In advance of the arrival of NYC’s bikeshare program, Bryan Walsh checks the stats:
More than twice as many New Yorkers commuted to work by bike in 2011 than in 2006 — to nearly 20,000 — while the number of New Yorkers who ride their bike daily increased by more than 13% over just the past two years.
And much of that two-wheeled growth is due to the surprisingly bike friendly policies of Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his aggressive transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. More than 290 miles of new bike lanes have been built since Bloomberg took over in 2002 — altogether there are more than 700 miles — including new routes physically separated from the streets in main arteries like Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue.
“Between 2 and 2.5% of all vehicle miles traveled in the entire city of New York is by bike,” says Charles Komanoff, a New York-based transport analyst. “That’s five or six times what it was 30 years ago.”
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Will it make the city less safe?
The number of people who’ve been killed in traffic accidents in New York has declined over the past decade, and the number of bikers is growing faster than the number of bike accidents. And despite the public perceptions of out of control cyclists, bikers are rarely at fault for accidents — especially with cars.
A study by Monash University in Australia that looked at driver-cyclist collisions found that nearly 90% of cyclists had been traveling in a safe and legal manner just before the crashes, while vehicle drivers were at fault for more than 80% of the collisions, with the remaining collisions classified as no-fault.
From me:
New York’s bike-share launch is hugely important. Not just because of its size – 10,000 bikes – and not just because of New York’s size. But because New York is one of the media capitals of the world, and the setting for so many TV shows and movies. What happens on the streets of New York creates an expectation about what a city should be – and conveys it to the world.
Imagine Katie Couric telling the viewers of Good Morning America of her ride to work or Jon Stewart at the Daily Show adding his slant, satirical or otherwise, and imagine the impact that has on millions – who then want to know why their cities aren’t as culturally cool and sophisticated. If it can work in New York, it can work anywhere.
Reading about other city’s successes makes me look at our city and envy. **Sigh**
If only we had a avid cyclist as mayor……
Was it here or CityCaucus that I read about film/tv producers voicing a concern about bikeshare stations in Vancouver making us less of a generic backdrop city?
In Montreal the Bixi stations are actually removed for the snow-season. It is a bit of a job to do, but if they can move them there, I don’t see why they can’t be moved in Vancouver if a block is needed for filming.
Wouldn’t it be cool tho, if instead, all they had to do was switch the Vancouver bikes for those that look like the bikes used in the whatever city the set is supposed to be?
I can’t wait for the day in TV or film when the bike share colour/brand becomes part of a backdrop to help establish the particular city.