The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation unveiled their 20 year vision for bicycling in the area, highlighted by a vision that 50% of something would be done in some way.
Lots of confusion about 50%.
Brian, for example, wrote: "I support the vision they are selling and am strongly behind the goals they've set out to achieve: full access to public transit for bikes, 50% of trips by walking or biking, fewer crashes, etc. All very nice."
Except that I didn't think that was what they said. I heard two different things at various points in th meeting.
So, I checked the vision. In terms of what "50%" means, it's much more modest. "We envision a region where 50% of the population IS EASILY ABLE TO CHOOSE walking, bicycling, and utilizing mass transit." (emphasis added).
Some questions:
1. No baseline is provided. What's it now?
2. I personally would argue that about 99% of the population is currently ABLE to choose walking, bicycling, and utilizing mass transit. In fact, in the course of a year I would guess that over 50% of the population currently MAKES at least one trip by one of these methods.
3. So what does this 50% actually mean? CBF may have an explicit baseline and definition somewhere else. This might be a good thing to clarify in future communications.
The CBF vision.
Update: Rob Sadowsky, CBF executive director, replied: "We indeed mean that the actual mode share is 50% not just the choice. Sorry for the confusion."
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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