Rethinking Streets for Bikes

In Denmark the climate is mild, with few hot summer days and even fewer snow days that would make bicycling impossible. Comparing Boston average temperatures to Copenhagen, Jan-Feb on average are 4 degrees C lower and July-Aug are 7 degrees C hotter [1][2] in Boston. Then there are lists of America's worst bicycling cities ranking Dallas, TX at the top, where average July-Aug highs are 15 degrees higher than in Copenhagen [3]. Climate wise the cities are very different.

If you can't bike to work everyday because of the weather then infrastructure of bikes cannot replace car infrastructure. In Denmark bicycle infrastructure can replace car infrastructure because the climate makes it possible to bike work every month of the year. In even mild climate cities like Boston it becomes much harder to be dependent on bicycles with hotter summers and colder winters.

That's looking at the climate. Next, the Boston Urban area is 4.600 sq km with 4 million people, whereas Copenhagen is only 606 sq km with 1.6 million people [Wikipedia]. Some back of the napkin calculations would make average travel distances 3 times greater in Boston.

Because of the differences in climate, size and population between Copenhagen and Boston, I do not consider bicycles a viable solution for Boston's transport challenges and I extend this line of thinking to most American Metropolitan centers.

[1] https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=90527&cit...

[2] https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=8160&city...

[3] https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=95227&cit...

Because they're the world leaders and something to aspire too

Cycling is incredibly dangerous according to many here, but is it more dangerous than heart disease?

Interesting point, as Houston currently has none. Arguably good for growth and business, though.

> smaller zones, resulting in more diversity.

Not sure I understand this part. Diversity of what? How?

> allow some light commercial use inside residential areas

This will be harder to deal with than it at first seems. Due to the earlier-mentioned lack of zoning, many neighborhoods have HOAs.

> discourage single-story buildings

How?

For what it's worth, I'm not sure I like the sort of cities that are considered "bikeable". Houston was nice in part because it was so open and wide. There was lots of green space everywhere you looked. Compared to cities like NYC, I'd argue Houston looked a lot better. Many more "sprawling" cities have much more pleasant, open atmospheres , rather than the dull, lifeless cement that pervades every inch of many other cities.

> narrower roads

Not sure this is a good idea. Many people in Houston own larger, comfier cars. A lot own trucks. Not all need to, but some do: many people have ranches, and Texas is so big that there's a lot of driving. This means a bigger car is sometimes necessary to fit enough stuff. It can also be nice when you have to sometimes do almost 250 mi day-trips.

On the heat issue, you need a shower after being outside and at all active for any significant length of time. Let's consider water usage: How much water would all those extra changes of clothes use? All those extra showers?

And now to the single largest issue: flooding. Remember hearing about Hurricane Harvey? Flooding is getting worse because of denser stuff. I know many people who have been flooded by storms that wouldn't have flooded them ten to fifteen years earlier.

Smaller zones? Denser plots? Less space empty? All of these will cause people to die the next time a storm hits. Many people are already discussing increased permeability requirements for this exact reason.

All of this comes down to the same root issue: many people simply wish to force all cities into a mold they believe works for theirs. There is a very "coast-centric" view in many places, new urban planning trends are premised on cities like SF, NYC, etc. Cities with decent weather, no flooding, a central commute destination, etc. It's worth rethinking how to do this for other cities that don't conform to the mold of coastal cities, because trying to force every town into that mold is impossible to do well.