by Felicity Stone
BCBusiness, Nov 2, 2015
(Image: Apartments built for bicycles could have ramps like 8 House in Copenhagen, designed by Bjarke Ingels. Courtesy of BCBusiness, photo by Wojtek Gurak)
Just as architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned cities planned around the car, today’s architects must do the same for bicycling, says architect, researcher and Cycle Space author Steven Fleming. Speaking at the Architectural Institute of British Columbia conference October 30, Fleming said replacing cars with bicycles is healthy for the cyclists and the planet, and since people in the developing world tend to emulate those in wealthier countries, it’s up to those at the top of the pyramid to set an example.
“The first thing you should do in terms of planning is to maximize the mode of maximum benefit to society,” says Fleming. “At the moment we maximize driving.” Most people will only agree to use bikes if bike transport becomes faster and more convenient than driving, but today the car has unfair advantage: the purpose-built driving city. Apart from Dubai, most didn’t start that way, and the purpose-built cycling city could also evolve piecemeal. Fleming suggests starting with the space not currently used by cars: underutilized grey fields and brown fields, strips of land that follow rail corridors and waterways where there could be bike tracks, or the land opened up by the removal of Vancouver’s viaducts. Read more…