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taylorhayward_boston t1_ito11vl wrote

What percentage of the 120,000 people in the city regularly bike and what percentage regularly use a car?

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IntelligentCicada363 OP t1_ito1ywa wrote

40% of households in Cambridge don’t own a car — so a significant portion of the population would benefit from increasing access to safe infrastructure

given that statistic and that historically 100% of our road space has been devoted to cars, I’m not really sure the point you’re trying to make, other than to make the tired argument that you and therefore everyone drives a car

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axeBrowser t1_ito3boj wrote

It's not a winner-take-all contest. First, the roads can be shared. Second, every biker is potentially one less car on the road, thus reducing traffic congestion. This is a benefit for auto users. Further, given that biking is a more efficient use of scarce public roadways in its ability to transport more people per hour over short distances, it punches above its weight.

The only serious counter argument against bike lanes is that dedicated bus lanes would be even better if a hard choice must be made between the two.

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IntelligentCicada363 OP t1_itocnpw wrote

Dedicated bus lanes are extremely difficult to enforce since car drivers will just drive in them, and MA doesn't allow traffic cameras

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mtmsm t1_ito2su8 wrote

This data is pretty old but interesting. Driving has been on the decline, and biking has become a more and more common mode of transportation.

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crazicus t1_ito32w9 wrote

As of 2019, 28% drove alone to work vs 7% riding a bike to work. I imagine that the bike share has increased since then since there’s been improvements in the bike network and the pandemic got more people onto bikes as well.

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Master_Dogs t1_itom06g wrote

Blue Bikes System Data shows year after year of growth. They've added a few hundred stations over the last decade and it's paid off with millions of miles biked each year. And critically they've started to leave bikes out year round in many spots so people don't have to stop biking in the winter if it's reasonable out or if people bundle up for a short ride. And if we plow our sidewalks and bike paths too.

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ClarkFable t1_ito8859 wrote

When you look at the number of commuting trips, biking's percentage is in the single digits. Not too surprising considering winter is a thing around here.

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Master_Dogs t1_itolphi wrote

Winter isn't a factor in many northern European countries where they:

  1. Actually have bike infrastructure which is more convenient than driving
  2. Actually maintain their bike infrastructure year round, like plowing bike paths and lanes
  3. Maintain their paths properly; for example, they're able to keep paths mostly ice free in Sweden by not salting the path but instead packing the snow down while plowing.

Those 2/3 things are key. We're hardy New Englanders, a bit of cold and snow doesn't bother us IF it's out of our way. Otherwise why would people continue to drive all winter long? Why is skiing, snow boarding, ice skating, hockey, etc such big things for us? Clearly we don't mind the cold if it's fun. Biking on a freshly cleared bike path IS fun. What's not fun? Riding in a snow filled roadway because the bike lane wasn't cleared and fighting with motorists who don't want you there. Maintenance and infrastructure are key if we want to provide alternatives to driving. And that goes for everything: people won't walk if the sidewalks aren't cleared and won't want to take public transit if the bus stop is filled with snow.

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ClarkFable t1_itpkarx wrote

At the risk of sounding like a complete wimp, Boston’s average winter low temps are much lower, we get significantly more winter precipitation, and the wind is way worse than a place like Copenhagen.

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Master_Dogs t1_itpmfsc wrote

I said Sweden, not Denmark. But regardless Sweden's Capital of Stockholm actually has a lower temperature than Boston, while Copenhagen has roughly the same average temperature as Boston.

If you want another example, see how Montreal (a city a few hundred miles north of us) actually clears their bike lanes at the same time as they clear the streets: https://montreal.ca/en/topics/cycling-and-bike-paths

Again: IT'S INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE. You may personally be a wimpy car driver but there's plenty of people out there that will bundle up and walk, bike or transit if we fucking bothered to clear snow off our sidewalks and bike paths. Those people may be car drivers today who add to traffic when they'd be perfectly fine using an alternative if we bothered to build and maintain it year round.

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ClarkFable t1_itpzmpw wrote

>Stockholm

Stockholm's commute share from biking isn't far off from Cambridge. Copenhagen's share is well above. Montreal's is much lower.

This further illustrates why low temperatures and precipitation matter a lot (not average annual temps).

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