By Laurel Hoyt, Post Carbon Cities Program Staff

One of the most daunting things about preparing for climate and energy uncertainty - apart from the uncertainty bit - is that the most necessary actions are not additions to what we already do, but systemic changes. What's at stake is the status quo, so there's going to be a lot of inertia. People are invested in the status quo because it's what they know about how the world works; it's their job, their house, their comfort zone.

Despite that, the past century has been full of examples of rapid shifts in the status quo: highways crisscrossed the land; radio and television changed communications. Women gained suffrage and entered the workforce. Casual clothing became acceptable in many workplaces. The Internet appeared and rapidly made itself practically indispensable. Our society has in some sense adapted to adapting, although we will always see defenders of the status quo.

There was great dismay in the bike world back in August when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters claimed on national television that bikes are not transportation. People quibbled about whether she meant bike trails or bike lanes, whether recreational transportation counts as transportation. It is hard to quibble, however, with the assertion that few in the U.S. see bicycling as a viable form of transportation, where a mere 0.38% of work commutes were made by bicycle in 2000. This is the way things are.

But there's a growing consensus that this statistic is not the natural and preordained way of things, but instead springs from an infrastructure that is not built for bikes. What's more, some places are working to change that. We recently posted a news article about how London is encouraging students to bike to school, which will both reduce traffic and create a new generation of cyclists. Bogotá has cicloparqueaderos - secure bike parking facilities - to help integrate cycling with their public transportation system. New York City has a promising new separated bike lane and is getting ready to try out new bicycle parking amenities. While none of these are quite as impressive as the 1/3 of Copenhagen's transportation infrastructure spending that's devoted to bike infrastructure, it seems like a cultural change that's gathering inertia of its own. Human-powered transportation not only helps address widespread environmental and public health concerns, but is more resilient in the face of energy constraint. We need to shift our basic definition of transportation.

A cicloparqueadero in Bogotá makes bikes part of the public transportation network.

Another promising challenge to the status quo is a plan that's been proposed here in Portland, Oregon. Instead of viewing energy-efficient features in a building as an added-on, special feature, the plan calls for fees on buildings that merely meet code for energy efficiency, rewarding builders who go beyond what's required:

For new homes, offices, retail centers and multifamily housing:

• Builders would be charged a fee if construction meets Oregon building code for energy efficiency.
• Builders could avoid fee by producing a building 30 percent more energy efficient than code requires.
• Builders could get cash back from the city for making a building at least 45 percent more efficient than code.

This plan, if enacted, is a clear statement that things need to be done differently, and by gum, they will be. Of course builders are pushing back, and understandably so. They want to be able to do their job as they always have. But learning new ways to build and maintain buildings could lead to even more jobs in the future, new skills for Americans.

That is, if we remain ready to adapt.

Cicloparqueadero photo thanks to Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog

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