For the summer of 2020 I will be releasing a series of articles reflecting on some of the things cities, and urban planners specifically, can be advocating and planning for to help in our fight against the climate crisis. These pieces will reflect on our transportation networks, the need for urban living, and protecting our natural resources while bringing them into the city. While these are not comprehensive of everything that needs to be done to turn the tide of this crisis, they will provide a different vision of what our world could be like if we commit to a different form of development.
Our current American cities, which are characterized by generally dense populations of people, are not built for those people. As I have mentioned in the previous pieces in this series, over the last century we have given over more and more space to cars while depriving people of needed public spaces. We’ve heard that it was required as our economies grew so that people could move more efficiently through our communities. High speed access to city centers and subsidized car storage once there were needed to ensure the success of our cities, or so the thinking went. Turns out we bled our cities dry of what makes them unique and vital; people. In their place we pumped in toxic exhaust and destroyed our physical and economic health. Activists have tried to wrestle back some of this space for people to walk and ride bikes, pointing to successes in European cities and some American cities who have experienced minor success. Slowly we began to see bike lanes pop up here and there, but no major overhauls or increases in ridership across most of the country.
And then the pandemic hit.
Suddenly many people started to look around and notice that they didn’t have adequate spaces to get out and enjoy the outdoors in their communities. Sidewalks were in disrepair or non-existent. Bike lanes, if there were any, were filled with trash, cracked pavement, or blocked by cars. Even so, bikes sold out across the country, with many stores having months long wait lists for their next shipment. Finally, many of us were on the same page: We need to start designing cities for people. Not only will this shift benefit people on a day-to-day basis, but it will also help us fight the looming climate crisis that threatens the entire world.
The two charts above demonstrate some of the benefits of giving over more space to people to walk and ride bikes. Walking and biking can transport three to four times more people than mixed traffic can. Not only that, but they can do so without producing significant amounts of carbon (only really seen through the actual manufacturing of bikes).
Before someone brings up the argument that they’ve never seen that many people on bikes in an hour, yet often see cars backed up, let’s think of why there aren’t more people riding. On your average city street you have cars driving over 30mph, rolling through stop signs, taking tight turns with little to no regard for anyone trying to cross the street (even in states like New York where pedestrians have the right-of-way, yet always seem to be running to avoid cars). Now you’re on a bike with cars driving too close to your side, pushing you towards the parked cars where someone flings open their door without looking, causing you to run into it and injure yourself when you luckily don’t get hit by the car driving less than a foot to your left. Without safe bike infrastructure most people will not feel safe using a bike as a way to get around. This doesn’t mean that people aren’t interested in riding bikes more, and in fact there’s been studies across the country that point to over half of respondents wanting to ride more but citing safety as the major reason that they don’t.
Now think about your average trips you make throughout the day; to the gym, to the grocery store, to work, out to eat, etc. While your work commute, depending on where you live, could be a decent distance, perhaps over 10 miles for some, most of those other trips are within 5 miles of your home. A study by the Transportation Research and Education Center shows that 60% of trips are under 5 miles, and close to 40% are under 2 miles. These are distances easily performed on a bike, or even walking. While grocery shopping may seem cumbersome on a bike, there are plenty of bike attachments and designs that are specifically made for moving packages, groceries, and small children.
Or you may think, we live in a place with terrible winters and there’s no way riding a bike in winter makes sense. Well, for some people that may be true, you can look to the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, or even Canada, and find large numbers of people who ride bikes in much worse climates than our own. What it comes down to is priorities and infrastructure. Many European countries that experience harsh winters prioritize clearing snow and ice off of sidewalks and bike lanes before they ever touch vehicle lanes. This is a specific policy that elevates more efficient and environmentally friendly forms of travel over the most harmful forms of travel (private vehicles).
Example of a bike boulevard intersection. Lanes are narrow with a small rotary that fits within a traditional intersection.
Source: Small Town and Rural Design Guide
We don’t need to have bike lanes as beautiful and heavy duty as those seen in Europe and some American cities (even though we can hopefully get more like that soon). In many communities we simply need streets that slow down cars and prioritize access to people riding bikes or walking. Bike boulevards provide opportunities to improve access with minimal interventions, primarily focused around intersections. Bump out islands and small rotaries help prevent cars from taking tight turns or speeding through intersections. As a result, people on bikes and on foot are given improved visibility that allow them to enter intersections in a safer manner with some form of barrier between them and cars. While these interventions are normally put on side streets (as is emphasized in the Rochester Bicycle Master Plan), a network of bike boulevards that connect to commercial corridors could help people who ride get to destinations safely on a parallel street.
Even with a network of bike boulevards, a true network of protected bike lanes is vital. Too often cities paint lines and put in a bike stencil and feel that is enough. Or, even worse, put in sharrows on busy roads. Not only do sharrows not help with safety, they have actually been seen to increase the risk of injury for people on bikes. Paint does not keep a car from hitting you, or from parking in the lane blocking your right-of-way. Parking protected lanes significantly increase the safety for people riding, driving, and walking, but are often controversial due to driver “confusion” and have been taken away after complaints of not understanding how to park. Even putting up flexposts with a buffer provides a level of comfort for riders that painted lines do not, as it’s a more visual cue about the right-of-way. Protected lanes have been shown to see 6x more growth in ridership than unprotected lanes, and they also reduce all forms of crashes, whether car-to-car or car-to-bike, by over 44%.
We’ve seen what works and what brings people out to walk and ride more. We’ve seen cities roll out new bike lanes in a matter of days, shutting down streets to cars and seeing people flock to their newly reclaimed spaces. Yes, for Americans this will be a significant shift in our thinking and how we build out our infrastructure. But if we truly want to tackle the climate crisis, providing more safe spaces for people to ride bikes and walk is one of the most important changes we can implement. Not only will it reduce our carbon emissions, but it will also improve health, improve happiness, and provide opportunities for us to interact with one another face-to-face and make connections that help build community. We can start this change now with minimal investment; just roll out some cones, paint some lanes, and start teaching kids how to ride.