(Soon to be ex-) Mayor Abramson did push for cycling facilities, but most of those would benefit recreation cyclists over commuters. Many of the bike lanes are substandard, some of which can be blamed on the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet rather than the city.

The city did create Bike Louisville to help educate which is a big improvement.

We also have a couple of non-profits pushing for transportation improvements:
CART KY
Bicycling for Louisville

We still have a way to go. We need to educate those riding with no lights at night. A man died last week while riding on a busy arterial with no lights. We need to educate drivers that bikes are allowed in the road. I still get yelled at to get on the sidewalk occasionally. I had a stack of magazines thrown at me from a passing car yesterday. It's not Portland, yet. :)

I have noticed more middle aged women riding their bikes. unfortunately I have not noticed more bike paths.




Gas, .69 cents, the price of a can of beans.

Not where I live. The roads are way to inhospitable and you need to be able to climb....a lot.

Maybe there are more, but most of the people I see riding bikes here are delivery guys. They usually look alike: old mountain bike without lights, large front basket, short figure, baggy shirts and pants, sometimes with a helmet loosely on, and they ride fast and run the lights--also, they make up 90+% of salmon riders.

Fare hikes have probably also played a role.

At some point, this becomes like asking how expensive cigarettes need to get before people will stop smoking. Whenever there's a big jump in a short time, the casual users will jump ship for a while, but the confirmed addicts will give up their apartments and live in their cars before they stop driving. The other thing I've noticed is that gas prices are like the frog in slowly warmed water. If gas prices go up slowly, even the casual users adjust their budgets accordingly.

That said, I do think commuting is up.

I'm not sure how much detail I'm suppose to give out, but my college is going to try to start up a bike commute program, which involves semester long bike rentals (at a very affordable price) and more bike commuting information around campus. I'm helping out with the program.

No increase in commuting where I live, as far as I can tell. I've been biking to work nearly 4 years now and I rarely ever see other bike commuters. Every now and then I will see another cyclist but they either don't stick with it or ride different times and/or routes than me. We don't have a system of bike lanes or paths oriented toward commuters. My city does have a huge system of greenbelt paths, but they are aimed at recreation and don't go anywhere useful for riding to work or shopping.

What is surprising to me is that recreational cycling is very big around here and has seen a huge increase. Group pickup rides on weekends often attract 50 or more cyclists. But few if any of these weekend warriors seem to be willing to take the next step (or pedal).

They seem to have it worked out in other parts of the world. But the truth is, the US is just too car-centric. I know exactly where you're coming from, though. I can't tell you how many times I tried looking for alternative commuting options and found no practical (time effective) alternative to driving. I am very thankful to be in a position where I can use either my bike or mass transit to great effect.

I think I notice the commuters more, now that I ride a bike to work myself. However, most commuters are not "like me" (hi-viz jacket, good lighting, panniers). Most of the commuters I see are sidewalk crawlers and gutter bunnies on $100 X-Mart bikes. They aren't commuting out of choice but out of necessity. At first I wanted to pull them aside and tell them they're doing it wrong, but who am I to say? I suspect many of them have been commuting on bicycles far longer than I have.

I resemble that remark.

Very interesting news indeed.....

I’m on my fifth year now and this is the first year that I’ve noticed the same 2-3 riders out on more than one occasion. I still can go days without seeing another cyclist though, so I certainly can’t say it’s catching on around here.

it's funny how we probably only live 50 miles away from each other and yet have such drastically different experiences. i see hundreds of other bike commuters everyday on my commute in the city, but out in the satellite burbs i guess it's a completely different story.

This has been put in place at our campus for a couple semesters now. The ugly yellow bikes are in every bike rack at all hours of class. Campus is getting bike lanes from what were told (I use the road when I ride) and interior roads are going to become blocked to thru traffic of all sorts. You either walk or bike from the skirts as of now...it will only get better.

Considering I've been giving a friend advise for the last week as he gears up to ride to his new job, I'd have to say "yes." :thumb:

I've definitely seen more bikes around lately. I only started commuting by bike last year, but even in that time, I've seen an increase in people on the road.

I've certainly noticed a lot more bikes around this year, most of them clearly commuting as they're in regular clothes, usually on an older mtb they probably revived from the depths of the garage. Not certain whether there's actually more cyclists on the road or if I'm just noticing them more.

I'm about in the middle of you 2, and commute at off hours. I see an occasional commuter (and more of them lately), and some of them are commuting look like they've been out of necessity for longer than I have.

When I started my current job, it was common for my bike to be the only one in the rack, even in summer. Some days there'd be a second bike. Now in the summer, the rack is full most days (about 10 bikes), and I see there was even a second bike there this morning, when it's -20º out. At the bike co-op, we've also noticed such a big increase in demand that we are trying to acquire a second location. Currently, the shop is pretty much full whenever we're open, all summer. Winter still has some extra space, but even that's getting busier every year.

Off topic, but I'm amused that you suggest saving your money as a way to plan for inflation. I don't want to get into whether inflation is coming or not, since even amongst the experts forecasts for both extremes are common. But the simple fact is that if you expect inflation, the rational response is to spend your money now and horde durable goods, since they'll be more expensive later. Saving money is a way to plan for deflation. Or retirement.

My point was It is a time to cut your expenses and be wise with your spending. Being able to produce some of your own food is a good way to do it and gets you a leg up on when producing your own may become a necessity.

When Bread is $5 a half loaf and a pound of ground beef is $25 what are you going to buy it with if you dont already have the money? Our salary (for those that manage to stay employed) is not going to suddenly increase with inflation. It will stay the same and if we don't like it there is a line of people willing to work for what we are making.

We are going to end up just like the Russians if this continues, throwing away the dollar bills because they take up space and have no value and smelting the coins because the metal is worth 50 times its face value as money. HELL our penny is already worth more for its metal then its face value as currency.

You are correct though, we do need to buy necessities now that are not a perishable and hoard them away while we can afford it.

Commuting is up by 22% percent according to this article from the Denver Post

I am working on building a fleet of bikes for kids to be able to check out at my college. I would be interested to hear how your program goes and any advice would be appreciated.

^This^ I'm not sure if I notice more people on bikes because there are more out riding, or if it's just because I ride more and more now. Kind of like buying a new car, then you notice how many of the same type are on the road. But I'm optimistic there are more folks out on the roads now than there were three years ago when I started.

I see tons of people on the road in Seattle. I would agree that $4 gas really made a difference.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/transporta...ves/188320.asp

In my area I would say there are more commuters than there were 5 years ago. Here are my reasons why I think so.

1. I work on a small college campus and there are twice as many bike racks than 5 years ago and all but one of those racks are typically full. I know at least a couple of the racks the bikes do get used becasue I know who owns the bikes. Many more faculty and staff ride than a few years ago and part of that is probabyl becasue of the very successful Employee wellness program.
2. There seem to be more bike consumers out there. In the past 5 years 2 additional Bike shops have opened in town. 1 vintage shop and another well established shop opened a new location. 1 shop closed 3 or 4 years ago, but another one opened a while ago to replace it the previous one was pretty new. Besides this bike flippers (including myself) are popping up all over and some of them move a ton of bikes. It seems like every couple months more flippers on on CL offering bikes to the public. There have been a couple of different community based bicycle programs either just starting up or really gaining steam to met the increased demand.
3. It seems like there are more people out commuting and alot of the people who buy bikes from me say thats what they are planning to use it for. A couple of years ago thrift stores got smart and put higher pices on their bikes and people are/were often paying them. They still have some good deals, but gone are the days when nothing was over $25 which is ok with me since the money goes to various charities.

Lincoln is a bike town (Over 70 bicycle sculptures scattered around) and a college town so we have alot of trails and bike routes and lanes are getting marked more all the time. Its pretty easy to get around using the bike trails.

In my experience $4+ a gallon got peope at least attempting to commute by bike. That summer I was flipping bikes and they were selling like hotcakes. Rarely did it take even 48 hours to sell a bike after posting it on Craigslist. it was not uncommon to sell a bike less than 10 hours of listing it. I had less competition then and was offering them for pretty reasonable prices, but it was crazy how quick they were selling. This last summer bikes sure weren't moving as fast as that summer thats for sure. =) $4+ a gallon for gas adds up for alot of people and I think it did get some people started riding their bikes and they stuck with it.

Since I began commuting myself, I have noticed there is a decent number that commute. Problem for me is that I have to leave my apartment by 5:30a to get to work on time, and there aren't many people out at that time even in cars. But in warmer weather I did notice 2-4 everyday on my way in, and about the same, maybe more, on the way home.

+1... objectively speaking. According to my local bike advocate group, the cyclo-commuters has gone up by like 300% or something. But still makes up 4% of the total commuters.
That was during the "nicer" months. Now that winter is here, I think that stats will reflect a colder view.

I couldn't say there's more around here, unless it is just a slight increase. One other guy at work started to commute pretty regularly (he even bought rain gear) but another quit altogether. So it goes...

And my son has been commuting to school once he started college, so Plus 1.