[SDCBC] Lane splitting and bike paths

[Kathy Keehan]

I'm going to send a couple of emails focusing on various aspects of this
discussion, so here's the first.

 

I liked Dan Gutierrez's video of taking the lane in Long Beach. I found it
interesting from an instructor point of view. It shows that it can be done,
and that they weren't killed in the process. 

But when I sent that video to most of my friends who don't regularly ride,
the reaction is completely different. They admire Dan and Brian for doing
it, but they still can't see themselves doing it, or ever wanting to do it.
To them it's kind of like watching someone mountain bike on a unicycle -
interesting and entertaining, but not something they would ever want to do
themselves. 

 

So as an instructional video it works pretty well. Which is good, since
that's what it's intended to be.  As an encouragement/advertising piece for
bicycling, not so well. 

 

So, what would be a good way to get people to ride? Let's build some good
facilities! Well.

 

This is working in some places. Portland is a good example. As facility
miles go up, bicycling mode share is going up as well. You can do a
statistical analysis that shows a correlation between number of miles of
bicycle facilities and mode share, particularly for European cities, but it
doesn't answer the cause and effect question - are there more bicyclists
because there are more facilities, or are there more facilities because
there are more bicyclists? I personally think it depends on the city.
Portland is, I think, a good example where the inclusion of facilities made
it so people who wanted to ride could do so, and the mode share went up.
Poway, on the other hand, may be an example of a place where building the
facility is clearly not sufficient. Poway has an extensive network of bike
lanes on arterials and off road unpaved trails. If people wanted to ride in
and around Poway, they can do so relatively easily. But they don't. Their
commute mode share for bicycling in .3%. Yesterday when I was out riding, I
saw a few bicyclists on the roads, but none on the trail system. I'm sure
there must have been some, but I didn't have to worry about too many people
filling up the trails. So clearly, in a community like Poway, building the
facility is not enough to catalyze people to get on their bikes. Something
is missing. Maybe it's the topography, maybe it's the land uses, maybe it's
the attitude of the residents? We simply don't know. But we do know that
just building the facility is not enough. It may be that there are some
communities that no amount of infrastructure improvement will be enough to
instigate a significant mode shift.

 

There's still an enormous amount we don't know about how to get more people
to ride bikes. There's no foolproof formula - "if you do this and this and
this, then your mode share will go up!" If there were, we would already be
doing it. :-) We do know that there are some necessary (although not
necessarily sufficient) ingredients that need to be in the mix, though. 

 

1)      Decent facilities. Places where people feel relatively safe riding.
People will create these facilities if they don't already exist on their
routes. That's why you end up with bicyclists going through alleys, parking
lots, sidewalks, side streets, and unmarked (and sometimes illegal) trails.
If they want to ride, they will ride. Unfortunately they don't always make
the best or safest choices. We need to provide places that feel safe and ARE
safe (at least relatively). And educate people about how the facilities are
to be used. 

2)      Origins and destinations. People need places to ride to and from,
within a reasonable distance from one another. I think one of the reasons
that more people aren't riding in Poway is that everything is so darned far
apart. If you have a 10 mile round trip to the grocery store, you're
probably not likely to make that ride very often. Topography plays into this
as well. A two mile trip can feel like ten miles if there's a big hill in
the middle. 

3)      Population of potential riders. People who have the time,
inclination, and fitness to choose bicycle riding. A reason why college
campuses have large bicycling populations - they are filled with young, fit,
money conscious people with free time on their hands. :-)

4)      Cultural acceptance of bicycling as a valid transportation option.
This is an education effort. Again, in places where bicycling is already
happening (especially in populations that are socially aspired to) bicycling
is accepted and encouraged. In places where your neighbors don't bicycle,
you are less likely to bicycle as well. In Poway it's ok to ride a $2500
titanium racing bike for fun on the weekends, but it's a little too
hippie-like to do so as a part of your daily life. There's a definite
disconnect between the lifestyle in the suburbs (where there are people who
have raised shopping and consumption to a competitive sport) and making
bicycling a part of everyday life. There are already people bicycling in
every community, but bicycling is only embraced in a few communities. 

 

I think what I've learned in my years of doing this is that there isn't one
single thing that is the magic bullet for creating bicyclists. You can't do
facilities without education and encouragement and expect people to just go
out and ride. You can't do education programs without facilities and expect
it to be enough to get people to ride. There has to be a whole strategy in
place, in locations where the potential exists for bicycling in the first
place, for bicycling to actually take off. 

 

That's the tricky balancing act. We only have so much money to go around. Do
we spend it all on a regional bike network that provides options for people
along the freeway corridors? Do we spend it on education and encouragement
programs that try to create that cultural acceptance for bicycling? Do we
use the money to encourage developing communities where origins and
destinations are closer together so that the opportunity exists for
bicycling and walking? Do we focus our investments on targeted facilities
and programs that address the existing safety hazards in communities where
bicycling is already taking place? Do we focus on accommodating the people
who are already riding, or do we focus on people who aren't already riding
but might? These are the questions that the board of the Coalition has to
wrestle with all the time, and it's not always easy to come to consensus or
even agreement on what the best thing is to do. Come join the board to get
to participate in the day-to-day decision making that is bicycle advocacy
(hint hint!)

 

I've gone on too long, and I didn't even get to Camino Del Norte! (see an
upcoming email for that one.)

 

Kathy

 

 

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