AnnArbor.Com has two articles on cycling in the Ann Arbor Community that might interest you:

• Plans in the works for a new Saline to Ann Arbor Bike Path: If you live in Saline and would bike to work if it didn’t feel so dangerous, you may be in luck.  There are plans to build a pedestrian and bike path that would span Textile and Lohr roads from Saline to Ann Arbor, “nearly” connecting the two cities.  Read more here.
• Bicyclists and Drivers sharing the road: In many parts of Ann Arbor, bikes and cars share the road together.  As the weather warms up, expect to see a lot more cyclists out there.  Semper Cop Rich Kinsey lays out some rules of the road that both parties should follow.  Read more here.

Mike is the type of person you might not typically think of as a sustainable commuter. He’s the President and COO of a growing company. He’s a dad. And he has a free parking spot in the back of his building.

But don’t let those details fool you. From my interview with Mike it’s clear that commuting sustainably fits perfectly into his life and has some unexpected benefits. Mike Felkey works at Intersect Digital, a small web development firm with some big clients. Intersect has worked with such companies as Subaru and Saatchi & Saatchi. The company’s headquarters is in downtown Ann Arbor (on First Street) and they also have a location in New York (who doesn’t, really). Depending on the amount of work available, Intersect employs anywhere from 17 to 60 employees. Currently, business is on the upswing.

The first clue into Mike’s interest in sustainable commuting comes when we talk about the company’s culture. Intersect is very supportive of telecommuting for its employees. Since many of the company’s employees live in places like Southfield and Novi and since many of them are working mothers, this benefit really helps cut down on a stressful commute. As far as Mike’s concerned, as long as employees get the work done, it doesn’t matter where they do it. We then chatted a bit about Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive, which describes how the businesses of the future are finding ways to motivate their employees through giving them freedom rather than imposing tons of rules. And according to Mike, this philosophy really pays off.

So what about the employees who do commute to work? Since Intersect offers the go!pass to employees, some of them happily take the bus. Other employees walk or ride their bikes. As far as Mike goes, he likes to walk, bike or take the bus to work. His commute isn’t super short either. If he chooses to walk, it can take him about 40 minutes.

So what’s Mike’s motivation for walking, biking or busing to work? He’s got a free space out back, and could probably get to work by car in less than 40 minutes. A big benefit Mike sees in leaving his car at home is that walking, biking and busing are all great for his health. He gets to build some exercise into his day, which might otherwise be a challenge to find the time for. Now that there are Zipcars downtown (a couple just a block from him office), Mike can bike, walk or bus to work even when he needs to go to a meeting out of town.

As we start to chat a little about Mike’s kids (his son goes to Tappan and his daughter goes to Burn’s Park Elementary), I find out another great benefit of Mike’s commute. Both of his kids have grown up watching Mike walk to work and now they want to walk to school. With all of the current news about childhood obesity, the example that Mike is setting for his kids is really inspiring.

When I asked Mike what he might like to see improved about transportation in our community, he lists fixing the lights so they are more in sync, improving the parking downtown, and adding more bike lanes to make cycling safer. We also talked a little but about the possibility of light rail, which is a topic he’s really interested in. Mike even said he’d contemplate giving up his car if there were light rail, especially since there are Zipcars available.

Mike’s biking, walking and busing ways are not unique among leaders in downtown Ann Arbor. Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations, frequently bikes to work. Grace Singleton, Managing Partner at Zingerman’s Deli, is also a bike commuter. Bonnie Valentine of the Whole Brain Group often takes the bus to work. Curtis Sullivan and Liz DellaRocco, owners of Vault of Midnight walk and carpool to work.

Any downtown commuter can join this great list of leaders. All you have to do is hop on a bus, grab your bike, or strap on your walking shoes. If you work downtown and would like some help figuring out which commuting option is best for you, getDowntown can help! Simply give us a call, check out our website or send us an email for personal commuting assistance.

In the race for energy efficiency between mass transit and single occupancy vehicles, who’s currently on the winning side?  The Straight Dope tackles this question in characteristically logical style.

The only thing I regret about this article is that he doesn’t look at bikes and traveling by foot as viable transportation option (although he does mention them in passing at the end of the article).

Old way: Owning a car.
New way: Sharing 20 cars.

Old way: Driving to work, hunting for parking, paying for parking, whew. . .
New way: Relaxing on the bus, free parking, whoohoo!

Try something new: become a Zipcar Ann Arbor member today.

Special new member promotion: Free Water Bottle

Become a Zipcar Ann Arbor Member between now and March 2010 and you’ll get a free Zipcar water bottle! These are large metal water bottles that will have you sipping in style. Offer only valid if you become a member of Zipcar Ann Arbor at zipcar.com/annarbor.

To get your free water bottle, become a Zipcar member at www.zipcar.com/annarbor and email us at info@getdowntown.org to let us know why you signed up.

The beginning of a New Year is a great time to say goodbye to old ways of doing things and hello to new ideas and approaches.  For many people, owning one or even two cars just doesn’t make sense anymore, especially living in such a pedestrian-friendly place as Ann Arbor.

So why not look at the advantages of a new concept—carsharing?  Carsharing allows you to have a car when you need one without having to pay the expense when you don’t.  The most popular carsharing business in the country is Zipcar.  Currently,  Zipcar has more than 20 cars in Ann Arbor, with 6 in downtown Ann Arbor and the rest on the University of Michigan campus.  In addition, Zipcar has cars in cities all over the country.

What do people use Zipcars for?  Zipcar members use cars for going shopping, attending meetings, popping over to events in other towns and much more.  One couple even used a Zipcar to drive to their honeymoon after getting married!

To use a Zipcar, you just become a member at zipcar.com/annarbor (if you are affiliated with the UM, go to zipcar.com/umich).  When you become a member, you’ll get a special credit-card sized zipcard in the mail.  Then, all you have to do is go on the Zipcar website, reserve a car when you want to use it, go to the car and tap your zipcard on the windshield.

When the doors open, hop inside, grab the keys (they are already in the car) and go about your business.  Need gas?  Every Zipcar has a gascard inside that you can use at any gas station to fill up the tank.  Hourly rates for Zipcars are as low as $8 an hour, and that includes the gas and 180 free miles!

Here are just a few reasons to become a member of Zipcar Ann Arbor

If you’re ready to try something new, visit zipcar.com/annarbor and sign up to be a Zipcar member today!

Attention Current Zipcar Members:

Help us think up more Old Way/New Way concepts.  We’ll be tweeting Old Way/New Way ideas (and putting them on our getDowntown Facebook page) throughout the month of January.   Share your ideas by tweeting, commenting on our page and posting to our blog.

Last week, US News and World Report announced something that many of us knew already: Ann Arbor is a great town for people who want short commutes. Fifteen cities were profiled where the population was greater than 50,000 people and where the commute times were less than the national average of 24.4 minutes. Ann Arbor came out fifth on the list for percentage of non-car commuters, at 27.5%. Cambridge MA had the highest percentage of non-car commuters at 58%, while both Ann Arbor and Boulder CO had the shortest commute times, at 18.4 minutes.

This acknowledgment that commute times are short is important to note. Who doesn’t want to live in a city where they have to spend less time getting to and home from work? The statistics on how people commute to work are significant as well. getDowntown conducted a survey with Survey Sciences Group this year and downtown employers and employees were polled about their commuting habits.

The majority of respondents, 24.7%, stating they commuted between .5 and 2 miles one way to work. This survey also found that 38.6% of downtown commuters use a sustainable option (bike, walk, carpool, bus, etc) to get to work each day. That is considerably higher than the 27.5% noted in the article. This disparity between our survey and the one noted in the US News and World Report article makes sense: they focused on the entire city, while this survey focused on the downtown. So many  people who work downtown also choose to live close to downtown.

It was also interesting to note that 13 out of the 15 cities listed had a northern climate. Waiting at the bus stop, biking or just walking to work might seem uncomfortable in the cold weather but a considerable amount of Americans in other cities with climates like ours do it too. Keep this in mind as you wait for the bus – the one you didn’t have to scrape the windshield of, warm up or dig out of a snow drift – this winter.

This leads to the question: did you make a choice about where you chose to live because of your commute to work?

A final blog post from Patti Smith, who attempted to use her car less this summer . . .

Well! Another summer almost at an end! At the beginning of the summer, I aimed for an almost car-free season. While I didn’t do as well as I wanted, I still did better than I thought I would.

Things I learned:

• One of the main issues with taking the bus or riding a bike is that you have plan well. For instance, we had a party in July and I rode my bike to the store to get what we needed. An hour before guests were to arrive, I noticed that I needed one more ingredient. My choices were either to not have the ingredient (which would have meant less food), ride my bike and get back to my house after guests arrived or drive my car. I drove my car and grabbed what I needed. Next time, I will be more prepared.

• One needs a lot of time when traveling by bike or bus. This is probably quite obvious, but I never really thought about it prior to my summer experiment. Fortunately for me, the #5 bus stops almost right in front of my house. Unfortunately, I have lousy timing and always seemed to just miss it. Fortunately, another one would come by soon, but it still would delay me a bit.

• Health issues can wreak havoc on one’s best intentions. For the past two years or so, I’ve been plagued by profound fatigue. I finally found a doctor who wanted to help me and I learned that I have something called sleep hypopnea. Now that I have my CPAP machine, I am not so tired. But before that, I would think about riding my bike somewhere and just feel so exhausted that it was not possible for me. This, along with lifelong asthma, sometimes thwarted my plans.

Some triumphs:

• I had many “car free” days this summer. I even had one stretch where I didn’t drive my car for three or four days. I missed driving it, but I was kind of happy to give the car a little break.
• I rode my bike more than I thought I would, including a fairly long ride out to the beer fest in Ypsilanti. I also walked a number of times, including a few walks from downtown to my house (over 3 miles—feels like 12 in the hot sun).
• I found that I kind of like the bus. It has air conditioning and is fun for people watching.

All in all, I didn’t do too badly. Next summer, I hope that my sleep issues will be resolved (or at least still under control) and I may do better. I have had a blast blogging for Get Downtown and I want to thank my friend, Nancy Shore, for giving me the opportunity. My next goal is ride my bike, at least a little, throughout the fall and winter. So if you see a brunette slipping and sliding along Packard Road, that may very well be me!

See you on the roads!!

A kind reader sent me the follow graphic that shows you just how much CO2 is emitted depending on how you commute and/or the type of transportation you use:

Makes sense that walking and biking would be the least emitting, but it is interesting to see how much capacity matters with the other modes.  The more you can pack people into a bus or railcar, the more environmentally sound it is.  It’s also interesting to see that the Prius is a pretty good option and would be even better if you decided to carpool in a Prius.

It would be interesting do to the same sort of graphic for cost or time, which people also think about when commuting or using a mode of transportation.

If I were to do the quick and dirty cost calculation, here’s what I would have for downtown Ann Arbor:

Most Expensive to Least Expensive Ways  Get to Work in Downtown A2 (note, car cost calculations based on this calc and a 20 mile commute)

• Car/SUV solo driver driving downtown (Around $950/ month or more with gas, parking, wear and tear, etc.)
• Car/SUV carpool driving downtown (There is preferential parking downtown at half price so around $870/month)
• Car/SUV driving to an AATA Park and Ride Lot without a go!pass (around $840/month)
• Car/SUV driving to an AATA Park and Ride Lot with a go!pass (around $800/month for gas, wear and tear, etc)
• Moped/Motorcycle driving downtown (not sure the other costs, but the parking would be free, I think it would fit here)
• Taking the bus to work without a go!pass ($40/month)
• Biking to work (about $5/month or more if you get a yearly tune-up, need to get tires, etc.
• Taking the bus to work with a go!pass ($0/month) or Walking to work ($0/month or more if you want nice shoes)

I recently listened to a podcast that got me thinking about where children play.  In the podcast, James Howard Kunstler discusses the effects of suburban sprawl on childhood obesity.   If you think about the typical suburban community, like the one I grew up in in Maryland, the play areas for children are often created exclusively for playing.   I clearly remember the “playground” inside a local mall.  I’m sure many of you have play structures in your neighborhoods.

Oftentimes, parents take their children to these spaces because they are percieved as safe and comfortable.  They are specifically for children and allow kids to do something in a kid-safe environment.  This is also a reason why many families move out to the suburbs once they have kids.  Since downtowns don’t have play structures, they aren’t really supposed to be for kids, right?

But here’s the challenge and how I link it back to childhood obesity.  In addition to play structures in many neighborhoods in Ann Arbor, there have also been the creation of other place spaces that can pretty much only be gotten to by driving.   Think about Jungle Java for example, where kids can play while their parents sip coffee.  I know of two of these play spaces.  One is on Jackson after Wagner and the other is on Washtenaw.  Both locations are not very friendly to walking or biking.  So rather than kids being able to just walk to a place to play, they have to be driven to that place.  This is kind of how people who want to work out will drive 10 miles to go to the gym.

Here again is an interesting example of segregating uses for development.  Instead of everything being mixed into one community, so you can play, eat, shop, work, work-out, etc. in one place, all of those uses are spread apart so that you are encouraged to drive from one destination to the other.  And this could defintely make it harder to get the kinds of exercise that can keep all of us fit.  I’m talking about the little bits of exercise you get when you live in a walkable place where walking/biking is just a way to get around.

But here’s the challenge, suppose we want to encourage kids to be able to walk to places where they can place.  Since downtown Ann Arbor seems to be very walkable . . . how do we design places like downtown Ann Arbor in a way that is both friendly for kids and adults?  Do we actually need to do anything different?  Can kids “play” just fine without a specific place for them to do so?   Or do parents feel like downtown Ann Arbor would be a bad place to raise a child because of the lack of schools and other things kids need?

I guess the reason I am bringing all of this up is that I often hear that downtowns (including downtown Ann Arbor) are not good for families because they lack the type of spaces that families need.  But then many of these families move out to the suburbs and are forced to drive everywhere including to drop kids off at daycare, to go on play dates, etc.  Not only does this cut down on exercise, but it also takes time . . . time that could be spent in a community.

The more I look at these different issues, the more I see how important it is to create walkable spaces with a variety of uses that allow everyone–from a small child, to a teenager, to an adult, to a senior–to get around without having to drive.  It just seems to make sense.  But development still hasn’t caught up.  I wonder if other people feel the same way.

[another post from Patti who's blogging for us this summer.  Read her other posts here and here.]

I am one of those people who will always drive to work. There are many reasons for this, namely that teacher jobs are extremely scarce (between 200-10,000 applications per position), I actually want to teach in the district I’m in and, and perhaps most importantly, I tend to burn bridges when I leave a job. If I worked where I live, then I could feasibly run into someone who I once worked with and that would be awkward, to say the least. Also, I need at least a half hour to morph from MorningPatti into TeacherPatti.

Commuting is not a dirty word, nor should it be given the vast amounts of people who drive to work. One of the reasons that I asked my pal Nancy if I could blog for her was that I wanted to encourage other folks who drive to work to just do what you can. If you can’t walk to work, you can still easily be a responsible, environmentally-minded citizen, to wit, you can:

• Use alternative transportation for errands and other after-work events. This is what I have been doing much of this summer. Hop on the bus, walk or ride your bike to the drug store or the restaurant or the pub.
• Use alternative transportation on weekends or have “car free” days. On the weekends, my husband and I usually only use one car and sometimes no cars. You also get the joy of spending time with your loved one, as you drag him to the market, the food co-op, the pet store and a million other places he rarely visits on his own.
• Plot out your errands. On my way home from work, I will often do my errands so that my car (and the exhaust it would put out) can “sleep” and get itself ready for the next day. On weekends, I will plan my errands so that I can do them in one fell swoop and I try to stay to one side of town.
• If you are someone who walks to work or doesn’t drive far, please don’t be rude or condescending. I have had dozens people from Ann Arbor express dismay, outrage or just astonishment that I “commute” (and they always say “commute” like they are saying “smelly putrid underwear” and I must give props…no one from Ypsilanti, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea or any of the Detroit suburbs has ever given me grief). Please remember that jobs are gone in an instant these days and you too might, one day, end up in a car driving for an hour or two.
• Don’t beat yourself up! Just do what you can. We didn’t get into this climate change/peak oil mess overnight and we won’t get out of overnight either. Repeat to yourself: “do what you can” and you will probably be able to do more than you think!