Originally Posted by Bekologist

"the four types of cyclist" in portland are not represented by you and your derision for innovative road treatments new to portland, ubiquitous in the true cycling capitals of the world.

Randya's constituency represented below:

Originally Posted by menemia

....no measurable change in the number of people cycling

Originally Posted by harvard study

Observation of the video counts found that the counts increased 77% on SW Stark and 271% on SW Oak.

Originally Posted by Bekologist

???

Originally Posted by bad statistic posted by Bek

Observation of the video counts found that the counts increased 77% on SW Stark and 271% on SW Oak.

Originally Posted by Drew Eckhardt

Cycling will remain a fringe activity until Americans loose their desire to own one single family home with a yard for years which will be necessarily far from jobs for many workers and away from mass transit since the resulting population density doesn't support it.

The average American worker commutes 16 miles each way to their job which is 12,100 kilometers a year assuming the 10 holidays and three weeks of vacation which are typical for many professions.

In 2006 the average Dutchman rode just 902 kilometers.

To get a lot of people commuting by bike you'd need to move them closer to work by putting them in high-density areas so there'd be a lot of jobs near a lot of potential employees, or by getting rid of real-estate transaction costs so they can move from one suburb to another when they change jobs (this would also require significant changes to the education system so there wouldn't be good and bad schools)

Allowing children to bike to school might help too.

Originally Posted by Drew Eckhardt

Cycling will remain a fringe activity until Americans loose their desire to own one single family home with a yard for years which will be necessarily far from jobs for many workers and away from mass transit since the resulting population density doesn't support it.

The average American worker commutes 16 miles each way to their job which is 12,100 kilometers a year assuming the 10 holidays and three weeks of vacation which are typical for many professions.

In 2006 the average Dutchman rode just 902 kilometers.

To get a lot of people commuting by bike you'd need to move them closer to work by putting them in high-density areas so there'd be a lot of jobs near a lot of potential employees, or by getting rid of real-estate transaction costs so they can move from one suburb to another when they change jobs (this would also require significant changes to the education system so there wouldn't be good and bad schools)

Allowing children to bike to school might help too.

Originally Posted by mnemia

Commuting isn't all of people's driving, and I don't believe that long commutes alone can explain the degree to which the U.S. is a car-centric society. Even a huge portion of people's SHORT trips are made by car in the U.S. Going to the grocery 1 mile away by bike is not a prohibitive distance, but a huge portion of the time Americans choose to drive it. It seems that once there is "buy in" to the car-centric lifestyle, Americans choose to use their cars for ALL trips, not just trips that are infeasible to make by bike for most people. I believe we can change that without totally reorganizing settlement patterns, and land use reorganization will inevitably follow.

Originally Posted by genec

Two reasons for the "easy buy in."

1) Everything looks like a road built for a car... no matter where you go in America, the car use is encouraged to get you there... from drive thru restaurants to movies to funeral homes to huge parking lots everywhere... not to mention "Free Parking." Cars are welcome everywhere. Heck the biggest room in many homes is... wait for it... The Garage... (where worship starts daily.)

Originally Posted by squirtdad

mnemia, I think you have it right.

Another way to look at it is from not just cost based, but from a convenience based view. In addition to economic drivers, People will drive less when it is more convenient to ride a bike than drive. What drives this? Parking is a big factor, if parking is limited for cars a bike is more attractive, but there also has to be a place to park the bike. Limited access to say a downtown area to cars would decrease convenience of driving. these are all governmental solutions.

In the current economic/political climate anything that costs a lot of money or implies "more government" or taxes is not going to fly.....at least for a few years when I expect a little return to center.

So I agree that it will be outside factors on gas prices that in the near term will drive riding beyond todays current core.

Originally Posted by Bike initiatives from PLANYC2030

We will pursue strategies to encourage the growth of cycling across the city
Cycling also offers an environmentally-friendly and space-efficient way to travel around the city. Other cities have embraced cycling as emission-free, low-cost travel mode that promotes a healthy lifestyle-and one that New Yorkers are increasingly embracing. Cycling in the city is estimated to have increased 75% from 2000 to 2006. But there is still plenty of room to grow; less than 1% of New Yorkers commute to work by bicycle. (See case study: Cycling Emerges Around U.S.)

We will complete the city's 1,800-mile bike master plan
In order to reduce traffic and reach our clean air and greenhouse gas reduction goals, New Yorkers should be given the option of reaching their jobs and major city destinations through cycling. That is why we will dramatically accelerate the implementation of the City's 1,800-mile bike lane master plan, to ensure that the entire system is in place before 2030. (See chart above: Bike Lane Construction)

The plan includes 504 miles of separated bike paths (Class 1 facilities) and 1,296 miles of striped bicycle lanes or markings reminding drivers and cyclists to share the road (Class 2 and 3). To date, only 420 miles have been constructed.

We will complete Phase 1 of the plan in 2009, which will add 200 lane miles in targeted areas across the city-with the first 40 finished by June 2007.

We will prioritize areas with high demand, building connections between existing portions of the network, and strengthening access to parks through special bike paths known as greenways. These greenways not only offer their own recreational benefits such as biking, skating, and walking throughout our city's park system; they can also open up new areas of parkland.

Phase 2 and beyond will complete the remaining bike lanes, resulting in 1,800 total lane miles of bicycle facilities in New York City.

We will facilitate cycling
In addition to implementing the master plan, we must provide support for city cyclists and encourage New Yorkers to explore this form of transportation. That means improving public education on the benefits of cycling and on safety issues, increasing necessary bicycling infrastructure such as bike racks and lockers, and improving observation of traffic and bicycling laws.

Cyclists often point out that their main concern is having safe places to store their bikes. To solve this problem, the City's Department of Transportation (DOT) will continue the CITYRACKS program by installing 1,200 additional on-street bicycle racks throughout the City by 2009, and commit to that level of installation until every neighborhood has adequate bike parking. We will also pursue legislation to require that large commercial buildings make provision for bicycle storage either on site or reasonably nearby.