Slate Article: Can America Embrace Biking the Way Denmark has

[DismalScientist]

The winter weather in Copenhagen is pretty much like here. http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/denmar1/ss/weatherdenmark.htm

The northern latitude implies dark winters. The Gulf Stream implies much warmer temperatures than Moscow.

And, it’s flat and compact.

[PotomacCyclist]

Yes, many of the well-known major cities of Western Europe (Paris, London, Amsterdam) are much farther north than Montreal and Chicago, but the Gulf Stream has a moderating effect on the weather. (In a different example of how large bodies of water can result in more moderate weather, Miami has only had one day at 100F during the past century, since records started to be kept.)

I’ve read that one of the primary motivations for developing a bike-oriented system was the frequency of car-caused fatalities, especially among children. (I don’t remember if this was in Copenhagen, Amsterdam or both.) We certainly see more than enough car-caused fatalities here in the U.S., over 32,000 last year, and even more a decade ago. (Annual car-caused deaths were somewhere around 40,000 back then.) But for some reason (related to advertising, glorification of the automobile in movies and TV shows), so many people are tone-deaf when it comes to statistics on car-related injuries and deaths in the U.S.

Some people still get worked up when they hear about a single cyclist-caused death, going on rants about how bikes should be severely restricted and so on. All the time, they ignore those 32,000 car-caused deaths each year. I just don’t get it. It’s as though there were an Orwellian propaganda machine at work here. One death is a tragedy, 32,000 is a statistic, or something like that. (Based on a statement that Stalin supposedly said, but that may be fictional.) Or “four wheels good, two wheels bad.” (Paraphrasing “Animal Farm”.)

[TwoWheelsDC]

@PotomacCyclist 68069 wrote:

Yes, many of the well-known major cities of Western Europe (Paris, London, Amsterdam) are much farther north than Montreal and Chicago, but the Gulf Stream has a moderating effect on the weather. (In a different example of how large bodies of water can result in more moderate weather, Miami has only had one day at 100F during the past century, since records started to be kept.)

I’ve read that one of the primary motivations for developing a bike-oriented system was the frequency of car-caused fatalities, especially among children. (I don’t remember if this was in Copenhagen, Amsterdam or both.) We certainly see more than enough car-caused fatalities here in the U.S., over 32,000 last year, and even more a decade ago. (Annual car-caused deaths were somewhere around 40,000 back then.) But for some reason (related to advertising, glorification of the automobile in movies and TV shows), so many people are tone-deaf when it comes to statistics on car-related injuries and deaths in the U.S.

Some people still get worked up when they hear about a single cyclist-caused death, going on rants about how bikes should be severely restricted and so on. All the time, they ignore those 32,000 car-caused deaths each year. I just don’t get it. It’s as though there were an Orwellian propaganda machine at work here. One death is a tragedy, 32,000 is a statistic, or something like that. (Based on a statement that Stalin supposedly said, but that may be fictional.) Or “four wheels good, two wheels bad.” (Paraphrasing “Animal Farm”.)

Why do you hate liberty?

[PotomacCyclist]

I knew there was something wrong with my thinking. Dagnabit.

I need to set up my own perpetually running gas engine and burn fuel 24 hrs. a day. I won’t go anywhere. I just want to burn more fuel. Because it’s patriotic. Nothin’ more patriotic than propping up the price of petroleum. That helps out our friendly buddies around the world, like Iran and Venezuela.

[lordofthemark]

I believe those numbers are for Copenhagen proper, and the mode share numbers for the metro area are lower, though still high by American standards. So we the bar is to get a Portland or a DC to those mode shares, not all of a US metro area, or all of the US.

Still quite depressing in terms of where we are now.

I’m thinking we need to start a “good news” thread about policy and infra in the DC area. Not long discussions, but a comprehensive list of the ways things are getting better. Shout outs to all jurisdictions that have done something positive.

[Terpfan]

They made the case of speed/convenience as more people will do it. I think we have seen some of it with CaBi, but it surprises me that more people won’t do it. But I really do think during business days in the city that cycling is at least on par, if not faster than other options (Metro, car). Esepcially during rush hour. Yet few do it.

[lordofthemark]

@PotomacCyclist 68069 wrote:

Some people still get worked up when they hear about a single cyclist-caused death, going on rants about how bikes should be severely restricted and so on.

I think people do get worked up about individual motor vehicle caused deaths. But its always about drinking, or the age of the driver (or other demographic charecteristics” or the safety charecteristics of the vehicle, or sometimes even of the infra. Its just that no one ever says “people shouldn’t drive” because, well, how are people supposed to get around if they don’t drive ?

At least sometimes when its a pedestrian killed (and there are more peds killed than cyclists) in a place with particularly poor ped infra, someone asks for better ped infra. And in a few places, at least, for traffic calming – though thats not the instinctive response in the more auto dependent places, I guess.

[KLizotte]

I wonder if our numbers are so “low” because our measuring tools are so poor, esp in relation to car trips. Until Cabi, Arlington only had some counters on trails, sent out a survey or two every year, and engaged in a manual count once or twice a year (usually along the trails too). This is insufficient to get a real picture of biking in the county though Cabi is certainly helping a lot.

Some data collecting issues I see:

The biking demand for trails is undercounted because a lot of us actively avoid the trails at peak times in order to avoid the congestion. I avoid the MVT as much as possible at least six months of the year.

How about all the immigrants and working class folks who only have bikes for transportation and don’t understand English very well; I rather doubt they have ever filled out a survey. They tend to travel at odd times so don’t get included in manual counts (e.g., when all of the restaurants have closed for the night)

Students riding in/around campuses. They are transient residents and are unlikely to be sent any surveys.

Riding on non-trails, especially in residential areas. Aside from Strava like websites, how does anyone know where people are riding and how much? I know Tim had mentioned that Strava may be marketing its data to cities/states for planning purposes.

Determining driving levels is easier because there are far more data sources: gallons of fuel sold, automatic traffic counters, tolls, traffic reports, traffic cameras, odomoter readings provided during inspections and sales of used cars, etc.

And why do most US surveys/stats focus on commuting and not at all forms of biking?

[lordofthemark]

@KLizotte 68086 wrote:

And why do most US surveys/stats focus on commuting and not at all forms of biking?

If you mean the Census Journey to work question, thats not unique to biking. Its the only mode question that census asks as part of the American Community survey. There is a deficiency of local passenger travel data in general. And most of the other items (like traffic reports, tolls, etc) are not compiled into any broad data base. There are VMT counts (colllected by state DOTs and compiled by FHWA) which do not give origin/destination. For that there are surveys conducted for specific projects, or by MPO’s etc.

but really daily commute is enough to establish how far behind Copenhagen we are. Cope, as you quote above, has 37% mode share for daily commute. Compare that to what, 7% or so for Portland, 4% for DC, 1.8% for Arlco, and one half of one percent for the USA.

Its possible that Portland or DC have much higher ratios of errand trips to commute trips than Copenhagen does, but I’ve never heard that, and I can’t think of a reason why. Maybe in this area more bike as last mile before train trips (but THAT data, at least, WMATA has, I think).

So no data reason to be less depressed

[PotomacCyclist]

D.C. and U.S. numbers are low compared to Denmark, the Netherlands and some other countries, but at least we are moving in a positive direction. Bike commuting in the D.C. area has been increasing at a very fast rate over the past few years. Though still low, it is growing in popularity pretty quickly. Capital Bikeshare plays a role in that. So do some of the recent bike infrastructure projects like the 15th Street cycletrack. Imperfect as it is, it’s much better than what used to be there. At the same time, there is more to be done.

As recently as five years ago, it never even occurred to me that you could ride a bike from Arlington to D.C. For some reason, it seemed like such a long distance. The Potomac River seemed like such an insurmountable barrier (except on Metro or in a car). If you had asked me about it, I would have been stunned because the thought had simply never crossed my mind to that point. After I started riding (for fun, to train for races and to commute on occasion), I mentioned riding from Arlington to D.C. to non-riders. They were also surprised that you could ride over the river. I guess it’s not that easy to see the bike/ped path while driving over the 14th St. bridges.

I still meet many people who are very unfamiliar with Capital Bikeshare, even though the program has around for three successful years. I must have explained how it works to dozens of people by now. I try to keep it simple and focus on the basics and the benefits. When people mention that they have a bike or will get one, I mention that I have two bikes of my own but I still use CaBi fairly often, for the convenience of one-way trips, unplanned trips and last-mile trips.

Growth and popularity can be a tricky process though. If bike infrastructure doesn’t keep up with the expanded demand, then we could see temporary situations with even more overcrowded trails and lanes than today. Eventually that would lead to more support for more and improved bike facilities, but in the short term, there could be more than a few bike/ped traffic jams, especially on popular routes like the Mt. Vernon Trail. (Hopefully the NPS widens it someday soon. Especially the section between the 14th St. (George Mason) Bridge and the Crystal City connector, and also the section over to Old Town.

I’m just glad that I happened to pick up cycling again, after not riding at all since high school. I’m also glad that there are new bike projects in the pipeline, and I’m hopeful that there will be even more projects to be added in the future.

[off2ride]

Realistically? No. Even a state the same size as Denmark wouldn’t even come close to that level of bike dependency. America loves cars. Period.

[dasgeh]

@PotomacCyclist 68069 wrote:

I’ve read that one of the primary motivations for developing a bike-oriented system was the frequency of car-caused fatalities, especially among children. (I don’t remember if this was in Copenhagen, Amsterdam or both.) We certainly see more than enough car-caused fatalities here in the U.S., over 32,000 last year, and even more a decade ago. (Annual car-caused deaths were somewhere around 40,000 back then.) But for some reason (related to advertising, glorification of the automobile in movies and TV shows), so many people are tone-deaf when it comes to statistics on car-related injuries and deaths in the U.S.

I’d love to see a comparison of gun-related deaths to car-related deaths.

[jabberwocky]

@dasgeh 68148 wrote:

I’d love to see a comparison of gun-related deaths to car-related deaths.

Gun deaths have been somewhere around 10k per year (homicides), 600-800 per year (accidents) and 15k per year (suicides).

From what I’ve seen, the drop in car deaths over the past 20 years has largely been due to better safety technology (since the vast majority of motor vehicle deaths are due to accidents). People are just as likely (if not more likely) to get into accidents these days, they are just a lot more likely to survive due to better safety engineering in the cars.

[PotomacCyclist]

@off2ride 68112 wrote:

Realistically? No. Even a state the same size as Denmark wouldn’t even come close to that level of bike dependency. America loves cars. Period.

But not nearly as much as they used to. The decline in driving began even before the 2007-2008 recession. Many younger adults no longer see driving as a recreational activity. It’s merely a means of transportation, not really a lifestyle. In the D.C. area and in other major metropolitan centers, neighborhoods near Metro/subway stations have become more popular because local residents don’t need to drive everywhere. Residential properties are starting to promote their proximity to bike paths and CaBi stations as benefits.

“The percentage of 18-years-olds with a driver’s license plunged from 80 percent in 1983 to 61 percent by 2010. According to an analysis by Advisor Perspectives quoted in the piece, even the number of miles driven per person is below the historic peak by almost 9 percent.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/05/young-americans-are-abandoning-car-ownership-and-driving.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/sunday-review/the-end-of-car-culture.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

“…driving by young people [16 to 34-yr-olds] decreased 23 percent between 2001 and 2009.”

The weak economy continues to affect younger adults. Many of those younger adults have started moving back to central cities like D.C., instead of the suburbs. Cars are too expensive for many. Or they prefer not having to pay the costs of owning a car if they can get by on a combination of mass transit, cycling and walking. Mobile electronics and social media have also affected the way that younger adults see cars. People stay in regular contact without having to make as many short-distance trips. If they live in D.C. and other cities, it’s not that far to travel to meet up with friends.

CaBi is one of the oldest large bike sharing systems. But the past 12 months or so have really seen bikeshare take off around the country, with new large systems in cities like Boston, NYC and Chicago. I think there are other new systems in San Francisco.

About two-thirds of D.C. households have a car, although in some articles I’ve read, the number is lower than that. I can’t seem to find exact stats right now.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/cars-transportation/car-population-460110

Car ownership and use is higher in the suburbs, especially the farther out you go from D.C. But maybe that will change too as Metro expands into Fairfax Co. and CaBi moves into new areas like Rockville, Silver Spring, Bethesda, College Park and maybe Reston and National Harbor in the future.

[off2ride]

After reading your post, it made me feel good that automobile use is on the decline. My household used to have 2 cars on our driveway but we only have one now. My wife drives, I ride to work. I think my wife will become bike dependent when hell freezes over or when you can climb Mt. Everest in a day. So it’s people like that that will separate “us” from “them”. Hopefully one day here in the DMV area we’ll have more bikes on the streets than cars.

@PotomacCyclist 68187 wrote:

But not nearly as much as they used to. The decline in driving began even before the 2007-2008 recession. Many younger adults no longer see driving as a recreational activity. It’s merely a means of transportation, not really a lifestyle. In the D.C. area and in other major metropolitan centers, neighborhoods near Metro/subway stations have become more popular because local residents don’t need to drive everywhere. Residential properties are starting to promote their proximity to bike paths and CaBi stations as benefits.

“The percentage of 18-years-olds with a driver’s license plunged from 80 percent in 1983 to 61 percent by 2010. According to an analysis by Advisor Perspectives quoted in the piece, even the number of miles driven per person is below the historic peak by almost 9 percent.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/05/young-americans-are-abandoning-car-ownership-and-driving.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/sunday-review/the-end-of-car-culture.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

“…driving by young people [16 to 34-yr-olds] decreased 23 percent between 2001 and 2009.”

The weak economy continues to affect younger adults. Many of those younger adults have started moving back to central cities like D.C., instead of the suburbs. Cars are too expensive for many. Or they prefer not having to pay the costs of owning a car if they can get by on a combination of mass transit, cycling and walking. Mobile electronics and social media have also affected the way that younger adults see cars. People stay in regular contact without having to make as many short-distance trips. If they live in D.C. and other cities, it’s not that far to travel to meet up with friends.

CaBi is one of the oldest large bike sharing systems. But the past 12 months or so have really seen bikeshare take off around the country, with new large systems in cities like Boston, NYC and Chicago. I think there are other new systems in San Francisco.

About two-thirds of D.C. households have a car, although in some articles I’ve read, the number is lower than that. I can’t seem to find exact stats right now.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/cars-transportation/car-population-460110

Car ownership and use is higher in the suburbs, especially the farther out you go from D.C. But maybe that will change too as Metro expands into Fairfax Co. and CaBi moves into new areas like Rockville, Silver Spring, Bethesda, College Park and maybe Reston and National Harbor in the future.

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