In 18 years working in bicycles, Eric Bjorling had never seen anything like April 2020. With no end to the pandemic in sight, people were desperate for things to do. "They had time on their hands, they had kids, they needed to physically go outside and do something," says Bjorling, head of brand marketing at Trek Bicycles, one of the largest bike manufacturers in the world.
So began the pandemic bicycle boom. US bike sales more than doubled in 2020 compared to the year before, according to research firm NPD Group, reaching $5.4 billion. Bike mechanics got overloaded as people dragged neglected bikes out of garages and basements. And local governments responded to and then fueled the shift, by adapting urban environments with unprecedented speed, restricting car traffic on some streets and building temporary bike lanes on others. "During the pandemic, many things were possible, policy-wise, that before we didn't think possible, especially at that pace," says Ralph Buehler, a professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech.
Almost three years later, the legacy of the bike boom, and the accompanying changes to urban infrastructure, is murky. In many places, it has been hard to lastingly convert residents to cycling, especially for the sort of trips that might otherwise be taken by car: to work, to school, or to the grocery store. Bike sales have slowed from their frantic pandemic-era high: NPD Group data shows the value of sales dropped 11 percent this year compared to 2021, though they're still well above 2019 levels.
[...] Tab Combs, a transportation policy researcher at the University of North Carolina who has tracked Covid-era infrastructure projects around the world, sees evidence that cities have changed the way they think about building stuff altogether. They've found new ways to engage the public; they believe they can put up temporary infrastructure and change it later. "These [transportation] interventions, most of them actually were ephemeral," she says. "But what we're learning is that the experience of doing it is going to have a long-lasting impact."
That's how it worked in Tucson, Arizona, says Andy Bemis, a senior project manager with the city's Department of Transportation and Mobility. [...]
Not all of Tucson's projects became permanent, Bemis says. But the department has emerged with a better understanding of how to engage the community. [...] "For many years, we've been the Department of No," says Bemis. "And though right now we certainly can't fix every problem, we can start." Now that the biggest boom has passed, cities will have to figure out how to keep rolling.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday November 15 2022, @10:27PM (1 child)
I bike to work almost every day. I rode before pandemic but that was fair weather only, and now I'm riding as long as it isn't properly raining at my morning departure. Here in Oregon gasoline is still ~$5/gal which helps my motivation.
On-topic, a major reason I am riding is because the infrastructure exists. It definitely could be better: my painted bike lanes tend to disappear in intersections exactly when I need them. But comparing suburban Portland to suburban Detroit where my parents live I can't imagine riding there. Distances are farther, bike lanes are non-existent, and roads are faster. And to continue the message, if the infrastructure was robust enough that I felt save riding anywhere in a 20 mile radius I would probably buy an ebike to enable those trips without breaking a sweat.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:45PM
I'm 70 and just bought an ebike this year; I needed exercise. But when I was young, only kids rode bikes. If you saw someone on a bicycle, you knew for almost a certainty that they were younger than sixteen. It was this century before I started seeing adults on bicycles, and they were all drunks who had lost their driver's licenses; they started cracking down in the nineties.
But lately I know a few adults who drive, but also bike. I assume most are like me, who just need a little exercise.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Tuesday November 15 2022, @11:50PM (20 children)
Notice the most important factor got postponed till the end. "Building bike infrastructure" means "most critically" destroying private car infrastructure! Once again, we see the game of ignoring human preferences in favor of some ideology. Of course, if you destroy other choices, then the people will make the right choices!
(Score: 5, Informative) by richtopia on Tuesday November 15 2022, @11:59PM (18 children)
You are right! Cars destroyed walking and biking infrastructure! Finally urban infrastructure is reverting to a human friendly scale.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @12:19AM (5 children)
I've made similar observations, from time to time.
I've not been without a car or truck to drive, since I was 15 years old. At that time in my life, I was an avid bicyclist. I got everywhere in my home county on two wheels, or on two feet. But, I saw no way to get and keep a job, using a bicycle for transportation. I saw no way to get and keep a girl, if all I had was a bicycle. No way to do a thousand other things that seemed important. It always seemed that you simply had to have a car, just to have a life.
The town I grew up in was shutting down the shopping districts sprinkled around the city, and all the businesses were moving to the shopping malls outside the city limits. No sidewalks, no bike lanes, and they were all a long trip by foot or by bike. Seriously, I watched the migration. In elementary school, there were stores within a three minute walk of the school building. A "five and dime" store, a grocery store, a clothing store, a deli run by a classmate's father - and more. By the time I graduated high school, there was little left downtown, or on the East, West, North, or South sides of town. Almost all of it was outside the city limits. Out where the highway bypasses were being built, at that time.
So, I got a car, and I've always had one since.
The stores need to come back, within easy biking range, if we want people to adopt biking as a means of transportation. Better yet if the stores return to easy walking distance. I mean, easy walking distance for elementary grade children, for grandparents, or people with limited mobility.
Who, today, hands some pocket change to their pre-teen, and asks them to walk to the store for a loaf of bread, or whatever? (alright, it takes folding money to buy a loaf of bread today, not 30 cents, but that's inflation, totally separate issue)
People friendly cities would solve a lot of society's problems, and help some with problems that it doesn't actually solve.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:02AM
I walk to the computer, do my work, and order some food. Seldom have to leave the house.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:35AM (3 children)
Refrigerators mean we don't have to buy food every day. And that assumes you're not eating out.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:33PM (2 children)
ROFLMAO
Refrigerators were everywhere in America even before I was born, or you were born. And, who stores their bread in the refrigerator? That's just lame, Khallow. Everyone finds that they've run low, or run out of something in between shopping days. That is precisely why "convenience stores" came into existence.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:21PM
I keep my bread in my fridge. I live by myself and even with two slices a day it gets moldy. If you toast it the impact of the fridge is mitigated.
I haven't bought Wonderbread in years, so maybe that would keep fresh with all of its preservatives.
And yea - bikes or something? I ride my bike to the grocery store regularly for perishables. I have three supermarkets in a three mile radius; the locality enables me to leave my car parked.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:43PM
And the transition to larger, car-accessible stores started then too.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:10AM (10 children)
Even if that were true, so what? New infrastructure replaces old all the time.
You say that like it were a good thing. The problem here is assuming that the "human friendly scale" better than the other. In the US, there was plenty of opportunity for the human friendly scale infrastructure to show its value. That it near universally failed (aside from a small number of urban areas) throughout the US is telling just as it is telling now that one has to destroy car-friendly infrastructure in order to make the allegedly human-friendly infrastructure at all competitive.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:17AM (5 children)
Stop being so shallow, Khallow. If horses killed ~40,000 people annually, there would be a massive movement to outlaw horses. Not to mention that dependency on dinojuice powered transportation helps to make 'Murica obese, costing yet more lives every year. And, quality of life, and all that. Inner city children only see a tree when they take a field trip to some park, FFS. Replace some streets with trees, FFS, so those fat kids can see a tree, alright?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:28AM (4 children)
Cars don't kill people. Drivers kill people.
(Score: 5, Funny) by janrinok on Wednesday November 16 2022, @05:54AM (1 child)
If you are going to make silly arguments - lets ban drivers then. Problem sorted.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:26PM
Runaway is familiar with that argument for firearms. Well, it applies to cars as well.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:38PM (1 child)
Especially distracted drivers, right? At least horses have a mind of their own, and won't willingly step on your toddler who chased a ball into the path of the horse. They will quite literally stomp on the head of a snake outside their path, but will dance the most intricate dance to avoid stepping on children. Horses are awesome!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:43PM
I live in France. We also like them cooked.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:53AM (3 children)
In Europe, "human friendly scale" is a given. In cities and towns there's a small shopping area every mile or two and a large one every 3 or 4 miles. It works quite nicely without a car.
> In the US, there was plenty of opportunity for the human friendly scale infrastructure to show its value.
I wonder if that is true. Infrastructure is determined by planning departments, not so much by free market capitalism. Most USian cities seem to have small shopping areas (7-11 or whatever) every few miles, but can be difficult to get to - sidewalks are optional and you have those massive multilane highways everywhere that can be difficult to cross.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:37PM (2 children)
Uh huh. Again, I'll note the obvious. There's tens of thousands of planning departments, some which are aware of the alleged advantages of foot and bicycle. And the free market capitalism does indeed have effect despite claims to the contrary. If there was an obvious advantage to be had aside from very constrained circumstances like downtown Manhattan, we would have seen them by now.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday November 17 2022, @08:36AM (1 child)
Maybe it's cultural? By your argument, Belgium should not exist...
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=8/50.972/5.306&layers=Y [openstreetmap.org]
Compare that with somewhere like New York and the difference is stark:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=9/40.7223/-73.8171&layers=Y [openstreetmap.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 17 2022, @01:36PM
Why? They have higher population density than most of the US and a poorly developed road network. And I bet if we looked, we'd see considerable infrastructure bias in favor of other modes of transportation like rail or human-powered.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:24PM
Cars replaced Horses and Horse Drawn Carriages. At least in the USA. Bikes were always more of a niche thing and required much smoother roads, etc. to be usable. Perhaps, they were useful in big cities. Those take up a very tiny percentage of the land area of the USA.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:54PM
Notice the most important factor got postponed till the end.
They started here before the pandemic, but still haven't gotten it right. second street has bike lanes from South Grand to downtown, but good luck getting around downtown Springfield on a bicycle! The only bike rack is, both intelligently and stupidly, by the library, a building it's dangerous as hell getting to on a bicycle.
They also put bike racks on buses here, but any tire fatter than a ten speed's won't fit. They're not very smart in our local government.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Troll) by MonkeypoxBugChaser on Wednesday November 16 2022, @02:00AM (6 children)
Sure, let me just ride my bike to the grocery store and be unable to carry my groceries home. What a swell idea.
It's even better when I drive my car to the bike trail. How progressive!
But I like biking! I really do. One day maybe I'll do a century, almost half way there. Not sure I'd want to use it as my primary transportation in 100F Tuscon, AZ. Sometimes, it's also nice to make it places on time without being covered in sweat. The problem is, these people are crazy, and they will force it on you whether it works or not.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @03:36AM (3 children)
You obviously eat too much, Mr. Supersizeme 17904.
Oh, wait, you're stuck in the 1700s technology era? You aren't aware that bicycles can have luggage carrying baskets on the handlebars, or behind the seat, or on the fenders? Or, even pull an appropriately sized trailer?
https://www.amazon.com/Instep-Bike-Trailer-Single-Double/dp/B084763RWH [amazon.com]
The grandchildren have put a lot of miles on a trailer like that one - first as infants, riding behind their momma, now as bigger kids, carrying loads of puppies, picnic supplies, dinosaurs, baby dolls, and so much more. You really don't need a car to bring home your super sized 3 pound cholesterol MacBurger.
(Score: 1) by MonkeypoxBugChaser on Wednesday November 16 2022, @12:49PM (2 children)
That trailer might get about half of them. Where it gets interesting is the summer and bringing home meat or ice cream.
Wait, we're not allowed to eat that anymore either, in the same way we're not allowed to have opinions.
You will be limited in distance, time and what you can carry and you will like it, mr.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2022, @01:27PM
I think that much of the argument in this discussion is, that neighborhoods should have everything available in walking and/or bicycle distance of the residents. Owning a car should not be a necessity of life.
OK, so, I live 2 miles from the nearest convenience store, and 5 miles from the nearest grocery store. Assuming that I considered it "safe" to bike into town, and/or allow the grandchildren to bike into town, there is no barrier to bringing home meat, milk, or ice cream. All the women in my family possess insulated shopping bags. Stuff the perishables inside of those, and haul ass home. Ice cream will last 1/2 an hour minimum, even at temperatures over 100 degrees F. You don't want to dawdle on the way home, but you can safely bring ice cream and bags of ice home from town.
Again, you're back at the heart of the issue: It shouldn't be necessary to travel multiple tens of miles just to do your shopping. America's infrastructure isn't people freindly.
I believe that I've already noted that you eat too much? If you eat that many groceries, just make 3 or 4 trips to the grocery store each week, instead of only one. You'll work up a bit of a sweat each trip, burn off some fat, and enjoy the next bicyble ride even more!
Oh, one more idea? Start a garden. Growing your own food, even in a tiny little raised bed, will help reduce your need to haul groceries from the store!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @05:02PM
Where it gets interesting is the summer and bringing home meat or ice cream.
I did it all summer with no problems whatever.
Wait, we're not allowed to eat that anymore either, in the same way we're not allowed to have opinions.
Wow, are you so drunk you think you're on Parler, you dumbassed troll?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2022, @06:57AM
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 16 2022, @04:57PM
I would say you have the intelligence of a housecat, but that would be an insult to cats. Have you never heard of a backpack? Saddlebags? Bungie cords?
When the bike won't work, take the car, dumbass. I pity you for your lack of intelligence. Who ties your shoes for you?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org