Getting There by Bike

It’s my pleasure to introduce Design Impact’s first guest blogger: Greg Kushmerek. Greg is a colleague of mine at the MathWorks, where we have not only software for super computers, but employees who are ’super commuters’. Greg is an avid cyclist who commutes in by bike year round, and will be sharing his insights into bicycle commuting in a series of posts.

This is a time of transition as we explore options that will help us develop a renewed, sustainable transportation system. It’s my opinion that human-powered transportation should become an important component of such a system. Greg’s insights will help us understand what we can do to move toward greater adoption of cycling and it’s acceptance as a mainstream mode of transportation. This topic clearly is related to sustainability, but is an important design issue as well; better design of cities, policy, and of course bicycles can all help stimulate progress toward a cleaner and healthier way of getting around.

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Why don’t more people bike to work?

I’m a regular bike commuter, traveling 30 miles a day (round-trip) most days of the week, most days of the year. I’m clearly an outlier, but only if you consider the distance.

Clearly in the United States I’m just an outlier, period. But in The Netherlands, a country of 16 million people, a lot of people bike. If you’ve been to The Netherlands, then you also know that people pretty much expect to get rained on when they bike (my wife would say “It’s not whether it will rain today, but how many times?”). People bike to work, a few or more miles, and it’s just not a big deal regardless of the weather.

So what’s the big difference between here and there? Some factors to consider:

• Infrastructure — The Netherlands has dedicated bike lanes, roads, stop lights, directional signs, and parking spaces all through the country just for bikes.
• Money — Gas is more expensive.
• Safety — Anyone with a license is trained to be on the lookout for cyclists. Further, by law a car driver is automatically at fault and his/her insurance must pay if a car gets in an accident with a cyclist.
• Enforcement — The Police ticket wayard cyclists who violate the rules of the road.

You could argue that the flat terrain makes it easier, but I counter that the heavy winds make up for hills. It’s a different kind of physical challenge, but it’s a physical challenge that people put up with nonetheless.

Consider this: The Netherlands only became a bike-oriented nation in the 60’s. Most of that supporting infrastructure just didn’t exist until the state (they have a centralized system, then again the place is small) decided to commit to it.

Could it happen here? What do you think it would take? What would it take to get you to bike commute?

Posted: May 13th, 2009 | Filed under: Cycling, Design, Sustainability, Transportation |

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