Welcome to the Urbanist Update. My job here at CyclingTips might be as tech editor, but I’ve also spent tons of time studying transportation, city planning, and engineering. Here are some of the things I’ve found interesting over the past week related to biking in cities, cycling infrastructure, and urbanism.
Opinion: My Thoughts on the cycling decline and a list of theories to explain it
Cue the LCD Soundsystem song “Losing My Edge.” But instead of it being about feeling washed up as a cool person, it’s Portland’s declining cycling culture.
Portland, Oregon is seen in the U.S. as a bit of a shining light in city planning circles. They have miles of protected bike lanes that connect to places people actually want to ride. The culture has people riding to replace their cars, and the city’s government seemingly works in the interest of cyclists and their safety. If you want cycling infrastructure in your city, Portland is often the first (or only) U.S.-based city people look to.
However, recent traffic counts reveal that bicycle ridership in Portland has actually decreased in recent years. Author Jonathan Maus has a few theories as to why in a story recently published by Bike Portland.
I won’t spoil the details because Maus offers up a number of arguments that show not only why Portland is stagnating, but why other cities’ efforts might be stagnating as well. Half-heartedly building and maintaining bike infrastructure, stagnating interest in building strong biking networks, demographic shifts, and increasingly-distracted drivers among other things make cycling more challenging, even in Portland, Oregon.
Perhaps it is a bit of a demographic or cultural shift too. Maybe cycling is no longer as cool in Portland as it used to be. Perhaps all the third-wave coffee shop hipsters lost their edge and left for the Midwest. Just don’t blame people who work from home; I love working from home.
Mitt Romney calls new bike lanes ‘the height of stupidity’ as bicyclists press Congress to make roads safer and e-bikes cheaper
Senator Mitt Romney, son of the former CEO of the defunct American Motors Corporation (AMC, not the movie theater), is dragging e-bikes into yet another culture war.
The story from Insider compiled the conservative lawmakers’ reactions to a recently-proposed e-bike bill. Senator Romney takes issue with the government subsidizing anything that makes e-bikes cheaper. That I understand; most e-bike sales are to wealthy folks who likely will use their bike purely as a recreational choice than as a means of exchanging car trips with a bike.
What I don’t understand is that he doesn’t want federal money going toward making space on roads for cyclists. Here’s what he said:
“I’m not going to spend money on buying e-bikes for people like me who have bought them — they’re expensive,” he said. “Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity, it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions.”
What he recommended instead was that people take mass transit rather than buy an electric bike. As a self-professed train nerd, I have no problem with that, except public transit in most of North America is barely mediocre and hanging on by a thread, simply put.
Here’s an idea. As it stands, car-centric culture is our built environment forcing a way of life on us, more than the government taking away gas stoves or the like. What if we banded together to offer an inexpensive, simple alternative to getting from your home to the grocery store, work, or your friend’s house? And what if it meant people were less dependent on one mode of transportation?
Eh, that’s probably the height of stupidity.
Inside the movement to remake America’s city streets
A few weeks ago, The Washington Post dropped a story on how streets have changed through the pandemic. Perhaps you remember these streets at the start of the pandemic, going from streets congested with car traffic to comfortable, safe spaces for folks walking or biking.
Most of those spaces – often branded as ‘open streets’ or as ‘slow streets’ – have likely either become seasonal or have gone away altogether in your local communities. Among other places, communities in San Francisco are fighting to keep their public open spaces car-free.
This is a story worth sitting down for, if only as a reminder that the etymology for the term ‘jaywalking’ is somewhat insidious. Regardless of how big or small your city, town, or neighborhood is, we all deserve space that allows folks to walk, run, bike, scoot, or get around in any way that decreases our dependence on cars.
Lisbon is installing “footrests” for people on bikes who are waiting to cross an intersection https://t.co/r1v3WIpQZC pic.twitter.com/uKH9AFnBJt
— David Zipper (@DavidZipper) April 7, 2023
Lisbon installs “footrests” for cyclists waiting for lights to turn in their favor
The Lisbon City Council (in Portugal) has added footrests at some of their busiest intersections on a dedicated bike path. This was launched as a pilot project with the aim of asses the infrastructure’s perceived value.
The original story, first published in Lisboa Para Pessoas, says the footrests are placed next to the bike path just before intersections, allowing cyclists to comfortably wait without fully dismounting from their bikes. It isn’t just a footrest, however; there is also an upper bar for an armrest.
Each footrest looks and functions a lot like an adapted steel safety railing one might find in outdoor public spaces. However, there’s one key difference: on the footrest, there is a sentence explaining that says, “put your foot down here… thanks for riding a bike!”.
Commuter cyclists know the value of a well-placed raised pedestrian refuge island. Having an elevated space on the side of the street makes it easy to wait at a stop light and get back up to speed. However, these raised islands require plenty of space and some engineering. Steel footrests bolted down into the road have no such problem.
The next time you ride your bike to run errands and you stop at a red light, see if you can find the difference between having a raised place to put a foot down and the other foot on the pedal versus just putting your feet on the ground. I bet you’ll find a footrest is nice, but a handhold would be even better.
No, you don’t need a car to carry groceries. A Lime Scooter will suffice
Maybe you’ve seen the Instagram account, @carryshitolympics, where folks carry furniture, animals, and whatever else they can on their bike to leave their car at home. It rules.
And maybe you’ve participated in this to some degree, carrying your dog in your backpack, or a bunch of groceries home on your bike using some combination of bags, baskets, and racks. Well folks, here’s the final boss: someone carrying groceries using carabiners and a Lime scooter.
@jordanflomofficial Man picks up Groceries on Scooter! #caughtoncamera #lifehacks #diy #diwhy #limescooters #dad #mom #funny ♬ original sound – Jordan Flom
I’m sure the next time I struggle to carry something unwieldy on the bike, I’ll remind myself of the Lime scooter guy.
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