A Look At North American Cities

You can all thank Bert for this one.

In a study recently published by the University Transportation Research Center entitled an “Analysis of Bicycling Trends and Policies in Large North American Cities: Lessons for New York” they take a look at what strides different cities have made in terms of cycling infrastructure and how it has effected each respective population. In contrast to these cities they compare what NYC has done and the quirks that it has due to factors outside of bicycling infrastructure. Here is an excerpt from the study, and I encourage everyone to read the summary if not the entire study:

We analyze aggregate national data as well as cityspecificcase study data for nine large cities (Chicago, Minneapolis, Montréal, New York,Portland, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington). The number of bike commutersin the USA rose by 64% from 1990 to 2009, and the bike share of commuters rose from 0.4% to0.6%. Over the shorter period from 1996 to 2006, the number of bike commuters in Canada roseby 42%, and the bike share of commuters rose from 1.1% to 1.3%. From 1988 to 2008, cyclingfatalities fell by 66% in Canada and by 21% in the USA; serious injuries fell by 40% in Canadaand by 31% in the USA.

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New York is a special case. Not only is New York by far the largest of the case studycities, but it has the most mixed record on cycling policies and accomplishments. Althoughcycling has almost doubled in New York City since 1990, it lags far behind the other case studycities in almost every respect.

Written by Chris Belsole