Bikes have replaced cars as the preferred mode of transportation in Amsterdam, according to a new study (reported in the Oregonian via Planetizen):
"The bicycle is the means of transport used most often in Amsterdam," reports Bike Europe. "Between 2005 and 2007 people in the city used their bikes on average 0.87 times a day, compared to 0.84 for their cars. This is the first time that bicycle use exceeds car use."When I started cycling in the Boston area a decade or so, I recall there was a competition between bike, car, and train commuters on designated routes. The bike commuters cleaned up.
It's getting better in cities from New York to Portland, but American and Canadian cities have a long way to go to catch up - in car too many, commuting by bike remains fraught with risk.
Check out this video of Amsterdam bike commuters:
Richard Florida
Oh, biking in Boston. A few years ago I had a summer commute in Boston which was far and away faster by bike. Forty-five minutes (average) in a car, on several excruciating, gridlocked routes, about fifty minutes by train/bus, and as little as twenty-seven on a bike (although that was pounding it pretty well--averaging close to 20 mph with 30 lights in eight miles). There were about a half dozen places where, on a bike, I'd blow by about four light cycles of stopped traffic in the right lane, hop an intersection, and be on my way.
In the Twin Cities, where I live now, biking is almost always faster than public transit (I can think of two or three non-suburban routes where this is not the case) but, except for a few routes at rush hour, generally slower than driving (it might be a density thing). But the straight roads, bike lanes and other bike infrastructure make biking here much more pleasurable than in Boston--at least in the summer.
Of course people drive bikes here. They have to. Driving cars has been made prohibitively expensive through taxation, and traffic is harrassed by speed bumps, insufficient parking space, and roadblocks to the point where only a masochist could enjoy it. Meanwhile, with only about 120 dry days a year, the daily bike commute often resembles a wet dog parade.