Climate Smart Missoula

  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Our Story
    • Annual Report
    • People + Partners >
      • Smarty Pants Awards
    • In the News >
      • Missoula Current Column
      • Summer Smart News
      • Press Releases
    • Podcast
    • Jobs and Opportunities
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
  • Adaptation
    • Overview
    • Summer Smart >
      • Active Fires
      • Hotter Days and Nights >
        • Heat + Health Risks
        • Prepare for Heat
        • Shade
      • Drought and Low Flows
      • Shareable Products
      • Partners and Supporters
    • Wildfire Smoke >
      • HEPA Air Filtration
      • Improving Indoor Air Quality
      • Clean Air-Healthy Homes
      • Clean Air for Schools & Daycares
      • Pregnancy + Infants and Smoke
      • Older Adults and Wildfire Smoke
    • Resiliency Planning
    • Health and Climate >
      • Mental Health
    • Art and Humanities
    • Adaptation Resources
  • Mitigation
    • Overview >
      • 2015 Action Plan
      • Community Emissions Inventories
    • 100 % Clean Electricity
    • Solar >
      • Solar Ease
    • Buildings 4 the Future >
      • Electrify + B4F
      • Energy Smart
      • Workforce Coalition
    • Transportation + Smart Growth >
      • Land Use Planning
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Electric Bikes
      • Electric Buses
    • Financing
    • Zero Waste
    • Water Overview >
      • Water and Energy
      • Water and Resiliency
    • Mitigation Resources
  • Get Involved
    • Calendar
    • State Legislature 2023
    • Connect with us >
      • Volunteer Opportunities
      • Visualizing Climate
      • Climate Venn Diagram
    • Accelerate Clean Energy with the IRA
    • Act, Advocate, Invest
    • Clean Energy Expo
    • Footprint Fund
  • The Science
    • Overview
    • Climate Justice >
      • Justice and Indigenous Knowledge
    • Localized Impacts >
      • Specific Local Impacts
    • What We're Doing
  • Donate
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Our Story
    • Annual Report
    • People + Partners >
      • Smarty Pants Awards
    • In the News >
      • Missoula Current Column
      • Summer Smart News
      • Press Releases
    • Podcast
    • Jobs and Opportunities
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
  • Adaptation
    • Overview
    • Summer Smart >
      • Active Fires
      • Hotter Days and Nights >
        • Heat + Health Risks
        • Prepare for Heat
        • Shade
      • Drought and Low Flows
      • Shareable Products
      • Partners and Supporters
    • Wildfire Smoke >
      • HEPA Air Filtration
      • Improving Indoor Air Quality
      • Clean Air-Healthy Homes
      • Clean Air for Schools & Daycares
      • Pregnancy + Infants and Smoke
      • Older Adults and Wildfire Smoke
    • Resiliency Planning
    • Health and Climate >
      • Mental Health
    • Art and Humanities
    • Adaptation Resources
  • Mitigation
    • Overview >
      • 2015 Action Plan
      • Community Emissions Inventories
    • 100 % Clean Electricity
    • Solar >
      • Solar Ease
    • Buildings 4 the Future >
      • Electrify + B4F
      • Energy Smart
      • Workforce Coalition
    • Transportation + Smart Growth >
      • Land Use Planning
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Electric Bikes
      • Electric Buses
    • Financing
    • Zero Waste
    • Water Overview >
      • Water and Energy
      • Water and Resiliency
    • Mitigation Resources
  • Get Involved
    • Calendar
    • State Legislature 2023
    • Connect with us >
      • Volunteer Opportunities
      • Visualizing Climate
      • Climate Venn Diagram
    • Accelerate Clean Energy with the IRA
    • Act, Advocate, Invest
    • Clean Energy Expo
    • Footprint Fund
  • The Science
    • Overview
    • Climate Justice >
      • Justice and Indigenous Knowledge
    • Localized Impacts >
      • Specific Local Impacts
    • What We're Doing
  • Donate

Climate Smart Missoula's Blog

Let's build up our bike culture!

6/24/2020

1 Comment

 
Longer days with more sunshine have me reflecting on my years spent in Denmark where the sun would stay up well past 11pm this time of year and never fully set. Riding my bike down to the harbor in the evening for a swim, I was flanked by hundreds of Copenhageners using the city’s extensive protected bikeway to commute home after work, pick up their kids in a cargo bike or head down to the harbor to take a dip for themselves. Even as an avid bike commuter, it was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I quickly felt like a part of the community and fell in love with the biking culture there. Any time of year the bike lanes are filled with people riding the green wave – a system of cycle traffic lights that are coordinated in such a way that if you ride ~12mph you’ll catch green lights all the way during rush hour.
Picture
Image: Mikael Colville-Andersen, flickr
Copenhagen wasn’t always a cyclist’s haven and it didn’t happen overnight. A switch from being car-centric to emphasizing bikes and public transit was jump started in the 1970’s by a combination of the oil crisis and a growing environmental awareness. In an effort to relieve the stress on oil supplies, the City instituted Car Free Sundays and the Cyclist’s Federation held huge demonstrations demanding a car-free city. Planners and government agencies saw the value in transforming the city’s infrastructure and began changing policies and taking space once used for cars to build pedestrian only streets and wide, protected cycle lanes to improve safety. From 1982 – 2001 every budget had funds allocated to cycle path construction and improving existing infrastructure. Today, they have bicycle superhighways that connect 28 municipalities in the Capital Region complete with bridges dedicated solely to bike traffic, an integrated traffic light system, and ample bike parking. Bike traffic has risen by 68% in the last 20 years, over 60% of the population commutes to work and school by bike, and bikes outnumber cars.
Picture
Image: u/Richmond33, reddit
Now I’m a Missoulian and biking is my favorite way to experience this town.  I wonder what it would be like if there were less cars and more people on bikes with me and how to make that dream a reality. 

Like Copenhagen, Missoula is making incremental changes to improve our infrastructure and foster a culture of active and sustainable commuting.  Every 4 years the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) establishes regional goals, projects, and investment strategies through a Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) update. This year they’re developing Missoula Connect 2050: Missoula LRTP based on goals established in 2016, the existing conditions of our transportation system and our feedback as community members.

I’ve found Missoula Connect to be an incredibly useful tool for familiarizing myself with the sustainable transportation network in Missoula, envisioning the future, and guiding our growth as a community towards safer, more active, and more equitable transportation options.

Picture
Right now, the MPO is entering phase 2 of Missoula Connect. If you took the values survey, your feedback was used by MPO planners to develop preliminary goals and desired outcomes for the future of our transportation infrastructure:
​

 (1) Improve safety and promote health to enhance quality of life, (2) advance sustainability and climate resilience to protect natural and historic resources (3) expand mobility choices to improve efficiency and accessibility, (4) connect and strengthen communities to create a more equitable region, (5) maintain assets and invest strategically to boost economic vitality.

 Via a citizen advisory committee, we discussed these goals at length, working with other community organizations to ensure they reflect our call for an equitable and resilient community with improved access to sustainable transportation options. Now it’s time to make sure you feel the same. Then we’ll figure out the best ways to meet them. Can you take this short values survey to make sure your voice is heard?

 Another way to get involved and a major part of phase 2 is identifying specific projects like improving walkability in a neighborhood by adding a sidewalk or safer crossing, creating a bike lane, adding a bus stop to a route, expanding bus service hours, performing road maintenance, etc. You can participate using the interactive map or online form to submit project ideas by June 30th. Our page on transportation and smart growth has more information on the relationship between transportation and climate change and how we can act, advocate, and assist for a healthier and more resilient future.

Happy biking!
Alli Kane

1 Comment
James Brown link
11/12/2022 10:52:14 am

Happy exactly story system rich. Beyond wonder it.
Last either worry drug.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    Abby Huseth
    ​Amy Cilimburg
    Caroline Lauer
    Mason Dow
    ​Kelli Littleton
    Hailey Jorgensen
    ​Terri Nichols
    ​Max Longo
    ​Mattie Lehman
    Anna Weinberg

    Archives

    March 2023
    January 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016

    Categories

    All
    Bicycling
    Clean Energy
    Climate Change
    Climate Resiliency
    Community
    DearTomorrow
    Earth Day
    Electrification
    Energy Efficiency
    Food Systems
    Forestry
    Health
    Heat
    Inflation Reduction Act
    Local Food And Agriculture
    Monthly Meetups
    Policy
    Recycling
    Renewable Energy
    Shade
    Smart Growth
    Solar
    Summer Smart
    Transportation
    Trees
    Urban Forests
    Volunteer Opportunities
    Water
    Zero Waste

    RSS Feed

Connect with us! 

Picture
Picture
Picture

Sign Up For Our E-News

* indicates required