Streetfilms

Anyone who claims that bike-sharing is a European-style transportation innovation has clearly never set foot in Hangzhou, China. The 50,000-bike system in this southern China city of almost 7 million people (about 1.5 million people fewer than New York City) blows all other bike-shares off the map. As Bradley Schroeder of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said, "I don't think there is anywhere you can stand in Hangzhou for more than a minute or two where you wouldn't have a Hangzhou Public Bike go past you."

They say you can't be a prophet in your own land. I guess that's why Clarence had to move to Queens before the timing was right for tonight's blockbuster Streetfilms screening at the Brooklyn Museum.

Friday is National Bike to Work Day, and if you're looking for a little motivation to get on your bicycle, meet Lucette Gilbert. Lucette says she is in her "very late 70s" and biking since she was 7 years old. So, by my calculations, she has been riding a bike for some 70 years! She became a bike commuter in New York City during the 1980 transit strike and currently rides everywhere, including her daily trip to work from the Upper East Side to Union Square. Lucette's take on the state of bicycling in NYC: "People are not used to bicycles, but it's so heartwarming to see how many people are biking now."

Marcus Woollen has a great story to tell about what bicycling can do for your mind, body and spirit. Fifteen months ago, his doctors declared him obese, he decided he needed to get healthy and find a way to fit exercise into his busy schedule.

Brooklyn's Kimberly White is just finishing her freshman year of college, and she took some time away from studying for exams and writing papers to star in the second installment of Streetfilms' "My NYC Biking Story" series. Kimberly loves riding her red folding bike in Prospect Park, and she's also got the skills to fix it. She helped start an internship program at Recycle-A-Bicycle and has used that experience to encourage others to get in the saddle. The keynote speaker at the first annual Youth Bike Summit, Kimberly is now pursuing a career in environmental justice.

Over the last four years, New York City has seen a transportation renaissance on its streets, striking a better balance by providing more space for walking, biking, and transit.

To kick off Bike Month, Streetfilms is launching a new series today. "My NYC Biking Stories" will bring you short vignettes about people who ride in New York City. The subject of our first profile is Sarinya Srisakul, the city’s first female Asian-American firefighter. Sarinya is one of 31 women among FDNY's 11,000 uniformed officers and firefighters (comprising the largest fire department in the nation). She loves commuting on her bike from Elmhurst, Queens to work at Engine 5 in the East Village. Spend 90 seconds with her in our first bike month profile.

In the tenth and final video in Streetfilms' "Moving Beyond the Automobile" series, we are talking about parking reform. From doing away with mandatory parking minimums, to charging the right price for curbside parking, to converting on-street parking spots into parklets and bike corrals, cities are latching on to exciting new ideas to make more room for people and repurpose the valuable public space that lines our streets.

You might be shocked at how much traffic consists of drivers who have already arrived at their destination but find themselves cruising the streets, searching for an open parking spot. In some city neighborhoods, cruising makes up as much as 40 percent of all traffic. All this unnecessary traffic slows down buses, endangers cyclists and pedestrians, delays other motorists, and produces harmful emissions. The key to eliminating it is to get the price of parking right.