Workshop ENV 2, Tuesday 20 June, 14.00 - 15.30

Demonstrating and quantifying environmental impacts of cycling

Chris Zegras, Department of Urban Studies and Planning/Center for Transportation Studies, MIT, USA Edmundo Rojas, Beuvedráis Publishers, Santiago, Chile The Bicycle as a Tool For Sustainability in Santiago de Chile Santiago, Chile's capital is in many ways a city ideally suited for bicycling.  It is relatively flat, with a Mediterranean clime, and moderate rainfall.  Nonetheless, few of the 5.5 million residents spread across the city's 500 km2 urbanized area turn to the bicycle for daily use.  The general disregard for this mode of travel in the city comes from a convergence of social and cultural factors, urban environmental realities, and public policy and investment decisions.  This presentation will describe the current reality that bicycle users confront in Santiago, outline an effective strategy for promoting bicycle use in the city, and hypothesize on potential medium-term impacts of such a strategy. Like most rapidly industrializing urban areas, Santiago faces rapid motorization, bringing its well known consequences of modal shifts to private motorized modes, congestion, air and noise pollution, traffic accidents, and spatial interruption and sprawl.  The presentation will briefly overview the main indicators of these trends in Santiago and discuss their implications for bicycle use.  The presentation will also present available data regarding bicycle use, including relevant facilities and government/non-government policies and interventions aimed at promoting bicycle use in the city. The presentation will then outline an operational strategy for promoting bicycle use in the city, focusing on necessary infrastructure investments, policy initiatives, and cultural/social education campaigns.  Drawing from the successful efforts in bicycle use promotion on the European continent, the presentation will map a strategy for Santiago and conclude with a projection of the impacts of successful implementation of such a strategy, with particular focus on environmental and quality of life effects.

Heath Maddox, Sustainable Transportation Program Assistant, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), USA Pedalling out of the greenhouse? Quantifying the environmental benefits of municipal law-enforcement patrols in the USA Pedaling out of the greenhouse: Assessing the environmental benefits of municipal bicycle patrols in the United States of America. In recent years, three USA-cities Los Angeles, Berkely and Overland Park have implemented bicycle law enforcement patrols to meet environmental and community policing goals.  In Los Angeles, in addition to bicycle law enforcement public officers also utilise bicycles intensively for official business. All three cities are participants in ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCP).  As part of their activities in the CCP, the cities have co-operated with ICLEI to quantify the CO2 emissions reductions from these and other sustainable transportation measures. The proposed paper will include: - a brief overview of bicycle law enforcement patrols in the United States; - an introduction to the CCP's Sustainable Transportation Program; - case studies of each city's unique experiences with bicycle patrols and a discussion of the environmental benefits and relevant lessons for local jurisdictions elsewhere; - quantification of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and criteria air pollutants attributable to the bicycle patrols, as well as an explanation of the methodology employed. Local jurisdictions can play an influential role in promoting bicycles as a practical mode of transportation, thereby helping address even global environmental problems. Local governments can both reduce transport emissions by using bicycles in everyday municipal operations and by encouraging bicycle use among the general population.  The overall potential for direct emissions reductions is clearly larger with the general public than for city and county workers.  However, especially in a culture as highly motorized as the U.S., the simple sight of peace officers and local government officials riding bicycles must have an positive, albeit unquantifiable, effect on public opinion

Mirjan E. Bouwman, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen An environmental assessment of the bicycle and other transport systems The bicycle is often referred to as an ideal transport system from an environmental point of view. However, it could be stated that walking is even more favorable, as the energy use and emissions associated with the production and maintenance of bicycles are absent for transport on foot. In order to make a comparison between the bicycle and other transport systems from an environmental point of view, four different characteristics of transport systems are taken into account: space use, energy use, travel time and costs. With the aid of a computer model the current best transport system in the Netherlands can be determined, based on the score of various transport systems on each of the characteristics. Four scenarios (placed along an economic growth axis and a sustainable development axis) are used in order to perform the same analysis for 2025. None of the transport systems taken into account shows favorable scores on each of the four characteristics. The analysis points out that the bicycle best supports both individual and societal interest on short distances, while the train (in combination with the bicycle) is the most interesting system for longer trips.