Urban Cycling Institute

🤨We’ve all heard #bike lane opponents make up stuff to stop a project, but this one is really wild. The vice mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia was apparently caught fibbing that a #realestate developer opposed a project in the city’s West End. Unfortunately for her, the developer denied any such opposition and said that they did not even speak with her. 🧐 The resulting exchanges between those on the dais were pretty entertaining. At least, they read as being more fun than anything I ever got to see during my time in Alexandria. 🫤 https://lnkd.in/e6iudgmr

1970s:🚘 👨💼: 'One more lane will fix it!' 1980s:🚘🚘 👨💼: 'One more lane will fix it!' 1990s:🚘🚘🚘 👨🔬: 'One more lane will fix it!' 2000s:🚘🚘🚘🚘 👨🔬: 'One more lane will fix it!' 2010s:🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘 👨🔬: 'One more lane will fix it!' 2020s:🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘 👩: '🚘+ 🚍 + 🚲 + 🌳 + 🏙 '

Conventional wisdom thinks of car traffic as a liquid, where adding capacity (ie. width) keeps it flowing. But in reality it acts more like a gas, where it expands to fill the amount of space available. And the only proven way to relieve congestion is to evaporate some of it... Case in point: The Netherlands boasts a 150,000 km network of high-quality bike infrastructure in a 41,500 km² country, with 24 million bicycles for 18 million residents—who now make a quarter of their daily trips by pedal power. Sounds like a driver’s worst nightmare doesn’t it? But Waze’s Driver Satisfaction Index—which analyzes the experiences of 65 million users in 38 countries and 235 cities—regularly names The Netherlands the most pleasant place in the world to drive, specifically referencing its “smooth traffic conditions” and “solid road quality”. It is somewhat counterintuitive, but a key ingredient in creating the world’s most satisfied drivers is providing the freedom to leave the car at home; offering the ability to walk or cycle for short trips, tram or bus for longer ones, and fast, frequent rail for intercity trips. With fewer motorists clogging up roads, precious space is freed up for those who still want or need to drive, particularly freight and emergency vehicles. In addition to reducing traffic congestion, this decreases the need for maintenance due to wear-and-tear. A textbook win-win! While some cynically point to bike lanes as a source of congestion, they are paradoxically part of the solution. Cities address overcrowded road space not by producing more of it, but utilizing it more efficiently—enabling alternatives for those who want to get out of their cars. Replacing a nominal number of car trips during peak periods by offering choices is a far more effective and economical strategy than perpetuating the vicious circle of adding road capacity; something that only induces more driving and moves bottlenecks to other parts of the city. After all, to quote former City of Vancouver Chief Planner Brent Toderian: “If you design a city for cars, it fails for everyone, including drivers. If you design a multi-modal city that prioritizes walking, biking, and public transport, it works for everyone, including drivers”.