Cars account for 30 percent of nitrogen oxides, which damage the respiratory system, 30 percent of formaldehyde, a likely carcinogen and 20 percent of CFCs, which cause skin cancer, cataracts and immune system damage.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, car accidents kill more people in the United States than anything else. According to data collected by the Federal Highway Administration, there were an estimated 6,356,000 car accidents in the U.S. in 2000. There were about 3.2 million injuries and 41,821 people were killed in auto accidents.

Despite their potential for human and environmental harm, cars enjoy a great deal of preferential treatment in America. According to the Conservation Law Index of New England’s Automobile Index, in older cities like New York and Boston, close to half the ground space is reserved for the sole purpose of moving and storing cars, and in newer cities like Los Angeles the number is closer to two-thirds.

In the wake of the 1993 Los Angeles earthquake, President Clinton pledged America’s allegiance to automobiles when he said that “freeway reconstruction will be the most urgent need.”

Despite America’s preference for cars, Bellingham has recognized bicycling as a viable alternative means of transportation. Founded in 1992, the nine-member Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee works with the Mayor’s Office, City Council and the Public Works Department to make Bellingham more bicycle-friendly. The committee was the city’s response to the Bellingham biking community’s request for better and more accessible on-street bike lanes and trails, said Committee Chair Julie Muyllaert.

Currently, Bellingham maintains 21 miles of marked bicycle lanes and 27 miles of “unmarked/shared use” streets. In 2002, the city expanded the network to include bike lanes on Magnolia Avenue, Bill McDonald Parkway, Sunset Drive, Broadway Street, Deemer Road and Barkley Boulevard. The Sunset Drive Project included the addition of 22 feet of sidewalks and bike lanes.

Muyllaert said all new arterials get built with five-foot bike lanes. Whenever the city repaves a street, the committee checks to see if the road is on an established bike route. If so, they ensure that there is a viable lane or trail for bicycles. Muyllaert said the city tries to focus on connecting the bike routes, creating north-south and east-west corridors so cyclists can get wherever they need to go. Sometimes, the addition of bike lanes comes at the expense of existing car lanes.

“Two summers ago we got the city to add a bike lane on State Street,” Muyllaert said. “The problem was they had to remove a car lane.”

Although some people complained, she said the overall response from the community has been positive, encouraging public works to continue improving Bellingham’s bike accessibility. However, Muyllaert said the committee has to be very strategic about where they decide to promote the creation of new lanes. For example, they decided not to recommend a lane on 32nd Street because of the varying width of the street and the presence of on-street parking.

“Parking is such a big issue in this city,” she said. “We pick our battles.”

In addition to encouraging additional infrastructure, the advisory committee works to raise public awareness to the advantages and possibilities of bicycle transportation by sponsoring workshops, Bike to Work and School Day and working with community groups like the Pedal Project.

For 2003, the committee’s goals include improving bicycle and pedestrian visibility and supporting bicycling and pedestrian education initiatives.

Perhaps someday Bellingham will embrace cycling as warmly as Portland does, three-time recipient of Bicycling Magazine’s award for the best city for cycling in the U.S.

The recognition was largely the result of efforts by Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance, a community group advocating bicycle transportation. In the early 1990s, the group took the city to court to force it to adhere to Oregon’s Bicycle Bill, which requires bike lanes whenever roads are built or reconstructed. In 1999, they fought to keep the Oregon State Legislature from repealing the bill.

It’s possible that Portland benefited from the support of high-profile politicians, such as former mayor Bud Clark who rode his bike to City Hall, and U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, who founded the Congressional Bicycle Caucus.

Similarly, the Washington State Legislature has recognized the need to address increasing problems of highway congestion and car pollution. In 1991 the state adopted the Commute Trip Reduction Law, which was incorporated into the Washington Clean Air Act.

The CTR Law encourages the use of alternative commuting options through employer-based programs. Employers with 100 or more full-time employees in 9 counties are required to develop and implement programs designed to reduce the number of trips to and from work.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, the CTR program removes 20,700 vehicles from the road each morning, reducing gas consumption by 603,000 gallons and preventing 519 tons of air pollution. Despite these figures, the drive alone rate among targeted employers has only decreased 11.3 percent.

In conjunction with the program, the Department of Transportation runs an ongoing ad campaign, “Relax. There’s more than one way to get there,” with slogans like “Hey, You on the Bike. Thanks. Riding a bike reduces traffic.”

Even at the federal level, legislators are growing more concerned over traffic congestion and the use of private automobiles. On May 21, 2002, Federal Highway Administrator Mary E. Peters testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, claiming that increased congestion is a growing threat to the economy and American quality of life.

According to her testimony, highway travel increased 80 percent from 1980 to 2000, and the number of drivers increased by 30 percent while highway mileage increased only 2 percent. At the time, 91 percent of all person-miles traveled in the U.S. occurred in private vehicles. With figures like these in mind, the Bellingham bike community is constantly exploring ways of decreasing the city’s use of cars in favor of foot-powered transport.

From 1997 to 1999, Bellingham was littered with yellow community bikes courtesy of the Pedal Project. The group salvaged and repaired a fleet of bikes, painted them yellow and deposited them on street corners, reports Kyle Morris, who runs The HUB Community Bike Shop (see sidebar). The idea was for someone to ride the bike where they needed to go and leave it for the next person.

The number of yellow bikes increased from 24 the first year to 45 the second and 85 the third year. Unfortunately, along with the growth in use and popularity, the altruistic gesture met with abuse at the hands of ungrateful citizens.

“People would take them and smash them, run them over in their cars,” Morris said. “To a lot of people I think they were just something to destroy.”

Muyllaert said she was disappointed to see how badly the community bikes were abused. The salvage operation included fishing many of the bikes out of Whatcom Creek.

“It required a lot of volunteer work to collect and repair them,” she said.

Authorities in Copenhagen, Denmark conducted a similar experiment with greater success, deploying 2000 free bicycles in train stations and public squares. The success may have had something to do with the coinciding nationwide tax on automobile purchases, which according to E Magazine more than tripled the cost of buying a car.

Morris said he recognized that it was irrational to expect cars to disappear completely. Still, people need to take more responsibility for their actions, and bicycling is one way to do that.

“There’s got to be a balance,” he said as he prepared to leave the HUB Community Bike Shop, his red bicycle emblazoned with a sticker that reads, “Keep driving cars and we’ll keep fighting wars for oil.” “Cars are great tools. All our bikes and tools come here via car. But to drive three blocks to the store to buy cigarettes is a problem. It’s the abuse that is the issue.”

Morris said while he acknowledges that the environmental damage caused by cars is of pressing concern, he considers the importance of bicycling from a social perspective.

“Cars are a means of population control,” he said. “They keep us isolated. The more you slow down, the more you’ll stop and talk, create a communal cohesiveness. Bicycling helps cure social ills. People who bike are healthier, which leads to less medical expenditure.”

“People find all kinds of excuses not to bike,” he said. “But in reality you are not saving any time.”

There is no single, simple answer to the increasingly pressing problem of our transportation system. As Morris said, riding a bike is only one step. To truly do your part as a conscious citizen, it must be a lifestyle decision, one that acknowledges that we are all small pieces of an enormous global ecosystem, a decision to use only as many resources as needed to ensure future generations can enjoy a good quality of life. But riding a bike to school or work is a great place to start.