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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > August > 12 > Entry
Guest column: Vibrant, creative cities are bicycle friendly
Bill Pote, who wrote this column, is an IT consultant who lives in downtown Dayton. He is founder of DaytonMostMetro.com.
Portland, Boulder, Madison, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Chicago. These cities are magnets for young college graduates and the “creative class” that so many places, including Dayton, are trying to retain and attract.
What else do they have in common? They are all bicycle-friendly cities, according to a city ranking by the League of American Bicyclists, which sets the standard for cities looking to capitalize on the growing popularity of the bicycle culture.
While Dayton must continue to work hard at attracting businesses that provide good jobs, we must, at the same time, be doing everything we can to make our city an attractive place to live. Bicycles can play a major role.
Columbus is the only Ohio city that ranks on the Bicycle Friendly Community list (bronze level). But Dayton has the potential to join, even surpass, Columbus as a bicycle-friendly community.
Our region already enjoys one of the best recreational trail networks in the country, with main trails converging at Riverscape in downtown, where a new bike hub is being built. We also have the new and popular MetroParks Mountain Biking Area.
Imagine if we capitalized on these recreational assets by integrating them with a city and region-wide transportation network that encourages more people to use bicycles for short trips and even commutes to work.
By transforming our streets to be more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, we can:
• Provide low-cost transportation options to those unable to afford automobiles, as well as to those who simply want to drive less.
• Decrease traffic congestion and pollution.
• Lower obesity levels by increasing physical activity.
• Add vibrancy and safety to our streets.
• Allow people to spend less on gas and perhaps spend more in our local economy.
The City of Dayton is implementing the region’s first dedicated bike lanes and sharrows (shared lanes that are marked). You’ll see them once the downtown two-way street conversions are finished during the next several months.
(It is a nice nod to the Wright brothers that St. Clair Street will have one of these dedicated bike lanes, since it shares its name with a line of bicycles that the Wrights built and sold.)
Added to groups like Courteous Mass (a grass-roots urban bicycle awareness movement) and the Drive Less Live More campaign, we are moving in the right direction toward a comprehensive plan that aims to put Dayton on the map of bicycle-friendly communities.
This includes efforts as simple as expanding driver/bicycle education and awareness, and as complex as implementing bike share programs and “Complete Streets” plans that truly transform our streets from being designed predominantly for the automobile to being equally accessible to autos, bicycles and pedestrians.
We all know about the Wright brothers and how their invention has helped shape Dayton, though few would suggest that it is their prior work with bicycles that may represent the future for Dayton. However, in this age of rising transportation costs, traffic congestion, growing obesity rate, climate change and culture shifts, U.S. cities are discovering that the bicycle can play a pivotal role in the quest for economic prosperity.
Dayton should join this trend.
CYCLING SUMMIT
When: Aug. 14
Where: 300 College Park
More information: www.metroparks.org/MVCyclingSummit/
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Bill Pote, City of Dayton, Dayton Creative Class Initiative, Guest Columns
Comments
By Amanda
August 12, 2009 4:10 PM | Link to this
Bravo Billy! I love seeing the cyclists who ride through my downtown neighborhood, often with kiddie trailers, heading to Riverscape. I am looking forward to the expansions talked about here.By Kjirsten
August 12, 2009 5:18 PM | Link to this
Actually, we already have some bike lanes south of the Dayton Mall on Newmark Drive. It will be great to have more - and Downtown.By drunken orangetree
August 12, 2009 7:48 PM | Link to this
Good column. I’d also like to see some bicycle friendly way to get out to Wright State.By tg
August 12, 2009 11:18 PM | Link to this
Nicely done, Billy! Have been on my bike more this summer than the past several combined. All rides have been in or through Dayton - and I live in Beavercreek. The bummer is that in order to SAFELY get from my house to the bike path just 2 miles away, we have to drive. That needs to change!By Mark W
August 13, 2009 2:39 AM | Link to this
In downtown Louisville, they have a number of sculptures that also function as bike racks. They not only provide a useful service to cyclists, they also add some character to the downtown area.By Zeis
August 13, 2009 9:03 AM | Link to this
Bike Rack Sculptures would be great. We don’t need another year of City Life, lets move onto something different. There are grants to commission local artists to sculpt and paint bike racks. One comment about Louisville though, most of the racks don’t look like racks, and don’t get used because they are too funky.By Rob
August 13, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
Aw man…I wanted to be the first to say “good article”. So please let me be a “Me Too” instead.By joe_mamma
August 13, 2009 1:07 PM | Link to this
Feel good fluff. Young people aren’t going to move to Dayton to bike. They will come for jobs though. Become a business friendly city first. Then build your bike lanes.By davidss2
August 15, 2009 9:52 AM | Link to this
Is this what McLin meant when she said Dayton was a “Boutique City” at the Loser Cities convention held in Dayton? The article said she “ran” to the podium; she could have used a bicycle trail.By Leroy
August 15, 2009 2:15 PM | Link to this
I used to ride my bicycle to work downtown. Then it got stolen. I feel like this is symbolic of Dayton in some way.By Dan Kennedy
August 18, 2009 10:50 PM | Link to this
The bike lanes are great, but the two way streets are a mistaken expenditure of taxes by the City Commissioners. They are erroneous to believe that one way streets keep people from coming downtown. A better use of the money would have been to build in angled, backed-in parking. It could almost double the spaces. Parking has always been a major deterrent to driving downtown.