Cycling to Redefine Urban Mobility in the Era of Coronavirus

Not a great article, which is unfortunate given that pro-cycling articles always get the same tired responses in defense of driving (it doesn&#x27;t work for my particular situation, it&#x27;s too cold some of the year in some places, etc...).<p>Public transport doesn&#x27;t allow for social distancing and there&#x27;s no space for additional cars.<p>For urban society overall, more people cycling results in decreased travel times due to less traffic congestion, a healthier population (both from the exercise and distance) and reduced air pollution. Plus there are great economic benefits. Not everyone needs to cycle for everyone to benefit.

If American local governments want people to use bikes for urban mobility then they need to tell law enforcement and prosecutors to actually take bike theft seriously. In many cities it&#x27;s tough to even get police to file an official report for a bike theft. And the few thieves that are apprehended are typically released with a slap on the wrist. I&#x27;ve seen homeless camps in the Bay Area filled with bike parts, obviously stolen, and the police do nothing.<p>I&#x27;m not going to ride my bike to the store unless I can be sure it will still be there when I come out.

We recently moved to a community where we can bike to school, work, and shop on a path that is separate from the road. It has exceeded my expectations on how easier it is to use my bike for daily transportation.<p>Having biked in NYC pre and post bike lanes, I will say that, while riding in downtown traffic was a fun unique experience if you&#x27;re into that sort of thing, riding a bike share bike in the bike lane made me feel the same way, that bike as a primary transportation could be real there as well.<p>There are lots of cheap used bikes on Craigslist that will last a long time. Maintaining them is way cheaper than maintaining a car. Cheap bikes are not as targeted for theft, a cheap lock will go a long way towards protecting from theft.

In general I think this is more about cities using the reduced traffic and shutdowns to accelerate their existing infrastructure plans. There are a reasons why cycling &amp; walking ties in to COVID-19 (mostly getting people off of public transportation), but all of the places which are doing this were already heading down this path (for good reasons).

Sounds a lot like &quot;This Is The Year Of The Linux Desktop&quot; meme articles from the early 2000&#x27;s.

This feels like trying to shove this into the opportunity available. There is no indication that cycling is better for the virus. If anything it might make things bad. You now have people sweating all over and trying to take showers and so touching everything.<p>I thought the page will talk about scientific advantages to cycling or something like that but it just rambles hope about cycling benefiting from this.

&gt; Now is a good time for urban planners and authorities in the country to look for ways to promote and enable cycling.<p>Unfortunately, urban planners and authorities is not how you promote cycling. This is how you promote cycling [0]. You rebel.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;file.ejatlas.org&#x2F;img&#x2F;Conflict&#x2F;2797&#x2F;stop_de_kindermoord_lay_down.png.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;file.ejatlas.org&#x2F;img&#x2F;Conflict&#x2F;2797&#x2F;stop_de_kindermoo...</a>

This page is extremely difficult to read.

So... the poor get punished again?<p>People who can afford cars are going to continue driving them. Given the option between bicycling and driving, someone who can afford a car or already has one will likely opt to drive if public transport becomes impractical because of reduced capacity, mask wearing, etc. The poor are left to either ride &quot;filthy&quot; buses and trains, ride a bike, or walk.

One point people overlook is that cars are an existing item that many people already posess. A fast change to biking can put a high demand on their production, which is also based on steel or, even worse, carbon fiber. And then in 6 months many people are going to trash or forget about the bike, essentially just causing a temporary production spike with lasting effects on the environment.<p>I think more accent should be put on NMF bikes, Natural Material Frame, like those made of bamboo [0] or wood. These materials absorb CO2 from the air to grow, unlike steel or carbon which produces it.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;diverahub.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;diverahub.com&#x2F;</a>

This article doesn’t really say much. It makes a vague claim that cycling promotes social distancing, but so do cars. In fact, enclosed cars are much more distant than bikes trailing each other at ten feet lengths. As far as I can tell the author is asking for driving infrastructure to be repurposed under the guise of the pandemic, but it just comes off as an opportunist grab while everyone who might care about driving convenience is distracted by the virus.