This week, New York Streetsblog featured a five part series about the potential benefits of investing in a para-transit system written by Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton.  Anyone looking for some additional reading materials over the weekend, after all LA Streetsblog won't publish after today until Tuesday, or interested in a discussion of what para-transit can do to urban areas should check out Gorton's series, which can be found below.

Wikipedia describes para-transit as:

...an alternative mode of flexible passenger transportation that does not follow fixed routes or schedules. Typically vans or mini-buses are used to provide paratransit service, but also share taxis and jitneys are important providers. Paratransit services may vary considerably on the degree of flexibility they provide their customers.

Gorton explores what benefits a city that invests in para-transit would experience and what it would take to bring such a system to New York.  I'm interested to see what readers here think about para-transit and Los Angeles?  Can a city that's still struggling to figure out what to do with transit, bikes and cabs embrace a system like para-tranist?  After reading Gorton's series, feel free to leave a note in the comments section.

Part 1: Smart Para-Transit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation

Part 2: Peer-to-Peer Mass Transit: How to Make it Work

Part 3: Eliminating Congestion Through Smart Para-Transit

Part 4: Smart Para-Transit + Car Sharing = No Reason to Own a Car

Part 5: Smart Para-Transit: Working Out the Details

Today the city will join the ranks of Paris and Barcelona with the launch of the first high-tech public bike-sharing program in the United States, forcing such cities as San Francisco and Chicago to look here to see chic alternative transportation in action in America.

One critical difference between SmartBike and its European counterparts is the size of the network. When Vélib debuted in Paris, it provided 10,000 bikes at 750 locations. The SmartBike planners are taking a gradualist approach, starting off with 120 bikes stationed at 10 sites concentrated near downtown D.C. So far, 150 memberships have been sold, the Post reports.

The fact that D.C. has cleared the hurdles of getting a system up and running is piquing the interest of other cities, according to the outdoor advertising firm that sponsors SmartBike:

"We're getting inquiries from all around the country to see if they can take the same program and implement it in their city," said Steve Ginsburg of Clear Channel Outdoor.

Which American city will go live with public bike-share next? New York recently signaled its interest in a bike-share program, and Portland is actively pursuing one, despite some setbacks. The highly informative Bike-Sharing Blog has put together a Google Maps mashup showing where programs exist, and where ones are in various stages of study and planning. By my count, 14 cities are in the running to follow D.C.

Photo of a SmartBike DC station: afagen/Flickr

Last weekend, New York City closed roughly seven miles of streets to automobiles, turning its normally gridlocked streets into an American Ciclovia.  Naturally, NYC Streetsblog was all over the coverage of the event which has been hailed as a monumental success by nearly everyone involved.

If you're interested in seeing what a car-free New York City would look like, you can check out a first hand account written Streetsblog writer Ben Fried, check out the photo gallery put together by Streetsblog readers, read Brad Aaron's recap of what the event meant for business, or  just watch the Streetfilm above.

With the success of Summer Streets' kickoff event, and with more cities temporarily closing their streets to cars the question is starting to loom: when is Los Angeles going to catch up and have a city-wide car free event instead of just block parties a couple of times a year?

It's always a bit of a mind-boggler when some statistics emerge showing how much oil the U.S. military consumes. From yesterday's Politico:

So, you think you've got the gas prices blues. Just consider Al Shaffer, the man in charge of drafting an energy strategy for the gas-­guzzling Pentagon.

With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and troops spread around the world, the Department of Defense is the nation's biggest oil consumer, burning 395,000 barrels per day -- about as much as Greece.

Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat from Long Island who formed a Defense Energy Working Group back in 2004 after learning that the the Army's Stryker combat vehicles got only 5 miles per gallon of gas, sums it up as such:

"Here is our current defense posture," Israel said. "We are borrowing money from China to fund our defense budgets to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to fund our military to protect us from China and the Persian Gulf. It is an insidious vulnerability."

And that's not even including the part about destroying the planet.

The U.S. military's insatiable thirst for oil isn't exactly news. Blood and Oil author Michael Klare wrote a nice piece on this same topic last year:

Sixteen gallons of oil. That's how much the average American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan consumes on a daily basis... Multiply that daily tab by 365 and you get 1.3 billion gallons: the estimated annual oil expenditure for U.S. combat operations in Southwest Asia. That's greater than the total annual oil usage of Bangladesh, population 150 million

The Allied war effort during World War 2 was fueled by six billon barrels of American oil.

Photo: Jacobnbailey / Flickr

Until recently, VMT had been rising steeply in the U.S.

In the second installment of our serialized tour through StreetsWiki, we turn to DianaD's entry on Vehicle-Miles Traveled:

Vehicle-Miles Traveled (VMT) is the total number of miles driven by all residential vehicles within a given time period and geographic area.

We're seeing more about VMT in the national media as rising gas prices cause people to drive less. Largely absent from the coverage -- so far -- is a discussion about intentionally reducing VMT through policy. Will that change soon? It should: A landscape that's easier to navigate without a car is one where expensive gas won't put such a crimp in household budgets. Diana's wiki entry highlights one avenue to explore in particular:

Land use -- namely sprawl development -- is the main culprit. Americans are living farther from work, school, shopping and basic services. Even in higher density areas, where amenities may be closer to home, the road framework can be punishing for pedestrians. It is nearly impossible to walk in areas that cater to cars instead of people. Autocentric street design therefore forces even more cars onto roadways, which further impedes walkers and bicyclists. The vicious cycle continues and local governments turn to the only “quick fix” that they seem to know: build bigger highways (at enormous taxpayer expense) to accommodate the increased traffic.

Got more to add? Any member of the Livable Streets Network can edit a StreetsWiki entry. 

With a fight over billions of dollars of federal transportation funding set to heat up immediately after the swearing-in of the next president, this may very well be the most important transportation policy story of the next 18 months. The battle lines are already being drawn up:

In this corner: smart growth, green collar jobs and mass transit.

In that corner: Auto makers, asphalt pourers and the drill, drill, drillers

From CNN:

Some observers such as Dr. Robert Lang, an expert on urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech University, say the gas crunch could be a turning point in perceptions of public transportation and how cities plan development.

Consumers are beginning to believe the high prices are a result of structural changes in the global economy, not the result of a single event like Hurricane Katrina, which produced a period of high fuel prices earlier this decade, Lang said.

That change in perception is providing more momentum for some cities that were already moving away from six-lane highways and suburbs dozens of miles apart, to a series of urban centers connected by light rail and other mass transit systems.

A Bus Stop in Santa Barbara

Transit agencies all over the country are nearing a state of emergency. At the same time that rising gas prices are leading more Americans to opt for buses and trains, transit operators are being forced to cut service and raise fares due to budget shortfalls.

In Minneapolis, the local transit agency is pondering not one but two fare hikes. Seattle's Metro is considering bumping up fares for the second time this year to stave off service cuts. Gainesville, Florida is confronting a double whammy of higher fares and reduced bus service. In western Massachusetts, one county transit authority faces what its manager calls a "make or break" moment, as many locals try riding the bus for the first time and evaluate their options.

As the Wall Street Journal reported last month (preview only), much of this is due to the impact of higher fuel costs on transit budgets. The upshot? The capacity of many transit systems, particularly in smaller cities, is shrinking just when more service is needed most. People looking to save money and travel more energy-efficiently are being penalized in the process.

"This is an emergency," says Larry Hanley, an International Vice President at Amalgamated Transit Union who negotiates transit worker contracts in towns and cities throughout the Northeast. "Particularly in smaller cities where the transit systems don't have any cushion or margin for increased operating costs."

Nationwide, 48 percent of bus operators and 69 percent of rail operators have already raised fares due to increased fuel and electricity costs, according to a survey released in May by the American Public Transit Association. In terms of service cuts, the figures are 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Working with Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar and environmental organizations, the ATU was instrumental in pushing the "Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act of 2008" through the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year (download the bill). The legislation provides emergency federal aid for transit systems and promotes the use of alternative fuels. No Senate version of the bill has emerged, but Hanley, a former Staten Island bus driver, remains optimistic. "This legislation moved quickly through the House because members of Congress recognize that this is a crisis." 

Hanley believes the benefits of federal support for mass transit are wide-ranging and more effective than alternatives currently being discussed. "Congress can cut a 'fiscal stimulus' check so Americans can go to Wal-Mart and buy products made in China or we can 'Drill, Drill, Drill,' for six months-worth of oil," Hanley said. But, if the federal government really wants "to stimulate local economies, help the environment and strengthen national defense by reducing oil dependence, it's hard to find a better public investment than mass transit." If the Senate fails to act on the Oberstar bill, a second opportunity to provide funds may come in the fall, if Congress decides to pursue another economic stimulus package.

Meanwhile, stories of transit systems in distress can be found all over the nation, from Utah to Wisconsin to South Carolina. Either each agency will scrimp and make do as best they can, making life more difficult for countless riders and keeping yet more Americans from switching to bus and rail, or Congress and the President will take a real step toward addressing the gas price crunch by shoring up the nation's transit systems. What's it gonna be?

Photo: danifink/Flickr

Here's another transportation policy success story from France. The Vélib bike-sharing system celebrates its one-year anniversary today. In April, Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press was in Paris to learn more about it. Here is her video and report:

On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world's largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike share programs. Vélib is a balance of scale and functionality, clocking in with more than 20,000 bikes, and 1,451 docking stations, which are never more than 1,000 feet apart. As a result, Vélib is effectively a new form of public transportation that has generated more than 25 million new bicycle trips in its first year, 10% of which substitute former car trips.

Today the program celebrates its first anniversary. And, throughout the year cities across the globe have kept a close eye on the progress of this environmentally-friendly public transportation mode. Overall, bike-share programs have proven to increase public transportation options at a relatively low cost to the city. Any registered user can "borrow" a bike from a station for a nominal fee and return it to any other station in the system. In Paris, Vélib has saved the city 10 million km in car trips, roughly equal to $10 million in savings. With 200,000 Parisians paying the city $50 each for an annual Velib pass, this has yielded an additional $10 million in revenues. Beyond economics, Paris has seen tremendous traffic calming and air quality benefits from this public bicycle system.

Here in the States, a bike share program is about to kick off in Washington D.C., and Chicago and San Francisco are in the process of implementation as well. Last week the New York City Department of Transportation announced its plans to examine the possibility of creating a bike share program.

The Guardian reports that SNCF, France's national rail company, is taking advantage of a boom in ridership to make aggressive plans for expansion. While SNCF positions itself to help ease the impact of high fuel prices on the French public, what are American leaders preparing to do? Drilling offshore and taking a few hits from the strategic petroleum reserve aren't going to cut it.

Over in France, all the new riders have SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy thinking big:

The state-owned SNCF delivered a net €1.1bn (£875m) profit last year and first-half figures, due next week, are said to be sparkling. Pepy envisages up to 80m extra passenger trips this year or an increase of around 8%.

"This change will speed up because we are facing a twin energy and environment crisis," he says, pointing to surging fuel costs and growing personal worries about carbon footprints. "People want sustainable mobility and, in France, more trains and more SNCF."

The growing number of passengers is maxing out the current system, which Pepy sees as an opportunity, especially in a time of escalating fuel prices. He wants to double the size of SNCF's high-speed network by 2015, make rail stations into multi-modal hubs, and capture market share from energy-intensive air and road travel.

The new SNCF chairman sees rail stations, mainly in the regions, becoming new transport (and commercial) hubs not just for trains but for buses and trams -- "all those places where people don't want to bring their cars."

SNCF executives believe rail can take market leadership from air and road on journeys up to four hours long and point to the success of Eurostar (part owned by the group) in increasing traffic so far this year by around a fifth on the back of shorter journey times between London and Brussels/Paris. You can even get to Marseille from Paris in little more than three hours.

Contrast to the attitude among many politicians and opinion leaders here in the U.S. -- typified by this Wall Street Journal op-ed -- which views public management of rail systems skeptically, to put it mildly. Congress may be taking a long-overdue step toward investing more in Amtrak, but that is triage compared to the direction SNCF is heading in, as high-speed train service in Europe widens its already considerable performance lead over American intercity rail.

Photo of high-speed trains at the Gare de Lyon in Paris: Feuillu/Flickr

From Dick Locher of the Chicago Tribune comes a cartoon complement to Judith Warner's essay in the New York Times last Friday, declaring that SUVs have outlived any "utility" owners may once have derived from them.

Four miles of the Health Line are currently operational along Euclid Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare that was once packed with streetcars, buses and pedestrians. The route will stretch nearly ten miles when completed this October. With its sleek articulated buses, new stations, and improved trip times, the service aims to woo commuters out of their cars and onto transit:

The transit corridor is geared toward attracting professionals, many of them doctors and other health-care workers who commute to a medical district anchored by the renowned Cleveland Clinic. Medical companies are paying the city's transit authority $12 million for the naming rights.

The challenge facing Cleveland -- and ultimately Chicago -- is how to set the new service apart from the stereotype of bus travel as slow, outdated and used mostly by society's have-nots.

"In Cleveland, suits don't ride buses. We are out to change that," Joseph Calabrese, chief executive officer and general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority, said last week.

In addition to being a full-featured service with pre-payment, dedicated lanes, signal prioritization, and yes, enforcement cameras on every bus, what makes the Health Line worth studying is the smart planning behind it. The new bus lanes take advantage of excess capacity on wide streets, and the route not only provides direct connections to an employment center, it is also a critical component of efforts to lure businesses and residents to Cleveland's urban core:

In addition to its transportation benefits, the Health Line is extending an economic lifeline to neighborhoods on the route that have been in need of resuscitation for many years. The city has lost almost half of its population of 1 million-plus when it was a bustling manufacturing center during the first half of the 20th Century.

Young professionals and empty-nesters are slowly returning to the city center and to a blighted warehouse district, where restaurants, neighborhood bars, boutiques and other businesses are sprouting.

Other Rust Belt metropolises and older cities with pre-automobile development patterns could employ a similar transit-oriented strategy to great effect. With rising fuel prices nudging more Americans toward denser, urban areas, many U.S. cities should join Chicago in looking to Cleveland for inspiration.

Image of Cleveland RTA's new articulated bus: Euclid Transit Transportation Project

Anyone with a Livable Streets account can contribute to StreetsWiki. Once you sign up, contributing is easy. You can either begin a new article, or edit an existing one. Say you want to add something -- a case study, for instance -- to the article on road diets. You would call up that page, then click "edit this article." This opens an editor, pictured below, with an interface similar to standard word-processing programs. Knowledge of HTML not required.

We'll be featuring StreetsWiki articles regularly on Streetsblog. To get the juices flowing, here are a couple of suggestions for new content, given recent events we've covered: An update of the Public Bike-Sharing entry is in order, and a new entry for Select Bus Service would be a welcome addition.

The more we build this resource, developing a knowledge base that is both wide and deep, the more it will help livable streets advocates everywhere convey their ideas and refine their arguments.

Last year, health care giant Humana started a bike-share for employees at its Louisville, Kentucky headquarters. As of this May, some 2,500 of Humana's 8,500 Louisville-based workers had enrolled in the "Freewheelin" program, which, as the name implies, is offered at no charge. Humana is bringing 1,000 Freewheelin bikes to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican National Convention in September, and will leave behind 70 of them, along with checkout kiosks, for use in the Twin Cities' own fledgling bike-share program. Humana is also providing bikes for the Democratic convention in Denver, which plans to put them to use in a new city program of its own.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saint Francis Health System launched "Tulsa Townies" last August. The Tulsa program is also free, and bikes are available to the public at four checkout stations, all located in parks along the Arkansas River.

Across the Canadian border, credit union Vancity last year loaned out close to 50 bikes to residents of Vancouver, British Columbia, to ride free of charge for three weeks before passing them on to other users. The bikes were eventually collected and distributed to low-income would-be cyclists. Vancity complemented its program with a web site encouraging users to blog about their bike-share experience.

And back down in Portland, Oregon, whose municipal program seems to have hit a snag, a homegrown company has put its own twist on the bike-share concept. Rejuvenation, which manufactures and sells "new old stock" vintage home hardware, is raffling off one bike per month, complete with gear, to its employees. Winners must commit to riding their bikes to work an average of at least once a week, or else they must give the bike a co-worker. Rejuvenation also gives out bus passes, along with up to $30 per month to any employee who walks, bikes, or takes transit to work.

Photo: Tulsa Townies

These realities are lost on many of the suburbanites quoted in the Post story, notably Northern Virginia Congressman James P. Moran Jr., who predicts the District's economy will dry up as its streets become more people-friendly (an argument also heard -- and ultimately rejected -- recently in San Francisco, of all places). But one out-of-town legislator has a more tempered view, and offered an insight that also rings true around these parts.

"You'd like me to lambaste the District, but we're all in the same boat," said Montgomery County Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large). "I am sympathetic to some of these initiatives. But the challenge is finding the right balance. Not everyone can ride Metro or walk to work."

She placed blame for the problem, in part, on the federal government, which offers many of its employees free parking in the city.

While DC can't stop the feds from giving away parking, it has launched its aforementioned market rate metering program for curbside space, even dedicating a good share of the proceeds to pedestrian and bike improvements. And with no far-flung authority to answer to, the District is free, for example, to use automated traffic enforcement, including red light and speeding cameras.

Left to its own devices to achieve its stated goal of encouraging transit use, biking and walking, it will be interesting to see how this major US city pulls it off, and what other cities, including ours, can learn from it.

Photo of crosswalk flags on Connecticut Ave by billadler/Flickr. DC has one of the highest pedestrian death rates among large US cities.

Johnson's director of transport, Kulveer Ranger, told the Times that Johnson is looking to the proposed Manchester pricing model, which charges for fewer hours per day.

Mr Ranger said: "Flexibility around hours of operation, flexibility around how it is charged; all of those things are options we're looking to consider.

"The mayor has been absolutely clear that he wants to make it fairer for people, not so much as a blunt tool, but something that's a bit more well managed and gives people a bit more flexibility in terms of how it's operated."

The Times, which opposes pricing, relies exclusively on sources from "motoring groups" -- who also speak of "making the system fairer," etc. -- to fill out the story. But in the comments, reader "Barry" recalls how candidate Johnson professed an interest in improving conditions for those who don't or can't drive.

We certainly need more sophisticated road charging, where payment is related to time of day and distance travelled. But to rule out extending the scheme shows that Boris's pre-election claim to support cyclists, pedestrians and bus users over the selfish minority of self-drivers was a sham.

Photo: Guardian Unlimited

The $7-million bike center in Brisbane's central business district was funded by the Queensland government and the Brisbane City Council, and is operated by a private company. The first of its kind in Australia, it offers swipe-card access and some pretty swank-looking accommodations. The cost of membership is roughly comparable to the local transit fare, depending on what type of ticket one uses.

Local government officials, quoted on OurBrisbane.com, see it as one element in an overall strategy:

State Government and Brisbane City Council have welcomed the centre as part of the battle against traffic congestion. Brisbane City Councillor Jane Prentice said the people of Brisbane now had the perfect reason to ditch the car in favour of more active, healthy and sustainable travel options.

"King George Square Cycle Centre demonstrates our commitment to encouraging people to live a more active, healthy and sustainable lifestyle," said Cr Prentice.

"The more people we get travelling on two wheels or two legs, the more cars we take off the road enabling us to live healthier and greener lifestyles that will contribute to ensuring Brisbane's long-term sustainability."

Transport Minister John Mickel said that, by using the King George Square Cycle Centre, the average commuter could save more than $25 dollars per day.

"The average car commuter can spend up to $33 per day on off-street parking alone when travelling into the CBD," Mr Mickel said.

Think a paid bike commuter facility like this one could fly here in New York, say in Midtown or the Financial District?

Why have Danes again been named the happiest people on the planet? Early this year ABC News cited bikes as "perhaps ... the best symbol of Danish happiness," and in this clip from "Contested Streets" it isn't hard to see why. Here, livable streets guru Jan Gehl and others explain the many ways an increase in bike traffic (now one-third of all commutes) has improved life in the capital city of Copenhagen.

But it didn't happen overnight. Rather, it took four decades of gradual change to make Copenhagen the place it is today. As for replicating that success elsewhere, says Gehl: "if you don't have enough nice spaces, you can see these [become] overcrowded spaces. Then you should just make more spaces."

We are in desperate need of significant transit improvements. We've got to have the facilities and we don't today, and then we need the fare-box and economic policies that reward people for taking public transportation. Some try to say that it should be "self-sufficient" or have a certain percentage return through the fare-box. We don't do that on our roads, and public transportation is much better for so many reasons -- not just the environment or the quality of life. We should be providing much stronger incentives for people to use public transportation, but first you need to have the facilities.

I'm a big, big supporter of dramatic change in public transportation. It includes more than just the bus and rail systems in our urban areas. It includes a commuter rail and inner-city rail -- the whole gamut of services that get people out of their personal vehicles. I don't want people driving their personal vehicles the way they are today.

Even in the era of $4/gal gasoline, not many elected officials would go on record with such heresies. But that may be changing. Gas tax "holiday" talk has all but evaporated over the past few weeks as pols promote transit as an answer to higher gas prices. And a column in today's Boston Globe predicts that Senator John McCain's dogged and sustained effort to undermine Amtrak could create an opening for transit-friendly Barack Obama heading into November.

I was in Seville last week for the first time since February 2007, and in the intervening year there's been something of a transportation revolution in the city. It's most visibly evident in the Sevici bike-share bikes (bicis in Spanish) that are everywhere. The system launched in April 2007, and ultimately there will be 250 stations and 2,500 bikes spread throughout the city of some 700,000 residents.

I saw the bikes in use by locals in all parts of town, including the rather bleak office parks and university complexes on the west side of the Guadalquivir River. The cycles seem less popular among tourists, although they're a great way to get around the very flat terrain -- and, at 5 euros for a weekly membership with the first half hour of each ride free, and very reasonable rates for longer use, they're a good option.

One of the most amazing things to me was how quickly the city has put in an extensive bike-lane network. The green-painted lanes lead you for miles and miles through the city's neighborhoods, and as far as I could tell, they're all protected. In many places, this is done by putting the bike lane in the street shielded by a low concrete barrier -- enough to deter cars, but far less unsightly than the Jersey barriers used in some parts of New York. Elsewhere -- and here is the revelation, as far as I'm concerned -- the bike lane shared the sidewalk with pedestrians. Not once, in nearly a week, did I see this causing any distress to pedestrians or cyclists (although one resident did grumble to me, somewhat half-heartedly, about reckless cyclists).

Even where bike lanes aren't marked, the cycles are omnipresent, wheeling along the narrow streets of the old city (recently made off-limits to cars except for taxis and vehicles owned by residents), across the city's many plazas and through its parks. In a city famous for its automobile congestion, they have clearly captured the imagination and loyalty of many who live and work in Seville. I noticed many more people than I had before riding their own bikes, as well.

Nothing is perfect, of course. The first time I went to get a bike, the only one parked at the station nearest my hotel had a blown tire (it sat there like that for at least two days). I had to walk just about 300 meters to the nearest station, but there should have been a map on the rental kiosk telling me where that was -- and sparing me the 300 meters I walked in the wrong direction to begin with. At other stations I passed, there were no free parking spaces where I could have returned a bike. The bikes themselves, while perfectly serviceable, are heavy and clunky, and one I tried had handlebars that were skewed off-center. Still, the freedom of being able to get on a bike and ride was blissful.

The Sevici bikes aren't the only news in Seville's transportation network. The 1.3-kilometer tram line on the Avenida de la Constitución is up and running, too. According to my family members who live in town, this super-slick light rail line has caused a lot of controversy because of its short length and enormous cost, as well as the overhead electrical wires, which many deem unsightly. The local Socialist government has gotten criticism for the way the bids were handled (a not-uncommon state of affairs in Spain).

They're not my elected officials, of course, and maybe that's why it looked pretty good to me. The lovely street the tram runs on, previously clogged with cars, is now pedestrian- and bike-friendly. And the trams I saw were filled with passengers, mostly sevillanos, who obviously found the service useful. The line will link with the underground metro, slated to open later this year after many delays. All this in addition to an excellent and very frequent bus service.

Now if the planners in Madrid, where the traffic is still murderous, would only look south to this Andalusian capital for inspiration.

Photos: Sarah Goodyear