A New Year’s Resolution

Photo by Max Aduyavnukosoi on Unsplash

With every turn of the calendar to a new year, people resolve to improve themselves by setting high, sometimes unattainable, expectations. I’ve mostly given up making resolutions because I inevitably fail to keep them. 2021 may be different though: I seriously hope to pull my bicycle out of the garage and ride it on a regular basis. If I keep my resolution, I’ll be doing both myself and our planet a favor by getting physical exercise and minimizing my carbon footprint.

We’re all familiar with the reasons why bike-riding is undeniably a good thing. Like I said, it will be beneficial if I exercise more, as opposed to sitting behind the wheel in traffic or being sedentary at home, and the impact of cycling on the environment is negligible. Additionally, as more people ride their bikes to work or to conduct errands, the less wear & tear and traffic congestion there is on our roads, not to mention the reduced need for somewhere to park as many cars. Surface parking lots truly are the bane of our urban environments.

Justifiable fears of contracting COVID-19 have prompted many to avoid public transport. Consequently, following a marked initial drop in the number of motor vehicles that accompanied the initial lockdowns last March, car use has recovered much faster than mass transit has. If this trend persists, communities will need to rethink how they respond to calls for diverting expenditures away from the infrastructure required for buses, streetcars, and light rail systems. Ideally, the alternative will not be a default to an increased reliance upon space-hogging, polluting, and dangerous private vehicles carrying only the driver and perhaps a single passenger. The pandemic has presented us with a moment of reckoning and a mandate to rethink our urban futures. This has included the realization that hybrid work models in which many telecommute from their homes and only spend a limited amount of time in the office are viable. The new normal will need to be one wherein public transit is strategically reinvented in innovative ways (acknowledging changes that may be permanent) so that our city cores remain vibrant and attractive destinations, all while discouraging resource-wasteful sprawl. The reset may follow the lines advocated by Jarrett Walker, who favors frequency & reliability of public transit, density, and walkability.

Conversely, COVID-19 has proven a boon for cycling. Social distancing—which favors bicycle commuting as an alternative to public transit—is likely to endure for the foreseeable future, even after vaccinations are widely available. If more people continue to use their bikes for getting around, there may be greater support in the years ahead for increased investments in infrastructure for walking and biking, including safe and attractive bike lanes and bikeways; however, as with how we must strategically rethink the future of public transit, we will need to reassess and reprioritize the nature of these investments if the increased usage of bicycles is to retain its momentum.

Many consider Eugene to already be a bicycle-friendly city. Indeed, the League of American Bicyclists certified Eugene (and Springfield) as a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community, while ranking #3 in the nation in PeopleForBikes annual city ratings. These organizations measure such factors as how well a city’s bike network connects people to everyday destinations, and how many people are riding their bikes in a city, both for recreation and transportation. Eugene boasts a bicycle-friendly infrastructure currently comprised of the following:

• 46 miles of shared-use paths 
• 187 miles of on-street bicycle lanes 
• 71 miles of signed bikeways/neighborhood greenways 
• 5 bicycle-pedestrian bridges over the Willamette River 
• 2 bicycle-pedestrian bridges over major roads/highways 

The transportation component of the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area General Plan—known as TransPlan—addresses the needs of cyclists as part of its periodic and comprehensive assessment of regional transportation needs. TransPlan does identify numerous proposed improvements to the metro area’s bikeway system, including creation of bikeways on key arterial and collector streets and connections to new developments. A primary goal is to develop programs that encourage people to shift from driving to walking and biking for short trips. Approximately 51% of car trips in Eugene are less than 3 miles and 16% are less than 1 mile. Trips of these distances are potential walking and biking trips. Shifting from motor vehicle use to walking and biking can help the community address obesity and related health problems, decrease carbon emissions, reduce congestion on our roads, and further efforts toward sustainability.

A notable, recently completed bike-friendly facility in Eugene is the new two-way protected bikeway on 13^th Avenue between Lincoln Street and Alder Street. A protected bike lane of this type—sometimes referred to as a “cycle track”—is an exclusive bicycle resource adjacent to, but separated from, the roadway. Separation is generally achieved using planters, parked cars, curbs, or posts to separate people biking from motor vehicles. A protected bike lane provides a logical extension of a shared use path because it separates and helps protect cyclists from cars and trucks. 

Still from City of Eugene video: https://www.eugene-or.gov/3742/13th-Avenue-Bikeway

Despite the League of American Bicyclists and PeopleForBikes accolades, my own anecdotal observations suggest Eugene has a long way to go to be the equal of, say, Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Yes, most North American cities fundamentally differ in both structural and cultural terms from their European counterparts, but it isn’t unreasonable to think we can do much more to enhance the efficiency and practicality of cycling as a reliable urban mobility solution.

A case in point is the city where I was born and raised: Vancouver, Canada. According to the latest edition of the biannual Copenhagenize Index—the most comprehensive and holistic ranking of the 20-most bicycle-friendly cities in the world—Vancouver ties with Montreal as the only North American entrants on the list. Vancouver embarked on a spree of bikeway construction in recent years, the scope of which many might find unimaginable in a comparable U.S. city. On major transportation routes into, around, and through Vancouver’s downtown core, the new bikeways consist of separated/protected paths (similar to the new 13^th Avenue cycle track here in Eugene) necessitating the removal of entire traffic lanes and parking strips. When COVID-19 first cast its pall early last spring, the City of Vancouver responded by immediately creating additional ad hoc bikeways, in some instances closing entire streets to motorized traffic. Some of these changes are now permanent, further enhancing the breadth of Vancouver’s cycling infrastructure.  

It hasn’t all been peaches and cream for Vancouver’s cycling advocates. Opponents initially argued that bikeways increase traffic congestion by removing road space for motor vehicles. The opposite is proving true since more traffic lanes simply would have induced demand by encouraging more people to drive. The opponents also claimed bike lanes are bad for business because creating them often necessitates losing curbside parking; however, the investments are proving more than worth it as studies demonstrate that shop owners tend to overestimate the proportion of customers who arrive by car, and that bike riders make more visits to stores each month and thus spend more on average than those who drive to their destinations. The City of Eugene is undoubtedly contending with its own share of opposition to the expansion of its network of bikeways. Greater awareness of the lessons learned by other cities will help garner increased support for the city’s efforts.

I don’t know where Eugene would place on the Copenhagenize Index if it was enlarged to list many more cities. Despite Eugene’s high ranking when compared with other U.S. municipalities, I suspect we wouldn’t come close to sniffing the tier immediately below the world's top twenty bicycle-friendly communities. Nevertheless, Eugene can aspire to become the best possible city for bicycles it can be.

As a species, a resolution to do what we can to mitigate runaway climate change is no longer enough. Doing so is a moral imperative. Choosing to not follow this imperative is a refusal to think about the problem and what we can do to minimize its most harmful effects. On another front, COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and reshaped our city in many ways, but it should have also opened our eyes. It has helped to change our perception of walking and biking, so perhaps there is a positive takeaway. Bicycling is something many of us can do that is part of the solution, a long-term change that can survive long after the current crisis subsides.