One Street News

May-June 2017

Vol. 10, Issue 3

  1. Ukraine Project Sparks Bosnia and Herzegovina Workshop Planning
  2. Could Christiania Be a Kind Communities Model?
  3. Resources – Bristol Bike Project
  4. Resources – NACTO Seeking Street Innovations Acceleration
  5. Hot Topics – Australian Bike Helmet Laws Ignite Heated Discussion

Ukraine Project Sparks Bosnia and Herzegovina Workshop Planning

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

The success of our Ukraine campaign planning project (covered in the first three newsletters of 2016 on our News page) has inspired our colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to give it a try for their country. My recent attendance at the Velo-city conference in Nijmegen, Netherlands offered the opportunity to meet with Tihomir Dakic, Transport Program Coordinator at the Center for Environment, to discuss the possibilities. We are now on our way to developing their campaign planning workshops to be held in various cities in BiH in 2018.

I presented on the success of our Ukraine campaign planning workshops at the Velo-city conference. For a basic overview of the project, click through my presentation slides posted by the conference.

Do you know of other areas of the world that could benefit from a similar project? If so, we’d love to help. Send me an email at sue{at}onestreet.org.

Could Christiania Be a Kind Communities Model?

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

Following the Velo-city conference in mid-June, I traveled to Denmark to visit a few communities with potential for becoming models for our Kind Communities program. Surprisingly, the one community I thought would not make the cut was the only one that did – Christiania.

For those not familiar with Christiania, it is an autonomous community started when random squatters jumped the fence of an abandoned military base in downtown Copenhagen. Since then, people who chose to live there have cooperated so that their current population of 850 can live amiably together.

Unfortunately, this includes drug dealers. During my visit and wonderful discussions with long-time residents, including one of the original founders of the bike shop, I learned why this problem is so entrenched. The original squatters were adamant about keeping this taken land separate from Danish and even European laws including allowing the sale and use of drugs, now restricted to hash and pot. Since then, residents have realized this was a mistake as they endure the violence and degradation around the drug dealing area they call Pusher Street right at the main entry.

Even after purchasing the land from the city in 2012 and thus legitimizing the community, city officials have allowed the drug trade to continue there in order to keep it contained and away from other neighborhoods. When I heard this, all I could think was that Christiania is being used by the city, not respected as a true neighborhood where such a problem would garner serious assistance toward a solution.

Even so, the residents and leaders of Christiania continue their efforts to abolish the drug dealers who have stained their reputation. Their concerted effort, including working with the drug dealers themselves, actually added to my realization that this community could indeed become a model for Kind Communities.

What do you think? Have you had experience with Christiania? Do you think it could make the cut? Please read more about our Kind Communities program then email your thoughts to sue{at}onestreet.org.

Resources – Bristol Bike Project

One Street's Social Bike Business program and our accompanying book Defying Poverty with Bicycles encourage the creation of bicycle community centers where everyone feels welcome. Such places are rare. So when we find a great model, we've got to share it. The Bristol Bike Project even emphasizes keeping used bikes in their community in their tagline - something we encourage when a program like this exists, instead of shipping them overseas. Read more in this Defying Poverty with Bicycles blog post.

Resources – NACTO Seeking Street Innovations Acceleration

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), an association of urban transportation departments in the United States, has published several guides for implementing bicycle, pedestrian, and transit projects. Lately, they have found that isolated projects don’t lead to the city-wide network changes necessary to truly open cities to people outside of cars. So they’ve launched their new Green Light for Great Streets initiative to speed up transportation innovations in cities. Read more in this Streets Blog post.

Hot Topics – Australian Bike Helmet Laws Ignite Heated Discussion

A tweet meant to diffuse an over-enthused tweet from an official regarding their bike share user numbers set off a heated debate between officials on repealing Australian bike helmet laws. Read more and find a link to the tweet storm in this Bike Helmet Blog post.