Creating Bikeable Cities

I recently read an article in Scientific American about how bike friendly cities have many more women bicycle riders, and how one can gauge how ‘bicycle friendly’ a city is by looking at how many women are riding their bikes. For example, a terrific bike friendly city in Europe is Copenhagen. Copenhagen has a lot of women on bicycles due to their terrific bike infrastructure. (You can check out this great photo-based blog that inspired me to ride my bike.) Another county, cited in the Scientific American article, was the Netherlands. According the article, 55% of their bicycle riders are female.

The main topic of the Scientific American article is that women are more risk-adverse, so if you encounter a city where there are many women bicyclists, then it means they feel safe riding. Feeling safe riding a bike through a city usually depends on separated bike lanes, a bike infrastructure that gets you where you want to go, and more bicyclists on the road, which means the motorists are more aware of them. When a city lacks this type of infrastructure, it’s difficult to feel safe riding down a busy street among motorists who barely realize you’re there.

For instance, I ride my bike through the suburbs of Los Angeles to and from work and school. I’ve chosen a longer, less trafficked route that lacks any kind of bike lanes or signs. I’m often reminded at intersections that motorists don’t see me. So many motorists blindly whip around a corner not even glancing in a cross walk. (I mix my bike riding between sidewalk and street only because I feel safest doing so.) I’ve gotten accustomed to looking over my shoulder and swiveling my head in all directions to make sure a car isn’t running a red light or a left-hand turner sees me riding through the intersection. I’ve become a defensive bicyclist.

If cities want to encourage more people to ride, then they need to get more women on the road. To do so, cities need to create a bike infrastructure where people feel safe riding in the bike lanes. Separated lanes are terrific, as are clearly marked lanes. If the bike lanes ran diagonally through a city, to shorten the path to and from a destination, this would also encourage more riders. If the lanes were separated from fast-moving vehicles, this too would encourage more riders. And, if the separated bike lanes got riders to and from stores, schools, and office buildings, then again more people would hop on their bikes. Currently, the separated bike paths in my community run through the park. There aren’t any stores in the park, or schools, or places of work. The only other separated bike lane we have runs along a bus line. This is very helpful, but then again, why wouldn’t you just hop on the bus instead of riding 5 miles to work?

There are a few cities working to improve their bicycle infrastructure, like New York City. I was there last summer and saw many more people on bikes, but in Mid-Town Manhattan, I didn’t see many bike lanes (update 2016: New York now has a really nice start to a bicycle infrastructure with separated, green bike lanes and a bike sharing program). It was a little intimidating watching people ride their bikes among the weaving taxi cabs. I surely didn’t feel like I could ride my bike in that city, at least not yet. I know that in the United States,  Davis, California and Portland, Oregon are bicycle havens, but I haven’t gotten the opportunity to check these cities out. (update 2016: checked out Davis and it really is bicycle friendly.)

The problem boils down to what comes first? If people aren’t riding their bikes, a city doesn’t see a reason to improve something that no one uses. If a city doesn’t improve it’s infrastructure, then only the die-hard bicyclists will continue to ride and potential riders will be discouraged. It’s good to see more articles about city riding popping up in magazines, maybe this will encourage more riders.

Do you want to ride, but are intimidated by the traffic? Do you ride, but have to be wary of unaware motorists? Do you live in a city that is improving its bicycle infrastructure. I’m curious to know if others would be more willing to ride if their city improved their bike lanes.