Popular Denver e-bike voucher program aids carbon reduction goals

Denver’s e-bike voucher program that helps citizens pay for e-bikes, a component of the city’s carbon reduction plan, has proven extremely popular with residents.

Earlier this year, Denver’s effort to get residents to swap some motor vehicle trips for bike trips ran out of vouchers in less than 10 minutes after the program opened to online applications. In its third year, the program is generating impressive momentum to spur more adoption of bicycle transportation. The city estimates that the subsidies are helping to eliminate 170,000 vehicle miles traveled per week.

A key to this growth has been considerable investment in bike infrastructure. Over the past five years, the city added 137 miles of “high-comfort” bike lanes.

This year, it launched the Denver Mobility Incentive Program that includes grants to nonprofits and other organizations to install bike storage lockers, places to plug in, and e-bike libraries so that residents can borrow bikes at no cost. If rolled out nationwide, efforts to convert car trips to bike trips could yield significant carbon emissions reductions, according to Rocky Mountain Institute.

If the country’s 10 most populous cities shifted a quarter of all short vehicle trips to e-bike rides, they could save 4.2 million barrels of oil and 1.8 million metric tons of CO2 in one year, RMI says.

Since early 2020, Americans have been forced to sequester themselves in their homes with outdoor activities, in most cases, being the sole respite for social distancing. And many of people are going back to the basics with a quintessential outdoor activity: biking. Bike sales absolutely skyrocketed during the pandemic, growing by 69% in 2020.

Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021

Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]

New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.

Nelson Mandela Park green space in Rotterdam

Urban Planning | May 3, 2021

SWA/Balsley unveils Nelson Mandela Park Master Plan for Rotterdam

The conceptual plan provides much-needed central neighborhood and civic open space in the city’s South Maashaven district.

The Weekly Show, Apr 29, 2021: COVID-19's impact on campus planning, and bird management strategies

University Buildings | Apr 29, 2021

The Weekly Show, April 29, 2021: COVID-19's impact on campus planning, and bird management strategies

This week on The Weekly show, BD+C Senior Editor John Caulfield interviews a duo of industry experts on 1) how campus planning has changed during the pandemic and 2) managing bird infestations on construction sites and completed buildings.