We’re making biking better in Washington D.C. through funding local bike projects, supporting pro-bike policies and legislation at the local and federal levels and highlighting great hometown routes on Ride Spot.

When in Washington, D.C., Congressman Earl Blumenauer doesn't drive. That’s an incredible feat considering Blumenauer is 75 years old and has served as a Democratic representative for Oregon’s 3rd congressional district since 1996. For decades, the congressman has commuted to Capitol Hill and around town by bike, living his values while simultaneously advocating for bicycling at the national level.

During his tenure, Blumenauer founded the Congressional Bike Caucus, fought to extend commuter benefits to cyclists, and co-sponsored the introduction of the E-BIKE Act in 2021, which though it has yet to pass, has inspired a proliferation of e-bike incentives at the state level. This Congress, Blumenauer reintroduced the E-BIKE Act alongside the Bicycle Commuter Act, which would offer tax benefits to Americans commuting to work by bike, and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Act, which would unlock Highway Safety Improvement Program funding for projects that connect two pieces of safe cycling infrastructure.

Blumenauer’s efforts have also directly improved his daily commute: Over the course of two years, he successfully lobbied to get two miles of protected bike lanes built on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol, a powerful symbol of integrating bicycling into our nation’s the transportation ecosystem. 

“The key for me has been to take the bicycle, the most efficient form of urban transportation ever designed, and be able to try and help people understand its power,” says Blumenauer, who regularly positions bicycling as a way to create a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world. “The ability to be able to make that case, to engage people, to show what a difference cycling makes — that’s something I'm very proud of.”

Blumenauer was a featured speaker at PeopleForBikes’ recent SHIFT‘23 conference in Bentonville, Arkansas. We interviewed the congressman ahead of the conference to talk about federal support for bicycling, the need to close the de minimis loophole, and — in line with this year’s conference theme — all things electric bikes.

Your focus has always been on leaving a better world for our children. Can you speak to that and how a push for bicycling makes sense in that context?

The bicycle is such a powerful tool and we need to make sure that it is integrated in both domestic and foreign policy. As I’ve said, the bicycle is the single most efficient form of transportation ever designed. It liberates young people, it costs relatively little to access, it's better for congestion, and it allows the rider to burn calories instead of fossil fuel, something that is important if we're going to fight climate change. There are also a great number of positive economic impacts.

There's so much money that is, for example, consumed parking cars. We have some estimates that there are six, eight, ten parking spaces or more for every vehicle. Those spaces give the illusion that we provide “free parking” — well, that is paid for with higher rents, more air pollution, and problems with stormwater runoff. Parking spaces cost $8,000-12,000 per parking space, and if it’s structured parking, we’re talking about $20,000-30,000 per space. “Free parking” is extraordinarily expensive.

You can easily park eight, nine, or ten bicycles in a space that would just be one car. And part of what we are finding is that people who bike are actually better customers. If you're biking at 10 or 15 miles per hour, you're more likely to pull over and explore something. You're more likely to have lunch or shop as opposed to when you're whizzing through a neighborhood at 40 miles per hour.

We know that parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities, but I think it's hard for the average person to see the connection. How do we talk about bicycling more holistically in the context of some of our nation’s most pressing issues?

When parking is removed, that makes it much easier to finance and build affordable housing. There are so many of these elements that are ingrained in the way that we do business. Less parking means more choices and healthier air. You have to show people the impact the bicycle can have.

More bike utilization gives us a way for us to reduce the challenges for housing. It's a way to reduce congestion since every bicycle that's next to you when you pull over a stoplight is a car that’s not in front of you. Bikes provide a healthy alternative to cars and the more people take advantage of it, the more they're sold, which naturally helps build momentum.

What do you think are the chief impediments when it comes to getting people to bike in the first place?

A big part of it is having safe cycling infrastructure. Traffic safety is a huge problem in this country and the carnage on the road is really painful. The more we invest in improving that cycling infrastructure, the more people will actually use it. The bicyclist and the pedestrian are the indicator species of livable communities.

Part of what needs to happen — and I’ve been involved with this work in my congressional district in Portland — is that we need to redesign roads to be more bike-friendly. We need to lower speed limits and create bike boulevards. One of my proposals that was enacted included creating a $1 billion Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program to fund projects that help prevent death and serious injury on roads and streets.

These are things that really make a difference to individual commuters, but they also provide a sense of safety and security so that those commuters then want their family to cycle with them. And when they do, they're healthier and they're happier. They also save money and are making a difference for the health of the planet.

What are you currently working on to address these challenges?

Between the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we’re putting in the resources to ensure local bike projects qualify for federal funds and that much-needed infrastructure gets built. There’s been a 70% increase in funding to create and maintain bike lanes and sidewalks, and we’ve also made it so that shared micromobility like bike sharing and scooter systems are eligible for federal resources. Bike infrastructure is something we’ve dramatically underinvested in in the past and there’s now more funding for it than ever before.

We've also had a proposal to allow electric vehicle charging station credit to be used for two and three-wheeled electric vehicles. There's a lot of talk about the infrastructure for electric cars, but we need the same thing for electric bikes. 

There’s also a piece of legislation that I’m going to introduce soon which would allow people to cash out on their employer-sponsored paid parking. Meaning, that if an employer gives them a free parking space, the employee has the right to take cash instead of that space. It’s about letting the employee make the choice about whether they’re going to drive, take transit, bike, or use shared micromobility — it’s about leveling the playing field so that our default isn’t unlimited free parking. 

What else is giving you hope when it comes to bicycling?

For decades, we’ve basically surrendered to the single occupancy vehicle and that’s had devastating effects on communities. With its Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant Program, this administration is actively trying to heal communities that have been harmed by freeway projects, which have divided neighborhoods and only increased congestion. 

The new vision is a low-carbon, equitable future, which makes a big difference for people of color and low-income households who have been on the receiving end of historical harm. Part of what I hope we'll be able to make more progress on is being able to provide more cycling opportunities for low-income and people of color.

I’ve also been watching with delight some of the work that's being done around the country to broaden the range of people who are involved in bicycling. Whether that’s by putting diverse faces in cycling leadership positions or companies focusing on equity. It's making a difference and there's more that we can do going forward.

Electric bicycles are outselling analog bikes and electric cars, and it seems like every state is coming out with an incentive program of its own. How are e-bikes changing the conversation around bicycling in the U.S.?

An e-bike makes any cyclist into a bike commuter — the barrier to entry is so low, you can immediately begin cycling. There are a number of people I know whose second car is an e-cargo bike so that they can shop and schlep the kids around. We also see more and more companies looking to e-cargo bikes for deliveries. It makes a huge difference to congestion in our communities and to the environment.

It's really remarkable what an e-bike does in terms of ease, in terms of safety, and in terms of dealing with challenging geography. It has also been remarkable watching the number of people now who are using e-bikes, who got introduced to them with bike share.

I must admit, I was a little bit of a snob, holding out on buying an e-bike. But a recent vacation I took had me cycling in areas that were challenging for me on a conventional bike. The next day I took an e-bike and it was magic. So I am a fan. I'm planning on getting my e-bike this fall.

Do you think there’s still hope for a federal e-bike incentive?

I think we have an excellent chance at some point but nothing much is passing in this Congress. We're just trying to hold on to what we passed in the last Congress and get it implemented. But I think the handwriting is on the wall: E-bikes are extraordinarily popular, and they’re expensive for low and moderate-income people. An e-bike tax credit is a way to avoid that.

Many low-quality, uncertified e-mobility products are coming into the U.S. under ‘de minimis,’ the regulatory loophole that allows products under $800 to be imported without being inspected, taxed, or forced to adhere to safety standards. Can you speak to the Import Security and Fairness Act and how it aims to close this loophole?

Over two million packages arrive in the United States that are directly shipped to consumers, uninspected, and untaxed. Oftentimes, we're quite confident they’ve used forced labor. Of these packages, we also have inferior quality e-bike batteries coming in, which have been catching fire.

We're working hard to make sure that we close the de minimis loophole so that countries that are not market economies and are on the watch list do not qualify. People recognize the inequity of the loophole and there’s more interest in closing it from businesses. I think that's a very, very good sign.

Is there anything else you’d like to leave us with?

I don't believe that we have to declare war on the automobile, but we also don't have to surrender to it. There are all these little tiny decisions that we collectively make to prioritize cars, which are not really little tiny decisions when you multiply them by hundreds of thousands of times across the country. We need to move away from cars shaping our communities towards communities being able to shape the vision they have for the future. 

Congressman Blumenauer Is Bicycling’s Biggest Advocate

With more protected bike lanes and low-stress bike networks being built across the country than ever before, we had a tough time picking this past year’s best new bike lanes. While numerous projects deserve recognition, we rounded up the top nine projects worth emulating. 

9. Marin Boulevard Bikeway
Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey



In November, Jersey City and Hoboken completed construction on the Marin Boulevard and Henderson Street bikeway, which was first called for in the “Let's Ride JC Bike Master Plan” as a way to better connect the two cities. The expansion of CitiBike into Hoboken also increased demand to ride between the two cities, says Mike Lydon of Street Plans, who worked on the project’s design. In 2022, CitiBike’s most popular route was between Hoboken Terminal and Jersey City’s Hoboken Avenue and Monmouth Street, which saw a total of 5,500 bike share trips. With the completion of the Marin Boulevard project, those rides can now be made entirely on protected bike lanes.

The bikeway is separated from traffic with plastic curbing and flexible posts, and it includes a textured painted surface that makes the bikeway more visible and improves traction. As a “quick build” project, the cities chose to move forward with somewhat temporary materials to expedite the project and improve safety, something that wouldn’t have been feasible with more permanent materials that require sidewalk reconstruction and drainage work, not to mention a longer timeline. According to Lyndsey Scofield, senior transportation planner of Jersey City, this approach “provides us with more flexibility to iterate on the design over time as we learn what works well and what could be improved.”

After being declared one of Rhode Island’s most dangerous streets, Providence worked with the local community to reimagine Broad Street with protected bike lanes, bus islands, and crosswalk improvements. While balancing the needs of local businesses, bus riders, and people walking and biking, Broad Street now serves as a key component of the city’s Urban Trail Network, improving safety and accessibility for some of the city’s poorest and most diverse neighborhoods to jobs and opportunities citywide, as well as access to three major urban parks and multiple regional trails. Space for the bikeway was created by removing a wide center turn lane, which also helped reduce speeding along the street. 

7. Green Lake Outer Loop
Seattle, Washington

By converting a state highway lane into a two-way protected bike lane, Seattle created a new connection between Green Lake — one of the city’s most popular parks — and neighborhoods to the west. It also improved safety along the notoriously dangerous Aurora Avenue. As part of the project, precast concrete jersey barriers, which were repurposed from a nearby bridge repair project, were used to provide ample protection from adjacent motor vehicles. They also helped accelerate the construction of the project due to their immediate availability. 

According to Brock Howell, a member of the local advocacy group Aurora Reimagined Coalition, one of the primary goals of the project was to provide families the ability to ride around the park’s entire outer loop. The group hopes these improvements are a first phase in what will eventually become a completely redesigned Aurora Avenue, which stretches more than 10 miles from the Seattle-Shoreline border to downtown. “We have more work to do to improve safety along the rest of Aurora Ave North,” says Seattle Department of Transportation Director Greg Spotts, “But we expect this project to lead to safer speeds near Green Lake.” 

6. Hub City Hopper Trail
Spartanburg, South Carolina

As part of the larger 50-mile Daniel Morgan Trail System, the Hub City Hopper Trail — an extension of the Mary Black Rail Trail — demonstrates the benefits of connecting trails to town centers and urban areas. The project makes streets safer for people walking and biking while expanding access to recreational riding opportunities. It’s a trend we hope to see more of in urban and rural areas alike. 

The trail extension is already attracting new development to Spartanburg: A 132-unit housing project, the Fitzgerald, was planned by developers, in part, to take advantage of the city’s investment in the trail extension. In a recent WSPA feature on the project, John Montgomery, chair of the Daniel Morgan Committee, noted that they expect “to continue to see development pop up around the trail, [including] more residential, more apartments, because people see the value in trails and connecting them and promoting health and wellness. It’s a real community builder.” 

In 2021, Spartanburg County received a $23.8 million U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) RAISE grant — one of largest grants awarded by USDOT that year — to install more than 14 miles of multi-use trails and a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge as part of the Daniel Morgan Trail System.

Although it was technically completed in late 2021, we couldn’t resist putting Bloomington’s new 7-Line protected bike lane on our list for 2022. With a population of just under 80,000 people, the 7-Line proves that protected bike lanes aren’t just for big cities like New York or Los Angeles. The project connects downtown Bloomington with Indiana University’s campus and aims to increase bike ridership by providing a safe, comfortable place for people to ride.

In 2015, after Bike Portland called on the city to address a lack of safe space for people walking and biking along Naito Parkway and Waterfront Park, the city responded with improvements that provide plentiful safe space for people walking, biking, and rolling along the parkway. According to Gwen Shaw of Toole Design Group, the adjacent Waterfront Park “became busy with festivals and visitors during the summer months, making the existing conditions of no sidewalk and a standard bike lane a challenge.” Now, with a sidewalk, bi-directional protected bikeway, and pedestrian refuge islands, Naito Parkway offers a complete street that meets the needs of this busy area.

3. Bigelow Boulevard
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Bigelow Boulevard project, which was initiated and managed by the University of Pittsburgh, serves as an example of how institutions can invest in surrounding communities — to the benefit of both. According to Paul Supowitz, special assistant for strategic initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh, the project was driven by conflicts between various road users, congestion, and the need for better connectivity to the city’s bike network. 

Photo Credit: Matt Johnson, Montgomery County Department of Transportation

2. Capital Crescent Surface Trail
Bethesda, Maryland

When it was completed in November 2022, the Capital Crescent Surface Trail became the third project in Montgomery County to include a protected intersection. As part of a larger network, the project links downtown Bethesda to the nearby Capital Crescent Trail, an 11-mile paved and gravel trail that connects Bethesda with Georgetown and Silver Spring. According to Matt Johnson, capital project manager with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, the two-phase project is part of a larger planning effort for the nearby Purple Line light rail project.

In April 2022, New York City announced plans to make the 34th Avenue Open Street permanent. (Photo Credit: John Surico)

One great way to make communities safer and more welcoming for people riding bicycles doesn’t even involve constructing new bike paths or bike lanes — simply remove cars from streets.

Although car-free streets have been a staple of people-centered spaces for decades, 2022 saw new examples come to fruition in communities across the country. San Francisco’s JFK Drive (which became permanent after voters rejected a ballot initiative to re-introduce cars), Beach Drive in Washington D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, and new car-free developments such as Culdesac in Tempe and Neighborhood Next in San Diego are all examples that advocates and elected officials should seek to emulate in their own communities. 

While many of these projects, including New York’s 34th Avenue, were spurred by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cities are now moving to make them permanent, a trend unlikely to go away any time soon. Although some car-free streets were phased out of existence by many U.S. cities in the latter half of the 20th century, nearly all of those removals and declines can be attributed to other failed policies such as urban renewal, redlining, and auto-centric zoning. With these new wildly popular projects being integrated into low-stress bike networks, we think it's safe to say that car-free streets are making a comeback.

2022 brought so much good news and momentum for bike infrastructure in the U.S., laying a strong foundation for even more progress in 2023. From beginning the implementation of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to funding the first-ever federal grant program dedicated to connecting the missing gaps in our active transportation networks, the opportunities are tremendous.

At the end of 2022, Congress sent the appropriations omnibus for fiscal year 2023 to President Biden’s desk, which included $45 million for the new Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program. As a reminder, this was authorized by the BIL, but not funded, meaning it requires Congressional appropriations. Streetsblog has a great summary article for additional details. 

Though this number is lower than the $200 million authorized in the BIL, the most important point is that it was funded in this appropriations bill at all. As a brand new program, it was especially vulnerable at the negotiating table. Thankfully, having any amount of funding allows advocates and grant applicants to prove the need for such a program and ensure its continued and increased funding in future years. We’re celebrating this win and ready to get to work with our partners across the U.S. as the Federal Highway Administration begins implementation of the program later this year. 

And that’s not all! On December 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the FY 2023 RAISE grant cycle. These grants offer $1.5 billion to regionally significant transportation infrastructure projects, with applications due February 28, 2022. A majority of the funding will be awarded to projects that include at least one element of walking and biking.

Want to learn more? Join our partners at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy for a webinar on January 12 on how to submit a competitive RAISE grant application. 

Leveraging Federal Infrastructure Funding for Bikes in 2023

PeopleForBikes, a national bicycling advocacy organization, and the U.S. bicycle industry’s trade association announced its latest round of community grants totaling $92,000. The 11 projects funded in 2022 will support bicycle infrastructure and advocacy projects across the U.S. 

PeopleForBikes’ Industry Community Grants Program is funded through the Employee Pro Purchase program, which collects donations from individuals who work in the bike industry and take advantage of pro-pricing discounts on new bikes and bicycling equipment. Cannondale and Trek currently participate. 

Since 1999, the PeopleForBikes Industry Community Grants Program has funded more than 400 projects in all 50 states totaling more than $3.6 million in direct funds. The total funding this year represents more than 1,000 individuals in the bike industry who gave back to grow bicycling through an employee pro purchase. 

“Seeing the industry come together to support community grants big and small continues to be incredibly inspiring,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes. “We thank the companies and thousands of employees that contribute to this important program. These projects will make a tangible difference in 11 communities while aiding our larger mission of getting more people on bikes more often and making biking better for everyone.” 

The Center of Southwest Culture
Albuquerque, NM 

This grant will support Story Riders, a program at The Center of Southwest Culture, Inc. that empowers Indigenous and Latino youth to reconnect with their natural and cultural heritage, all while providing practical training in bicycle safety, maintenance, and guided cycling experiences. Each student will take home the bike they work on and a new helmet. 

BikeHouston will use the funding to launch Gear Shifters, an advocacy training program for BikeHouston staff and volunteers. Gear Shifters will expand and enhance advocacy efforts by representing the needs of people who ride bikes at public meetings, as well as in conversations with elected officials, community groups, and developers.

Bike Works Seattle’s mission is to promote the bicycle as a vehicle for change and a tool for building resilient communities. This grant will be used for general operating support, more than 80% of which will go directly to youth, adult, community, and environmental cycling programs and services. 

Trails Utah will use this grant to launch a pilot project to modify existing trails with the specific goal of accommodating adaptive mountain bikers. Funds will be used to purchase equipment and signage, as well as pay for physical trail work by the Utah Conservation Corps.

Trailnet works to foster healthy, active, and vibrant communities where walking, bicycling, and the use of public transit is a way of life. Funding will help accelerate the installation of safer mobility networks in St. Louis by focusing on high-crash corridors, which are predominantly in Black and underserved communities. 

The Red Line Parkway Initiative empowers diverse communities to enjoy, develop, and enhance the Red Line Trail and Parkway, a 32-mile, multimodal rails-with-trails project. Grant funds will support a portion of 2023 engagement activities with an emphasis on social equity and physical and mental health. 

Girls in Gear teaches life skills through bike skills to help young female riders build confidence on and off their bikes. Funding will be used for coach training and support, as well as program supplies, to ensure every girl has the chance to safely and confidently bike through life.

Community Action Duluth’s BikePlus program provides those recently released from incarceration with a free bicycle, helmet, and bike lock. This grant will allow Community Action Duluth to continue its efforts and reach more people in need. 

This grant will fund bikepacking trips for those in Deaf community in the Mid-Atlantic region, offering environmental education, leadership training, and essential bicycle maintenance. Funds will also be used to provide a day trip for groups to a gravel or mountain biking trail, allowing for local community connections.

With this grant, Salem Bike Vision (SBV) will host three community rides in 2023, working to educate the public about what makes for effective bike infrastructure and helping identify areas where safety is lacking. The organization will also engage local decision-makers around opportunities to use the city’s recently passed bond for safe bike infrastructure.

Dunn Gardens will use funding to purchase and install two bike racks, which will allow for more car-free commuting and send a welcoming message to the many visitors in the neighborhood who rely on bicycles for transportation. 

PeopleForBikes Announces 2022 Industry Community Grant Recipients

You can glimpse the future right now in forward-looking American cities a few blocks here, a mile there where people riding bicycles are protected from rushing cars and trucks.

Chicago’s Kinzie Street, just north of downtown, offers a good picture of this transportation transformation. New bike lanes are marked with bright green paint and separated from motor traffic by a series of plastic posts. This means bicyclists glide through the busy area in the safety of their own space on the road. Pedestrians are thankful that bikes no longer seek refuge on the sidewalks, and many drivers appreciate the clear, orderly delineation about where bikes and cars belong.

Most of all this is a safety project, notes Chicago’s Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein. We saw bikes go up from a 22 percent share of traffic to 52 percent of traffic on the street with only a negligible change in motorists? time, but a drop in their speeds. That makes everyone safer.

Klein heralds this new style of bike lane as one way to improve urban mobility in an era of budget shortfalls. They're dirt cheap to build compared to road projects.

The Kinzie project was discombobulating to the public when it first went in, notes Alderman Margaret Laurino, chair of the city council’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee. ?Business owners had questions. But now people understand it and we’re ready to do more.

Protected bike lanes are not just for diehard bicyclists they offer a level of safety and confidence for less experienced riders, adds Rey Coln, a Chicago alderman who first saw how well these innovations work on a trip to Seville, Spain.

Mayor Rahm Emmanuel campaigned on the promise of building 100 miles of these green lanes over the next four years to heighten the city’s appeal to new businesses. After the protected bike lane opened on Kinzie Street last year, more were installed on Jackson Boulevard and 18th Street on the city’s Near West Side. Thirteen more miles are planned this summer throughout the city. (The Chicago suburb of Evanston just announced plans to install protected bike lanes on one of its busy streets.)

People on bikes everywhere feel more safe and comfortable on busy streets with a physical barrier between them and motor vehicles. In some places it’s a plastic post or line of parked cars. In others it’s a curb, planter or slightly elevated bike lanes. But no matter what separates people on bikes from people in cars, the results are hefty increases in the number and variety of people bicycling.

We've seen biking almost triple on parts of 15th Street NW since installing a protected bike lane last year, reports Jim Sebastian, Active Transportation Project Manager for the District of Columbia. "And we’re seeing different kinds of cyclists beyond the Lycra crowd. People in business suits, high heels, families out for a ride, more younger and older people."

This particular bike lane one of more than 50 protected bikeways built recently in at least 20 cities from New York to Minneapolis to Long Beach, California?is richly symbolic for Americans. It follows 15th St. NW to the White House.

"This is what cities of the future are doing to attract businesses and young people," notes Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. "People don’t want to drive all the time; they want a choice."

The Green Lane Project, an initiative to showcase these next-generation transportation improvements, was launched May 31 in six U.S. cities: Chicago, Washington D.C., Memphis, Austin, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. The effort is coordinated by the Bikes Belong Foundation. Advisors to the project include New York City Department of Transportation (which has already pioneered 5 miles of protected lanes on six streets), the National Association of City Transportation Officials and the League of American Bicyclists. Major funders include Volkswagen of America, SRAM, Interbike, the Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association and the Bikes Belong Coalition.

The name green lane was chosen not only to draw attention to the typical color of protected bike lanes but also to highlight their potential in improving the urban environment and saving on transportation costs. "Green lanes are not just a color on the street. They are paths to better cities," the project’s website explains, adding that more people on bikes eases congestion and boosts residents health, sense of community and economic opportunities.

The project will connect elected officials, city planners, traffic engineers, bike advocates and citizens in these six cities to share experiences, trade data and swap ideas, says Project Director Martha Roskowski. Until this year she ran GO Boulder, the alternative transportation effort at the city of Boulder, Colorado, which built its first protected bike lane in the early 1990s.

"For cities, green lanes are like finding a whole new drawer of tools in your toolbox," Roskowski notes. "Our mission is to expand the knowledge on how to use these tools. How to get them on the ground. How to fine tune them. How to make them work best."

Five years ago, these designs were barely on the horizon in the U.S. although they've been standard in Europe for decades. "Today, cities across the country are looking to green lanes to tame busy streets and connect missing links in the bicycling network," she says. She points to the 2011 publication of a design guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials as a key factor creating momentum for green lanes. "The guide shows cities how to combine existing, approved design elements in new ways to create these spaces," says Roskowski.

"The idea is to create the kind of bike networks that will attract the 60 percent of all Americans who say they would bike more if they felt safer," says Randy Neufeld, a longtime bike advocate in Chicago who as Director of the SRAM Cycling Fund helped start the Green Lane Project. "It’s about helping people from 8 to 80 to feel safe biking on city streets."

The six Green Lane Project cities will receive technical assistance and support, backed by targeted grants to help carry out their plans. Other cities around the country will soon be able to tap into a comprehensive resource center of data, documentation and best practices compiled by the project.

Protected bike lanes are often accompanied by other safety improvements?paint that marks bicyclists? path through intersections; designated spaces at stoplights that give two-wheel traffic a slight head start; and traffic signals dedicated to people on bikes. All these measures reduce car/bike collisions by making people on bikes more visible and clearly assigning priority at intersections. In addition, many cities around the country are also building buffered bike lanes, where wide patches of paint rather than physical barriers separate bicyclists from cars and trucks.

The proliferation of new bikesharing systems where people can conveniently rent bikes at on-street stations with a credit card and return them to another station near their destination?creates new demand for green lanes by getting more riders on the streets. Bike share is now running full board in Washington, Denver, Boston, Minneapolis, Chattanooga and Miami Beach and coming soon to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities.

Roskowski notes that the recent rise of bikesharing and protected bike lanes are linked. "Bikeshare puts new people on bikes who want safer, more comfortable place to ride."

The United States has witnessed a boom in bicycling over the past 15 years, proving that bikes aren’t just for kids and recreational riders anymore. They are an essential component of 21st Century transportation systems that can cut congestion on crowded streets, save money in transportation budgets, improve traffic safety and reduce pollution.

The number of American commuting to work by bike has climbed 43 percent since 2000, according to census figures. And numbers are even higher in places making their streets more accommodating for bicyclists. New York City, Boston, Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul have all doubled the number of people on bikes over the past five years. In Portland, Oregon, 6 percent of all commuters travel to work by bike?an achievement matched by smaller cities such as Gainesville, Florida; Madison, Wisconsin; and Cambridge, Massachusetts?and surpassed in Boulder, Colorado (10 percent) and Davis, California (22 percent).

Yet overall, America still lags behind many Western nations in embracing bikes as a form of transportation. Only one percent of all trips nationally are made by people on bicycles today (up from 0.43 percent a few years ago). There are many explanations?some practical, some philosophical?for why most Americans bike infrequently.

The sprawling layout of many cities and suburbs is one obvious cause. The decline of physical activity among many Americans, even kids, is a likely contributing factor. Some observers point to automobiles? long reign as a status symbol. Others suggest that many Americans view bicycling as a white, upper-middle class hobby, not as a form of transportation for average families. However a recent study found that 21 percent of all bike trips in the U.S. are made by people of color.

Many cities are paying particular attention to make sure that low-income and minority communities where many families don’t own cars and others are financially strapped by the rising costs of operating one?have access to state-of-the-art biking facilities. With a 63 percent African-American population, Memphis was selected as one of the six Green Lane cities in part because of Mayor AC Wharton Jr.’s strong support for biking as essential, not a frill, for a city with one of the highest diabetes rates in the country and where 15 percent of households have no access to a car.

Danny Solis, a Latino alderman representing a district on Chicago’s West Side with a high percentage of Mexican-Americans, African-Americans and Asian-Americans, says good bike lanes are important to improving public safety and economic vitality in lower-income communities. "It increases interaction between neighbors, which is a boost for businesses and keeps the gangs away."

Encouraging more people to ride bikes offers substantial rewards for all Americans, whether they ride a bike or not, by using streets more efficiently to move people and offering an economical choices in transportation as well as addressing looming problems such as the obesity epidemic and volatile fuel prices. And it gets even better from there, the more people ride, the more benefits we'll all see.

Of course, any proposal to reconfigure the streets, even in modest ways, can stir opposition. It’s true that in some cases, carving out space for people on bikes means reducing parking spaces or travel lanes for cars. In other designs, parking and travel lanes stay the same as existing bike lanes are upgraded with the addition of bollards, or parking is rearranged so that bike lanes run adjacent to the curb,.

A follow up study tracking the 15th Street Green Lanes in Washington found that 78 percent of people living nearby view the project as a neighborhood amenity. And in New York City, protected bike lanes sparked a heated debate in recent years when politically well-connected figures lobbied to rip them out. But a slew of opinion polls showed that most city residents approved of the changes, even if they themselves did not ride bikes, and the lanes stayed.

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak acknowledges a bikelash is possible when Green Lanes are first introduced in a community, but notes that in this era of shrinking municipal budgets, "We need to get more use from all the streets we already have. It really is the idea that bikes belong."

It’s not Utopian to think that the United States could become a world leader in bicycling. Americans are an enterprising people, who are capable of almost anything when we apply our ingenuity and technical expertise toward a goal. Who says we can’t match Germany (where 10 percent of all trips are made by bike), Denmark (18 percent) or even the Netherlands (27 percent), all of which are wealthy nations like us where most people own cars?

Protected bike lanes, commonplace throughout Europe and Asia, are a big part of how we accomplish this. Making people feel safer on the streets was how the Netherlands? engineered a 100 percent increase in bicycling since the 1970s, as well as Germany’s even more dramatic rise from 2 to 10 percent of all trips over the past 15 years. Even a city like Seville, Spain, where almost no one biked a few years ago now boasts a 6-7 percent bike mode share thanks to a network of protected bike lanes built since 2007.

In the United States, we tend to view bicyclists as a unique breed willing to brave city traffic. Bicyclists in Europe are considered no different than anyone else. In the Netherlands, for example, 55 percent of all riders are women, compared to about 25 percent here. Dutch bicyclists over 55 ride at comparable rates to the rest of the population, which is far different than here. And 55 percent of school-age children in the Netherlands ride to  school on a regular basis. In the U.S. only 16 percent of kids either bike or walk regularly, down from 42 percent in 1969.

The ultimate goal of the Green Lane Project is to make bicycling feel as normal to Americans as shopping for groceries or walking the dog.

Chicago and the five other cities taking part in the Green Lane Project (chosen from a field of 43 applicants) are undertaking ambitious efforts over the next two years to build protected lanes and other 21st century bike facilities. They aim to show how Americans can enjoy the numerous benefits of increased biking?and in the process reap the rewards of standing out as a leader in urban quality-of-life.

San Francisco: San Francisco debuted one of the country’s first protected bikeways on its main commercial thoroughfare Market Street in 2009, which will be expanded as part of the city’s Green Lanes strategy. A new lane recently opened on Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive and more are planned for the Civic Center, SOMA and Castro districts and potentially the Embarcadero, a road winding along the bayfront.

Every person bicycling is opening up space on the streets and a parking space at the end of their journey," notes Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "The city is projected to grow in coming decades but we have no more space to move people around. It makes smart fiscal sense to invest in bicycling, it’s the most inexpensive way to move more people."

Austin: City officials cut the ribbon April 23 for a protected bike lane running 4/10 of a mile on Rio Grande Street near the University of Texas campus, and as many as 10 are in the planning stage. "Green Lanes are safer, hands down, observes the city’s bicycle program manager Annick Beaudet. "A lot of people are still afraid to get on a bike here so that makes Green Lanes very important to us."

Mayor Lee Leffingwell declares, "As one of the most congested cities of our size nationally, bicycling is certainly a realistic way to address this problem. But I also value the contribution to the economy that comes with the provision of smart transportation options that attract major employers to Austin."

Portland: As the large American city with arguably the best network of on-street bikeways and undeniably the highest ridership, Portland looks to Green Lanes as the best way to make sure the number of bicyclists continues to grow. "The more separation you create between people on bikes and fast-moving cars, the more people you will see on riding," says city bicycle coordinator Roger Geller. "And the more people biking the more benefits everyone gets in terms of health, community, safety and the environment."

Portland inaugurated its first Green Lane downtown and recently completed two others in the Northwest and Southwest quadrants of the city with more to come.

Washington D.C.: Washington striped its first on-street bike lane 40 years ago, but bicycling in the city really took off with the advent of the Capital Bikeshare program in 2010 and the protected bike lane on 15th St. NW, which connects to a popular buffered bike lane on Pennsylvania Avenue leading all the way to the U.S. Capitol. Another Green Lane on L Street is up next. Overall, Washington has seen an 80 percent increase in bicycling since 2007.

Capital Bikeshare is currently the nation’s largest with 1200 bikes (2800 by the end of the year) available for short term rental at 180 stations, which average 6000 rides a day by DC residents, commuters and tourists. (New York is set to launch a system this summer that will number 10,000 bikes by next year.)

"This is the time of the bicycle," observes Ellen Jones, chair of Washington’s Bicycle Advisory Council and a director of the Downtown Business Improvement District. "People want to live and work in places where they have a lot of choices for how to get around. That makes you feel great about a place like Washington."

Memphis: Mayor AC Wharton Jr. is behind the push to make Memphis a bicycling leader among Sun Belt cities. "We believe in the power of bicycle facilities to enhance the health, economy and safety of our community," he says.

Work on the city’s first Green Lane, a 1 mile connection between a popular park and a well-traveled rail-trail, starts soon.

Bikeway/Pedestrian Coordinator Kyle Wagenschutz, says, "We're not building trails just for people who already bike, we want to energize the growth of cycling in the city as a legitimate sources of transportation."

Memphis, like most cities, does not promote bicycling simply as a transportation policy, but also as economic development strategy. "The job recruiters at FedEx and our medical centers talk about the importance of being a good place to bike in attracting talent here," Wagenschutz says. "Recently I met with a partner at the law firm, Bass, Berry & Sims, who told me he did not ride a bike and was not interested in riding a bike, but he wanted to tell us how appreciative he is for how helpful all the bike improvements have been in recruiting young lawyers to their firm."

The simple, inexpensive breakthrough that is transforming American cities

Bikes Belong’s Green Lane Project is officially kicking off tomorrow, May 31, in Chicago. This initiative will work with Austin, Chicago, Memphis, Portland, Ore., San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to support the cities? development of world-class bicycling facility networks over the next two years. Top transportation officials from each city, along with Federal Highway Administration leader Victor Mendez, will introduce the program and announce initial plans at the kickoff event.

We are seeing an explosion of interest in making bicycling stress-free on busy city streets,? said Martha Roskowski, Green Lane Project director. The selected cities have ambitious goals and a vision for bicycling supported by their elected officials and communities. They are poised to get projects on the ground quickly and will serve as excellent examples for other interested cities.

Green lanes are dedicated, inviting spaces for people on bikes in the roadway, protected by curbs, planters, posts or parked cars. The goal of the Green Lane Project is to support the selected cities in their efforts to develop and install these kinds of facilities. Recent studies have demonstrated their benefits nationwide. In Washington, D.C., bicycle volume tripled after protected lanes were installed. In Portland, Ore., more than 70 percent of survey respondents said bicycling is easier and safer with these dedicated lanes, while motorists said the facilities did not make driving any slower or less convenient.

Green lanes benefit everyone who uses city streets, not just people on bicycles, continued Roskowski. ?With these facilities, people in cars and on foot know where to expect bicycles. More people on bikes eases congestion. When people ride bikes, they are healthier, and they save money.

Green Lane Project plan highlights for the six focus cities:

Austin, Texas, celebrated the opening of a green lane in April, and has several more projects under development. The city is tackling major connections in a revitalizing downtown area. The presence of the state capitol, a major university and a thriving music scene make it a diverse and dynamic city that sees bicycling as a way to attract top-tier businesses and ease congestion.

Chicago is leading the way with a bold commitment by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to build 100 miles of new green lanes during his four-year term. These projects will significantly transform city streets and provide a model for rapid implementation. Work on several new projects began in May and will continue through the summer.

Memphis, Tenn., installed 35 miles of bike lanes in the last two years and is planning two new significant green lane projects in the upcoming year, connecting a popular rail-trail with the city’s central park and helping to revitalize businesses on the corridor. Mayor A.C. Wharton catalyzed this turnaround after Memphis was named one of the worst cities for riding by Bicycling magazine in 2008.

Portland, Ore., leads the nation in the development of neighborhood greenways and other innovative street designs. Its attention to detail for bicycle operations at intersections and other transition points is unmatched in the U.S.

San Francisco is quickly catching up after a three-year injunction stalled most bicycle-related improvements from 2007-2010. A new green lane in Golden Gate Park was recently completed and plans are underway for green lanes in a number of other corridors.

Washington, D.C., is a national showcase, with a steady stream of influential visitors. The city is now planning new projects near Union Station and in other areas. The red bikes of the Capital Bikeshare system are being used at least 6,000 times a day, building significant support for better places to ride.

The Project will provide updates on the progress in the six cities, best practices as they are developed, and links to other resources on this website. Other interested cities are invited to use the website to share their plans and progress on building green lanes.

Advisors to the Green Lane Project include the New York City Department of Transportation, the League of American Bicyclists and the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Funding partners include the SRAM Cycling Fund, Volkswagen of America, Inc, Interbike, Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association and the Bikes Belong Coalition.

Green Lane Project officially kicks off in Chicago

Running north from Union Station, 1st Street NE is quickly becoming the main street of one of Washington, DC’s newest neighborhoods, NoMa. Short for “North of Massachusetts,”  NoMa has risen from long-ignored former rail yards to become the east end of downtown. In the last decade, the area has added its own Metro station, a grocery store, a mix of residential, office and retail space and the Metropolitan Branch Trail – a unique rail-with-trail that will eventually connect downtown with the Maryland suburbs. 

The District’s Department of Transportation (DDOT) is planning a complete reconstruction of 1st Street NE, and that project will replace a bike lane with a green lane, in this case a two-way cycletrack, from Columbus Circle to M Street.  Bike lane users frequently find cars parked in the existing bike lane, so the green lane should solve that problem. Mike Goodno with DDOT notes that the green lane “is essentially the southern terminus of the Met Branch Trail.  It is highly unlikely, due to space constraints, that the trail [south of L Street] will ever be off-road.” At Columbus Circle the green lane will connect to the Union Station rail station which serves as the boarding point for Amtrak, the Maryland and Virginia commuter rails and the Metro. It is also the site of DC’s iconic bike station and new bike lanes. On the other end, a quick jaunt down M Street will connect people on bikes to the current entry point to the Metropolitan Branch Trail, and when construction at L and 1st is complete, green lane users be able to connect directly to the trail at a ramp along the north side of L Street. 

The cycletrack will not go north of M Street because of parking and hotel drop-off conflicts. People riding south on bikes will have three options for entering the green lane, which will be on the opposite side of the street. They’ll either have to cue up in front of traffic on M St and make an right into the cycle-track, cross as a pedestrian using the crosswalks, or make a vehicular left turn (or and S turn, if you will) and enter the cycle track.

DDOT has not yet decided how to handle turns across the cycle track. They’re analyzing the effects on traffic flow of protected turns and the decision may be influenced by the research they’re conducting on the 15th St cycletrack. 

The 8 foot wide cycletrack will be separated from traffic by plastic safe-hit bollards on the southern half, and a raised 1 to 2-foot wide concrete barrier on the north. This will be the first time DDOT uses something other than paint or plastic safe-hit bollards to separate cyclists from traffic – an idea popular in Europe or Montreal, but relatively new to the United States.  

The project also represents the first time DDOT has added a green lane that wasn’t part of the 2005 Bicycle Master Plan, showing a willingness to be more ambitious after dramatic growth and unquestioned success.

Though a short facility, it will serve as a key connection between several key elements of the District’s ever-growing bicycle transportation network. 

Washington DC: Green lane to connect rail trail with transportation hub

The process of creating green lanes starts long before the construction crews show up, before the designs are presented to the public and before the engineers start their studies. It really starts in the unglamorous world of planning. Between 2009 and 2012 Washington has built four miles of protected bike lanes, and every one of them was originally included in the 2005 Bicycle Master Plan as either a separated bike facility or a bike lane. Now 8 years into that 10-year plan, Washington has started the process of planning again. 

In the summer of 2011, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray launched the Sustainable DC program to create a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy for the District.  Over the next 21 months, the Office of Planning and the Department of the Environment set the framework for the District to become the most sustainable city in the country.  Sustainability in this case isn’t just an environmental effort. It also includes elements like diversity; health and wellness; and jobs and the economy.

Naturally, a key element of this effort involves transportation and within that, goals to increase cycling’s mode share.  The city recognizes that bicycling has the capability to improve health and wellness, improve the economy, reduce carbon emissions and improve air and water quality. And so, it has laid out a set of ambitious goals at various target dates.

In the short term, the Department of Transportation (DDOT) will play a key role. It will update the Bicycle Master Plan, which has already been overcome by rapidly evolving cycling innovations. The plan, for example, doesn’t mention bike sharing, even though, since it was completed, Capital Bikeshare has become the region’s most visible bicycling program. New developments in bicycle facilities like sharrows and bike boxes – both of which can be found in DC – would surely be included as well. DDOT will also lead a review of bicycle access to parks and open spaces to ensure that every neighborhood can easily access the natural environment. Finally, DDOT will lead an effort to improve data collection and analysis about cyclist travel in DC.

In the meantime, the District wants to partner with community groups to provide bicycle and pedestrian safety education to more motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit operators.

In the longer term, the goals are more specific. By 2032, the District wants to increase biking and walking to 25% of all commuter trips, up from 15% in 2011. To do this, the Washington wants to increase and improve current bicycle facilities. The plan set a goal to nearly double the bike lanes in the city from 56 miles to 100. It sets as a target adding an additional 200 Capital Bikeshare stations, the same number in the entire program right now,  to Washington neighborhoods. Finally, DDOT will perform future traffic light timing reviews such that they consider the efficient movement not just of motorists, but also cyclists; expand the bicycle trail network and integrate it with trails in adjacent jurisdictions; and create formal signage for wayfinding and safety.

Looking beyond facilities and eductation, the District will also work with private businesses to reduce car commuting. One program idea is a “parking cash out” that offers cash to employees who pass on free employer provided parking. Another is to offer tax free bicycle purchases financed by the employer. Innovations off the street can do a great deal to improve the use of facilities on it.

Of course, this is just a plan and these are just goals. It takes sustained effort, over many years and multiple administrations for these to see fruition. But plans give advocates the leverage they need to make changes. Plans are where it all starts. 

Washington, DC prepares to double down on bicycling

Eventually, everyone redesigning city streets runs into the same problem: small businesses rarely support changes to the roads that bring them customers.

This isn’t because the people who speak for businesses are callous or irrational (despite strong evidence that patrons arriving by bike are often more profitable than those arriving by car). Most businesses tend to resist neighborhood changes for a very simple reason: their businesses are profitable.

For a business, every change to your surroundings introduces risk. And when you’re already turning a profit, what’s the point of risk?

So it’s hard to blame any local business for opposing changes like protected bike lanes. In fact, cities should probably expect that most neighboring businesses will oppose projects before they go in — though others, to be sure, will be happy to welcome better biking.

Governments should approach street projects in the knowledge that they represent the public’s long-term interest on a street and that there is nothing undemocratic about valuing the public interest, within reason, above current business tenants’ normal and valid desire to minimize short-term risk.

Nearby businesses should approach street projects in the knowledge that though they have an interest in the street out front, they can’t ultimately control it — and should remember that city governments are often happy to find ways to mitigate any complications their projects cause.

That’s exactly what happened at Washington D.C. hotel The Jefferson, where Director of Risk Management John Stokes decided not to fight City Hall on its plans for a protected bike lane on M Street NW, and found a way to come out ahead.

For The Jefferson, a 99-room boutique hotel a few blocks north of the White House, the new bollard-protected bike lane will mean that taxis and other vehicles won’t be able to make curbside stops alongside the hotel as they previously could. But after talking with the city, Stokes made a deal to allow two new spaces for standing vehicles on 16th Street NW instead — directly outside the hotel’s front door.

As a hotel that has no on-site auto parking and rents a few dozen spots in the nearby parking garage for the 20 to 30 percent of guests who bring their own cars, The Jefferson presumably has a long-term financial interest in making the city easy to get around without a car. (It’s experimented with a Thomas Jefferson-themed game designed to be played by families using Capital Bikeshare to see DC.)

“Whatever we do in DC, there will be parking difficulties,” Stokes said. “You can’t get any, and it will never change.”

He said he’s looking for ways to live within that constraint rather than try to wish it away.

“It would be very easy to be negative, but that’s not my style,” the risk manager said. “Most of the things that I’m involved in are problems. I like to see them as opportunities.”

From DC,a better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles

The older DC’s first two protected bike lanes get, the more spectacular their results seem to become.

Freshly compiled bike counts from June 2013 show that the number of people biking in the 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue lanes during peak hours has grown seven times faster than the citywide average since April 2010.

“I don’t really know where they’re coming from, whether they’re new riders or diverting,” District Department of Transportation Bike Coordinator Mike Goodno said Friday. “I think a lot of it is the desire for this kind of facility.”

It’s certainly true that since 2010, when it launched a bike share system and started building protected lanes, Washington DC has been recruiting and/or retaining new bike commuters more effectively than almost any other city in the country. Washington’s 2012 increase in bike commuting was one of the nation’s most impressive, and 2013 bike counts at the 19 locations tracked by Goodno’s office suggest that 2013 will be at least as big: peak-hour bike traffic is up 17 percent over 2012. Since 2010, Goodno’s bike counts are up by an average of 54 percent citywide.

But that increase is dwarfed by the 371 percent growth in biking observed on both 15th and Pennsylvania.

“You can just see it,” said Ellen Jones, director of infrastructure and sustainability for Washington’s Downtown Business Improvement District. “Visually, Pennyslvania Avenue, 15th Street — when you have 12 bicyclists waiting for the light on a weekday, you know that these folks are not all tourists.”

Jones said some of the growth is probably due to bike share station locations near the protected lanes. And to be fair, some of the growth on 15th is also due to more bikes headed southbound: in late 2010, the district converted its one-way protected bike lane to a two-way. But that change doesn’t come close to explaining the huge rise in bike traffic on 15th.

Jones said she thinks the protected lanes create a “trickle-out effect” on riders around the city, too.

“Their confidence has been boosted by being in traffic on a bicycle in a highly trafficked area,” Jones said. “That has to carry through for folks, I think, when they’re in different environments. … Maybe all they really needed all along was just a little more confidence about what they needed to take the road.”

Then there’s DC’s newest protected bike lane: a 1.1-mile one-way stretch of L Street, opened in 2012.

Goodno’s team has been counting bikes on L Street since 2004. In 2013, the first year of the L Street protected lane, the peak-hour bike count jumped 33 percent — enough to move the street ahead of the citywide growth rate.

This year, a one-way lane in the other direction will open on M Street, creating a long-planned couplet with L. Will that have an effect on L Street traffic? We’ll find out this summer, when Goodno’s team will be out, as usual, counting.

“We’ve had a lot of requests from people who said they’re not biking until we get M Street,” Goodno said.

How high can they go? DC bike counts show continuing surge in protected lane use

Well, Washington DC isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. But one thing in the District definitely has been: its local bike transportation policy.

Census data released last month validated an idea that’s been bubbling through the bike world for a couple years now: of all the major U.S. cities reinvesting in human transportation, none has been making bikes work better for its people more rapidly than the nation’s capital.

Last year, the new estimates found, DC jumped past San Francisco and Seattle to become the nation’s No. 3 city for bike commuting. Since 2007, the District has added about 9,000 net new regular bike commuters, almost as many as there are in all of Minneapolis, the No. 2 city. And all this despite having only a “Silver” rating from the League of American Biyclists’ widely respected rating of cities’ bike-friendliness. DC is the only major U.S. city that has sold more than 3 percent of its population on bike commuting without at least a “Gold” rating from the League.

It’s enough to make you wonder if the rules for making a city great for biking are changing — and if Washington is rewriting them.

“A lot of cities are really changing the game with bike share and big investments in new off- and on-street networks,” bicycle author Elly Blue said in an interview last month. “DC is an example of a city that’s done all three and is winning big. In 2009, I thought it was the worst city I’d ever biked in (that was before I went to Vegas), and now it’s really fun and relaxing.”

Washington Area Bicyclist Association spokeswoman Alex Baca has a similar story. Large-scale public bike sharing, brought to DC in 2010, “normalized” biking by making it cheap and easy for people to try, and the growth of physically separated bikeways made biking more comfortable once they did.

“I think the most significant thing to point to is Capital Bikeshare,” Baca said Tuesday. “Our infrastructure needs to improve, but people love the 15th Street cycle track. The L Street cycle track has its problems, but people like it. We hear from people that say that’s their reason for biking on that street.”

Kathy Card, the general manager of two office buildings in DC’s fast-changing Chinatown, said last week that she doesn’t ride a bike herself. But watching traffic at the bikeshare station at 8th and H, she said, has convinced her that some of H Street’s four auto travel lanes and two parking lanes should be repurposed for protected bike lanes. Dedicated bike infrastructure is what’s needed, Card said, to help her buildings appeal to the private-sector firms she’s marketing to.

“There’s plenty of ability to put bike lanes in,” Card said last week. “Obviously the demand is there.”

In Washington, thanks to six years of creative investments in better biking, it is now.

People for Bikes

Washington DC

PeopleForBikes Work in Washington DC

News

Congressman Blumenauer Is Bicycling’s Biggest Advocate

The Best New U.S. Bike Lanes

Leveraging Federal Infrastructure Funding for Bikes in 2023

PeopleForBikes Announces 2022 Industry Community Grant Recipients

The simple, inexpensive breakthrough that is transforming American cities

Green Lane Project officially kicks off in Chicago

Washington DC: Green lane to connect rail trail with transportation hub

Washington, DC prepares to double down on bicycling

From DC,a better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles

How high can they go? DC bike counts show continuing surge in protected lane use

Data confirms it: DC is the new U.S. bike city to watch

Washington, DC: Nation’s Capital Commits to Green Lanes

Improved Pennsylvania Avenue Green Lane in the spotlight

America’s Best Places for Bikes: Our New System Rates 480 U.S. Cities

PeopleForBikes Holds Second Annual Congressional Bike Fest

A Dozen Bucket List Rides for 2021

Pedaling Through The Pandemic: Staff Rides

What a Modern Civilian Conservation Corps Could Do for Bikes

What to Expect in the First 100 Days of the New Administration and Congress

Meet the Bicyclist Who’s Riding the Underground Railroad

People for Bikes