On Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:06:07 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/27/2020 2:01 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Monday, 27 January 2020 12:00:41 UTC-5, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, January 27, 2020 at 8:22:56 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
Decline in bicycling? Gosh, how can that be, with the constant
construction of new "safe" facilities? (Actually, as a facility skeptic,
I think I can answer that question.)


The article ties the drop in commuter ridership to the fear of traffic and the highest bicycle death rate in the nation. You are now treading in that area between perceived danger and actual danger. It may actually suck to ride on surface streets to commute to work in Tampa as opposed to riding on one of the MUPs or linear park trails, which typically don't get you where you need to go as a commuter.

The more interesting question is why a drop if the roads were equally dangerous in 2017. We had a drop in PDX, but nothing has changed -- except maybe car traffic has gotten worse. What we need is a survey to find out why people who rode in 2017 aren't riding in 2019. It could be reasons totally unrelated to road conditions, e.g. working from home.

-- Jay Beattie.

Perhaps in Florida it's because of drivers who plow into a group of 15+ bicyclist of which 2 die of injuries; and the driver doesn't even get charged with reckless driving although she was 10+ MPH over the speed limit and was not looking at the road in front of her at the time she hit them?

It's talked about in t his thread.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ch/5abS9erOsto

I think a big part of many giving up bicycling on roads is the perceived dangers posed by distracted drivers and the extremely lenient sentences those drivers get if they hit or hit and kill a bicyclist. Distracted driving seems to be increasing yearly and the penalties for it if someone is hit are ridiculously light.

I suspect a reason for drops in cycling is perceived dangers, but I
don't think it's specifically connected with light sentences for
offending motorists. I say that because in the U.S. (and I suppose in
Canada) there never was a time when motorists were adequately punished
for their offenses.

I think a big change has been the never-ending push for "Safe!" separate
facilities, with the unavoidable implication that ordinary streets
cannot possibly be "safe." My understanding is that the big bike
companies - especially Trek, IIRC - are strongly behind this facility
push. If so, it's a classic case of shooting oneself in the foot. It
would be much more sensible to put out publicity proving that bicycling
on most ordinary roads is actually quite safe, and very beneficial. It
can also be very useful.

I've noticed a change in our bike club. ISMT a high percentage of people
who have joined in the past five years strongly prefer to ride on
trails. They'll drive 50 miles to some distant trail, off load bikes to
ride back and forth on the trail, and consider it a big adventure.

I'd consider it a long drive followed by a boring ride.

Gee, I hate to agree with Frank but...

When I was growing up a bicycle was a thing for kids. My father bought
me one - 2nd, 3rd, who knows, hand from the guy that worked on the
next farm, for four dollars, when I was about 12 years old. No one
ever mentioned "safety" in conjunction with me and my bicycle and in
the summer months I rode it everywhere as did every other boy in town.

In the mid - late 1960's I was living in Riverside, California and
both my kids had bicycles and again I never heard any mention of
safety.

Now I read how dangerous bicycling is. That there MUST be special
paths for bicycles, that one MUST wear special safety equipment, and
on and on, although a perusal of the numbers of bicycle deaths
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclis...n_U.S._by_year
shows that there were actually fewer bike deaths in 2017 than there
were in the 1980's.

As an aside the number of auto deaths in 2017 are lower then they were
in the 1980's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_...n_U.S._by_year

As a further aside, several studies have shown that as many as 60% of
bicycle /auto collisions are the fault of the cyclist which might lead
one to ask whither bicycle riding is dangerous of whether bicycle
riders are dangerous?
--
cheers,

John B.