My grant goes to the City of Portland Department of Transportation, Alta Planning and Design, and Bike Portland.
One of the highest priorities for sustainable living is oil-free transportation, and one of the best solutions is the bicycle. The best bicycling city in the world is Copenhagen, but as the blog Copenhagenize says, "Forty years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 55 percent of the population choose the bicycle."
Advocacy and teamwork can make it happen anywhere. Portland is the new hotspot; will you make your city next?
As Bike Portland reports, cycling rates in the city "showed a double-digit increase for the fourth straight year and that overall bike use in Portland shot up 28 percent between 2007 and 2008." Census reports say 3.5 percent of the city commutes by bike now (as opposed to the US national average of 0.4 percent.) Such astounding growth has even sparked local industry: the New York Times reported last year that Portland's bicycling industry has tripled or quadrupled in the last decade, creating hundreds of jobs. Some people have even moved house by bike. In the rain (it is Portland, after all)!
This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.
Photo credits: Flickr/jesse.millan, ilovemypit, Creative Commons License.
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