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What is the status of bicycle use in the United States, compared to other parts of the world like, say, China or Europe?
Published Augst 25, 2005 by E Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: What is the status of bicycle use in the United States, compared to other parts of the world like, say, China or Europe? – Monica Schmid, Seattle, WA
Given different types of weather and terrain–as well as historical economic
and developmental trends–comparing bicycle usage in different parts
of the world is tricky. What is clear, however, is that China dominates the
world bike scene: A whopping 60 percent of the world’s 1.6 billion bicycles
are used daily by some 500 million riders in China, who choose bikes over
other modes of transport over half the time.
Meanwhile, in Europe’s hotbed of commuter bicycling, Amsterdam, residents
choose their bikes 28 percent of the time, according to the International
Bicycle Fund (IBF). In other European cities, the stats are also impressive:
Commuters choose bikes 20 percent of the time in Denmark, 10 percent in Germany,
eight percent in the United Kingdom, and five percent in both France and Italy.
In stark contrast, the IBF reports that American city dwellers choose bikes
less than one percent of the time. Meanwhile, estimates of the number of American
adults who commute by bicycle regularly range from a low of 400,000 (based
on U.S. Census data) to a high of five million (according to the Bicycle Institute
of America).
Unlike their American counterparts, Europe’s urban planners are working
to increase bicycle ridership, according to Janet Larsen of the Earth Policy
Institute, an environmental think tank. Copenhagen, for example, has 3,000
bicycles in the city, available for short-term use for a small fee. Amsterdam
provides covered bike parking at bus stops, encouraging both bike riding and
mass transit at the same time.
In Muenster, Germany, bus lanes can be used by bikes but not by cars. Special
lanes near intersections feed cyclists to a stop area ahead of cars, and an
advance green light for cyclists ensures that they get through the intersection
before cars behind them begin to move. Thanks to government programs to ease
traffic congestion in Germany, bicycle use has increased by 50 percent over
the past 20 years. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has developed a plan to quadruple
bicycle use by the year 2012. And in the European Union, bicycles have been
included for the first time in the comprehensive transportation plan.
“European cities are much less suited to motoring and much more suited
to short-distance bicycle transportation than are American cities,”
says transportation analyst John Forester. He cites historical reasons, including
that European capitals were designed as walking cities served by rail, while
America instead embraced cars.
Unfortunately for the world’s air quality, a similar trend is developing
in China, where people are ever more turning to cars and abandoning their
bikes. Beijing, for instance, has been converting hundreds of bike lanes into
car lanes and parking areas, as a recent influx of motor vehicles is maxing
out existing roads. And with increased car traffic and fewer bike lanes, bicycle
riding is getting more hazardous. “Nowadays there are just too many
accidents, with a lot of cyclists getting hurt,” says Zhang Lihua of
the China Cycling Association. “Riding bicycles is becoming too inconvenient
and too dangerous,” he adds.
CONTACTS: International Bicycle Fund, www.ibike.org, Earth Policy Institute,
www.earth-policy.org.
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