On 6/30/2018 12:57 PM, Joerg wrote:

It is sad when people say "Oh, if we can't be like Amsterdam, let's
forget about all that and do nothing". My hope is that such people will
never make it into public office.

I'm sure that there are already some people like that in public office.
The reality is that to "make America into Amsterdam" is not possible,
there are too many differences. We can (and have) accomplished increased
bicycle mode-share in specific areas, but even in those areas the steps
needed to move to the next level are occurring slowly, if at all.

Separated infrastructure is a big part of it, and in one sense the
easiest part. Implementing incentives to bike are easier to implement
than disincentives to drive. Disincentives to drive would be Europe-like
fuel prices, no more free parking at residential, commercial, and retail
locations, higher vehicle license fees, and per-mile fees. These
disincentives are unlikely to happen in all but the most dense cities.

In San Jose, the downtown Safeway, and other nearby establishments, were
forced to end validated free parking due to a change in ownership of the
attached parking garage. It has already caused lost business to some
places, and at least one has closed. If you're in a car, you'll drive a
short distance to other, often better, stores and restaurants if the
parking cost is excessive
https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/07/20/why-downtown-san-jose-shoppers-lost-this-validated-parking/.
I would sometimes buy something at that Safeway just to get the
validated free parking when having to go to downtown for a short time,
so it actually produced business for the Safeway that they otherwise
would not have received.

One thing that is occurring is that cities are allowing businesses to
provide less parking than would normally be required in exchange for a
commitment to reduce solo vehicle use. The businesses are providing cash
incentives to employees to not drive, and they are significant. Combine
$5 a day cash incentive with free transit passes and free vanpools and
they are seeing a huge reduction in solo vehicle travel. There's a big
benefit to the businesses as well. Parking garages cost about $50,000
per space so $5 a day translates to 10,000 days, or about 30 years (not
counting maintenance and operation. Plus the land that would have been
used for a parking lot, or parking garage, can now be used for revenue
producing buildings. However this scheme only works when there are
viable alternatives to driving. Bicycling is one such alternative but
you need the infrastructure. Transit is another alternative. The main
user of this program so far has been Stanford. It works well there
because employee schedules at the university and the hospital are pretty
well fixed, there is good bicycle infrastructure, and good mass transit
available.