Bike Share Programs

18 06 2010

I’ve known about bike share programs for sometime, but hadn’t really thought of them recently until I visited Menominee, a small town in Michigan’s upper peninsula. Menominee, population about 9,200, is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan; is has a nice marina and a small airport a few miles inland. I noticed bike racks full of yellow bikes and a few people riding them around town too. I learned that the city’s bike share program (they call it the Yellow Bike Program) has been in place for four years now. It was started completely by volunteers of the local Rotary Club and donated bikes in a effort to promote tourism. Today the program includes 47 bikes spread around the city at various community locations, such as the airport, marina, history museum and library.

One of the first bike share program in the US was started in Portland, OR in 1994. The program simply released bicycles into the city for unrestrictive use, but proved unsuccessful due to theft and vandalism. Other cities such as Madison, WI tried similar programs, but eventually modified to a more restrictive system requiring deposits for use of the bicycles. Washington DC instituted the first high-tech European style bike share program in the US in 2008, called SmartBike DC.
Montreal has the largest bike sharing program in North America, called Bixi. In 2009 the system had some 400 stations where bicycles can be rented with a credit card, there are over 5000 bicycles in the system. The system has had so much success that Washington DC/Arlington is also adopting the Bixi program, as well as Washington State University. This particular program offers varied pay scales from $5/day to $78/year. Pretty reasonable if you live or work in the city and have the need to use a bicycle. By the way, Menominee’s Yellow Bike program is completely free, you just need to show your drivers license and leave a phone number, the advantage of a small town.

There are many other bike share program in cities throughout the US, the Bike-sharing Blog has a lot of additional links and information if interested. Also, something to be aware of in the coming months,  Nashville has plans to start its own bike share program soon.

-Sara Putney

Yellow Bikes at Menominee Airport


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Tennessee Ranks in the bottom ten…again

2 12 2009

In the list of healthiest and least healthiest states releases from Forbes this month the southern region of the country is once again lagging behind. All in all eight of the bottom 10 were states from the south, including Tennessee which ranked number 44 overall and number 49 in obesity.

Why does this relate to green infrastructure you might ask? There are in fact many ways to relate green infrastructure to our health. (Check out the numbers from the earlier post ‘Triple Bottom Line of Green Infrastructure) Some are the obvious reasons such as cleaner streams and rivers, cleaner air, etc, that often create a more desirable environment to become engaged in and interact both physically and socially. But take a step back and consider green infrastructure planning; in brief planning amongst, preserving and restoring our natural infrastructure systems, such as river corridors, woodland networks and open spaces. This type of planning allows us to integrate greenway trails, bikeways and neighborhood trails into our built environment in a responsible way. The more access communities have to resources such as these allows them more opportunities to get the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity per day, increasing the overall heath of the community. There is a strong link between lack of physical activity and chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

Other more indirect regional health benefits stem from increasing the amount of land for natural storm water retention which in turns allows communities to become more resistant to natural disasters. Green infrastructure also can reduce the erosion of precious top soil, which aids local farms. The entire region benefits when a collection of local farms can provide healthy food. Working farms—and forests—also have a significant impact on local economies by providing jobs, aiding tourism and supporting local manufacturing.

So in the end, green infrastructure benefits extend beyond immediate storm water benefits and reducing our carbon footprint. By integrating the green infrastructure planning principles we can also provide opportunities to make our communities healthier, reduce overall healthcare costs and hopefully move Tennessee up in the ranks of healthiest states.

-Sara Putney

Shelby Bottoms Greenway in the Cumberland River Corridor


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Categories : Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning, Parks & Open Space, Uncategorized