Biking needs a boost in American cities
New Urban News Article with images and graphs, 6/1/2008
The US, where cycling is risky and rare, can learn from a Rutgers study of the top cycling countries in Europe.
Among new urbanists, bicycling rarely gets the attention that walking and pedestrian-oriented development do. But if many more people could be enticed to use bicycles rather than cars, the effect on communities could be very beneficial.
It’s no coincidence that Portland, Oregon, the US city with the highest proportion of people bicycling to work — 4 percent, or four times the national average — is also a city that treats pedestrians well. Cyclists and pedestrians desire many of the same things: calm traffic conditions, appealing streetscapes, and a convenient mix of uses. The more biking, the less automobile parking a locality needs.
Yet even Portland, after more than ten years of implementing the municipality’s Bicycle Master Plan, has had trouble making the streets consistently safe for cyclists. Last October, “ghost bikes” — white-painted bikes with signs saying “A cyclist was killed here” — were placed at two intersections where bike riders had been killed that month by trucks.
