It's Working
In April of 2000 I made my first trip to Europe. In London, they drive cars small enough to put on the back of your bike, so you knew their gas was expensive, but I wanted to do the math. Even my inexact conversion of gasoline prices from pounds per liter to dollars per gallon made it clear prices were low in the US.
My theory at the time was that if US gasoline prices came into line with the rest of the world, the US would become more pedestrian friendly and we could reduce sub-urban sprawl.
Now that gas prices are approaching the true cost of powering our lives -- to the point of poor health physically, socially, environmentally, and maybe even mentally -- we're seeing bicycle usage surge. It looks like my theory is working.
I've been counting cyclists for about 18 months now. There's been a steady increase in the number of both rec cyclists and commuters. The number of cyclists per mile has more than doubled over that time frame. I used to see less than one cyclist per mile. Today there were 36 across 17.4 miles.
Mike Goodman of Intown Bicycles recently wrote in his newsletter about the surge of new cyclists:
Customers are asking us, "How is the bike business these days, what with gas pricing being so high and all? The answer is, "It's good!"
Indeed, more and more people are coming in and saying, "I'm thinking about biking to work. I only live a mile or two from work, and it doesn't make sense to start my car to drive that distance." They're also saying they'd like to use their bikes to pick up a few things at the grocery store.
In 2000, I would have been happy if gas got to $3/gallon. I'm smiling broadly now as I ride my bike into the office.
Commute Summary
Round Trip Distance: 17.4
Number of Cyclists seen: 36
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Squirts of rain in the morning. Nearly hot in the afternoon.
Labels: counting-cyclists
posted by Jett @ 7:39 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
So true! I was at the post office yesterday and the clerk, noticing that I rode my bike, asked me if I thought the "Good Old Days" would ever be back. "What good old days?" I asked. Turns out he assumed I was biking there because of gas prices :)
Perspective is always an interesting thing.
When I first read your comment, I thought the clerk meant that the days before cars were the "Good Old Days".
It wasn't until the second reading that it occurred to me the clerk might be referring to the days when you could drive indiscriminately as the "Good Old Days".
I don't think we're teaching in our history classes that the extensive road systems in the US are a result of the lobbying efforts of cyclists.
For me, the "Good Old Days" would be when kids rode their bikes everywhere like I did growing up. I think those days are coming back.
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