Bicycle Network: Funding & Budgets

Funding & Budgets

The third step to take in a bicycle program is to organise the funds that will be needed.

This section outlines some of the places you can look for money.

Bikes critical for economic health

14 October 2010. Cities that invest in bike facilities can save massive amounts of money and boost their economic prospects significantly, the 2010 Bikes Futures conference was told today.

Residents of the Portland region in north-western United States were currently saving about $1.2b a year as a result of the 20 year program to integrate bikes into the transportation system.

Of the total savings more than $800m was retained by the local economy to boost business and employment.

Portland citizens were travelling 6.5 kilometres less each day than in the average American city. Congestion the same as in 1991 despite a 20 per cent increase in total traffic. That is because most of the increase Increase in mobility came from people on bikes.

The statistics were presented as part of the keynote presentation to the conference by Roger Geller, Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator.

Portland, a city of 580,000 people, has become world famous because it is a typical low density city in a car centric nation which has defied the trend and created the biggest bike transport community in the United States.

Close to 10 per cent of all transportation trips are taken by bike and it is investing heavily to lift that figure to 25 per cent.

Geller told the audience that thirty years ago Portland was like any other American, or Australian city, with hardly any people riding bikes, and hardly any bike facilities.

By investing in infrastructure, and encouraging riders, Portland has been transformed. “Build it and they will come”, Geller said.

The city got to 10 per cent mode share by building adequate, not fancy, bike facilities. It was comprehensive and connected, with few gaps. But now most of the lanes are bulging to over capacity.

At the beginning there were many complaintsâ€”space was being taken from cars by removing travel lanes and car parking. But strong political leadership steered the projects through.

The city’s political and business culture had changed. So good were bike riders for business that shopkeepers all over the city are now requesting that car parking spaces be converted to bike parking. There is now a long waiting list for such conversions.

Geller said Portland proved that there was ‘safety in numbers’. It was four times safer to ride now, despite the huge increase in riders on the road.

The city has 500 kilometres of bikes paths, which is being expanded to 1550 km. The future networks would have an emphasis on comfort and safety, and the strategy was to attract the people who were not yet riding.

Portland can build 300 km of bike infrastructure for the cost of one kilometre of freeway.