LexRides

[Steve Wiggins]

So recently I moved from Lexington to Portland, Oregon. Kind of on a whim, but anyhoo I am here. For the most part of this year I relied on the bus and my bike to get me from point A to point B in Lexington. And then when june came around I sold my car and road my bike everywhere. Literally, EVERYWHERE! I lived on dakota street downtown lex and worked in nicholasville, ky at a screen printing shop. I rode the bus from my house to transit center and then took the bus from downtown all the way to man o war and nicholasville and road my bike the rest of the way. Its a good 2.5 miles. Fun coming back; not so much fun going there. It was fun, but dangerous. Nicholasville Road is a death trap in places and some places are a real pain to traverse for bikers.

So I move to Portland, Oregon. 2nd most bike friendly place on the earth. And IT IS! There are bikes everywhere! Its like a virus infected the whole place and now everyone rides their bike, like some zombie with great calves. And Portland has buses that go as far as OTHER COUNTIES! GASP! There are bus lines here that go from the equivalent of Lexington to Richmond. There is also a light rail that goes even further. Making it very easy to get where you want to. Cars stop for you. No one wants to run you over. Rednecks don't throw things at you. When someone in a turning lane notices they can't go they back up for you, instead of block the crosswalk and pretend they don't see you. I don't know its nicer and more convenient. But why? What is it other than that "west coast" vibe that makes Portland more bike friendly?

So why doesn't Lexington get its act together and make things more bike friendly? Maybe because Portland isn't as "uptight" as Lexington is about new ideas? I don't know. I could very well see a bus route going from nicholasville into lexington and vice versa. Does anyone else work in that area? There's always traffic coming into town from Nicholasville. Why not have a bus route everyone can take that goes from Nich-vegas to Lex-town? That would reduce traffic, save time, and save the earth more importantly!

So I guess I just wanted to just list some ideas about just sort of "internally" dialogue outward with you all.

Hope your Christmas was merry!

Steve

[roller]

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the report from west coast. While we have some great bike activism and events here, Lexington has a long way to go before it can approach Portland's vibe. Why? Well Portland is a much larger city, more densely populated, more politically progressive, has a shitload more breweries, etc....

The biggest reason I think is simple: the land around Lexington is far too valuable to put into public parks, so therefore we don't sustain a broad recreational scene and the vibrant mindset that goes with it.

Lexington's landscape is a blessing and curse. The well-maintained horse farms draw tourists and the industry floats our economy. Those same farms have pulled every parcel of land into private ownership and left us with little forest cover. The bluegrass has been stripped of its wildness.

Lexington's largest park is pasture: Masterson Station. Raven's Run is our largest woodland park, located on the Kentucky River, but it's managed as a laboratory with limited public access. Non-profits try to build trail in the city but there's simply no easy solution because cheap land and derelict spaces are hard to find.

Portland is surrounded by parks. The city is densely populated and pretty well contained and when folks need release, they kumbaya in the mountains and come back more chill. In Lexington however, we go paddle boating in Jacobson park and get pissed off.

[brokebike]

also, as much as free'r thinking people would hate to admit it, you have to consider where we are in relation to our geography and the collective mindset that comes with that. We are in the south central portion of the US - which carries with that the moral and philosophical baggage of our ancestors who also lived here - and you can track the sensibilities of the people who have located and settled into the different parts of our country throughout its history.

It's like evolution (regardless of how you feel about the theory)... certain things take a loooong time to change.
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[mcrib]

While full of challenges it feels pretty good to be part of a place where work is being done (Lexington) as opposed to living in a place that is more or less the finished product (Portland). While I am sure it is lovely in P.land with so many like minded people inhabiting the same city I think if you truly believe in those ideals mentioned in your post it is important to work to spread those ideas into communities that don't have them.
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Albert Einstein trembled when he found out time was water. Seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world.

[brokebike]

exactly. well put.
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[roller]

[brokebike]

it would be interesting to see that urban growth boundary on an actual map. Do you know where one can access that, Boyd?

I'm willing to bet that there are parts within the boundary that have succumbed to some sort of under the table deal.
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[roller]

Map....here's the city's 2007 planning repository: http://www.lexingtonky.gov/index.aspx?page=341 The links go to big PDFs, but look at the 2001 update map at bottom to get a quick map.

The urban service area (aka our urban growth boundary) is used as a tool to develop a complex matrix of desired land uses. Inside the area urban and residential; outside the area horse farms and rolling rural landscape. It roughly extends south from I-64 to the Jessamine county line.

Developers want to extend the service area to build new subdivisions while infill proponents want to build higher density inside the service area...that's the general argument. The boundary and the zoning within the service area are always being contested. Anybody want a historic overlay?

[mcrib]

I guess what I meant by finished product that in Portland they've accomplished the goal of making the extremely safe for people to ride there bikes which I feel for many of us here in Lexington. I am not at all saying that this makes a city a finished product in any way. I was just looking at it from a bikecentric point of view.
_________________
Albert Einstein trembled when he found out time was water. Seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world.

[dan]

Great discussion! While things could always be better, (I am sure the Portland people are saying if only we could be like Amsterdam), but I am very thankful for the great people in this town that are making the city more bike friendly. Great work guys.

My understanding of Portland is that many years ago they drew a ring around the city outside of which growth was not permitted. This led to the density that makes bike commuting and public transportation feasible. I think that the best thing this city can do is to keep from expanding the urban service area.

Here is a good article about urban development.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96sep/kunstler/kunstler.htm

And a talk by the same guy
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html

I would add that the Fayette Alliance does good work in Lexington lobbying for this sort of thing.
http://www.fayettealliance.com/

[andy]

having been to both amsterdam and portland in the past three months i felt obligated to chime in. density is the prime mover and driver in any city's development, provided they dont have some other subsidized purpose like attracting new business or developing a formerly uninhabited chunk of land (e.g. orlando and its drainage of the surrounding everglades). amsterdam and portland both put space at a premium, and it doesnt hurt that the gas tax is higher in both oregon and the netherlands, thus biking is an economical and practical way to commute. so lexington, or even the rest of non-urban america, benefits from having cheap available land and housing, but it suffers from that same glut of space. that said, while advocating city council and elected officials to take steps to make the town's infrastructure more bike friendly is necessary and beneficial in the long-run, i think the most practical way to make the city better for bikes is to ride frequently, in high visibility areas, as responsibly as possible.

[roller]

It also helps when you have a very active representative in congress...from the nytimes yesterday:


Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.

PORTLAND, Ore. — For years, Earl Blumenauer has been on a mission, and now his work is paying off. He can tell by the way some things are deteriorating around here.

“People are flying through stop signs on bikes,” Mr. Blumenauer said. “We are seeing in Portland bike congestion. You’ll see people biking across the river on a pedestrian bridge. They are just chock-a-block.”

Mr. Blumenauer, a passionate advocate of cycling as a remedy for everything from climate change to obesity, represents most of Portland in Congress, where he is the founder and proprietor of the 180 (plus or minus)-member Congressional Bicycle Caucus. Long regarded in some quarters as quixotic, the caucus has come into its own as hard times, climate concerns, gyrating gas prices and worries about fitness turn people away from their cars and toward their bikes.

“We have been flogging this bicycle thing for 20 years,” said Mr. Blumenauer, a Democrat. “All of a sudden it’s hot.”

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/science/earth/13profile.html?_r=1