Micromobility cuts travel time and emissions, studies show
Also, a push for more rails-to-trails on the west coast and a Good Samaritan comes to the aid of Hurricane Ian victims with free bicycles
Push for new and extended bike trails across Florida’s west coast
Lee County is looking to add to the ‘Rails-to-Trails’ movement as a feasibility study is investigating adding 14 miles of trail for biking and walking on an existing rail line. The proposed new trail would use the Seminole Gulf Railway corridor from Bonita Beach Road to Alico Road, basically from Bonita Springs to north Estero.
In response, Deb Orton has co-founded The Friends of the Bonita Estero River Trail in support of the project.
“Every day I’m processing 10 to 20 new members because they want that trail,” Orton said. “And quite honestly for me and my friends it’s the safety aspect. We don’t have a place to ride, we have to drive everywhere we go.”
This project would be included in the vision of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail, which hopes for a 336-mile corridor through seven counties on the west coast of the state.
Florida already has 66 rail-trials, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which includes 852 miles with another 437 miles of potential trail and 36 current projects.
Just north in Pinellas County, there are calls for expanding the existing Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail or neighborhood bike paths and trails. That trial goes through many cities like Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater, and even into St. Petersburg. As bicyclist Brent Lloyd told ABC Action news:
Connecting those community trails and bike lanes still needs to be done to make everybody safer, gives us a safe place to ride.
I’m old enough to remember the train coming through that rail line when it existed in Tarpon Springs, and later when the trail was created.
The 34-mile Pinellas Trail was the third inductee to the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame, and only (so far) trail from Florida on the list.
Bicycling helper comes to the aid of Hurricane Ian victims
Fred Rogers, or as we all grew up knowing him as Mr. Rogers, reminded us that when things got bad, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” In the wake of Hurricane Ian, one such helper is Billy Kirkland of Billy’s Bikes in Sanibel.
As Wink News reports, even before the causeway was repaired and reopened, the local mainstay donated bikes around the island to help his neighbors get around. As he told Wink News:
It’s my home. You would do it, right? And it’s the right thing to do, and money’s not everything. Taking care of people is more important.
Since then he has continued donating bicycles to those in need in Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, and Pine Island.
Micromobility cuts down on travel times and emissions, according to two reports
A recent study has been making the news that found support for the premise that micromobility does cut travel time. The subject was in neighboring Atlanta, Georgia.
The study, “Impacts of micromobility on car displacement with evidence from a natural experience and geofencing policy,” was published in the November issue of the online journal Nature Energy. In 2019, the city of Atlanta banned shared micromobility use after dark. travel times in Atlanta increased 9-11% for daily commuting and 37% for large events following a micromobility ban by the city in 2019.
Although a 2- to 5-minute delay for evening commuting and a 12-minute delay for special events could appear to be a minor inconvenience, the cost of additional time in traffic quickly adds up when aggregated across large commuter populations.
The study determined that the economic impact to Atlanta was $4.9 million and on the national level between $408 and $573 million.
Streetsblog also covered a second report from German by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems Innovation Research about the carbon impacts of Lime vehicles. The researchers sought to update old data and
found that greenhouse gases actually decreased as a result of shared scooter and e-bike adoption. That’s even accounting for the fact that some of those riders said they wouldn’t have made those trips at all if Lime wasn’t available — as well as the fact that others admitted to trading a comparatively greener walking, transit, or non-electric bike journey for a ride on an electric-assist mode.
The study also found that the newer e-scooters last about 2 years, which is considerably longer than the first-generation models that were first studied, and their life cycle emissions were 70% lower.
As Lime’s head of global policy Shari Shapiro said:
What’s remarkable here is the speed with which the micromobility industry has been able to address the concerns that its introduction created. Things that the car industry has been working on for decades – like reducing carbon emissions – as well as things that cities have been working on for decades – like getting people onto sustainable modes of travel – the micromobility industry has been able to accomplish in an incredibly short amount of time.
The article by Streetsblog goes further into analyzing both studies and is worth a read.
Showcase on Miami’s bike scene
TimeOut has a feature on Miami’s bike scene by local Eric Barton. The article even goes into bicycling advocacy in the Magic City. As Meg Daly, founder of the Friends of The Underline, told Barton for the inspiration of South Florida gem,
I realized we really lacked the infrastructure to walk or bike. It isn’t the drivers as much as it is the infrastructure. We haven’t planned the city for people to walk and bike safely.
The article touches on all things biking in Miami, from Caro the Tour Guide to the Underline to Critical Mass to Miami Bike Scene and Transit Alliance Miami. If you want a good intro course into bicycling in Miami, this is where it’s at.