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Cities have spend billions on developing bike infrastructure, typically by removing roads, and the best they tend to manage is a low single digit improvements i
by AmericanChopper 6y ago
Cities have spend billions on developing bike infrastructure, typically by removing roads, and the best they tend to manage is a low single digit improvements in % of commuters biking (if they get any improvement at all). It’s such an demonstrable failure of an idea that I struggle to believe that people can still suggest it with a straight face.
- adrianN 6y agoWhich city spent billions on developing bike infrastructure? In Berlin the share of trips done by bike increased by 40% between 2013 and 2018 and we certainly didn't spend billions on it. We did spend about a billion on building 3km of new Autobahn through the city, but that's a different story.
- AmericanChopper 6y agoSan Francisco alone has budgeted over a billion dollars for cycle lanes, and since 2013 has managed to decrease it’s % of cycling commuters from 3.8% to 3.1%. There are some cities in the world that have a high demand for cycling infrastructure, in those cities it makes sense to spend money on it. There are 0 cities in the world that have managed to build a cycling culture out of infrastructure spending. This “built it and they will come” idea has been so thoroughly debunked, you have to be drinking some rather strong coolaid to still have any faith in it. If you look at the numbers, it turns out that it’s better to spend infrastructure budget on things people actually want to use.
- adrianN 6y agoA billion dollars over how many years? How much of that is already spent? When I was in SF two years ago I didn't see any cycling infra that could've cost a billion dollars. I think I only saw two cycle lanes. I certainly wouldn't feel safe to cycle there.