Worldwide Bicycle Boom and Culture Change
Americans Behind in Global Movement To Sustainable Transportation
Aug 31, 2008
The Earth Policy Institute has reported that bicycle production is up for the sixth consecutive year. But while bike shops are busier than ever, there are still serious problems confronting those who want to ride a bicycle to fight global warming, avoid traffic congestion, and save money on gas. The problems are clustered around the fact that the world is a very car-centric place.
For the last century, car ownership has climbed and now bolted upward. In many areas of the world where bicycling was once common, cars are symbols of wealth and achievement. China and India are key examples of countries where car ownership is rising quickly. Bicycles remain as a means of transportation for the poor and a reminder of the past to those who have risen into the ranks of the middle class.
Also, with increasing car ownership comes increases in infrastructure to support them. More and wider roads mean cars travel faster, making travel less safe for bicyclists. Bicyclists often cannot get to stores, work, and neighborhoods without navigating a dangerous major intersection.
What Enables Bicycling as a Means for Everyday Transportation?
A story in the Washington Post has noted that Northern Europe and Japan have figured out how to make bicycle commuting a safe and cheap alternative to driving a motor vehicle.
In Northern Europe, governments have made bicycling attractive by building safe bike lanes, providing secure bike parking, applying steep automobile taxes, and making inner-city driving slow and costly. These initiatives began with the 1970s oil shock and have produced a system of safe bicycling routes along paths and in traffic-calmed areas. Over the past twenty-five years, attitudes toward bicycling and bicyclists have evolved. People in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands are many times more likely to ride a bike than are Americans. Motorists slow down for them and treat them like they have as much of a right to the road as they do.
In Japan, motorists and bicyclists seem to be at constant battle for their right to a piece of the road. While they have not expanded bicycling infrastructure and bicycling seems chaotic, the government has greatly expanded public transportation in the densely populated country. The Japanese find that riding a bicycle to the train station is the best way to save time and get to one of the many train stations more quickly than they might in a car.
Why it is Difficult to Increase Bicycling the U.S. and Canada?
The government policies that make riding a bicycle a viable option in other countries are harder for leaders to impose in Western countries with a long tradition of car ownership. In the American mind, car ownership to linked to freedom. Many cannot imagine a world where they would be limited in their right to drive a car and would not elect a government official who held that citizens should be limited. In addition, taxation is necessary to fund the building of infrastructure for bicycling, traffic calming, and public transportation. Although leaders earnestly want citizens to use bicycles more often, they are flummoxed by an electorate that wants more government protection and service but doesn’t believe they need to pay more taxes to fund these things.
Car-centric transportation policies coupled with suburban and exurban living patterns make bicycle commuting for errands and to work arduous and dangerous. Portland, Oregon, stands apart, however. Spending on bike lanes there has turned many more Oregonians into bicycle commuters.
Changes in London
The Washington Post reported that in London leaders are taking a stab at making bicycling a viable choice for transportation. Cars that drive in the city pay a congestion charge. There has been a dramatic increase in city spending on bike lanes, parking, and education. In the five years since the program began, Londoners have changed their attitude about bicycling and celebrities like Mick Jagger have been spotted on bikes. Riding a bike appears to be cool in the city, although the rest of the country has a way to go to make bicycling as common as it is in places like the Netherlands.
Time Will Tell
As born-again bicyclists will tell you, they don’t miss their cars. Bicycling keeps them fit and feeling good about doing their part for the environment. A major benefit for many is the stress-free and child-like feeling they get when on a bicycle. They are able to see and hear the world passing by and the slower pace seems more civil.
American bicycle sales indicate that people are intrigued by bicycle commuting and earnest in their desire to give it a try.
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