kccommuter

Have you noticed more commuters out there? My informal sense is that I have seen an increase in the past 3 years. What have you seen and what will it take to get more people out there?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...tml?cmpid=yhoo

hellojoben

Yes, I do think so.


Just this past week I saw some teen busting his ass down a big main street during traffic. The first i've ever seen brave that sort of thing. And I keep on seeing more and more bikes.... fixies, but hey it's a bike

LeeG

no, more scooters though.

1nterceptor

I've seen more riders since I started commuting about 5 years ago.
And New York City DOT confirms that there has been a big increase
in cyclists. It's not a coincidence that in this time period, NY has been
adding bike lanes all over the city.

" What have you seen and what will it take to get more people out there?"

Same thing that worked for the Netherlands, Denmark, Colombia, Oregon, etc.
Pretty much everywhere in the world; build bike lanes and the bikers multiply.

woodway

$4/gallon gasoline.

BarracksSi

I have no idea if there have been many bike lanes added in the past three years (no new ones in my neighborhood), but yup, there's more commuters & utility cyclists than ever.

I've often posted here that I can't walk the half-block to my grocery store without seeing at least one or two cyclists on the street. If car traffic is light, I might even see more cyclists than cars.

And, yeah, it really started when gas hit $4/gal like woodway mentioned.

dcrowell

More like $10 to make a serious difference.

That said, there are more here in Louisville. It's not just due to gas prices or the economy. It more awareness that it can be done, that it saves money, and helps you get more fit.

LeeG

funny thing is that we'll experience recessionary consequences if gasoline goes to $5 from oil prices alone (not raised taxes) which will feel like $10/gal. for those without employment. Other countries decided to price fuel higher with taxes with the result they've got 40mpg sedans. We've got relatively lower fuel costs and so many vehicles that it'll take over 20yrs for higher mpg vehicles to replace the old vehicles. So we'll see people riding bikes because they have one car in the family, or no car and no job.

exile

I've seen an increase. There were times when I felt I was the only commuter in my area. It is actually normal for me to see at least two other people riding as well now.

My bike is no longer the only one locked up in the racks now which is good. There is nothing more worrisome than a bike left alone. I was afraid I would come out one day to find it is missing. Now I come out and find the other bikes that were there when I arrived missing.

mustang1

Seen a few more cyclists but a lot more scooters and motorbikes. Which makes sense. If I had any (sense), I would be going on a motorbike/scooter too.

CptjohnC

+1 This ^^^.

And this ^^^, 'cept I'd say $6 or higher to really make a difference.

Definitely way more bikes on the suburban streets around me now than there were in 2007. And tons more scooters/mopeds and such. Oddly, though, the increase in fuel efficient cars and decrease in excessive SUVs has gone into decline, presumably caused by US fuel staying under $3/gal.

Of course, I'd also like to see mass transit doing better, but the price around here is actually fairly high, relative to alternatives (including driving). I could take transit for $10/ day, plus the cost of getting to the station (Bus- $1.50ish, park- $4.25 or bike- hundreds and hundreds of dollars, in retrospect ;-)) or I could park near my office for $12-13, and save about 25-30 minutes from my total commute. We need to stop subsidizing drivers, and transfer those subsidies to more sustainable transportation alternatives, at least in/near urban centers.

BarracksSi

What sucks about scooters and motorbikes is that they're a lot dirtier, emissions-wise, than any car or SUV. It takes a lot of digging to find any that are sold with catalytic convertors.

phillyskyline

Yes, definitely. I started commuting ~2 years ago, and since then I've seen quite an increase in bike traffic, mostly in the warmer months. I've also seen a huge increase in folding bikes. Lots of Dahons and Bromptons around Philly these days.

billyymc

Two stroke scooters, yes pretty damn dirty - but there are only a couple street legal two strokes being sold in the U.S. today.

The four strokes are cleaner - perhaps not with the same types of requirements as cars, but still at 80 mpg or more they aren't a terrible alternative to one p erson driving around in an SUV. FWIW, my two stroke had a caty converter on it when I bought it. I don't ride it so much anymore - on my bike insteadk.

turkey9186

10 years ago there was one person I worked with commuting. This year at one point, ten people were commuting. And this to an evil oil refinery.

The 2005 Kawasaki Z750S I owned had a catalytic converter on it. I think most four stroke bikes sold are now required to have them, of course they are usually taken off within a couple weeks and replaced with straight pipes.

xtrajack

I guess that I am part of that increase, I started in June '08. I too, have noticed more commuters just since I started.
Permaybehaps we are getting close to the tipping point.

cyclokitty 

I've noticed more cyclists commuting as well as more people riding during the colder months. There is no snow on the ground in Toronto which has helped keep more of us on our bikes. But last winter I did see more cyclists than in earlier years. It doesn't compare to the number of people who ride during the summer but it is slowly increasing.

B. Carfree

There has definitely been a substantial increase in the two cities I spend time in (Eugene, OR and Davis, CA). Three years ago I could spend a week in Davis and not see a single bike that wasn't either under my relatives or had been driven to campus. While the numbers are nowhere near the Golden era ('75-85), there are now many more. In Eugene, I usually see more city trucks on the bike paths in November than bikes, but that is clearly changing. It looks as though there has been at least a doubling if not tripling in the number of bikes this fall relative to years past. It may eventually get to the point where I don't know every cyclist by sight.

I must say I disagree with those who say the increase is and will be driven by infrastructure improvements. The culture comes first, infrastructure follows. Davis demonstrated this in reverse. The infrastructure was built there in the '70s (in response to a cultural shift), but in the late '80s through the late naughties the riders disappeared. So, just having lots of infrastructure does not get people out of their cages.

CptjohnC

I think it takes some of each -- to change the culture requires the 'cost' of cycling to come down or the price of the alternatives to go up -- which is why high gas prices help, but without better infrastructure, most folks won't be willing to pay the price (so they'll use mass transit or other alternatives).

Recreational cycling is probably more affected by infrastructure - commuting more by price of alternatives?

rex_kramer

Yeah...followed one in the bike lane for a wobbly mile or two before she finally decided to be brave and pull into traffic at the appropriate speed.

Sundance89

Louisville is the "current" best model for what can be possible for urban cycling, and what made it possible was a bold vision by their mayor, Jerry Abramson.

The Louisville cycling community didn't happen by accident. It was made in large part from a conscious decision by a leader in government which influenced infrastructure, and then by the citizens buying in to that vision. This is just excellent and I'm surprised Louisville doesn't get more attention nationwide for the process in how it got there. Once it reaches the point where the citizens began to reap the benefits and proudly identify cycling as part of their city offerings, it takes on a life force of its own. This is the new Portland and it keeps getting better. Congrats.

javal

Cross city commuting has always been "big" over here. What I can see is an increase in intercity cycling (I do that myself). This year we´ve got a new bike lane alongside the car road between home and worktown, I only wish the municipal will dig in to keep the bike lane snowfree.

Grim

Not if you ask a cager. Just a lot more poor people that cant afford cars and people with DUI's clogging up their roads .

In all seriousness. If our government keeps printing money people will not be able to afford to drive as inflation and layoffs continue. You will see a big increase of pedestrians and riders.

Save your pennies and plant a garden. It may get ugly soon.

Glad I am only 2 miles from my job (when it moves in 2 weeks) making my commute easy. My boss and one of my co workers have over hour drives and the other 4 people I work with are about 30 minutes.

We have had an 1/8 acre garden in our back yard for 3 years. We have been supplementing our heat with wood stove for the last two years. It cut our winter gas bill in half freaking our our gas company to the point they changed our meter and finally called asking WTH? I have 2 cords of split wood from a trees we had taken down this fall and I have 3-4 more cords to split (thanks to the neighbor also cutting trees and we took the trunks). That will probably be 3-4 years worth of wood as supplement to gas heat. Maybe 2 as primary heat.

Grim

With the government running mass transit it will always be a failure in suburban settings.
I would LOVE to use mass trasit to get to down town Atlanta in the evenings and weekends but the fact is the schedule on the express that would get me there in 45 minutes shuts down at rides in at 7 pm and rides out at 8pm durring the week and doesnt run at all on the weekend. That leaves making about 6 buss changes through two different systems and a bunch of stops making it a 2+ hour trip that can be done by car in 20-25. Its a wash on fuel savings at this point as the user fees would exceed the fuel burned in my cars leaving me to decide if 1.5 hours of my time is worth more then a $5-8 dollar parking fee at 50% of the places I go and free at the other 50%.

There is talk about high speed line from Chattanooga to Atlanta that would stop 3.5 miles from me but I would prefer that be build by the private sector NOT the government. That way it can be run economically and not be run in the red at the tax payers expense.

zoltani

I just read that bike commuting has tripled in the past three years around here, so maybe it is catching on.