Cycling Mob Cycling Forums - View Single Post - Davis,CA bicycle ridership down 5% over ten years

03-02-2005, 07:57 AM

In article <38llchF5lfdqpU1@individual.net>,
"Ken Marcet" <kcmarcet@hotpop.com> wrote:

> Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of
> Davis are just getting lazy?
> http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/?id=7881
>
> Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers.

I'd bet it is some combination of increased sprawl, higher traffic
density on bike route streets, increased number of monster vehicles
driven by increasing number of more distracted drivers.

Here (in the Fox Valley region of Chicagoland) suburban sprawl has
snipped off oh, say, about 100 miles of semi-rural road bike loops.
The roads are still there, but you gotta share them with swerving
Navigators and 65 mile an hour dump trucks. I've been brushed by more
than one mirror -- enuf! -- no more road rides on my favorite loops for
me!

If you ride a bike on any of the main transport streets (vs.
neighborhood streets) here, your probability of being struck by an
inattentive driver is on the order of 1/[couple of months]. Sadly, the
nature of transportation routing here means that the dedicated rider is
pushed onto these main routes for many trips, _especially_ in the
winter, when the fox river trail can be covered w/ snow/ice.

I'd bet good money that Davis' ridership is down because of hostile
cycling environmental developments.

--
<blink>

03-02-2005, 07:57 AM	#7 (permalink)
max Posts: n/a	Re: Davis,CA bicycle ridership down 5% over ten years In article <38llchF5lfdqpU1@individual.net>, "Ken Marcet" <kcmarcet@hotpop.com> wrote: > Interesting figure, I wonder if this is a national trend or the people of > Davis are just getting lazy? > http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/?id=7881 > > Looks to me like the town wants to improve on those numbers. I'd bet it is some combination of increased sprawl, higher traffic density on bike route streets, increased number of monster vehicles driven by increasing number of more distracted drivers. Here (in the Fox Valley region of Chicagoland) suburban sprawl has snipped off oh, say, about 100 miles of semi-rural road bike loops. The roads are still there, but you gotta share them with swerving Navigators and 65 mile an hour dump trucks. I've been brushed by more than one mirror -- enuf! -- no more road rides on my favorite loops for me! If you ride a bike on any of the main transport streets (vs. neighborhood streets) here, your probability of being struck by an inattentive driver is on the order of 1/[couple of months]. Sadly, the nature of transportation routing here means that the dedicated rider is pushed onto these main routes for many trips, _especially_ in the winter, when the fox river trail can be covered w/ snow/ice. I'd bet good money that Davis' ridership is down because of hostile cycling environmental developments. -- <blink>