low speed travel: the cyclists are coming!

While visiting my mother in her new home outside of Annapolis, Maryland over the past few years, I have noticed an interesting trend. Anne Arundel County is crisscrossed by a confusing network of freeways, crowded commercial strips and 25 mph neighborhood streets. Except for a commuter line from Baltimore to DC, there is no public transport to speak of, so I have to rent a car. I find myself either stopped in traffic or driving at turtle speed through quiet neighborhoods. There is plenty of time to dream of better solutions. The defunct Annapolis-Baltimore train corridor, which ironically initiated the suburban development throughout the 20th century, has been co-opted as a bike path, but it doesn’t pass by shopping or neighborhood centers; recreational bikers and joggers alike tend to drive to the path in their cars.

Nevertheless, I see more bikes every time I visit, and not just on the path. Three years ago I saw only a handful of ‘real’ cyclists in latex suits and bent over expensive racing bikes. When I asked my aunt if the school children in her neighborhood rode bikes, she quickly answered that it was far too dangerous. “We simply aren’t used to cyclists,” she told me. Most recently, however, I have seen quite a few bike riders - real people riding home from work and kids riding to school - on the road. Motorists in suburban Maryland, just like drivers in Washington, Philadelphia and Tulsa, will have to get used to seeing more of them.

The rise in bike traffic is due to many factors. One obvious contributor is the large number of bike share programs that have been popping up in cities from Los Angeles to Boston. Tulsa, Oklahoma apparently had the first urban bike share program, started in 2007 by a health care provider. Minneapolis, Boston, and Washington DC initiated programs in 2010. Over 100 US cities currently have bike share programs, with New York’s citibike, comprising 10,000 bikes at 600 locations, being the nation’s largest. Despite having the most bikes, however, only 1% of New Yorkers are using them. Davis, California leads the nation with over 20% of its 60,000 inhabitants commuting by bike. Boulder (Colorado), Somerville (Massachusetts), and Missoula (Montana) also have a large numbers of cyclists. In fact, smaller cities tend to have more cyclists, mostly because of shorter trip distances.[1]

In tandem with bike share programs, the miles of bike lanes are increasing as well. Local authorities view investment in bike lanes as a solution to many typically urban problems, including high infrastructure costs and traffic volume. Marked lanes make both cyclists and motorists more comfortable,[2] and once lanes are built, they are quickly used. Substantial ridership increases are reported starting immediately after lanes are opened.[3]  Washington DC continues to increase its rather extensive network, and new bike lanes have opened in Cambridge (MA), Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Denver.[4] Philadelphia and its neighboring communities have invested over $10 million in the Circuit Trails network that covers the city and eight surrounding counties, including three in New Jersey. Since opening in 2012, the number of cyclists there has increased over 300%.

Quite a few bike lanes owe their existence to community activists co-opting traffic lanes. Neighborhoods in Seattle, Boston and, most recently, Wichita have seen their cycling infrastructure expand overnight with new “guerilla bike lanes”. Almost all of these rogue interventions have been made permanent.[5]

An increase in bike traffic is often initially seen as worrying for car drivers, but in fact the opposite is true. Many benefits have been outlined in my first bicycle post, but one set of statistics is especially reassuring: as the number of cyclists increases, urban streets and suburban roads become safer for both cyclists and motorists. A survey carried out by the National Association of City Transportation Officials found a high correlation between a reduction in cycling accidents and an increase in bike lanes. Moreover, it found that when a bike share program is available, the number of accidents goes down even further - by as much as 50%. This is especially true in lower income neighborhoods, where bike ridership is expanding rapidly. The report concluded that such programs increase the number of bikes on the road, thereby raising motorists’ awareness even further. But it could also be that more cyclists mean fewer motorists.

Another surprising benefit of cycling is punctuality. A 2013 McGill University study determined that cyclists and walkers feel more energized and positive after their commutes than those who drive or use public transport. Even more surprising is that cyclists and walkers are more punctual than their fossil fuel burning colleagues.

So why aren’t we all on bikes?  This question that brings me back to suburban Maryland. In contrast to the cornucopia of information on expanding bike networks in cities and towns, there is a dearth of information on how to do the same in suburbia. But this might be changing. In their efforts to attract young families back to peri-urban areas, planners and developers have found that safe cycling is viewed as an important asset.[6] The communities that are part of greater Philadelphia’s Circuit Trails have already discovered the benefits of combining convenience and access to nature by working with local bike clubs to identify potential routes at the network edges.[7] The Urban Land Institute’s Building Healthy Places Initiative sets cycling infrastructure high on their list of key components of healthy and sustainable communities. I do hope to see more cyclists in more bike lanes in Maryland, even though I am not yet ready to look for a bike share station at the airport. But perhaps that’s something I need to consider the next time I am stopped in suburban traffic!