Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Why Bicycling Infrastructure Fails Bicyclists

New York City is unquestionably a bike town. According to the city’s Community Health Survey, nearly 1.6 million New York adults—and likely another few hundred thousand kids—ride bikes in the city at least a few times a year. Nearly 800,000 New Yorkers—approximately the populations of New Orleans and Atlanta together—ride bikes several times a month. About 400,000 bike trips are made every day. And 86,000 New Yorkers commute to work or school using bikes. Last Wednesday, more than 56,000 trips were taken on the city’s bike-share system, which covers just 20 square miles; for Citi Bike, that was a daily record.
The days of viewing bike infrastructure as a “creative class” amenity—an infrastructural sugar high for young white transplants, the planning equivalent of cupcake shops and cold brew—are over. That narrative was always B.S.—half of bicycle commuters, according to the census, earn less than $25,000 a year.
Read the rest of the story here.

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