7 cycling lessons for Northwest biking hold-outs
Northwest cities like Seattle and Portland still have plenty to learn about how to create a cycling experience we can't help falling head-over-heels for.
Traveling the world’s great bicycle cities, I fell in love with cycling. The ease, safety, convenience… (dreamy sigh)
But as my six-month love affair came to an end, I began to realize the reason for my infatuation: cities like those in Denmark and Holland simply make themselves lovable. They don’t just build cycle tracks; they inject fun, whimsy, compassion, and even romance into cycling.
Certainly, many Cascadians love their bikes, but more of us would if we learned these lessons on cycling’s soft side from the world’s active-transport capitals.
1. Human powered is romantic. I bike home from work with my boyfriend almost every day, and it’s one of the best parts of my day. We talk about what we see along the way or what smells are coming from the Hostess Cake Factory. When it’s sunny, we sometimes stop for a beer along the way. When it’s a crisp winter night, we stop and watch the ships pass under the Fremont Bridge.
When it’s raining, we talk about what kind of soup we want to make for dinner. Biking together through the elements bonds us in a way that would never happen if we were strapped into a car. Throughout my travels, I saw all kinds of romance on the cycle tracks— teenagers kissing at stoplights in Paris, older couples holding hands while pedaling in Amsterdam, and a post-wedding getaway bicycle in Copenhagen.
A wedding party in Copenhagen.
The average US worker now spends about 48 minutes commuting each day. Despite the billions of hours we collectively spend commuting, we don’t often talk about the way our transportation choices make us feel — physically or mentally.
Maybe we should.
2. You don’t have to be a “cyclist” to ride a bike. Recreational sub-cultures have owned cycling in North America for a long time. That’s starting to change and it’s an important cultural shift. “None of these people consider themselves cyclists,” Andreas Hammershøj from the Danish Cycling Embassy explained to me last June as we stood on a sidewalk watching swarms of Copenhageners pedal across the Dronning Louises bridge, as 10,000-30,000 do daily.
“These are just people getting to work, school, or the grocery store, ” Hammershøj said. It turns out there are Cascadians who, like Copenhageners, would like to get from A to B on their bikes but don’t ever want to ride a century. (They might not even care to know what a century ride is.) That’s fine. You don’t have to identify with the recreational side of cycling to use a bike for transportation. Just ask Blake Trask, the Statewide Policy Director of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. “I’m not much of a cyclist. I just ride my bike to work most days.”
This Portland kid doesn’t consider herself a “cyclist.”
3. Remember kickstands? Henry Cutler, the Dutch-American owner of WorkCycles in Amsterdam, is convinced that urban cycling will explode once Americans get off high performance bikes and on to bikes that are upright, comfortable, and utilitarian. “Americans ride bikes that are like race cars; Dutch bikes are like Honda Civics and mini-vans,” Cutler joked last July as I admired his fleet of practical bikes. They come outfitted with child seats, baskets, bells, chain guards, and front and rear lights powered by your pedaling.
Oh, and kickstands: Why don’t bikes have kickstands anymore? Tom Fuculoro, author of the Seattle Bike Blog, got it right when he wrote recently that buying a bike ought to be more like buying a car. “Most people aren’t fascinated by the technical aspects of car engines; they’re sold by the sunroof or cup-holders.”
David Schmidt, owner of The Dutch Bike Shop in Seattle reports that the useful bike trend is gaining steam. “Ninety percent of our clients haven’t ridden a bike since they were kids. They’re rediscovering cycling because it’s fun and simpler than driving. These aren’t the crusader commuters. They’re just people who want to start biking to the grocery store.”
4. Does your city have a bike culture? North Americans all understand what “car culture” means, but it’s a term that increasingly comes with a negative connotation. Cars are now being called an “older generation technology.” Despite the billion-dollar marketing budgets of car companies, many millennials would rather not own a car. Unlike car cultures, bicycle cultures are in demand. Many of the world’s most vibrant and thriving cities are going to great lengths to support their citizen cyclists because having a “bicycle culture” has suddenly become an asset and an important part of “attracting the types of workers that an innovation economy wants to attract.”
A little taste of the Copenhagen bike culture.
Brian Surratt, business development director at the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, recently spoke about the importance of developing a bike culture because, “demographics is destiny. People no longer relocate for industry. Industry relocates for talent. Seattle wants to be recognized as a bike-friendly city because it simply helps attract good talent. The most successful cities — economically, culturally, and socially — must compete for intellectual capital and talent.”
Seattle’s 5:30 pm Dexter Avenue culture.
5. More cyclists equals more compassionate roads. Numerous studies document the relationship between an increase in the volume of cyclists and an increase in cyclist safety. The relationship between these two factors is sometimes remarkably linear. Odense, Denmark, embarked on an ambitious, multi-year cycling promotion campaign and saw cycling levels increase by 20 percent, while traffic accidents involving cyclists decreased by 20 percent.
Why? People behind the wheel become more accustomed to seeing people on two wheels on the roads. Also, it’s often the same people: drivers and cyclists are the same folks at different times of the day, or at least drivers are more likely to have cyclists in the family.
Driving "with your heart" becomes a much easier sell when citizens — like in Groningen, Holland — have friends and family members who commute by bike or on foot. Lucky for us, cycling rates have increased dramatically in many Cascadian cities: bike commuting doubled in Seattle and tripled in Portland as a share of all commutes from 2000 to 2010, according to the League of American Bicyclists. This growth helps make roads a lot safer for everyone — even roads that lack cycling infrastructure.
6. We don’t have time to compensate. Most people reading this article are sitting in front of a computer. More and more of us are “knowledge workers” who sit in front of computers for much of our careers. If you also choose to use passive forms of transportation such as driving or taking the bus, doctors recommend that you compensate for your sedentary lifestyle by “working out.”Driving “with your heart” becomes a much easier sell when citizens — like in Groningen, Holland — have friends and family members who commute by bike or on foot. Lucky for us, cycling rates have increased dramatically in many Cascadian cities: bike commuting doubled in Seattle and tripled in Portland as a share of all commutes from 2000 to 2010, according to the League of American Bicyclists. This growth helps make roads a lot safer for everyone — even roads that lack cycling infrastructure.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find much time in my schedule to compensate — and I wasn’t alone. The Center for Disease Control reports that 80 percent of Americans fail to meet federal guidelines for physical activity despite the $19 billion we shell out for gym memberships each year. Why can’t activity just be engineered into our daily lives so that we can stay healthy without the added chore of working out? Cycling has been the solution for me. I typically burn about 500 calories a day pedaling myself to the places I need to go, and going to the gym is never on the to-do list anymore. Having one less chore means I have more free time to spend with the people I love.
7. Focus on women. Women are the “indicator species” of a city’s cycling ecosystem. Studies have shown that women are more risk averse than men, so a profusion of women pedaling in a city shows that cycling feels safe there.
Women are also far more likely to participate in and benefit from cycling encouragement and training programs than men. A study done in London showed that 73 percent of London residents who participated in on-road cycling training programs were women. The same study interviewed female cyclists and found that “cycling helps bolster a self-confident, independent identity” for many women. An Australian study shows that cycling outreach and support events have a greater positive impact on behavior change among women than among men.
Why else is it important to get more women riding? American women make more major household decisions than men and can hence influence the entire family to get out of the car and on to bikes. Some people also assert that more women cycling can contribute to a more visually pleasing urban environment.
Photo by Mikael Colville-Anderson
None of these ideas are revolutionary. I’ve witnessed each across the world. What’s important is that sometimes it’s not just about infrastructure. Getting folks to fall in love with cycling will take more than signage and street paint (although those are important, too!).
What bicycling could really use is a good marketing department.
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Comments:
Posted Mon, May 7, 7:54 a.m. Inappropriate
It would seem that you might have a stronger argument if you could find cities that weren't in Holland. Someplace that has, I don't know, hills.
Posted Mon, May 7, 10:31 a.m. Inappropriate
Hills are way over-rated in why not to cycle. Traffic is the killer, not the hill. There is nothing like having 3,000 lbs of steel brush by you at 20+mph faster than you are going to make you consider not riding a bicycle on a road.
Fortunately Seattle with it's grid street pattern is pretty easy to get around without riding in heavy traffic. It takes some facility with maps.google.com and some pre-planning so you don't get dumped out on an arterial for any distance, but once you figure it out, rarely do you have to ride on those roads.
But the culture change is coming, you can see it with more women commuters. In fact we have a few mom's who haul a trailer of kids to daycare, drop the trailer off and the kid, and ride into work. The word is it's faster than the car.
Posted Mon, May 7, 3:25 p.m. Inappropriate
Hills, traffic, nasty cold weather much of the year. Do I want to leave my house 30 min earlier and have to take a shower at work? No and no.
Posted Mon, May 7, 4:11 p.m. Inappropriate
It's the topography, stupid...
Posted Mon, May 7, 4:34 p.m. Inappropriate
"Biking together through the elements bonds us in a way that would never happen if we were strapped into a car. Throughout my travels, I saw all kinds of romance on the cycle tracks— teenagers kissing at stoplights in Paris, older couples holding hands while pedaling in Amsterdam, and a post-wedding getaway bicycle in Copenhagen."
Yeah. Because nobody has ever made out in a car before. lol
We don't want to bike. And we don't want bicyclists getting in our way. Sounds like Europe would be a good place for the author to live.
Posted Tue, May 15, 2:42 p.m. Inappropriate
The deal is this: A Seattle "progressive" buys a Rick Steves book and takes off for Europe for a couple of weeks. He never ventures out of the "old town" areas of the major cities, and comes back declaring his love for the "human scale" of Madrid. Which he saw 3% of.
That's what's behind the Seattle "progressive" push to remake the city. It's all about that European vacation, which bears as much resemblance to everyday life in Europe as the Griswold family's European Vacation so slyly memorialized in the National Lampoon movie.
The Seattle "progressives" don't understand how absurd and laughable they really are when they talk about Europe.
Posted Mon, May 7, 9:42 p.m. Inappropriate
1. Increased risk of death per mile travelled.
2. Too many hills.
3. Freezing cold hands on winter mornings
4. Feel like a fool every time you stop at a red light and other bicyclists pass you
5. AAA will not respond to a flat bike tire
6. Soaking wet every other day for 10 months per year
7. Don't want to encourage Mayor Mike McGinn
Posted Fri, May 25, 12:28 a.m. Inappropriate
5. http://www.betterworldclub.com/ will respond. Benefits and cost are similar to AAA, but they don't lobby for more highways.
Posted Tue, May 8, 10:43 a.m. Inappropriate
Worrying about being hit by car, yet not worrying about the real reasons people die in the USA?
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Heart disease: 599,413
Cancer: 567,628
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 137,353
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,842
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 118,021
Alzheimer's disease: 79,003
Diabetes: 68,705
Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,692
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,935
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 36,909
Aerobic exercise will reduce your chances of dying from #1, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9...
And for the #2 kill, Cancer, it appears that some of them are prevented by aerobic exercise.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/81/34452/exercise-powerful-stroke-and-colon-cancer-prevention.html
And to think you get all those health benefits for merely riding a bicycle to work.
For cold hands, I recommend decent gloves, they make them you know. I like the "Youngstown XT Extraction Kevlar gloves, about $35 on Amazon.)
A shower at work, is less hot water bills at home... it's a cost savings for you! Besides either way you still need a shower.
You won't feel like a fool after a month or so of bicycling. You'll be in shape. Do you feel like a fool when drivers pass you on the freeway in your car?
AAA may not respond to your flat tire, but I slow down and check with every stopped cyclist I happen to pass. And while I've stopped to repair an occasional flat, I've had others stop to help me out as well. Just bring a tube to fit your tires, a compact pump, and a couple of tire irons. You'll be back on the road in no time.
Also riding in the rain is way overrated as an issue. It rarely rains hard enough to bother me. Yes January isn't as nice as May but then riding a bus full of wet people isn't great either.
Posted Wed, May 9, 7:30 a.m. Inappropriate
But driving a car with my latte and NPR to and from my gym and to my covered garage at work is just as pleasant in January as May.
Posted Tue, May 8, 12:58 p.m. Inappropriate
Oh yeah, those hills you are complaining about? Riding up them will add years to your life.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829070507.htm
It's not just "faster" it's working your heart harder that is key to this study.
Posted Tue, May 8, 3:24 p.m. Inappropriate
You can keep playing that broken record, Gary. 97% of Seattle commuters disagree, though.
Posted Wed, May 9, 8:44 a.m. Inappropriate
What's broken is that 63% of Americans are obese or overweight.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100210/percentage-of-overweight-obese-americans-swells
They may be choosing the short term easy way to get to work, but they are also choosing the short term life.
Posted Wed, May 9, 9:09 a.m. Inappropriate
What no one mentions - is it supposed to be a secret? - is how goddamn much fun biking to work is. There's nothing like the adrenaline rush of soaring down Stone Way at the legal speed limit. The hills & the weather may seem like a drag at first, but you can dress for the latter, and once you get stronger, cresting Dexter or Boren seems like a triumph. You feel like a superhero, & you have the calves to match. We're not just out there for our health or to save the environment; bike commuting is a blast.
Posted Wed, May 9, 11:33 a.m. Inappropriate
Ok I'll mention it. Yesterday I was thinking.... "why am I rushing to work, I am on call, and I gave up my Sunday morning to do work." So I rode a few extra blocks down 16th to Prospect and through Volunteer Park and back out on Prospect. Then Prospect all the way to Summit and Roy. What a blast! The houses back there are all multi-million dollar mansions some with carriage houses! So going home, I reversed that route and yes I do feel like a million bucks after climbing from South Lake Union up to Volunteer Park. After that it was an easy cruise to the I-90 bridge.
Riding to work is a blast!
Posted Wed, May 9, 10:33 a.m. Inappropriate
Beccaa says it best. The reason to bike is because you love it! To each their own. If you prefer not to bike, that is just fine too.
Posted Wed, May 9, 12:13 p.m. Inappropriate
Cut your health care costs by "moving around"
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/everymove-lands-26m-create-mileage-rewards-program-health/
Coming to a business near you, which is trying to fight the annual 7% increase in health care costs/year. (note every geometric progression blows up eventually, ie, your employer will stop covering you.)
Posted Mon, May 14, 12:29 p.m. Inappropriate
GaryP, it's good you have a hobby to promote, but it's not anything close to a commuting solution for the masses here. Never will be. The weather and the topography will always limit it to a relative handful of fitness freaks.
Posted Tue, May 15, 8:58 a.m. Inappropriate
I'm not claiming everyone should commute by bicycle. I'm claiming that a lot more people could add bicycling as an option if a) they had access to a shower/towels/locker b) secure parking c) routes that were safe to ride on.
The city is working on the routes with the neighborhood greenways project. And employers are adding a & b as a way to attract quality applicants.
Check out the list of companies and the number of riders.
http://commutechallenge.cascade.org/organizations/
Children's Hospital was only allowed to expand if they kept the car traffic down. They added a & b and a cash reward for riding and look at the numbers of people riding.
Posted Tue, May 15, 2:37 p.m. Inappropriate
It ought to be mentioned that, in the past 10 years of self-righteousness and propaganda from the bicyclists, the percentage of people in Seattle who own cars is unchanged at 16%, according to the Census Bureau.
McGinn tried to lie about that, but he got caught. And the city's goal of having 9% bicycle commuting? That hasn't worked out either. The one mass transit element that works, the bus, is being cut back in favor of a much more expensive fixed-rail boondoggle.
If I were a bicyclist, I'd lobby for three things. First, I'd want a bicycle license fee, with all proceeds directed to bike facilities. Second, I'd make nice with the motorists and form common cause in pressuring the city to maintain the streets.
Finally, I'd be opposing the expansion of Sound Transit, the monster that's gobbling all of the transportation funding.
Posted Tue, May 15, 5:23 p.m. Inappropriate
I actually own more cars than I did 10 years ago, but I also ride my bicycle more than I did 10 years ago. These are unrelated statistics, 100% no correlation at all.
However the percentage of bicyclists commuting has grown in the last 10 years. https://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/bikeleague/2000-to-2010-bike-commuters-largest-70-2-1
And yes road repair is my #1 gripe with SDOT, both for drivers and bicyclists.
Since you are not a bicyclist you can rail all you want on the bicycle license issue, but it's going nowhere. It's a 100% red herring. Auto driver licensees only fund auto driver licensing. They are a necessary requirement for operators of dangerous equipment. Bicyclists aren't a public menace.
Posted Tue, May 15, 7:58 p.m. Inappropriate
I know bicycle licensing is going nowhere. As someone who is sick to death of you people, I'm glad it's going nowhere, because it makes it so easy to portray your crowd as a bunch of spoiled children who won't pay their way. It's even better when that's true, which in this case it is.
Posted Wed, May 16, 8:49 a.m. Inappropriate
"who won't pay their way. It's even better when that's true, which in this case it is."
Except it's not. And that has been pointed out to you in other forums. Auto Licensing fees only pays for running the licensing bureau.
And when you ignore the actual funding data for roads, who uses them, what wears them out, where the real money comes from it makes you look like a paid writer.
And here I thought you'd prefer to have a thoughtful discussion on the facts. Oh well.
Posted Wed, May 16, 1:29 p.m. Inappropriate
And that has been pointed out to you in other forums. Auto Licensing fees only pays for running the licensing bureau.
I love the "progressives" of Seattle. You implicitly claim moral and intellectual superiority, and then turn around and make utterly stupid and brainless claims.
The WA Dept. of Licensing spent about $280 million in the last biennium, and brought in more than $2.9 billion. Vehicle licensing bureau costs are paid by the surcharge tacked onto the licensing fees. King County tacks on all kinds of charges, the latest scam being $20 a year to subsidize buses. The idea that car tabs pay for only the licensing bureaus is a laughable "progressive" attempt at a lie.
A "thoughtful discussion on the facts?" Oh please. Who are ya kiddin'?
Posted Thu, May 17, 7:19 p.m. Inappropriate
"Who are you kidding?" You apparently.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-should-my-bike-subsidize-your-car/2012/03/07/gIQAXiiw1R_story.html
http://www.newcolonist.com/rr69.html
Your car wears the road way more than my bicycle.
Our property taxes, our car tabs (I also own some), our drivers license, our income taxes, our gas taxes, our sales taxes pay for transportation in this state.
I'm already paying and I'm not wearing out the roads by bicycling instead of driving on them.
Posted Mon, May 21, 10:06 p.m. Inappropriate
Your car wears the road way more than my bicycle.
Same can be said about motorcycles, but they pay. Only the parasite bicyclists are given special privileges.
Posted Tue, May 22, 9:38 a.m. Inappropriate
And skateboards, and roller skates, and walking and tricycles....
Yep, lets impose usage taxes on every possible use of public stuff. Are you the mouthpiece for tax collection agencies? Did you sell your soul to the makers of databases and license plate stamping machines?
It's human powered vehicles that are given a pass vs things which spew a waste stream into the air. (electric counts because 80% of electricity in the country comes from burning coal.)
Posted Thu, May 24, 2:01 p.m. Inappropriate
You are't allowed to walk in the streets, or use a skateboard, or a tricycle there. If bicyclists had any smarts, it would be they who pushed for a license fee. It would vastly improve their odds of getting public sympathy for funding their special projects.
Instead, you whine and demand. Yep, you got your mayor. And look what that's done for ya.
Posted Fri, Jun 22, 2:38 p.m. Inappropriate
Great story. I'm thinking about biking more and was encouraged by the number of comments. They are tribute. To a well written story.
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