WorldChanging: Bike, Meet the City. City, This is the Bike.
Are more American residents bike-commuting as a regular practice? You betcha. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), bike commuting increased 30 percent in the past year. And this seems to be a national trend. It grew 75 percent in New York City since 2000, doubled in Portland, Ore., in the last five years, and the number of cyclists on Washington, D.C. streets surged a full 100 percent between 2004 and 2006.What does this look like on a city level? On Thursday, May 8, 2008, from 8 am to 9 am, the SFMTA counted 406 bicyclists rolling into the city’s downtown, heavily congested corridor on one street alone. During that same time, it counted 338 cars moving down the same stretch of roadway. This is the first year that bikes outnumbered cars outside of Bike to Work Day.
This is great news for our health: environmentally, economically, and physically. Most cities streets were not designed for bike traffic though so bikes can impact drivers. Experienced defensive drivers have little impact on others, and it’s much the same for bikes. Experienced defensive riders will have little impact on others or on drivers. We are starting to see new bikers on the roads now, and while this is a good thing, drivers need to be alert. I suppose the positive side is that many of these riders will be experienced drivers so will know the rules of the road.
Most drivers are respectful to bikers but others are not. I commuted by bike for ten years 1993-2003; during that time I was hit by cars three times, had passengers in cars reach out and slap my back in an attempt to knock me over, had drivers “play chicken” by driving intentionally close as they passed, and the obvious ones: intentionally splashing me and throwing bottles, cans, and other things at me. This was primarily while riding in bike lanes and sometimes even on sidewalks – some people just want a target. I worry for children riding bikes when people like this have cars, so less cars on the road may mean less to worry about.
The more we bike the healthier we get. We just need to keep our cell phones handy and call the cops with the license plates of drivers who are driving dangerously.