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Cyclists have long believed that building bike lanes doesn’t cause car congestion – and now there are figures to back this up.
Famed data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, whose founder Nate Silver is famed for accurately predicting the results of US presidential elections, looked at traffic flows in Minneapolis before and after bike lanes were installed. The Minnesota city vies with Portland, Oregon for the title of “cycling capital of America”.
Using official traffic data, they examined 10 roads where a bike lane has replaced a car lane, and measured the “volume-to-capacity” ratio. As they explain:
“We take an estimate of the number of cars traveling in the busiest direction during peak travel time, and divide this by each road’s capacity. This gives us what traffic engineers call the volume-to-capacity ratio, or V/C ratio. This metric tells us how ‘full’ each road is.
“As the V/C ratio approaches 1, the amount of congestion increases. At V/C ratios between 0.5 and 0.75 you have mild to moderate congestion, where traffic is still moving smoothly but you might notice that it’s a bit harder to move from one lane to another. At V/C ratios between 0.75 and 0.9 you experience heavy congestion and the effect on your commute is greater. Here, traffic starts to slow down and minor incidents can cause jams. Severe congestion occurs at V/C ratios above 0.9.”
The results were startling. Of the ten streets, only one road (19th Avenue S) had free-flowing traffic before the bike lanes were painted, but “mild to moderate congestion” afterwards. Its 0.62 score was still comfortably within the “moving smoothly” category. But eight others remained comfortably below 0.5, with the last just at the border.
FiveThirtyEight’s authors, Gretchen Johnson and Aaron Johnson, say that the trick is to choose roads that are already running below capacity:
“Bike lanes don’t cause a lot more congestion if you put them on the right streets. If you cut down the size of streets that are already near capacity, you’ll create severe congestion. But if you start with roads that are well under capacity, you’ll only increase the congestion a little bit. And it may not even be noticeable. Slimming down these roads that are too “fat” is known as a road diet — and yes, that is the technical term.”
They don’t believe this is an isolated occurrence. In New York, where new bike lanes have attracted significant controversy, the same pattern was observed. Two busy junctions were still largely uncongested after the bike lane was installed, just shading above 0.5 in the rush hour.
More to the point, not only did car drivers enjoy a similar journey time to previously, but other users benefited greatly. “The number of cyclists using the road went up, and speeding cars, cyclists riding on the sidewalk and injury-causing accidents went down. The road diet isn’t just creating a space for bikers; it’s also making the street safer for other types of users.”
Cycling might be booming in the UK – but we’ve a long way to go before we can aspire to European levels.
That’s the message from a new survey commissioned by bike company Jyrobike, who build ‘auto-balance bicycles’ for anxious cyclists. They found that 35% of adults haven’t cycled in the last decade, and that 28% haven’t ridden a bike at all since childhood.
Safety and fear of traffic were the reasons most frequently cited for not cycling. The survey revealed a sharp gender divide: 34% of women hadn’t ridden a bike since they were kids, vs 21% of men.
Robert Bodill from Jyrobike said:
“We wanted to get an understanding of Brits’ cycling habits away from the glitz and glamour of road races and the track and talk to ordinary people of all ages, regions and abilities. Most people don’t think of themselves as a cyclist, but the truth is, if you have ridden a bike in the last five years you are. We were really surprised with the findings.
“Riding a bicycle is one of the most exhilarating things we do as kids and it’s a real shame that one in four of us haven’t got back on a bike since we were children. A lack of balance is one of the main obstacles to more Brits cycling, and that’s something we’re working to address at Jyrobike with the launch of our new Auto Balance Bicycle that uses patented gyroscopic technology to teach kids how to ride in a single afternoon and helps adults ride for longer.”
The Jyrobike works via a a battery-powered, rechargeable, motor-driven ‘Control Hub’ that drives a spinning flywheel. When turned on it acts like a gyroscope or gyro and provides a stabilising force, working just as gyros do to keep helicopters stable in the air, boats stable at sea and spaceships stable in orbit. The result is an Auto Balance Bicycle that keeps riders upright and stable, even when a rider starts to tip or wobble. Jyrobike will launch globally via a Kickstarter campaign in June 2014.
See the full infographic on the survey findings.
Cyclists in Didcot have slammed a new cycle path for poor-quality provision.
The path on Wantage Road links to a new development at the Great Western Park, built by Taylor Wimpey. But the local cycle campaign HarBUG, the Harwell Bicycle Users’ Group, has identified a litany of problems with it even before it initially opens. They include:
HarBUG say that this type of path would be better off not built.
“We have seen that this type of cycle lane causes more problems for cyclists. It is not much use for cycle commuters to Harwell village or the Campus. Some motorists seem to think cyclists must use cycle lanes if they are provided – and will let you know about it.”
Citing assurances from the developers that the new estate roads would be safe for cyclists, they ask why there are so many instructions to dismount when entering them. HarBUG are now contacting Taylor Wimpey and Oxfordshire County Council to discuss the situation.
A group of Swedish entrepreneurs is aiming to create a worldwide coffee company – entirely through pedal power.
Wheely’s Café is a network of two-wheeled coffee carts which come ready equipped with “everything to sell coffee, tea, soft drinks and pastry”. Now, the Swedish company is looking for wannabe bike baristas to take the franchise worldwide.
For $2,500, you get a Wheely’s bike with a parasol, thermos flasks for coffee, solar-powered battery unit, pastry display units, sink, gas stove and storage – plus “a lot of small ingenious details, like a small loudspeaker to play the happy morning music”. The bike has been developed by NSID, “the Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery”.
Wheely’s also grant you a lifetime license for the brand, and rights to it within a certain area. They claim that the bike will quickly pay for itself in urban areas:
“Our tests show a daily profit of between $150 - $300 from our Wheely’s testing in Sweden, great revenue that goes hand in hand with great fun, not to mention the health benefits. Of course, most of the selling will be done in the rush hours. You can expand that money quite a lot by selling lunch / salads / sandwiches. If you have a spot in central London / New York / Tokyo you can probably put a zero after our estimates.
“You will be part of a global network of Wheely’s owners, getting a great bike, keeping fit and being ecological. In short: Making the world better, one pedal at a time!”
The company pitches itself as the anti-Starbucks – using the methods of the big chains to empower local businesses. “You could say we use their own weapons against them, only Wheely’s is nimbler, smaller and faster moving.” They aim to be present in 100 cities within a year.
The project is being funded by IndieGogo, a Kickstarter-like platform where cheaper prices are available to those who sign up first. You can find out more on the project page.
Local cyclists can now cross Hay-on-Wye’s historic toll bridge for free, thanks to a deal negotiated by local bike shop Drover Cycles.
The crossing over the River Wye, a short way north of the town at Whitney-on-Wye, charges a 10p toll to cyclists – a level fixed in an Act of Parliament. But when cyclists cross the bridge in the evening, there’s no toll-keeper on duty to collect tolls, and the “auto-toll” device fails to register their presence.
Maggie Taylor, who bought the bridge with her husband for £400,000 in 2012, explained to the Hereford Times:
“The 10p toll has been a bit of a pain to implement and collect, and it did feel a bit churlish to charge cyclists – but our hands were tied. The toll is set by Government and we couldn’t just waive it.”
Instead, Drover Cycles has agreed to pay an annual licence on behalf of local cyclists – both those from the Velo Hay cycling club, and the shop’s customers. Anna Heywood said:
“We frequently go over the bridge on our Wednesday evening rides. The auto-toll isn’t set up for collecting fees from cyclists and there wasn’t always someone on hand to take our 10 pence pieces. We realised other cyclists weren’t paying either and didn’t want Maggie and Grahame to miss out, so agreed an annual licence with them.
"We decided it’d be a nice bit of extra value to offer to our customers. With the arrangement in place we can promote more local bike rides heading out that way. Besides serving as a convenient river crossing, the bridge is a great place to stop for tea or coffee.”
Even including new constructions such as the Humber and Severn bridges, there are only around 20 toll bridges left in England and Wales. Several, such as the Whitney bridge and Aldwark Bridge in Yorkshire, carry low levels of motor traffic and so form useful parts of cycling routes. Others, however, still carry busy traffic to this day – such as Swinford Bridge in Oxfordshire, where local cyclists are campaigning for a traffic-free roadside path to be built.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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