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The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

citylab.com

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Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#21

Post by lisa_henderson »

I bike to work in New York, and I've biked around Berlin, and I would say New York still has a way to go before it catches up with Berlin.

The problem that New York faces is that it is embedded in USA society, so it has to face some issues that are not about bikes, but effect bikes. An example would be the reasons people use bike helmets. No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles, and that is partly due to the respect that cars and trucks show to bikers. In the USA, car culture is stronger, and car drivers are much more aggressive. I've gotten into the equivalent of tug-of-war situations with taxis, trying to exercise my right to turn, when they want to turn in the opposite direction: the taxi drivers are willing to use the vast bulk of their car in a threatening manner. You never see that in Berlin. In New York City, one is justified wearing a helment, and one would be justified wearing elbow and knee pads (but I never had). It's an aggressive environment.

Also, in New York, the roads are often chaotic. In Berlin, I only saw chaos around construction sites, otherwise the roads were safe and orderly.

Also, I could rent a bicycle in Berlin, very cheaply, and then keep it for days. There is nothing exactly so convenient in New York.

All the same, I am pleased that the situation is getting better in New York.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#22

Post by cowardlydragon »

curveship wrote: post #9

This is happening all over the nation. Here in small Durham, NC, we've seen biking more than double over the last 6 years. Most of the increase is young creative workers who've come for Durham's growing tech and advertising scene. It's also causing some growing pains -- we had three cyclists killed last year by cars.

I visited Houston for my mom's medical problems, and it shocked me how bike unfriendly the city was....

... it was 80 degrees in February.

... I live in Minneapolis and this flaggergasted me. It's a year-round bike city completely wasting that opportunity.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#23

Post by pavel_lishin »

cauterized wrote: post #5

One thing the article mentions but the headline misses is the need for more and better bike lanes all over the city. De Blasio hasn't been emphasizing this nearly as strongly as Bloomberg did. But the numbers show that replacing one lane of traffic with a protected bike lane can actually ease congestion and increase average car speeds and total throughput (Lafayette St. in Soho is apparently an excellent example of t…

Protected bike lanes would help; unprotected ones just turn into parking spots for UPS, Fedex, police cars and other random vehicles.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#24

Post by ptaipale »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #21

I bike to work in New York, and I've biked around Berlin, and I would say New York still has a way to go before it catches up with Berlin. The problem that New York faces is that it is embedded in USA society, so it has to face some issues that are not about bikes, but effect bikes. An example would be the reasons people use bike helmets. No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles, and th…

Around here, about 80 % of cases where helmet helps are incidents not involving a motor vehicle. I.e. bicyclist collides with another cyclist, a pedestrian, or a stationary object (Earth counts as stationary object here).

Using helmet would be very wise also in Berlin (and many do use it, if you look around).

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#26

Post by at-fates-hands »

cowardlydragon wrote: post #22
curveship wrote: post #9

This is happening all over the nation. Here in small Durham, NC, we've seen biking more than double over the last 6 years. Most of the increase is young creative workers who've come for Durham's growing tech and advertising scene. It's also causing some growing pains -- we had three cyclists killed last year by cars.

I visited Houston for my mom's medical problems, and it shocked me how bike unfriendly the city was.... ... it was 80 degrees in February. ... I live in Minneapolis and this flaggergasted me. It's a year-round bike city completely wasting that opportunity.

>> I live in Minneapolis and this flaggergasted me.

Minneapolis has always ranked as one of the top bike friendly cities in the country. The ironic part is most lists also include Madison, WI and Chicago IL, both midwestern cities who have year round commuters.

But I agree, I have no idea why so many southern states have so many anti-biking cities.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#27

Post by stronglikedan »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #21

I bike to work in New York, and I've biked around Berlin, and I would say New York still has a way to go before it catches up with Berlin. The problem that New York faces is that it is embedded in USA society, so it has to face some issues that are not about bikes, but effect bikes. An example would be the reasons people use bike helmets. No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles, and th…

> No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles

That's not why people don't wear helmets there, and that's not a reason to not wear one.

I would have been in a world of hurt if I didn't have a helmet on when I fell. No cars, people, or other moving object were anywhere near me. My tire hit a slippery patch as I was turning, and I went over sideways. I broke my shoulder and my hand, and my head hit the ground so hard that my glasses flattened out on the pavement. I considered myself lucky that I didn't have a head injury, aside from my bell being rung - hard.

Wear a helmet. They not only save you from dangerous environmental situations, but they save you from yourself.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#28

Post by adrianparsons »

lisa_henderson wrote: post #21

I bike to work in New York, and I've biked around Berlin, and I would say New York still has a way to go before it catches up with Berlin. The problem that New York faces is that it is embedded in USA society, so it has to face some issues that are not about bikes, but effect bikes. An example would be the reasons people use bike helmets. No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles, and th…

I've also lived in both New York and Berlin. I completely agree that the US has a more powerful "car culture," but the cities are very different -- New York is incredibly dense while Berlin is pretty spread out. Wikipedia says New York has 10,756 people per km2 while Berlin has 4,000 [0]. They face different issues in developing transit infrastructure.

[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#29

Post by akgerber »

aaronharnly wrote: post #6

I work in Brooklyn, in a building that houses Etsy, Amplify Education (my company), Tough Mudder (until recently), and others. In the annual bike commuting challenge put on by Transportation Alternatives, our building is overflowing with bikes -- all of those companies achieved double-digit participation rates. Granted, these are tech and lifestyle companies that draw a young and idealistic workforce, but it's pretty…

It also helps that it's awful to use a train to commute to Dumbo unless you live along the F or A.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#30

Post by YorkianTones »

Seattle's a beautiful place to bike but we still have a long way to go. We need to cut fatalities and accidents among bike commuters and get more bike lanes in.

Luckily there are major bike paths connecting parts of the city but these themselves are too disconnected (e.g. in Bellevue). The safe route from Seattle into Redmond (and Microsoft) is 29 miles north along the lake; fortuitously, the new bridge across Lake Washington will include a bike lane and cut this in half.

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