Bike revolution is over in SF---and nationwide
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| USA Today |
From USA Today:
...After rising for several years, the percentage of commuters turning to bikes declined for the third year straight, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
Nationally, the percentage of people who say they use a bike to get to work fell by 3.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, to an average of 836,569 commuters, according to the bureau's latest American Community Survey, which regularly asks a group of Americans about their habits. That's down from a high of 904,463 in 2014, when it peaked after four straight years of increases.
In some cities, the decline was far more drastic. In Tampa, Florida, and Cleveland, cycling to work dropped by at least 50 percent, although in some cities, cycling to work was up just as dramatically...
Rob's comment:
There has been other evidence recently that the bike revolution has peaked in SF as I pointed out a few months ago (SF's bike revolution is over). Apparently it's a national phenomenon.
The bike movement here peaked with the $26 million Masonic Avenue bike project fiasco (Masonic Avenue bike lanes: Gaudy monument to wishful thinking).
But the fantasy that people will give up their wicked motor vehicles and turn en mass to bicycles will no doubt live on as what Paul Krugman calls a zombie idea: "America’s political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas — beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die."
That is, San Francisco will continue to take away traffic lanes and street parking to create bike lanes, making traffic here a lot worse than it has to be in pursuit of what has always been essentially a fantasy.
Labels: Anti-Car, Bay Area, Bay Area Bike Share, Bicycle Count Report, Bicycle Plan, Bike News Roundup, City Government, Cycling
posted by Rob Anderson @ 12:22 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
and of course, streetsblogsf are already refuting the article you referenced.
After reading the article what wasn't mentioned is the demographic. In urban areas, like SF, the newly arrived college kids loved to fall in line with their peers and be cool...got the bike and joined in. Guess what ...they are aging, joining the adult world ...getting coupled up and starting families. Cycling is not longer their "passion"...they have the babies!
US Census ACS data also shows cycling in Boston proper has declined. Middlesex County (ie. Cambridge MA) is up though.
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