Mia Birk talk at TEDx Portland

Notes from Mia Birk's talk on bike planning and community.

Mia Birk

Alta Planning + Design

• Bike Planning
• In Texas, my mom marches me down to the DMV on my 15th birthday to get my driver’s license. 
• At age 21, packing for grad school in Washington, DC.
• My brother suggests “take my bike”
• “Miss Environmentalist, why don’t you get off your lazy ass and maybe you won’t be so fat”
• Sibling rivalry inspired her to do it.
• She did, lost weight, felt great.
• In Europe and Asian cities, where there was compact city design, bikes took off. Congestion went down.
• I wanted to transform American cities into biking cities.
• I landed the job of bicycle coordinator in Portland.
• For 100 years we organized our cities around the car. Land use, building design all oriented toward driving and cars.
• In 1993, few bikeways, few bikers, a culture oriented towards cars. You can’t even find the bike racks.
• Going to businesses, they couldn’t see the value of bike racks.
• Obesity epidemic: year by year has been growing massively. Had to create new categories of obesity. For the first time, we have a generation expected to live shorter than the generation previous.
• In 1996, the city council blessed the plan to make Portland a biking city.
• We shaved room off driving lanes, and occasionally traded a driving lane for two bike lanes.
• First one was the Burnside Bridge: traded one lane to get two bike lanes.
• Earl Blumeneur said “Don’t do it in secret, make it a celebration.”
• The night before, they painted the lanes. The next day they threw a party. 10,000 people came the next day to celebrate. 
• Backlash is normal: changing built infrastructure and habits is hard.
• By 2000 we had over 300 miles of bike lanes.
• Now consulting with cities across American. Thousands of people now living healthier lives.
• Business got it into it: 1 parking space equals 1 customer. 10 bike racks (in the same space) equals 20 customers.
• In 1993, about 1% of Portlanders were biking regularly. Now, in some neighborhoods it is as much as 30% of people biking.
• Less than 1% of Portland transportation budget. The same cost as 1 mile of freeway. Paid for all 300 miles of bike lanes and bike infrastructure.