There's a demonization of cyclists in general if you live in an American city. Until this stigma goes away, which will usher in infrastructure and mentality changes, this will not occur.
City councils believe cycling is recreational, not for commuting or for "real" use. I mentioned this about getting my LA suburb to actually embrace Class II bike lanes previously, and there's simply no political will.
Simply put, it's sexier to put EV charging stations than bike lanes as a form of virtue signaling.
Yeah our local town council has bike paths under dept of Recreation. So they go from nowhere to nowhere. And they get closed for 6 months because some truck got parked on it for some unrelated construction project. And they don't get repaired or even maintained adequately.
I believe a lot of bicycle hate in middle class American culture is a result of propaganda from big oil corporate lobbying.
I also read somewhere recently a theory that big cars are a way of protecting (even just psychologically) wealthy people from reality as they have to travel through areas of poverty to get from one wealthy pocket to another. Makes sense when recalling Rob Moses's work with nyc
> I also read somewhere recently a theory that big cars are a way of protecting (even just psychologically) wealthy people from reality as they have to travel through areas of poverty to get from one wealthy pocket to another.
That theory seems to arise from a disgust for the wealthy (rightly or wrongly) as opposed to an earnest evaluation.
I would put money on the theory that big cars can have more nice things in them and are safer, so the rich buy them.
> City councils believe cycling is recreational, not for commuting or for "real" use.
And nobody gives them a talking to? If any official said that here they would never live down the humiliation. They'd be the butt of every joke for weeks.
Some societies appear to tolerate stupid ideas that I'd be afraid to say out loud. Or maybe nobody actually believes that.
Is there actually someone from a city council or whoever on record saying that? I am doubtful.
It's not even this specific thing. There's a lot of "nothing going is going to happen because X believes Y" to go around that may just be straw men. Seems more like a defeatist attitude to me than something resembling reality.
There are hardly any active commuting cyclists in most cities, so no. Anyone who speaks up is outnumbered 50x by motorists who feel extremely entitled to never have to see a bike.
Don't forget the active recreational cyclists ("middle aged man in lycra", or MAMIL) who only cycle on the weekends. The city planner in the LA suburb I was referencing said that the councilmen were all weekend cyclists, so didn't see the need for bike lanes as a form of commuting.
It's not just in the so-called America. In countries with rich cycling traditions, like here in Colombia or even in Spain, you can easily find people who hates cyclists. News about a cyclist killed in road-rage incidents are not rare.
Depends on the city? Minneapolis-St. Paul has ok cycling infrastructure for North America that certainly could be improved, but I don't see a negative attitude
- Thanks to “mill and overlay” repaving, the city and county have added short stretches of bike lanes on: Territorial Road, Larpenteur Avenue, Fairview Avenue, Arlington Avenue, Marshall Avenue, and Tedesco Street. Together these connect bike lane gaps around the city, including a few key bridges and dangerous intersections.
- Ramsey County engineered a “road diet” on Energy Park Drive and installed a wide bike lane running for two miles between Lexington Parkway and Raymond Avenue. The new connection boosts safety for drivers and offers bicyclists a safe connection with few intersections. The result is a quick, if boring, route from the heart of the city to the University of Minnesota transitway.
- As part of the ongoing work to build off-street bike routes through downtown, the city installed its first ever concrete-protected, two-way cycle track on 9th and 10th Streets. To do this, city staff removed parking and made these streets one-way for cars, though the bike route remains a bit awkward as it navigates the Green Line station at Cedar Street.
- The generations-long debate over the future of Ayd Mill Road was finally resolved this year with a repaved three-lane freeway and a brand new off-street bike connection. It’s a lovely link for people on foot or bicycle, and now pothole-free for drivers. That said, the trail remains slightly useless as everyday transportation until (someday!) advocates figure out a way to connect the path to Minneapolis and the Midtown Greenway. If that happens, the new Greenway trail would become the best interurban bicycle route in the country.
- Using a federal grant, the city constructed an off-street, curb-separated bike trail along Como Avenue from Como Park, west past the State Fairgrounds, and to Raymond Avenue. The wide trail with tabled intersection crossings alongside a narrower roadway transforms a key street that, especially two weeks out of the year, will become a lifeline for bicycles to access the State Fair and the University of Minnesota.
- With another federal grant, the Parks Department completed a missing link in the regional bike trail along the west side of the Mississippi River. The new Piram Trail links Harriet Island along Plato Boulevard, past the St. Paul Airport, a string of industrial properties, and all the way to South St. Paul’s Kaposia Landing park. The intriguing path through the riparian woods means that cyclists and hikers can travel along a separated riverfront trail all the way from North Minneapolis to Hastings.
- With more federal dollars, the City completed the biggest link of the Grand Rounds, connecting Lake Phalen to Mounds Park along Johnson Parkway. The new path transforms East Side bicycling with a two-mile, off-street trail with tabled crossings that closes off a handful of intersections along an old frontage road. The result is a seamless family-friendly connection between two of St. Paul’s best parks.
Even in the Bay Area, the Lincoln Ave road diet in Willow Glen (San Jose) was severely divided, and I considered the Bay Area to be way more bike friendly than other regions in America.
Since Portland and Seattle are 180 miles apart, it's probably fair to argue that Minneapolis-StPaul combined is the best or second best current bike metro in the country. Similar in population size to Seattle, bit bigger than Portland.
Does anyone have a good up to date source for miles of protected bike lane per city, thats been updated since last year?
that's a manifestation of the power and perspective of wealthy residents more than sexiness or virtue signaling. it's the same reason why it's so hard to aggressively internalize the costs of sprawl, to in turn lay the groundwork of incentives to move cities in a meaningfully more sustainable direction (rather than the weak appearance of it).
City councils believe cycling is recreational, not for commuting or for "real" use. I mentioned this about getting my LA suburb to actually embrace Class II bike lanes previously, and there's simply no political will.
Simply put, it's sexier to put EV charging stations than bike lanes as a form of virtue signaling.