Big cities try to ease way for bicyclists
By Charisse Jones
USA TODAY

Cities are accelerating their efforts to encourage commuting on two wheels, putting bike racks where cars once parked, adding bike lanes and considering European-style bike-share programs to get residents out of their cars.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino last month named a former national cycling champion to be the city's director of bike planning. The city is identifying the best roads for bicycling in a mapping project that cyclists eventually may be able to access online. It also plans to add 250 bike racks by next fall and this month will hold a summit of cycling experts to determine a long-term bike strategy.

"There's never been so much attention from cities collectively for cycling as a mode of transportation," says Loren Mooney, executive editor of Bicycling magazine. "Cities are recognizing that it is a realistic and inexpensive solution to a lot of different problems — to the traffic issues, to pollution issues, to personal health issues because instead of sitting in cars for an hour you have people out burning calories."

Other cities taking steps:

•New York for the first time is creating a special lane, modeled on those used in European cities such as Copenhagen, Denmark, that will separate bicyclists from motorists. The Ninth Avenue bike lane in Manhattan is being built between a sidewalk and a lane for parked cars.

"We're re-imagining the streets of New York," says Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's transportation commissioner. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to add 200 miles of bike lanes by 2010 to serve a growing population. "The city is going to add a million new residents over the next 25 years," Sadik-Khan says.

Inspectors recently began focusing specifically on bike lanes, looking for potholes and other problems. "We're going to have to look at greener modes of transportation … and reduce our reliance on cars to get around town," she says.

•Chicago is striving by 2015 to have 5% of all trips shorter than 5 miles to be taken by bicycle. Mayor Richard Daley also is considering launching a bike program he saw in Paris. That effort, begun in July, allows residents and visitors to check out a bike at one location, ride free during the first half-hour and park the bike at another location near their destination.

•San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose city is considered one of the friendliest to cyclists by the League of American Bicyclists, says he wants at least 10% of all trips in the city within three years to be made by bicycle.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote next month on a contract with Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. to create a bike-share program like that in Paris in exchange for advertising rights on transit shelters. The city also has given away 2,500 bike lights and 400 children's bike helmets this year.

"This whole movement has taken place in tandem with resurging interest in cities and developing downtowns," says Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group that promotes walking, cycling and public transit in New York City.

Some analysts doubt that these initiatives will have much of an effect on traffic.

"I don't think encouraging cycling is going to reduce congestion or significantly change the transportation makeup of our cities," says Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "There really is very little evidence that any of (these efforts) are reducing the amount of driving. They're just making it more annoying to drivers."

Some city officials and cycling advocates acknowledge that obstacles remain for bicyclists.

New York residents often express worries about safely navigating city traffic on two wheels and finding secure places to park their bikes, Sadik-Khan and Steely White say.

"It's fine to encourage people to ride their bikes to work," Sadik-Khan says, "but what do they do when they get there?"

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