If you make it pleasant to ride a bike - people will do it.<p>Where I live, there is an off-street bike path that was completed about 10 years ago. Since then many new businesses have opened along the path. The economic impact of pulling people OUT OF A CAR and INTO THEIR environment is perhaps under-appreciated.
Minneapolis resident here. Biking is pretty serious in our city, even in the winter. Many of the bike lanes and paths are plowed with the same priority as car traffic. We also have the Grand Rounds, which is almost 80 miles of paths that circle the lakes in Minneapolis and further into St. Paul. It's pretty amazing.
Note that the improvement was on <i>protected</i> bike lanes, which is the key. A dedicated bike path (even if shared with pedestrians) is the kind of thing that gets people who <i>don't ride</i> to try riding.<p>Painting some lines on the road can help <i>once people are on the bike</i> - we need more dedicated bike lanes and they should be designed to "shortcut" in ways that roads do not.<p>Even things like "mostly" closing an alley to through car traffic and making it a bike "road" can work - people won't cut through it if cars are blocked from getting to the other end, but they can still use it to access back alley stuff if necessary.
This was a case study with no control group. Case studies are, IMHO, close to useless.<p>Having read the study, I'm not impressed. No attempt was made to compare Minneapolis with peer cities as controls, that is, ones which did not increase bike infrastructure. A limited model was attempted regarding climate impacts, but beyond this little was done to control for external factors. Thus we have no idea if the change in bike usage was due to the bike lanes or if it was due to some other factor, such as societal, environmental, or other changes in Minnesota, or the US, which increased ridership over the 7-year inclusive (!!!) time period of the study.<p>Additionally, this study was essentially a before-and-after for the US's $25 million Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP). The study is based on data gathered by parties highly invested in the program's success, such as Transit for Livable Communities (a nonprofit paid by Minnesota to manage the program), rather than disinterested parties.<p>Do I want to see cycling successful? You bet I do. Does this paper tell us anything much? No, it does not.
After spending a decade living and biking around Minneapolis, I recently moved to Boston.<p>The comparison of bicycle infrastructure (and number of people cycling) is stark. Given how bad the vehicle traffic is in Boston, I expected lots of bike commuters.<p>But there's no cohesive bicycle infrastructure here. Protected lanes barely exist, and even when they do, they suddenly end - leaving you on the side of a busy road.<p>Maybe one day Boston can catch up.
Not really surprised. The foundation was already there. Maybe 15-20 years ago Minneapolis started to build bike lanes along old railways and trolly lines. Some of the paths spanned the city and became thoroughfares totally isolated from traffic. The city had a good thing and kept at it. Good for them.<p>Worth mentioning is that the city has grown in population. That was designed by previous mayoral campaigns to bring in industry. Lots of suburban folks also started moving back into the city too in the 2010s, so demographically the city was ripe to see more cycling. There’s also just a better culture for exercise and outdoor activity in Minneapolis. It used to be one of the fittest cities.<p>I’m not sure this could work everywhere. Minneapolis has different planning than most cities I’ve seen. There’s a lot of residential space (that’s now being re-zoned), which means more room to build on and options in case bike paths reroute traffic. The streets are generally larger and there are lots of parallel avenues and boulevards that facilitate partitioning of cyclists and cars. Personally, I find this to be ideal for commuting, and Minneapolis began to experiment with closing streets to cyclists a long time ago. I’ll stop myself from ranting about the budget for interstates and road maintenance compared to the cost of 76mi bike lanes though.
Concur. I lived in minneapolis for a long time, and biked almost 100% (except winter). I have never felt more un-safe than when I tried to live this lifestyle in LA. In Minneapolis, you could ride along bike-specific greenways and literally stop at bike-only pubs, coffee shops, etc. It was quite accommodating.<p>I'm sure much of that has changed with recent events, but I'm moving back and am cautiously optimistic.
I’ve been a bike commuter in Minneapolis for almost two decades at this point. It’s much better than it was. In the early 2000s I’d say most cars were not used to or expecting to share the streets with other forms of transportation. Back then it was not uncommon to have motorists hurl insults or trash at you from their window. Today it’s not that difficult to route your commute to most places entirely on bike specific infrastructure. On the other hand, over the last five years and especially since the pandemic I’ve noticed a huge increase in distracted drivers who are driving dangerously and unpredictably. All this is to say, a lot of people have done a lot of hard work which has made this a better place to live and bike in, but there is still a long way to go.
Easy equation - make safe biking in the city and people will use it instead of driving if weather permits. It's such an easy equation to improve the quality of a city.
I recently moved to the twin cities. The bike paths are absolutely amazing, and given that the whole state is pretty flat, it's not hard to get around the city for work or for fun.<p>Bike paths are plowed in winter, but biking in -10C weather doesn't sound pleasant. I haven't tried winter biking yet, and honestly, I'm a bit scared to.
I just visited Minneapolis for EYEO Festival. I was amazed at how good cycling was there. I now can't see my hometown the same and have started considering Minneapolis to move to.<p>Check out PeopleForBikes' city ratings.
People not familiar with the US may not realize just how hostile US cities are to cyclists (and pedestrians). Some examples:<p>1. Turning right at red lights. Legal in most of the US. This is a huge safety issue for pedestrians and cyclists;<p>2. Many streets don't even have widewalks;<p>3. Many major roads don't even have any form of pedestrian crossings. For example, I had Google Maps tell me to just run across an 8 lane highway (at least there was somewhere safe to stand in the middle) where the speed limit was 45mph. Why? There was absolutely no alternative.<p>In comparison, many freeways or highways in other countries will regularly have dedicated pedestrian crossing bridges.<p>4. In cities with a dedicated cycling lane in many US cities it gets used as extra parking, forcing cyclists out onto the road. Some I have sympathy for (eg delivery drivers) but many other people just don't give a shit they're blocking a lane of traffic and creating a safety issue.<p>5. Many Americans never walk anywhere so are an annoyance (if not an outright safety hazard) on any space shared with cyclists. I routinely see runners refuse to get out of the way in a <i>dedicated cycle path</i>. Many are oblivious and will just walk onto a cycle path without looking. I've had many near-misses this way.<p>So there are a lot of things you can do to improve this situation, most of which doesn't take exttra room. For example:<p>1. Netherlands style intersections designed to improve cyclist safety [1];<p>2. Suburbia is dominated by cul-de-sacs to avoid car through traffic. These back streets should have dedicated cycle paths (to avoid cycling on highways) combined with car-free connections to allow through-traffic and safe crossings o fhighways with lights if necessary;<p>3. Instead of road->cycle lane->parked cars create separation with road->parking->cycle path where the cycle path has a physical barrier to avoid people using it as parking;<p>4. Have islands separating traffic on roads. In addition to making driving safer, this island can make cycling safer as you can half-cross the road and then cross the rest when it's clear without impeding traffic or risking being hit;<p>5. Splitting straight and turn right lanes. This will create another island for safety and less guessing on what motorists will do.<p>I guess I could summarize this as "just do what Amsterdam does".<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA</a>
69% doesn’t seem like the kinds of gains you’d hope for. If you’re going from unsafe infrastructure to protected bike paths I’d want to see a tripling of ridership.
Greenville, SC is similar. We have 27 miles of bike trails and it's always popular for work commutes or trips to the town north of us. Could be a great green initiative for numerous cities.
For those interested in outlying examples in the extreme, the 8-day Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa known as RAGBRAI takes more than 15,000 riders [1] on a different route across Iowa every year with different participating overnight communities selected each year. It is the "largest bike-touring event in the world" [2]<p>"The University of Northern Iowa Sustainable Tourism and Environment Program conducted a (2008) study of RAGBRAI's economic impact on the state, and found the event generated nearly $25 million in direct spending. For overnight stops like Coralville and the points in between, that could mean more than $3 million a day in tourism spending." [3]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/living-well/ragbrai/2021/07/25/ragbrai-2021-departs-le-mars-more-than-15-000-riders-route/8086118002/" rel="nofollow">https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/life/living-well/rag...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAGBRAI" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAGBRAI</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2015/07/09/ragbrai-local-economy-millions-dollars/29940147/" rel="nofollow">https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2015/07/09/ra...</a>
Minneapolis resident here. Unlike the other Minneapolis resident here, I feel like I see most of the bike lanes entirely disused. A project in my neighborhood turned a major thoroughfare into a one way with a separated bike lane, and I've seen <i>maybe</i> 40 people use it since it's completion a few years ago.<p>I'm curious what a 69% increase looks like in real numbers - a 20% increase on next to nothing is still next to nothing.<p>In my honest opinion Minneapolis is 75% of the year too hot or too cold for all but the most keen bikers.
Direct link to PDF: <a href="https://oa.mg/pdf/10.1016-j.trip.2022.100604.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://oa.mg/pdf/10.1016-j.trip.2022.100604.pdf</a>
I too miss all of the cycling I did in college. Unfortunately where I live now I'd just be run over if I were to cycle everywhere now. The costs of rural living I guess.
One life hack I'm going to encourage my kids to do is try to live within walking distance of work/school/grocery store to minimize dependancy on a car.
I'm assuming that the different increases are good? Certainly beats drops, but I always get suspicious when increases are couched in percentages. :(
And how much of the general population does that total of people cycling is? Like 0.05% of the population? Cycling is nice healthy and eco-friendly yet being honest they dont trully serve a metropolitan area, more bus routes and comunal tranportation methods is what is trully needed on an urban area,<p>Probably there were only 3 people using bikes and now there are 5, that is a HUGE percental increase but not quite significant as a whole
> Compared to locations with no facility, sites with protected facilities had 113 more cyclists during the evening peak 2-hour count period (95% CI 16.19, 209.99; p = 0.02) and a greater rate of increase in cyclist counts over time.<p>paper seems to be behind a wall. Hard to see what the actual number of cyclists this 69% represents.
Fair question:<p>Are dedicated bike lanes near pedestrian friendly paths a safe transportation environment? I feel that bikes and electric scooters are more dangerous than cars.