An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The worst city in the US for bike commuting? Ahh, why bother.

One might think that Los Angeles or Houston are the worst places on the planet to ride a bike. But apparently Atlanta and many northern counties in Georgia can make that claim. An article today in the Gainesvilled Times says that even though gas prices have gone all... well...



that bike sales are actually flat. (Motorcycle and scooter sales are up, though.)

While the article spoke flatteringly of Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle as "bike friendly" towns with plenty of bike lanes (take that, Boulder! Pffft, Santa Clara! Fuggedaboudit, New York!), let's face it: The US generally sucks for bike commuting. If you take David Crites' word for it, the ideal bike commute is 2 to 8 miles. So the executive director of Georgia Bikes makes it clear that pretty much 75 percent of all Americans have no hope of bike commuting. (But hey, there' s this think called the Internets? Allowing more people to work at home? Then they can get their own Internets and ride their bikes. For pleasure!)


Anyway, what caught my eye in the article was this little tidbit:

But most roads, both in Hall and throughout metro Atlanta, are not designed to accommodate bicycles, and that’s a problem that no one has yet been able to fix.


Funny, most roads in Europe weren't designed to accommodate cars or bikes, and yet they seem to have no problem accommodating both. It's not a design issue, its a cognitive issue. If you turn a two way automobile road into a one way with a bike lane -- voila! You have a bike friendly city.

This ain't rocket surgery folks.

But of course American cities wouldn't be what they are without the serious lack of candlepower in the civil planners' offices.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've been to Atlanta, and I've ridden a bike there. Yup, it sucks. Busy, busy, busy traffic and few shoulders to speak of. Unfortunately the suburban sprawl was designed as unconnected cul-de-sac fiefdoms. People actually drive out to cheesy Stone Mountain and ride around it because it's got a road with some actual breathing room. Too bad because it's nice rolling terrain in the area.