The other [less than] 1%

At the Lakeshore Road (LSR) improvement committee meeting one council member asked why staff bothered producing a report outlining the feasibility of bike lanes because only .7 of 1% of the daily traffic were cyclists?  Similar sentiments were echoed in letters to the editor and to other council members.
There is a simple reason why few cyclists use LSR.  
The majority of cyclists will not cycle on dangerous roads with a high volume of traffic and no bike lane.  Make it safer and studies indicate, they will use it.

1.

Researchers found the presence of off-road bike paths and on-street bike lanes were, by far, the biggest determinant of cycling rates in cities. And that’s true even after you control for a variety of other factors like how hot or cold a city is, how much rain falls, how dense the city is, how high gas prices are, the type of people that live there, or how safe it is to cycle. None of those things seem to matter quite as much. The results, the authors write, “are consistent with the hypothesis that bike lanes and bike paths encourage cycling.”  Transportation July 2011 Buehler & Pucher.


A Portland, Oregon study gave cyclists GPS devices and recorded riding patterns.   She found that cyclists will go out of their way to use streets with bike lanes.

Focusing on a meaningless number is a red herring.  Independent studies from around the world show that if you bike lanes, people will use them.  If you build bike lanes that are safer to use, more people will use them.  

Before and after

Portland, Oregon is a cycling mecca.  In Burlington, Sam Adams, Portland's mayor spoke glowingly of the economic and quality of life benefits cycling brings to Portland.  Statistically, Portlanders spend less of their money on gas letting them spend more in their city.  They are healthier & less stressed.

It wasn't always this way!

In 1993 Mia Birk was the bicycle coordinator for the city of Portland.  Her first bike ride was a white knuckled, stress ride with motorists hovering behind, waiting to gun it to pass her!  "Portland at the time had but a few dozen miles of disconnected bike lanes, green “bike route” signs on a few neighborhood streets, dead-end paths, highway shoulders and way-too-narrow bridge sidewalks."

TODAY - "For less than the cost of one mile of urban freeway, for less than one percent of Portland's transportation budget, we have created a city where thousands of people can and do choose bicycling as a normal, everyday means of transportation. We have more money in our pockets. We are fitter. Our kids arrive by foot or bike at school energetic and ready to learn. We are less stressed. We are more free."

With your help, Burlington can be Portland!