Bicycle Commuting Rising, but Still Pales Compared to Europe

Tom Banse
10/01/2009

Census numbers that came out last week showed a big increase in bicycle commuting in the Northwest. Northwest cities take pride in their comparatively high percentage of cycle commuters. Correspondent Tom Banse detoured through Copenhagen, Denmark to see how the region really stacks up.

TRANSCRIPT

Counter: "So far, we've had four cyclists go by, all southbound ..."

Portland did it a few weeks ago. In twenty Washington cities, volunteers and traffic planners spent this week counting bicycle commuters during the morning and evening rush hours. Washington State Transportation Department (DOT) bicycle coordinator Ian Macek stands next to the bike lane on a bayfront boulevard in Olympia, tally sheet in hand.

Macek: "Another one. Great to see. Also wearing more or less work attire."

The point here is to track progress toward a goal the Washington State DOT adopted last year. That goal is to double the amount of biking and walking in the state over the next twenty years.

Macek: "There's the whole climate change issue and dealing with that. And decreasing vehicle miles traveled. Then there's also the rising health concerns with chronic disease and obesity. We have another cyclist going by. One sec while I just mark this down."

Macek counts a total of 13 cyclists passing this spot in two hours. To put that in perspective, if he'd been standing on a similar boulevard in Copenhagen, Denmark, he says he'd need a helper to count the hundreds of passing bikes. Copenhagen and Amsterdam set the gold standard for bike commuting that American cities are starting to aspire to.

Tour guide: "Let's go ... uff–da"

I got the chance to see what's behind the hype through an invitation from the Climate Consortium Denmark. Lasse Lindholm of the City of Copenhagen's traffic department took me on the nickel tour by bicycle, of course.

Lindholm: "We're just going to go straight out."

Lindholm says 55 percent of Copenhagen residents commute to work or school by bike. The comparable number for Portland is six percent; and that's tops among large U.S. cities. Boise checks in at four and a half percent; Seattle at three. Tacoma and Spokane pull up the rear at around one percent bicycle commuter share. (Those numbers all from the Census Bureau.)

Copenhagen cyclist Lise Bjorg Pedersen guesses cultural traditions might account for some of the trans-Atlantic gap.

Pedersen: "Every adult in Denmark has been cycling as a child. So it's not unnatural for us to pick up a bike even though we've been car drivers for years."

In Copenhagen, the road system is also geared toward cyclists.

Lindholm: "When it's snowing, during January for example, the first thing that has to be cleaned, that's the bike paths. They clean the bike paths before they clean the roads."

The city's Lasse Lindholm also points out how the traffic lights on busy commuter routes are synchronized to generate a wave of green lights at 12 mph. You'll note that's bicycle, not car, speed. On major arterials, the bike lane has its own traffic light.

Lindholm: "What we are doing is that we give cyclists a 'pre–green light.' That means that you have from 5 to 12 seconds advantage as a cyclist so you can get into the intersection and thereby become visible for the car drivers."

Sound: "Take care. Bye."

The mayor of Portland says he wants his city to become "the Copenhagen of America." Portland bicycle program coordinator Roger Geller is working on turning that vision into reality.

Geller: "Any U.S. city can do this. People look at the Europeans and say, well that's Europe. And people for years have looked at Portland and said, yeah well, that's Portland. They're different there. There's really nothing different. It's a matter of what are your policies, what do you want to emphasize."

But there's the problem of convincing a driving–oriented culture to fork over lots of money to make streets more bike–friendly.

Geller: "We're beginning to retrofit some of our streets with those really safe, protected bikeways that you see in European cities. But it is expensive and it ultimately is going to take away from the automobile. So the politics of that are difficult."

Even an enthusiast like Geller can't see American politicians taking some of the steps their European counterparts have. Gasoline costs more than $7 per gallon in Denmark. High taxes also discourage car ownership. Those are some sticks Europe uses to promote cycling. In the Northwest, the preference so far is for lots of carrots with no sticks. I'm Tom Banse reporting.

© Copyright 2009, KUOW