In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City, the financial district, by two to one. Paris, where they now outnumber motorists across the whole city, is catching up with Europe’s traditional bike capitals, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, though cycling is still growing in those cities, too. In Copenhagen, the Danish capital, bikes account for almost half of commuter journeys to work and school.
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Even in Beijing, just 30 years after most cyclists were pushed off the city’s roads to make way for cars, the number of cyclists is rising again. Only these days they are more likely to be riding a fancy Brompton bike than a black Flying Pigeon, the ubiquitous pedal-powered ride in the years after the communist revolution.
E-bikes (of a sort) are booming in the developing world, too. In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, electric rickshaws are rapidly replacing petrol-powered ones. Electric-motorbike taxis are also growing rapidly in many east African cities.
The first reason for this two-wheeled renaissance was covid-19. After the pandemic struck, sales of bikes soared as commuters tried to avoid public transport and governments introduced pop-up bike lanes to encourage social distancing. In one American survey 18% of respondents said they had bought a bike, many of them for the first time ever, contributing to a 16% increase in the average weekly number of bike trips between the summers of 2019 and 2020. In Tokyo 23% of businessmen switched to cycling to work to avoid crowds on the train.
The second reason was the advance in battery and e-bike technologies, which made them cheaper and more fun to ride. By giving cyclists a pedal assist, these open up riding to people who cannot comfortably squeeze themselves into slim-fit Lycra. Workers can turn up at a meeting without breaking a sweat or needing to change. They are especially useful for transporting children and groceries, which is hard going if done by pedal power alone. E-bikes have also massively accelerated the use of local bike-share schemes, and made them profitable. With Chicago’s “Divvy” bike scheme for example, e-bikes are now ridden 70% more than “classic” bikes, despite being a lot pricier.
The third reason is a spread of bike-friendly infrastructure. Bicycles mostly died out as a form of transport in the mid-20th century not only because cars were faster and cushier, but also because cars made cycling catastrophically dangerous. In 1950 no fewer than 805 cyclists were killed on the roads in Britain—ten times the number killed last year.
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Yet safer bike lanes are often pitted in opposition to cars in a zero-sum fight for road space and parking places, putting cyclists and motorists on opposite sides of an increasingly acrimonious culture war. Though bike lanes take up less than 2% of road space in Montreal (cars get 80% and pedestrians the balance), they are a hot issue in its mayoral election on November 2nd. Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the leading opposition candidate, wants to pause new bike lanes and remove those that make business owners anxious.
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E-bikes do raise some genuine problems. Because they are heavier and go faster (and are often ridden by novices) accidents can be worse than on traditional bikes. Lime’s bikes in London have been blamed by doctors for a surge in broken legs. In the Netherlands deaths of cyclists hit a record high in 2022. E-bike riders face death rates that are sharply higher than for riders of normal bikes. Worries about teenagers getting injured have led dozens of suburbs in America to ban electric bikes.
Adding to this problem is the rise of illegal, fast e-bikes—the sort that can accelerate via a throttle, not just pedals. In London and New York City these have become favourites of food-delivery riders, who make more money the faster they can go. In most cities in the United States only bikes with pedals and a maximum speed of 20mph (32kph) are allowed in bike lanes. In Europe the equivalent speed limit is 25kph. But many Chinese manufacturers sell bikes or motors that can be modified to go far faster. These scare pedestrians and risk poisoning the boom.
I'm totally a convert. Without an ebike I would have spent over £500 in train fares commuting to work this past year (or more for car stuff), and use it for most short trips also. I've been lucky...
I'm totally a convert. Without an ebike I would have spent over £500 in train fares commuting to work this past year (or more for car stuff), and use it for most short trips also.
I've been lucky that there's a separate bike lane for my entire commute and I think the more people who use them, the safer they are because drivers are more accustomed to looking for us.
That said, I have a special disdain for throttle-powered ebikes. Even though they're plainly illegal and would be easy to police, I regularly see and are overtaken by these electric motorbikes, or see them scything through busy pedestrianised city centres.
I don't blame the public at all for their dislike of ebikes when they're used like this, it's a classic Tragedy Of The Commons which is only going to make cycling less accessible.
For UK people, is the cycling proficiency course still a thing? I remember doing it in primary school and it's where I learned how to cycle on the road safely, but I don't know how popular it is these days.
IMO if you're going over 15mph, you don't belong in a bike lane. At that point you're an unregulated notorcycle. (That was a typo but that's what I'm gonna call those throttled bikes now) We have...
IMO if you're going over 15mph, you don't belong in a bike lane. At that point you're an unregulated notorcycle. (That was a typo but that's what I'm gonna call those throttled bikes now)
We have a bike path in town where kids on electric scooters (without a helmet) fly by pedestrians and other bikers at 20mph, even though there is an extra-wide 25mph road next to most of it.
When they're not on the path, they'll ride on sidewalks and blow through traffic lights like a drunk at 2 AM.....Sorry I almost hit you when I was turning right kid, but you clearly accellerated and closed 1/2 a block between the time I thought it was clear and the time I was halfway through the turn.
Would you say a decent cyclist doesn't belong on a cycle path if they can pedal faster than 15 mph? I have no problem with bikes going faster than 15, the throttle aspect is far more egregious. I...
Would you say a decent cyclist doesn't belong on a cycle path if they can pedal faster than 15 mph?
I have no problem with bikes going faster than 15, the throttle aspect is far more egregious. I think anything with a throttle should need to be licenced and road-only unless it's limited to walking speed like a motorbility scooter/wheelchair
It's kind of a function of density and flow of traffic, and good cyclists tend to slow more than said ebikes, which tend to swerve like BMW drivers. Part of that may because to pedal faster than...
It's kind of a function of density and flow of traffic, and good cyclists tend to slow more than said ebikes, which tend to swerve like BMW drivers. Part of that may because to pedal faster than 15mph you're very experienced, but with assist you can be an absolute beginner at 8 years old, with all the decisionmaking that comes with that.
And to be explicitly clear: Ebikes and scooters are great. But they should be regulated and policed the way we do cars, at least a little bit.
Also, while I know most cars don't do this in cities, they really shouldn't be going faster than 15 mph either. Would obviate, or at least severely reduce, the need for bike lanes in cities.
I agree with the licensing requirement. In my province, ebikes and escooters are supposed to be governed to 32 km/h (~20 mph), but there's no enforcement of that, and there are definitely people...
I agree with the licensing requirement.
In my province, ebikes and escooters are supposed to be governed to 32 km/h (~20 mph), but there's no enforcement of that, and there are definitely people going faster than that. I recently saw a video of someone riding a scooter on the highway in my city, going 80 km/h.
I think it would be nice if all motorized vehicles required a license, while all human-powered vehicles remained fine without a license. It's just too much power and speed (even at the governed 32 km/h) for a lot of people (including children) to handle without any sort of training. You can't accidentally exceed 32 km/h while pedalling. It takes work and intent. But it's so easy to push a button and zip up to that speed on an ebike or scooter (which, like you said, is basically just a motorcycle).
The fleet of ebikes have been significantly increased where I live (upgraded from regular bikes) and they are super fun to ride & practical. It's cheaper than taking the metro and often faster....
The fleet of ebikes have been significantly increased where I live (upgraded from regular bikes) and they are super fun to ride & practical. It's cheaper than taking the metro and often faster. I'm not comfortable riding outside of dedicated bike lanes though and the coverage it still not perfect. I'm also a bit concerned about security, there's bad drivers and I might even be one... (I don't drive so I have no idea what I'm doing in complicated situations, but I'm generally careful).
There's also some talks of providing small "no-permit" electric cars on a similar model, that would be a final blow for car-centric cities imo.
Simply put, cycling scales better than cars. In crowded cities, it's a pain to use cars for anything besides moving large objects because cars take up a TON of space. Of course we should use...
Simply put, cycling scales better than cars. In crowded cities, it's a pain to use cars for anything besides moving large objects because cars take up a TON of space. Of course we should use bikes! And, whenever possible, our feet.
That being said, unfortunately I think it's going to take the USA a very long time to wake up to this fact. It's heartening to see the UK and France build remarkable cycling infrastructure in London and Paris -- I can attest to just how good the London bicycle highways are from my last visit! -- but US cities are so horribly, miserably broken. Stroads everywhere. Double parking everywhere with no enforcement. Massive, sprawling trucks and SUVs everywhere, many blocking visibility at intersections (because daylighting isn't even something we can agree on), others failing to fit inside the bounds of normal parking spaces, often extruding their way into bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
Even NYC recently removed a bike lane, and I can also attest from my NYC commute that cycling across the city often feels more like going into battle than a leisurely ride. My biggest gripe with NYC? The fact that the DOT, fire departments, police departments, and every other government organization has no problem with parking in or otherwise blocking bike infrastructure. Consequently, you can never truly trust in your commute, because the city doesn't consider your mode of transportation worth rerouting or ensuring any level of continuity day-to-day. You exist on the forgotten margins, except when you become the focus of political animus, as cyclists learned with this summer's (ongoing!) wildly nitpicky criminal summons.
I have a lot of hope for the future of other countries that have reduced car accessibility in cities to better accommodate bicycle riders and pedestrians. But it's such a struggle in the USA I honestly doubt we'll ever figure it out. I strongly suspect at least one major city in the world will go entirely car-free before we make any significant reductions to on-street parking in lower Manhattan, let alone build legitimately usable un-blocked bicycle infrastructure in any US city. And when I say 'legitimately usable', I mean the kind of infrastructure you'd let your 13-year-old child use independently to visit a friend. London has it. Paris has it. Even Montreal sorta has it. No US city has it IMO.
I only see double-parking in New York City. That matters because so many people live there, but I don’t think it’s representative? I grew up in a rural area where we could bike to see nearby...
I only see double-parking in New York City. That matters because so many people live there, but I don’t think it’s representative?
I grew up in a rural area where we could bike to see nearby friends, but there were only a few on the same road, so there were a lot of kids we only saw at school. Nowadays, people have fewer kids and the population has aged. it’s very safe, though.
What makes you think the rural area you grew up in is safe for kids to cycle around? I also grew up in a rural area with low amounts of car traffic, but I'm not sure I would ever describe it as a...
What makes you think the rural area you grew up in is safe for kids to cycle around? I also grew up in a rural area with low amounts of car traffic, but I'm not sure I would ever describe it as a safe place to ride a bike. Far too many big cars driving well over the speed limit who refuse to get over even a couple of feet for bicycles. These days most cars are drunkenly weaving around since at least half of people seem to use their smartphone or at least touchscreen center console while driving. But even back when I was a kid it was routine to get run straight off the road on your bike by uncaring drivers, especially near blind corners. 90% of our roads were 55 mph since all the population centers were incredibly small. The experience might be better someplace where you have a more substantial 30mph street grid.
On our road, we rarely even saw more than one car at a time. Still true. Speed limit is 45, though, which seems high. On the other hand, one student in my high school class died in a bike-car...
On our road, we rarely even saw more than one car at a time. Still true. Speed limit is 45, though, which seems high.
On the other hand, one student in my high school class died in a bike-car accident. Different neighborhood, but yes, you made a good point.
I live outside of NYC and the item that is stopping me from going e-bike commuting is that the towns I live in and around don't have a dedicated bike lane.
I live outside of NYC and the item that is stopping me from going e-bike commuting is that the towns I live in and around don't have a dedicated bike lane.
There’s several things that surprise me about biking in a major city: There’s no licensing, registration or insurance requirements. While it’s nice to be able to hop on a bike and start riding, it...
There’s several things that surprise me about biking in a major city:
There’s no licensing, registration or insurance requirements. While it’s nice to be able to hop on a bike and start riding, it seems like even the most basic regulations could help keep bike lanes limited to approved vehicles and riders. I saw a lot of throttle e-bikes and even the occasional gas powered mini-bikes.
Bike lanes are still really narrow and don’t allow for safe passing. There’s nothing more terrifying then getting passed on both sides on a narrow stretch.
Bikes by default don’t have break lights. They definitely don’t have turn signals, and it’s not always possible to hand signal.
Riders are not consistent about indicating they’re about to pass you and from which side. There’s also only one bell type, so no way of indicating you’re approaching, about to pass and about to eat pavement.
Most riders operate between pedestrian and car rules, whichever suits them at a given moment. So they’ll blow through red lights, switch between road lanes, bikes lanes and sidewalks.
There are still absolute dullards that ride head on into traffic. Nail board brain idiots that cannot comprehend any sense of danger, they have no right to breathe the same air as intelligent life, never mind riding a bicycle towards traffic.
Riding clubs that move in massive packs. Often 4+ bikes wide, overlapping front to back and moving at high speeds. They do not stop for red lights, they do not respect anyone else on the road. It’s like a swarm of bees and they’ll run anyone and everyone off the road.
GPS apps do not have a view (as far as I know) that only show bike routes. So it’s hard to tell what is a road wouldn’t want to ride down and what is a pedestrian path I’m not allowed to ride down. It’s also hard to tell if riding one block over would be a safer route. There’s not much in the way of road markings and signage that would help with this issue either.
Everyone has tunnel vision. Cars have massive blind spots, pedestrians have to have their head on a swivel anytime they even think about stepping out of the sidewalk, and cyclists can’t even turn their head without risk of instantly crashing. Bicyclists and even see what’s behind them, so deviating from whatever line they’re following or changing lanes is throwing chance to the wind.
Rental bikes don’t have speed-o-meters and phone mounts.
It absolutely sucks when bikes behave so poorly. Especially e- bikes, given their greater weight and acceleration. But do try to remember that in a lot of cities, bicyclists are constantly in...
It absolutely sucks when bikes behave so poorly. Especially e- bikes, given their greater weight and acceleration.
But do try to remember that in a lot of cities, bicyclists are constantly in danger of being crushed by giant metal boxes. Plenty of US states allow the "Idaho stop", where a bicyclist can treat a stop sign as a yield or a stop light as a stop sign IF no other vehicles are present. That isn't just for convenience, it's for safety: the most dangerous place for a cyclist is an intersection, so it pays to get out of that life or death situation as quickly as possible.
I think cities should more strongly regulate e-bikes, especially since a lot of e-bike companies are now making electronic motorcycles or dirt bikes. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater: it would suck to have to register traditional bicycles. I imagine it would seriously deter people from bothering with a method of transportation that is already sweaty, hard work, dangerous, noisy (thanks to cars), and expensive (when your bicycle gets stolen). If we're going to force acoustic bicycle registration, we might as well ask all pedestrians to register their shoes.
https://archive.is/pfFDj
From the article:
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I'm totally a convert. Without an ebike I would have spent over £500 in train fares commuting to work this past year (or more for car stuff), and use it for most short trips also.
I've been lucky that there's a separate bike lane for my entire commute and I think the more people who use them, the safer they are because drivers are more accustomed to looking for us.
That said, I have a special disdain for throttle-powered ebikes. Even though they're plainly illegal and would be easy to police, I regularly see and are overtaken by these electric motorbikes, or see them scything through busy pedestrianised city centres.
I don't blame the public at all for their dislike of ebikes when they're used like this, it's a classic Tragedy Of The Commons which is only going to make cycling less accessible.
For UK people, is the cycling proficiency course still a thing? I remember doing it in primary school and it's where I learned how to cycle on the road safely, but I don't know how popular it is these days.
IMO if you're going over 15mph, you don't belong in a bike lane. At that point you're an unregulated notorcycle. (That was a typo but that's what I'm gonna call those throttled bikes now)
We have a bike path in town where kids on electric scooters (without a helmet) fly by pedestrians and other bikers at 20mph, even though there is an extra-wide 25mph road next to most of it.
When they're not on the path, they'll ride on sidewalks and blow through traffic lights like a drunk at 2 AM.....Sorry I almost hit you when I was turning right kid, but you clearly accellerated and closed 1/2 a block between the time I thought it was clear and the time I was halfway through the turn.
Would you say a decent cyclist doesn't belong on a cycle path if they can pedal faster than 15 mph?
I have no problem with bikes going faster than 15, the throttle aspect is far more egregious. I think anything with a throttle should need to be licenced and road-only unless it's limited to walking speed like a motorbility scooter/wheelchair
It's kind of a function of density and flow of traffic, and good cyclists tend to slow more than said ebikes, which tend to swerve like BMW drivers. Part of that may because to pedal faster than 15mph you're very experienced, but with assist you can be an absolute beginner at 8 years old, with all the decisionmaking that comes with that.
And to be explicitly clear: Ebikes and scooters are great. But they should be regulated and policed the way we do cars, at least a little bit.
Also, while I know most cars don't do this in cities, they really shouldn't be going faster than 15 mph either. Would obviate, or at least severely reduce, the need for bike lanes in cities.
I agree with the licensing requirement.
In my province, ebikes and escooters are supposed to be governed to 32 km/h (~20 mph), but there's no enforcement of that, and there are definitely people going faster than that. I recently saw a video of someone riding a scooter on the highway in my city, going 80 km/h.
I think it would be nice if all motorized vehicles required a license, while all human-powered vehicles remained fine without a license. It's just too much power and speed (even at the governed 32 km/h) for a lot of people (including children) to handle without any sort of training. You can't accidentally exceed 32 km/h while pedalling. It takes work and intent. But it's so easy to push a button and zip up to that speed on an ebike or scooter (which, like you said, is basically just a motorcycle).
The fleet of ebikes have been significantly increased where I live (upgraded from regular bikes) and they are super fun to ride & practical. It's cheaper than taking the metro and often faster. I'm not comfortable riding outside of dedicated bike lanes though and the coverage it still not perfect. I'm also a bit concerned about security, there's bad drivers and I might even be one... (I don't drive so I have no idea what I'm doing in complicated situations, but I'm generally careful).
There's also some talks of providing small "no-permit" electric cars on a similar model, that would be a final blow for car-centric cities imo.
Simply put, cycling scales better than cars. In crowded cities, it's a pain to use cars for anything besides moving large objects because cars take up a TON of space. Of course we should use bikes! And, whenever possible, our feet.
That being said, unfortunately I think it's going to take the USA a very long time to wake up to this fact. It's heartening to see the UK and France build remarkable cycling infrastructure in London and Paris -- I can attest to just how good the London bicycle highways are from my last visit! -- but US cities are so horribly, miserably broken. Stroads everywhere. Double parking everywhere with no enforcement. Massive, sprawling trucks and SUVs everywhere, many blocking visibility at intersections (because daylighting isn't even something we can agree on), others failing to fit inside the bounds of normal parking spaces, often extruding their way into bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
Even NYC recently removed a bike lane, and I can also attest from my NYC commute that cycling across the city often feels more like going into battle than a leisurely ride. My biggest gripe with NYC? The fact that the DOT, fire departments, police departments, and every other government organization has no problem with parking in or otherwise blocking bike infrastructure. Consequently, you can never truly trust in your commute, because the city doesn't consider your mode of transportation worth rerouting or ensuring any level of continuity day-to-day. You exist on the forgotten margins, except when you become the focus of political animus, as cyclists learned with this summer's (ongoing!) wildly nitpicky criminal summons.
I have a lot of hope for the future of other countries that have reduced car accessibility in cities to better accommodate bicycle riders and pedestrians. But it's such a struggle in the USA I honestly doubt we'll ever figure it out. I strongly suspect at least one major city in the world will go entirely car-free before we make any significant reductions to on-street parking in lower Manhattan, let alone build legitimately usable un-blocked bicycle infrastructure in any US city. And when I say 'legitimately usable', I mean the kind of infrastructure you'd let your 13-year-old child use independently to visit a friend. London has it. Paris has it. Even Montreal sorta has it. No US city has it IMO.
I only see double-parking in New York City. That matters because so many people live there, but I don’t think it’s representative?
I grew up in a rural area where we could bike to see nearby friends, but there were only a few on the same road, so there were a lot of kids we only saw at school. Nowadays, people have fewer kids and the population has aged. it’s very safe, though.
What makes you think the rural area you grew up in is safe for kids to cycle around? I also grew up in a rural area with low amounts of car traffic, but I'm not sure I would ever describe it as a safe place to ride a bike. Far too many big cars driving well over the speed limit who refuse to get over even a couple of feet for bicycles. These days most cars are drunkenly weaving around since at least half of people seem to use their smartphone or at least touchscreen center console while driving. But even back when I was a kid it was routine to get run straight off the road on your bike by uncaring drivers, especially near blind corners. 90% of our roads were 55 mph since all the population centers were incredibly small. The experience might be better someplace where you have a more substantial 30mph street grid.
On our road, we rarely even saw more than one car at a time. Still true. Speed limit is 45, though, which seems high.
On the other hand, one student in my high school class died in a bike-car accident. Different neighborhood, but yes, you made a good point.
I live outside of NYC and the item that is stopping me from going e-bike commuting is that the towns I live in and around don't have a dedicated bike lane.
There’s several things that surprise me about biking in a major city:
It absolutely sucks when bikes behave so poorly. Especially e- bikes, given their greater weight and acceleration.
But do try to remember that in a lot of cities, bicyclists are constantly in danger of being crushed by giant metal boxes. Plenty of US states allow the "Idaho stop", where a bicyclist can treat a stop sign as a yield or a stop light as a stop sign IF no other vehicles are present. That isn't just for convenience, it's for safety: the most dangerous place for a cyclist is an intersection, so it pays to get out of that life or death situation as quickly as possible.
I think cities should more strongly regulate e-bikes, especially since a lot of e-bike companies are now making electronic motorcycles or dirt bikes. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater: it would suck to have to register traditional bicycles. I imagine it would seriously deter people from bothering with a method of transportation that is already sweaty, hard work, dangerous, noisy (thanks to cars), and expensive (when your bicycle gets stolen). If we're going to force acoustic bicycle registration, we might as well ask all pedestrians to register their shoes.