Is Vancouver beginning to look like The Netherlands when it comes to the amount of cycling?
Why are you snickering?
There are some places in North America that are starting to look like some parts of The Netherlands. Not everywhere in Holland looks like central Amsterdam; there are suburbs with about the traffic as some of our busier places. And, if the seawall and popular bike routes were any indication this weekend, we’re not that different from some routes in central Amsterdam.
The Christian Science Monitor did a cover story the “The Bike Boom” in the States.
The bike craze is being driven by a confluence of forces – perpetually high energy prices, the green movement, and an enduring fitness craze. At the same time, a new generation of mayors is pushing bike lanes, bike-share programs, bike garages …. In some cases, the municipal chief executives are engaged in friendly – but fierce – competition to get their city labeled the most “bike-friendly.” …
The current wave is being driven by elements of the earlier ones: practicality, transportation, recreation, ecological awareness. But there is an added catalyst, too, especially for cities and institutions – raw economics.
Consider just these statistics: Chicago recently paid more than $600,000 for a single mass transit bus and has a fleet of 1,781 buses. New York is building a new subway line along Second Avenue. Just the first phase of the project is projected to cost $4.45 billion.
By contrast, Long Beach’s entire system of bike lanes, bike racks, and special traffic lights that sense riders will cost about $25 million, most of it paid by a federal grant. New York is setting up a rental program, with 6,000 bikes, that will cost a fraction of other mass-transit expenditures.
“Citi Bike isn’t just a bike network; it’s New York City’s first new public transit system in more than 75 years,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, New York’s commissioner of transportation, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the program.
