[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Bicycles Pedaling Into the Spotlight

[Bill Totten]

by J Matthew Roney

Earth Policy Institute (May 12 2008)


The world produced an estimated 130 million bicycles in 2007 - more than
twice the 52 million cars produced. Bicycle and car production tracked
each other closely in the mid-to-late 1960s, but bike output separated
sharply from that of cars in 1970, beginning its steep climb to 105
million in 1988. Following a slowdown between 1989 and 2001, bike
production has regained steam, increasing in each of the last six years.
Much of the recent growth has been driven by the rise in electric, or
"e-bike" production, which has doubled since 2004 to 21 million units in
2007. Overall, since 1970, bicycle output has nearly quadrupled, while
car production has roughly doubled.

Promoting the bike as a clean and efficient alternative to the personal
automobile is a practical way for cities to reduce traffic congestion
and smog. To simultaneously confront those problems as well as climate
change and an emerging obesity epidemic, government leaders and advocacy
groups are working to bring cycling back to prominence in the urban
transport mix.

A number of European cities have set the standard for bicycle use and
promotion, via pro-bike transportation and land use policies, as well as
heavy funding for bicycle infrastructure and public education. In
Copenhagen, for example, 36 percent of commuters bike to work. The city
plans to invest more than $200 million in bike facilities between 2006
and 2024 and estimates that by 2015 half its residents will bike to work
or school. In Amsterdam, cycling accounts for 55 percent of journeys to
jobs that are less than 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) from home. The
government has pledged to spend $160 million from 2006 to 2010 on
bicycle paths, parking, and safety. And Freiburg, Germany, a city with
218,000 people, has allocated roughly $1.3 million annually for cycling
since 1976; now some seventy percent of local trips there are made by
bike, on foot, or by public transit.

Governments elsewhere are following Europe's lead. Bogotá, Colombia,
boasts more than 300 kilometers of bikeways, the most for a city in the
developing world. In Australia, the state of Victoria has amended
planning laws to require all new large buildings to provide bike parking
and other facilities such as showers and lockers. And in November 2007,
South Korea's Home Affairs Ministry announced a new pro-bike campaign to
alleviate increasing traffic and air pollution and to cope with soaring
oil prices. As it expands bicycle infrastructure, the government aims to
substantially increase bike ownership by 2015, from one bike for every
seven citizens to one for every four.

Some notoriously polluted and congested cities are working to reap the
benefits of cycling as well. Mexico City plans to have five percent of
all trips be by bike in 2012, up from less than two percent today, using
traffic calming methods, promotional campaigns, and bike-transit
connectivity. In India, Delhi's newest Master Plan requires fully
segregated bicycle tracks on all arterial roads and notes that promoting
cycling will be an essential component of the city's plans to reduce
growth in fossil fuel consumption. (See additional examples of bicycle
promotion initiatives at URL below.)

Bicycle rental programs are also increasing bike use in some cities. The
stand-out example of 2007 was Paris's low-cost Vélib rental scheme,
launched in July. Now offering 20,600 bikes that can be obtained by
credit card at 1,451 stations, the program logged six million rides in
its first three months. Analysts expect the program to double or even
triple bike trips in Paris. Similar programs exist in Oslo, Barcelona,
and Brussels and are planned for Washington, DC, and central London,
among other cities.

While biking remains popular for recreation in the United States, it is
woefully underused for transportation. Total cycling participation has
declined nationally since 1960, dropping 32 percent since the early
1990s, and now accounts for just 0.9 percent of all trips. Cycling to
work is even less frequent, at 0.4 percent of trips.

Despite these unimpressive statistics, encouraging signs can be seen for
the future of cycling in the United States. Aided by $900 million a year
in federal funding for promotion of biking and walking for 2005 to 2009,
the installation of bicycle facilities - including parking,
bike-friendly roads, and designated lanes - is proceeding at a record
pace. Indeed, plans in the fifty largest US cities would, on average,
double their bicycle and pedestrian routes; New York City alone will
quadruple its bike network to 2,900 kilometers by 2030.

Bicycle advocacy in the United States continues to grow as well. The
League of American Bicyclists now honors 84 US towns and cities as
Bicycle Friendly Communities, compared with 52 in 2005. Cycling advocacy
groups operate in 49 states and Washington, DC Perhaps most exciting, a
Complete Streets movement has blossomed in recent years, in which a
broad coalition of citizen and environmental groups is calling for
safer, pedestrian- and cyclist- friendly roads designed for everyone,
not just cars. Six states and more than fifty cities, counties, and
metro regions have now enacted some form of Complete Streets
legislation. For example, the Illinois General Assembly voted last
October to require all new state transportation construction projects in
and around urban areas to include bicycle and pedestrian ways.

While the bicycle is still an essential form of transportation in China,
the country has recently seen a rapid decrease in bike ownership as its
population becomes wealthier and turns to cars. From 1995 to 2005,
China's bike fleet declined by 35 percent, from 670 million to 435
million, while private car ownership more than doubled, from 4.2 million
to 8.9 million. Blaming cyclists for increasing accidents and
congestion, some city governments have closed bike lanes. Shanghai even
banned bicycles from certain downtown roads in 2004. This deterioration
in Chinese bike culture emerges even as the country's share of world
bicycle production continues to rise: China now turns out more than four
fifths of the 130 million bikes produced each year.

China's central government, increasingly concerned about traffic
congestion, energy consumption, and people's health, has now begun
calling on cities to reverse this discouragement of bikes. In June 2006,
Deputy Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing ordered cities that had
narrowed or removed bike lanes to restore them. Within Beijing, bike
promotion is having some visible effects as the city prepares for the
2008 Olympics. For example, after successful pilot projects, a private
bike rental scheme co-sponsored by Beijing's environmental protection
and security bureaus aims to provide 50,000 bikes at some 200 locations
by August. Thus far, however, the recent pro-bicycle rhetoric from
Beijing has not translated into much positive action outside the capital.

Development projects addressing disease and poverty in Africa provide
evidence that the bicycle's utility is not just limited to urban areas.
In Zambia, World Bicycle Relief has partnered with a coalition of relief
organizations to combat HIV/AIDS through more timely education and
treatment, providing 23,000 bicycles to healthcare volunteers, disease
prevention educators, and families affected by the virus. In Burkina
Faso, Ghana, and Uganda, an alliance of Dutch non-governmental
organizations has launched a micro-credit lending program called Cycling
Out of Poverty. Through this effort, poor people can pay off leased
bikes while using them to attend school or start a small business.

With more than half the world's population now living in cities, there
is tremendous potential for municipal governments and urban planners to
increase bicycle use by following classic European examples like
Copenhagen and Amsterdam. These cities have shown that by integrating
bicycles in transportation planning, educating the public about
cycling's benefits, and discouraging driving with restrictions and taxes
on car ownership and parking, governments can greatly enhance bicycle
use. This promotes people's physical fitness while helping to create
cleaner, more livable communities.

Additional Data

{1} World Bicycle and Automobile Production, 1950-2007 (figure and table)
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008_data.htm#fig1

{2} Selected Cycling-Promotion Initiatives from around the World, 2008
(table)
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008_data.htm#table2

{3} Bicycle Production by Top Countries, 1990-2007 (table)
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008_data.htm#table3


For more information related to Bicycles and Transportation from Earth
Policy Institute, click here:
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/index.htm

Copyright (c) 2008 Earth Policy Institute

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008.htm


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