Originally Posted by
genec
So how, for the health of the nation, both at the human level, and by the reduction of pollutants and the need for imported oil, can we increase the uptake of bicycle commuting... so cycling isn't just .68 percent of all commuters?
I don't have the answer to that, this nation is different from other nations, it was built to be a travel by car nation not a travel by bike nation, which is why the last listing of the 10 best cities to ride a bike in the world not one single US city was mentioned, in fact they were all European countries. We're not close to having a cycling infrastructure like Europe has. And even if that infrastructure was to vastly improve by say 100% it would only result in about maybe a gain of 1, maybe 2 percent in commuter bike traffic. And for that small of a change with such a huge fiscal outlay to improve the infrastructure is simply not worth the money...money us taxpayers would have to pay.
I knew a guy who worked at a large office complex once that had about 1,200 employees, they put in bike lockers and showers etc, etc, and paid bike commuters a certain dollar figure (I forgot the number given) per mile ridden to work which would be added onto their pay; and outside of the guy I knew there were never any more then about 12 bikes at any given time in the lockers! They did the same with van pooling too and offered incentives, and only had enough riders to call for the leasing of 2 12 passenger vans. So even incentives didn't work.
Maybe instead of paying rebates of $7,500 in federal taxpayers money and another $2,500 in (some) states taxpayers money for wealthy to buy Tesla and Leaf cars, they should pay us rebates to buy bikes to commute on! But then somehow a system would have to be in place to prove your riding the bike to work.
We're in a catch 22, whenever gas prices rose above $4 a gallon retail, restaurants sales, and tourism declined, and purchase of gasoline actually declined in gallons used as people didn't take vacations. The economy slowed during those $4 plus gallon days we had. Thus raising the price of gas to $10 to $11 a gallon Europe pays thinking we could force cycling commuting would instead backfire and collapse the economy on the retail side which would result in major layoffs which would have a major effect on the economy as a whole.
Really there is no answer to your question. The only thing I can think of is to start a massive program of educating, or more accurately brainwashing, kids to think that driving cars is evil and they should ride bikes and take buses instead, as those kids grow up they may be more inclined to take bikes and buses. And get businesses to stop being so stuffy about their dress code expectations like their European counterparts. But I still think doing all of that would maybe increase bike commuting to maybe 3 to 4%? I don't ever see cycling to be a major cultural thing here in America like it is in Europe.