To reduce congestion, help provide better air quality, and help improve public transit,
the bicycle is poised to become an integral part of urban transport systems for the
twenty-first century, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute.
Bicycles are emerging as a solution to some of today's most intractable urban problems.
Putting bicycles to work could produce enormous cost savings and other benefits including
reduced air and noise pollution, better land use, less congestion, and lower health costs.
"Americans drive cars and taxis more than 1.5 trillion miles each year," said
Gary Gardner, author of "When Cities Take Bicycles Seriously," an article in the
September/October issue of World-Watch magazine. "Shifting just 5 percent of those
miles to bicycles would save at least $100 billion."
Much of urban travel is already "bike-sized": 40 percent of all trips in the
United States, and 50 percent in Britain, are two miles in length or shorter. More than 25
percent of all trips in the U.S. are less than one mile.
"Cycling could eliminate some of these short, air-polluting trips," Gardner
said, citing estimates that in a seven-mile car trip, 90 percent of emissions are
generated in the first mile before the engine warms up.
In several major cities in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, bicycles now account
for 20 to 30 percent of all trips. In many Asian cities, the bicycle's share of trips is
even higher, accounting for more than half of all trips in some Chinese cities--more than
buses, cars, and walking combined. In stark contrast, bicycles are used for less than 1
percent of all trips in Canada and the United States.
The Worldwatch report cites numerous examples of how cities around the world are
encouraging the use of bicycles by making inexpensive but effective changes in their
transportation systems: special lanes near intersections and advanced green lights for
cyclists in Muenster, Germany; "bike and ride" links with public transportation
in Japan; micro-credit programs to help low-income citizens buy bicycles in Lima, Peru;
and a public-private partnership in Copenhagen, Denmark, that provides bikes for public
use.
In addition, mayors all over the world are finding that bicycles can help fight crime
and cut administrative costs. The average patrol car costs 12 cents per mile to operate,
while bicycles run for less than 1 cent per mile.
The International Police Mountain Bike Association estimated that more than 2,000
police departments in the United States, Canada, Australia, Iceland, and Russia have
bicycle units, with some 10,000 officers on bikes. Even more impressively, the IPMBA
reported that half of the police departments it surveyed saw a jump in arrest rates--by an
average of 24 percent--when bicycles were introduced into patrol areas.
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