In
Porter Square, outside of the building that houses Healthworks Gym and
CVS Pharmacy, there is a thin row of shrubs surrounded by concrete. On
one side there is a parking lot, and the other a sidewalk. To get from
the bike rack, or parking lot, to the entrance of the building one must
pass these small shrubs. If you aren’t paying attention you might miss
them.
Last fall I parked my back in the rack almost everyday and walked
to the entrance of the gym. At first I diligently passed around the
shrubbery, but slowly I became a creature of convenience and hopped
over the shrubs instead. Soon I noticed footprints between the plants;
wear and erosion followed. Shortly thereafter the plants weren’t doing
well; the slight missteps here and there and the compaction of their
soil began to take a toll.
In order to go around the shrubbery, rather than through it, one
would have to add a total of no more than about five to ten extra steps
to an already short walk. Nonetheless, with frost and cold nipping at
my toes, I found myself forgetting my vow not to walk over the shrubs
anymore. Sometimes I remember them as an afterthought and whispered
apologies behind my quickly moving legs.
This fall a protective railing appeared around the shrubs. It is
simple, black, unobtrusive, and incredibly effective. The plants are
thriving. People walk around them all day. All is, comparatively, well
for this urban vegetation. We just needed a little guidance to get out
of our bad habits and let life bloom.
Like the guide-rail in Porter Square, Andrew Brown, founder and
CEO of the New Amsterdam Project (or NAP as it is fondly called), is
hoping to guide the habits of the future, but he is thinking beyond
shrubbery.
A bicyclist since the age of four, Andrew has always dreamed of a
city built around a cycling infrastructure. Having lived in the
original “New Amsterdam,” or New York City, for much of his life Andrew
proclaims an innate dislike for cars.
“I have never understood why anyone would want to drive a car in
a city. It is just a complete mystery to me. I’ve never enjoyed cars.”
He said, while seated on the plush couch of his new showroom on Oxford
and Sacramento streets in Cambridge. “Automobiles are killing us
emotionally and physically.”
Andrew knows what he is talking about. As a physician and an
active community member he has seen, first hand, the problems that a
“car culture” has helped to create. Andrew cites obesity, stress, and
anger, as just a few of the symptoms that driving cars induces.
Enter the New Amsterdam Project: a business that aims to “replace
internal-combustion vehicles in North America with human-powered
vehicles to build stronger, more resilient, and self-reliant
communities.” Through the showroom in Cambridge, as well as through
outreach to businesses in the community, the New Amsterdam Project
wants to provide people with alternatives.
“One of the projects we are working on, that I am really excited
about, is removing small trucks from the road. And with the $100 barrel
of oil just around the corner this is sounding more and more possible.
We want to take many of the delivery jobs that are out there and make
them healthier – we can transform the work experience.”
Andrew explained that the current focus of their “small truck
project” is on deliveries that happen within the city: dry cleaning,
food, carpenters, and products that are on their “last mile.” So, if
food were delivered to the Boston area from say, Lincoln Massachusetts,
and needed to be distributed to five different grocery stores, then the
Tri-Cycle Trucks in the NAP showroom could take the place of those five
different delivery trucks around the city.
The “Tri-Cycle Trucks--” a bicycle contraption with trailer
attached to the back-- can carry up to 600 pounds, and they are,
according to Andrew, easy to ride. In case you are wondering how one
would get 600 pounds up a large incline, they come equipped with what
Andrew calls a “power assist.” It is a rechargeable battery that plugs
in over night. Then, on those delivery days when the hills are just a
little too large, you get a little help, but you never stop
pedaling—they are first and foremost a human powered bicycle.
“Our truck model makes a driver healthier, happier, and from a
business perspective it’s infinitely less expensive than all the costs
of owning a mini-van.” Andrew proclaimed proudly as he lifted up the
trailer to display the spacious inside.
Speaking of mini-vans, one of the other models on display in the
showroom is something that Andrew termed the “SUV” of bicycles. On the
NAP website it is listed as a “Bicycle Mini-Van,” and it is what Andrew
uses to transport his own children, 4 and 10 years old, around town.
“In the U.S. there is particularly strong anxiety about safety,
so I am adding improved seatbelts to this model.” Andrew explained.
Even as a parent Andrew said he doesn’t need a car. He has found
bicycles to be the best way to transport his children throughout the
city and to school.
“I don’t own a car.” Andrew says “And I believe the only reason people don’t bike more is a matter of habits.”
According to Andrew habits are what got us into this driving mess
in the first place, and they are definitely what got Andrew into this
line of work.
His first trip to Amsterdam, in February 2006, was a pivotal moment in
his life. There, he struck up, what became a four hour conversation,
with a stranger. It was this Dutch man’s critical but gentle words on
American car culture, which lead to an epiphany,
“You Americans have very bad habits.”
From here, as Andrew tells the story, it was short leap to
realizing that what was standing between his dream and the reality of
that dream was the small matter of habits. If Andrew could provide
people with reasonable ways to change those habits his dream, of an
entire city based around a cycling infrastructure, could be realized.
“The New Amsterdam Project is about getting from point A to point
B in the quickest, healthiest, and most sensible way possible.” Andrew
said. “Nothing more complicated than habit explains the difference in
behaviors-- with regard to getting from point A to point B-- between
Amsterdamers and Bostonians.”
“Imagine,” Andrew said at the end of the interview, “if when you
were a little girl, instead of loading all of your things into the
family station wagon, your family packed up their bikes with all that
you needed, and headed out onto the bike highway. Wouldn’t that be
wonderful?”
Indeed Andrew, I think it would be.
If you want to learn more about the New Amsterdam Project, see
their delivery and commuter vehicles, and meet their highly motivated
crew, you can visit them at their showroom: 35 Sacramento at Oxford
Street in Cambridge, MA.
For more details visit their website: http://www.newamsterdamproject.com/openhouse.html
By Paige Doughty, Green Streets Program Coordinator
This just in from the Andrews Middle School's Green Streets coordinator:
