Early in the 20th century, bicycling to work or to do errands was common, and seeing bikes on the back of cars was not unusual. Commuters often combined walking, cycling and public transit. Even in the 1940s, bicycling was still a major means of transportation for not-too-distant trips.
But that began to change in the 1950s and 60s, when car use rapidly accelerated, fueled by the new high-speed Interstate Highway System, heavily subsidized through federal funding. Ultimately crisscrossing over 40,000 miles, the new freeways chiseled through cities and towns, sometimes splitting apart neighborhoods, and created new pathways for development and sprawl far from urban centers.
Bicycling and walking increasingly took a back seat to driving. By 1990, the Federal Highway Administration called bicycling and walking "the forgotten modes" of transportation.
More traffic snarls and pollution
But bicycling was not forgotten for long. Over the last five decades, as the U.S. population nearly doubled and development pushed farther and farther from town centers, commutes grew longer, and pollution and traffic congestion worsened. Increasingly, city leaders and urban planners began to see that building more roads did little to solve traffic congestion. They found that offering commuters 'carrots' — more travel choices including 'non-motorized' transportation like bicycling — did prod motorists out of their cars and help alleviate gridlock and traffic jams.If everyone who lives within 5 miles of their workplace left their car at home just one day a week and cycled to work, nearly 5 million tons of global warming pollution would be saved every year — like taking about a million cars off the road.
As the merits of bike- and pedestrian-friendly cities began to emerge, federal policies shifted, too. The Department of Transportation adopted a new national transportation policy in 1990 to spur planners to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians and increase bicycle use. Federal funding for bicycling and walking projects shot up from $6 million in 1990 to $422 million by 2003. And the 2005 federal transportation bill dedicated $1 billion to bicycling alone.Today, bicycling as a workhorse means of travel is experiencing a resurgence, thanks in part to our transportation expert Michael Replogle, who has long advocated for more livable cities and increased federal funding for bicycling and walking (see box below). People are once again taking bicycling seriously as a welcome transportation alternative. And they are finding more commuter-friendly bikes. Today's are lightweight and faster than ever and, like best-loved cars, come in a variety of models, styles and colors.
The payoffs of pedaling to work are many: saving money on gas, avoiding traffic, getting exercise, helping curb global warming pollution and often saving time, too.
Biking to work brings an added bonus: heart-healthy exercise
"Pedaling to work 30 minutes a day or even twice a week is a great way to get more exercise while also helping reduce air pollution." — Dr. John Balbus, Environmental Defense health program director and bicyclist
The exercise benefit is particularly relevant today, given that nearly two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese. In recent years, adult obesity rates have swelled to 32 percent, up from 15 percent in 1980. Obesity is linked to heart disease, stroke and other health problems such as diabetes. New cases of Type 2 diabetes have doubled over the last three decades among middle-aged Americans, and most of the 20 million adult Americans with Type 2 diabetes are overweight."Getting more physical activity is key to better health whether or not you're overweight," says Dr. John Balbus, who directs the Environmental Defense health program and bikes to work most days. "Not enough exercise is associated with heart disease and diabetes, as well as depression and certain types of cancer. Pedaling to work 30 minutes a day or even twice a week is a great way to get more exercise while also helping reduce air pollution."
Some people are reluctant to bike to work because they don't want to risk injury in heavy traffic. A 2006 study from the World Health Organization implicates road design and inadequate pedestrian and cycling infrastructure for significant injuries from traffic accidents. As more cities improve their transportation design and offer more options for walkers and bikers, it's a double health benefit.
Bicycling instead of driving reduces global warming pollution
Transportation director Michael Replogle was an early champion of innovative strategies to ease traffic congestion and cut air pollution. He helped advance the successful push by bicycle and pedestrian advocates to win a whopping $1 billion over five years for bicycling initiatives in the 2005 federal transportation bill. (During most of the 1980s, bicycling and walking together received a scant $2 million a year on average.)Replogle's 1983 book Bicycles and Public Transportation ushered in a new way of thinking about getting around. He opened Americans' eyes to bike-friendly cities and the concept of bike transit centers, widely used in Japan and Europe. His book inspired the formation of the nonprofit group Bikestation, which operates or is planning a string of bicycle facilities in cities across the U.S.
Consider this: If everyone who lives within 5 miles of their workplace were to cycle to work just one day a week and left the car at home, nearly 5 million tons of global warming pollution would be saved every year, the equivalent of taking about a million cars off the road.
In 2001 and 2002, nearly 2 million Americans cycled to work or used a bike as part of their job (compared with nearly 10 million who walked to work), according to the Bureau of Transportation. Bicycling trips have doubled since 1990, reported the 2004 national Bicycling and Walking Study. But national polls and surveys indicate that significantly more adults would bike to work if they had safe routes and secure workplace parking and changing facilities.
Bike transit centers proliferate
Attesting to this pent-up demand is the rise of bike transit centers. Ten years ago, the Bikestation Coalition opened the country's first bike transit center in Long Beach, California, and others soon followed. With convenient, locked facilities to store bicycles at train and bus depots, bike transit centers offer commuters the option of combining pedal power and mass transit, eliminating short car trips and saving gas and money.Today bike transit centers are proliferating. Bikestation’s executive director Andrea White says the ones her group operates are at or near capacity (each facility holds 70-150 bikes) and the surge in interest in these facilities "has been really phenomenal." New transit centers are planned or in the works for Washington, D.C.; Tempe, Arizona; Houston; Vancouver; and Minneapolis, among many other locales.
Cities and states around the country are making biking safer
As both numbers of bicyclists and bike stations swell, cities and states across the country are creating more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly roadways. In mega-states California and Texas — where it’s not unusual to hop in your car and drive a few blocks — and in large urban cities alike, more bike paths, greenways and bike lanes are in the works or on the drawing boards.For example, in Austin, downtown neighborhoods have long had a network of hike-and-bike trails. There, a new commuter rail line connecting the northern exurbs to the urban center is on track, and feasibility studies are underway for biking and walking trails alongside the route. Also, statewide plans are afoot to create 200 new miles of scenic and historic bicycle routes.
New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently unveiled a bold plan for greening the Big Apple, and one of the "greenprint's" big initiatives is to cut global warming pollution by 30 percent by 2030. To help meet that goal and to make the city's air healthier, the plan's transportation component includes an 1,800-mile bike path master plan to encourage cycling, along with congestion pricing and expanding mass transit.
And Chicago’s Bike 2015 Plan, announced in 2006, outlines a bevy of projects and policies to promote bicycling in the Windy City over the next decade.
If bicyclists can make it Houston, they can make it anywhere
Even notoriously spread-out Houston, tied with Atlanta as the worst cycling city in North America in Bicycling magazine, has gotten into the act. Mayor Bill White, an avid bicyclist himself, was key in creating the new annual bicycling event Tour de Houston through historic neighborhoods."Houston is a big car city, but there is a current to make it very bike friendly," says Robin Stallings, the executive director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition. The city now has 277 miles of on-street bikeways (bike lanes, bike routes and shared lanes) and another 13 miles totally off-limits to vehicles. Federal funding to the city has also enabled it to install 100 bike racks at locations such as schools, libraries and parks.
Some cities plagued by poor air quality that falls short of federal health air quality standards, like Houston and Dallas, have tapped federal funds for walking and bicycling projects as one tool to curb air pollution.
Challenge ahead: Bike trips grow, but so do car trips
But despite great strides since the 1990s, the picture is not all rosy. Although the number of bicycling trips has increased dramatically in recent years (nearly doubling from 1.7 billion trips in 1990), the number of driving trips has also exploded (from 249 billion in 1990 to 407 billion in 2001), according to the 2004 National Bicycling and Walking Study. That means that the percentage of bicycle trips has edged up only slightly, to 0.8, from 0.7. (Counting both biking and walking together, the percentage went up to 9.5 percent, from 7.9 percent.)"It's not surprising that the share of walking and cycling trips has barely budged in relation to driving," says Replogle. "As a nation, we've designed most communities with unwalkable roads and with little thought to land use patterns and connectivity between jobs and homes. For a half a century, the Department of Transportation was throwing huge amounts of money to subsidizing roadways and sprawl while underfunding walking, cycling and public transportation.
"The good news is that the progress we’ve made on the funding front has begun to address the lack of cycling and walking option in communities. It's going to take us many years to restore transportation choices and provide safe walking and cycling routes to schools and employment."
Real stories from commuters
Read about the joys and pitfalls of the daily pedal from five who commute. How scary are New York City streets for cyclists? Who cycles in Chicago in the winter? And more.
Sessa and his wife are grooming their two sons for a cycling life like their own. They started with stroller-like bike trailers, then graduated them to single-wheel Tag-A-Long attachments.
Switching Gears: A Non-Athlete's Story
Betty Schlatter — Chicago
This nurse midwife began her new life as a bicycle commuter in stages. She started with a 10-mile ride to church just once a week and found herself "on easyland."Betty Schlatter — Chicago
Saving Money: Pedaling to Work Pays
Scott Walsh — Washington, D.C.
For Walsh, biking is the fastest, cheapest and least polluting way to get to work. Avoiding the cost of parking at $12 a day, Walsh calculates his bike more than pays for itself.
Saddling Up: How to Lug Lots of Gear
Russ Roca — Long Beach, California
When photographer Roca's truck broke down yet again, he vowed to become car-free. He found an ingenius way to outfit his bike with bags to carry all his equipment.
Not-So-Mean Streets: Artful Cycling in the Big City
Ethan Fugate — New York City
Riding on New York's lively, jam-packed streets requires "navigating the intricate ballet between bicyclists, cars and pedestrians" and always being alert, says Fugate.
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