The problem with rage against bikes is that it blocks the view beyond the car windshield.
Having just come through Bike to Work Week in Metro Vancouver – backed by municipalities throughout the region, incidentally, not just the “bike crazed” Vancouver council – and heading into decision time on another bike lane/road closure in Vancouver (Cornwall-Point Grey Road), the “bikes versus cars” hornet’s nest has been freshly poked.
“The idea of rerouting all [Point Grey Road] traffic to 4th Avenue is a nightmare. Behind this is (sic) Peter Ladner and others who want the street for their own use,” wails a letter to the editor featured in the Province, winning it 59 thumbs up with only four thumbs down.
The most cogent windshield-deep argument against bike lanes comes from an anonymous commenter at the Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce website: “According to the city’s own stats, 9% of the commuters in the Alma to McDonald [route] are cyclists while 52% are vehicle commuters.
“Why are the needs of a few dictating the needs of the majority?”
Actually, there are many really good reasons. They’re the same ones behind the massive expansion of protected bike lanes, public bike sharing and cycling in general in cities around the world.
London is spending $1.3 billion on cycling improvements over the next 10 years, including 21 kilometres of underground tunnels. Chicago is planning a 1,030-kilometre network of bike lanes, aiming to be the most bike-friendly city in the U.S.
What enraged diehard motorists too often fail to recognize is that (a) no one is expecting them to become cyclists, and (b) notwithstanding minor inconveniences from bike lanes, everybody benefits when more people cycle.
Here are just some of the economic benefits.
•Cyclists increase retail sales.
In Toronto and Portland, after pedestrians, cyclists are the biggest per capita spenders within a particular area. Almost 40% of the cars travelling along Point Grey Road in Vancouver aren’t even registered in Vancouver. They’re not shopping locally. A study in Germany found that, contrary to what most people expected, 70% of the goods they bought at malls and hardware stores could have been carried home on a bike. A Stantec study on the Hornby and Dunsmuir bike lanes found that retailers greatly overestimated the number of customers who were drivers and underestimated how many customers were cyclists.
•Cycling lowers health-care costs.
Far fewer pedestrians get injured or killed by cyclists than by cars. And accidents account for only 10% of casualties from cars. Three times as many people die from harmful auto emissions, and twice as many again get ill and die from lack of exercise. Increasing cycling cleans up the air and gets more people active. When kids can safely ride their bikes to school, they stay fit and congestion from driving to school decreases. UBC research shows that protected bike lanes are the key: they reduce non-fatal road injuries by 90%, overcoming the biggest barrier to people of all ages and abilities who want to cycle more. The risk of bicycle accidents also drops when protected routes are completely connected and bicycle traffic increases, because drivers become more wary of cyclists.
•Cycling lowers spending on new roads, bridges, transit and public parking spaces.
Nine bikes can park in one car parking space, or drive where one car drives. Every cyclist represents one less person in a car or using a seat in a bus.
Instead of shaking their fists at cyclists through the windshield, drivers should be happy when cyclists are out of harm’s way in protected lanes, making the city cleaner, safer, more affordable, healthier and quieter. Oh yes – and more fun. •
