Bicycling is a key ingredient in Honolulu’s transportation future

What do bicycles, microprocessor architecture and smart cities have to do with each other?

I pose this question in observance of May as National Bike Month, this week as Bike to Work Week and this Friday as Bike to Work Day.

My background is in software and technology. Many of you are probably familiar with Moore’s Law, an observation relating to integrated circuits, that the density in the number of transistors that can physically be arrayed on a microchip (reflecting computing power) doubles every two years. Advancing semiconductor technology has proven Moore’s Law to be correct for almost 50 years.

I recently attended the 50th anniversary of the computer science department at Stanford University where one topic of discussion was that we were nearing the end of Moore’s Law. Hardware architects need to think differently about how they approach computation if they want to solve harder problems.

Our cities are facing the same kind of limit on physical space. Especially our city of Hono-lulu. It used to be that as our city grew and urban activity increased, we could add physical capacity to the road system, particularly by building or striping more lanes of traffic. But as we all saw with the recent Zipper Lane fiasco, those solutions are starting to show their limitations.

If we are going to create a city that allows everyone to move freely between work, family and recreation, we must think differently about how we approach transportation.

So bike to work this Friday, or bike to work all week. From 7 to 9 a.m. Friday, Hawaii Bicycling League (HBL) volunteers will be handing out coffee, snacks and aloha at Energizer stations at Thomas Square park along the King Street Cycle Track and at the Neal Blaisdell Park in Aiea along the Pearl Harbor Bike Path. Stop by on your bicycle commute and connect with a neighbor. Then after work Friday, join HBL at Kakaako Agora for the Bike Month Pau Hana, which will feature bicycle-themed activities from raffles to bike valet, movies and music to a presentation from two cyclists pedaling around the world.

As drivers, understanding the experience of a bicyclist is critical to envisioning a mobility future that serves all of us. And rethinking transportation is precisely the aim of an upcoming Memorial Day Weekend hackathon called Reboot the Commute. We all have a stake in smarter and more effective transportation solutions. Reboot the Commute is the community’s chance to be a part of creating those solutions.

One doesn’t have to be a technologist or an urban planner to participate; just be invested in the idea of creating a better transportation future for Hawaii, be willing to listen and work toward feasible solutions, and — most importantly — be inspired to imagine and propose the bold changes that will improve all of our lives.

Bicycles are just one piece of the puzzle, but with systems like bikeshare coming to Honolulu in 2016, they will have a huge impact. Let’s all take this opportunity to understand bicycles and turn that understanding into solutions.

If there’s a bike in your life, or if you’ve ever considered getting involved with one, now is the time to participate.

Sure, bicycling has health benefits, ranging from checking off the physical activity box for the week, to reducing depression and alleviating stress. It creates environmental benefits by removing cars from the road and subsequently, carbon emissions from the atmosphere. The economy benefits as bicyclists stop and shop more frequently. And, bicycling enriches the community as bicyclists can stop and have conversations.

But more important, understanding bicycles and the people on them is absolutely critical for our success as a community. Bicycles are a key ingredient in our transportation future.

Ben Trevino is president of Bikeshare Hawaii, a public-private partnership to bring bikeshare services to communities around Hawaii.