While I was doing environmental activism in central Florida back when the Earth was young, a developer tried to build a "walkable" community on a river flood plain. The idea seemed good, the location was ridiculous---but the land was cheap. The guy did what it took (use your imagination) to get the various zoning variances needed ... but guess what? No One Walks. The store might only be a five-minute walk down the road---but it is only a three-minute drive, and the car has tunes and air conditioning.
Social engineering projects like this are well-meaning, but as stand-alones, they are meaningless. So long as these housing units (or neighborhoods) are stuck in the middle of a de facto auto-only society, most people still need cars.
Last weekend I did a couple jobs---one in town and one out of town. I carried all my gear on my bicycle for the in-town job---basically fully loaded touring. It was a trial hauling all the gear by bike, but it would have been less easy to use the car and walk back and forth all day---and that would have wasted time, too.
For the other job, I Could have taken the bike---but it would have added many, many hours of commuting time, and cost a corresponding amount of energy, and I would have spent even more time and energy getting around to different parts of the spread-out job site, and probably wouldn't have been able to complete the job successfully in the time allotted. That is the second time I have used my car this year, and i think the third time since last April. But ... I wouldn't be "car-free" so I couldn't live in this unit?
"Kate Drabinski, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County professor who has commuted by bike for a decade, said she’s already noticed an uptick in riders on Baltimore’s streets since the city began adding protected lanes in recent years. Every morning, the 43-year-old Charles Village resident rides about three miles to the University of Maryland Medical Center downtown where she locks her bike and catches a shuttle to her office." Having been car-free or car-light almost forever ... yeah. How many mass-transit routes, how many have room on the bus/train/tram for how many bikes, how many safe lock-ups at mass-transit hubs? I take it the shuttle is on-campus ... nice when you have that option.
"Paff also worked on Port Covington in South Baltimore, the planned mixed-use community where developers have already built protected bike lanes. Those lanes, however, remain cut off from the rest of the city." Exactly. Until the whole city moves comprehensively, tiny individual efforts fail. Bikes become a limit rather than an outlet to healthier, happier commuting.
Here's the bike ($500 retail):
https://www.prioritybicycles.com/pro...iorityclassic2 Three-speed IGH and belt drive----but the belt is exposed, so it is still a hazard for people riding in dress pants or skirts. (How much would a chain guard have cost?) Front hand-brake, rear coaster brake. No baskets, no rack, nowhere to put panniers (though all the frames seem to have tapped holes for racks. I guess adding a rear rack at $30 apiece was over budget?)
For $550 one can get vee-brakes. (
https://www.prioritybicycles.com/products/thegotham) For $650, a 7-speed IGH. For $1100, a Nuvinci rear hub, dynamo front hub, and Tektro hydro discs. (
https://www.prioritybicycles.com/products/continuumonyx)
Sorry, but it sounds to me a lot more like an advertising gimmick than a real attempt to change commuting habits. "Everyone is doing a $500 move-in special. How can we stand out from the crowd?" "We'll offer a $500 bicycle! In bulk they will only cost $300 so we actually come out ahead!"
Who knows? In a few years we might see a follow-up article .. but based on what I have seen elsewhere, in five years there will be two slots in the parking lot full of abandoned bikes and everyone will have at least one car.