Bicycle Victoria, a self-funded community organisation, has been working with the
Victorian Department of Transport to integrate infrastructure for bicycle
riders with the public transport network in Melbourne.
As
a result, the Department of Transport has recently rolled out free, undercover
bike parking cages at stations across Victoria. Secure
access is provided by a card system and movements in and out of the cages are
electronically monitored. As a card holder (there is a $50 deposit for the
security card), members are allowed to park their bike for free in the secure undercover
lockups at any of the participating stations.
A car park upgrade has recently been carried out at Berwick Railway Station, with
provision of an additional 300 parking spaces and a secure bike cage.
Indeed,
our favourite green site, TreeHugger, has been recently championing the cause
of commuting by bike. They published an article this week which explored one
person’s assessment of the numbers (finances) and savings involved in switching
from car to bike over a two month period. You can read the article in full
here, but there were several items worth highlighting (please note US currency
and imperial figures):
$47
saving in gasoline expenses and the equivalent of $457 in fixed costs for a
total savings of $471.49 when accounting for bus costs.
Burned
22,356 calories which if one had been eating a normal diet is the equivalent of
6.4 pounds of fat!
543
pounds of carbon dioxide have been kept out of the atmosphere (19.546 lbs per
gallon based on a car that gets an average of 21 MPG).
Simply multiplying these numbers for the year would equal 3260 pounds of CO2 kept out of the atmosphere, $2542 dollars saved, 134,000 calories burned, and 38.3 pounds of fat. If one had a car loan payment for a $20,000 [car] the savings jumps to $7900!
These are quite astounding numbers! They are definitely “food for thought” in considering your site’s overall transportation plan and the value of providing alternative options to your tenants, visitors and other stakeholders!
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