On 6/26/2018 3:48 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/26/2018 2:04 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, June 26, 2018 at 8:57:17 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
Interesting article, with data, about how much the Dutch
actually ride
their bikes.

https://peopleforbikes.org/blog/best...h-hardly-bike/


Turns out they average, oh, maybe a mile or two per day.

That works for them because their cities are so dense
that many
destinations are less than a mile away. That comes from
having cities
that were founded in medieval times. When things are more
than a couple
miles away, they tend to leave the bike and use other modes.

So we can get Dutch bike mode shares if we start work on
our cities
early enough. Like, back in 1400 AD or so.

Or the 1960s, as in NL. 25% mode share at five miles is
great -- even at 9-12 miles, the percentage of trips by
bike is way better than any US city. Portland's city-wide
bicycle mode share is 7% -- for all trips.

City density does not explain the relative lack of
cyclists in NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc. -- and other places
that are flat and that have compact metropolitan areas.
There are many other differences.

Indeed, there are many other differences. And a look at the
cities listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_share
shows that any city over 7% is an extreme outlier.

I notice, though, that it lists Portland as just 3%. I don't
know the details on that survey, but IIRC the one that
claimed 7% for Portland really meant 7% of the city's legal
residents said they traveled by bike. That does not mean
that 7% of the travel within city limits was by bike. The
hoards entering from the suburbs are almost all in cars.

Differences? We've been through this before, but I do think
average trip length must be important, along with terrain,
weather, history, culture and perhaps most important, local
fashion.



Probably just needs more friendly kiddie paths:

https://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...7b5df427c.html

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971