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Even More Americans Have Stopped Biking To Work (usatoday.com)
The percentage of Americans biking to work has dropped for the third year straight, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
Nationally, the percentage of people who say they use a bike to get to work fell by 3.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, to an average of 836,569 commuters, according to the bureau's latest American Community Survey, which regularly asks a group of Americans about their habits. That's down from a high of 904,463 in 2014, when it peaked after four straight years of increases....
Experts offered several explanations for the nationwide decrease that has unfolded even as cities spent millions trying to become more bike-friendly. Most obviously, lower gasoline prices and a stronger economy contributed to strong auto sales and less interest in cheaper alternatives, such as mass transit and bikes. The rise of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and electric scooters cut into bike commuting, said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition.
In at least two American cities -- Cleveland and Tampa -- the number of bike commuters has dropped by 50%.
Experts offered several explanations for the nationwide decrease that has unfolded even as cities spent millions trying to become more bike-friendly. Most obviously, lower gasoline prices and a stronger economy contributed to strong auto sales and less interest in cheaper alternatives, such as mass transit and bikes. The rise of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and electric scooters cut into bike commuting, said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition.
In at least two American cities -- Cleveland and Tampa -- the number of bike commuters has dropped by 50%.
They rode bikes to show the need for bike lanes. Now that bike lanes have been built they don't see the need to bike anymore.
I don't hate people who ride bicycles to work. However 'cyclists', meaning the self-identified militant cult member, are annoying. Proselytizing to everyone ("here's a map of routes you can take"), lying ("it's safe", "it's easy", "it's convenient"), and bragging ("I wasn't feeling well so I only biked 50 miles this weekend").
Yup. The accidents are very often not the fault of the motorcycle driver. Or the bicycle rider. Things on the road that are not autos are often difficult to see for many reasons, and not just because some people are stupid. Blind spots abound in automobiles. Now going further than this and having a bike not be in an expected place like the bike line but instead cutting across multiple lanes of traffic without signaling will just compound everything (get off the damn bike, stop at the light, and put your foot on the ground instead of weaving around while you try to keep your balance).
For example, it was very common for me to experience autos passing my motorcycle within my own lane. That is, instead of getting all the way over into the lane to the left, they'd straddle the line between the lanes so that their car was just a few inches from my knee. And tailgating was so amazingly common, which is highly dangerous because the motorcycle can't safely slow down.
But my solution was to stop using a motorcycle. I didn't go and play the victim card or demand that the city institute new rules. If I ended up in a hospital bed it wouldn't matter at all if it was my fault or not.