When it comes to NIMBYism, both Right and Left have their strategies. For the Right, change brings ‘loss of character’ and more people. For the Left, one word: ‘gentrification.’
That makes bikelanes a suitable target for both. Which makes this study especially annoying:
According to research analyzing data from 29 American cities from the University of New Mexico and the University of Colorado, “[t]he installation of new bike infrastructure in neighborhoods does not lead to displacement of people of color, and low-income areas received more ‘hard’ facilities like buffered or protected bike lanes than high income areas.” …
“Low-income people, meanwhile, are getting better access to meaningful bicycle infrastructure than some may expect — though maybe not as fast as those communities actually need,” considering that “39 percent of bike commuting is done by the lowest-income quartile in the U.S.” Ferenchak concludes that, while “gentrification is a complex set of forces that goes beyond displacement,” we now know “we can go ahead and build the bike lanes. We know we’re not going to be displacing people just by doing that.”
FULL STORY: Study suggests bike lanes do not lead to displacement, gentrification
