One Street News

April-May 2015

Vol. 8, Issue 3

  1. One Street at Velo-city Conference
  2. Resources – “Less Parking, More City” Video from Mexico
  3. Hot Topics – Critical Mass Is Evolving Especially in Budapest
  4. Supporter Spotlight – Ironclad Bicycles

One Street at Velo-city Conference

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

In a few days I will travel to France to attend the annual Velo-city conference in Nantes. I look forward to catching up with my bicycle friends and colleagues from around the world as we learn about the latest trends in bicycle advocacy.

If you are attending, please let me know and we can try to connect. I will be presenting as part of a panel on the last morning of the conference in the session called Pedaling Towards Social Change. You can take a sneak peak at some of my presentation content on Social Bike Business models in the blog post I posted last night.

Also keep an eye out for other One Street Advisors as a good group of us will be there. Hope to see you in Nantes!

Resources – “Less Parking, More City” Video from Mexico

This clever, animated video was created to convince policy makers in Mexico City that adding more parking is not the answer to their traffic congestion problem. Even though it is specific to Mexico City all of its messages translate to every city struggling against the flood of cars. Take three minutes to watch it and you’re sure to find some ideas to bring to your own policy makers.

Hot Topics – Critical Mass Is Evolving Especially in Budapest

Any fan of critical mass rides will know about the extraordinary success of Budapest’s critical mass rides. While most such rides are happy with some hundreds of riders and ecstatic if they reach one thousand, in Budapest a normal critical mass ride was drawing tens of thousands, once reaching 80,000 riders. Of course the main ride only took place twice each year rather than every third Friday, but to draw this many riders to any bicycle event sets Budapest out as extraordinary.

Critical Mass Budapest also differed from other critical mass rides because it was proudly organized by a consortium of bicycle and environmental nonprofits, unlike other rides that avoided any suggestion of leadership. These leaders leveraged the ride to demand bicycle improvements in their city. These demands gained them the respect of their policy makers and caused significant changes for bicycle infrastructure, bicycle parking, and policies that give preference to bicycles over cars. Many of these policy makers actually joined in the ride, once even the president of Hungary!

Over the past decade, critical mass rides have faded in cities around the world. Either the rides degraded into mean-spirited attacks on car drivers or, as in Portland, Oregon, city officials have responded to cyclists’ demands thus removing the anger that sparked the first rides.

So what has become of the greatest critical mass ride of all time? In 2013 it was discontinued much like the Portland ride because policy makers were firmly supportive of bicycling. But then all those cyclists missed the rush of their bi-annual rides. What to do? They’ve solved this dilemma by creating a whole new sort of ride, no longer to make demands, but rather to celebrate their pride in Budapest’s embrace of the bicycle as a priority transportation mode. Here’s just one of the many articles that circulated in April about the newly transformed ride, now called I Bike Budapest.

Supporter Spotlight – Ironclad Bicycles

Ironclad Bicycles is a unique bike shop here in Prescott, Arizona, not only because they welcome all sorts of riders, but because their top priority is bicycle advocacy. The shop’s slogan of “Fighting for a bicycle friendly Prescott since 1992” shows just how central bicycle advocacy is to them. But they don’t stop their advocacy efforts at Prescott’s city limits. Ironclad Bicycles has been a generous sponsor of One Street since our founding in 2007.

The Ironclad crew of Tim, Corey, Mike, and owner Jim have been a solid team for many years offering a combined century worth of bicycle knowledge to customers. Whether you want to learn about lesser-known mountain bike trails, the latest bicycle advocacy issues, upcoming Ironclad rides, or the best bike to buy, they are eager to help. The shop offers a full range of top-notch bicycles for anyone from beginners to city riders to road riders to mountain bike racers. You can find the latest models from Specialized and Breezer as well as the up-and-coming Norco brand out of Canada with some of the best bike specs for the price.

You’re lucky if you live in Prescott because you can drop by the shop anytime to tap into the local bike scene. If you aren’t so lucky, the next time you come to Prescott make sure to include a visit to Ironclad Bicycles in your plans. They even rent bikes in case you can’t bring your own with you and they’re open seven days a week to make it easy. You’ll find all your bicycle needs and more, and you’ll get to meet some of the best bike shop guys in the world!