Tina

This is how the article starts:

WHIPPANY, N.J., June 16 — Ron Brown is a traffic engineer’s dream. For two summers, conscious of the gridlock on local roads and the damage his car did to the environment, he biked to work every day. Then, in April 2002, a car ran into him on a stretch of highway that had no shoulder. While he has recovered from his injuries, he has not recovered his zeal for reducing traffic. “It’s certainly not worth risking your life,” he says. Brown has rejoined the 75 percent of Americans who drive to work alone every day in their cars.

The complete story is here: https://www.msnbc.com/news/925324.asp

uciflylow

Don't even get me started! The highway dept has been working on the 4 lane route between the towns that I live in and work in, so they have routed all the trafic through MY commuter route. This is a 2 lane road with no shoulder, I mean the white line is in the grass! Try riding that when two semi tractors meet with you in the mix! NO THINK YOU!

There is little in the way of alternate routes because a major river runs between them and there are only a few places to cross for 20 or so miles. I bought a bike just for commuting and have made about 5 trips on it when the trafic changed.

Chris L

Someone should point out to him that he's probably taking a bigger risk with his life by driving the trip rather than riding it. Where's Closetbiker with his statistics when we need him?

Dahon.Steve

>>>>>Land is still being developed with only cars in mind, making it hard for people to use bikes or use public transportation. The solution, he said, is building public transportation and bike access into new developments.<<<<

This comment says it all in a nutshell. We're about to spend 55 billion on new highways but only 8 billion on public transportation. The pain of traffic jams and the high costs associated with auto ownership is not enough to get people out of their cars. All I can say is, let them suffer.

Those cities that put all their bucks in highways will simply stop growing. Traffic continues to grow close to 20 percent every 15 years and highways won't match that.

To be totally honest, I really don't want all these car owners on bikes for the following reasons.

1. Parking would be a horrible as bikes would be everywhere like China.
2. The increase in bike commuter traffic would slow me down to 4 mph!
3. The bike shops would be full of rookies that can't fix a flat. As a result, sevice would decline.
4. My social status in town would decline since I would no longer be considered the "Lone Bike Commuter"

Pete Clark

The article says a mere 0.38 percent of commuters travel by bicycle. If there are 100 million commuters (I don't know, I just picked a number,) that's about 380,000 bicycle commuters in the U.S.

That's a lot, if you ask me.

Dahon.Steve

I noticed that number too and can't believe it. They must have made a mistake since there is NO way there can be 380,000 bike commuters out there. I think they are including everyone who rides a bike including all those weekend riders.

In my town of 57K, I can count all the bike commuters with one hand that cross my path. It makes me wonder about all the other figures provided in the study.

khuon

Well... you also have to look at places which are more bike commuter friendly. Here in Seattle, just hop on a ferry any morning or afternoon and you'll see plenty of people commuting by bike to the ferry docks and between the docks and work/home. I'd estimate that on a busy morning run, there's a hundred or so bike commuters actually on the ferry with their bikes. There's more if you consider the people who bike to the ferry dock and leave their bikes in the parking facilities there and then walk to work on the other side. Our ferries run pretty often. I don't know what the statistics are but I'm pretty sure we're looking at at least a thousand per ferry route in the course of a day. And we have many routes here. One of the most popular routes are the Bainbridge-Seattle and the Bremerton-Seattle runs.

John E

A typical Bike-to-Work Day in San Diego County draws 5000 participants, representing about 2% of the total number of commuters out there.

Pete Clark

250,000.

Good to know there is a significant number of us.

oscaregg

Again, this will not change until the USA loses it's cheap oil due to a major military defeat in the Middle East. Our ability to steal oil is the reason for autocentricity--without poppies, how can the junkie shoot up?

spandexwarrior

I believe that car ridership shall decline as oil becomes more expensive. There is this excellent article here that explains that oil is running out, hence the car shall become obsolete in a few years: https://dieoff.com/

khuon

I don't think the car will become obsolete for a long time much less in a few years. I think the car will evolve and not necessarily die off.

Erick L

I don't think the number of bike commuters will increase so much to the point of being inconvenient. Besides, if numbers increase so much, there will be a better infrastructure to accomodate bicycles, from paved shoulders to bike lanes to more shop clerk changing flats.