Done correctly, great bike infrastructure can create great cities. But how do cities ensure that the systems are built equitably, serving everyone in the community? National US bike organization PeopleForBikes and the Alliance for Biking & Walking explore these topics in a new report on equity titled ‘Building Equity. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Protected Bike Lanes: an Idea Book for Fairer Cities’.
The report features stories from planners, leaders and activists in communities of colour around the US, who are working to build connected, all-ages bike networks. Essential to these networks are protected bike lanes, which are on-street lanes separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts. A review committee of transportation equity experts from city government, consulting, advocacy and academia guided the report.
“This new idea book is a resource for city staff and bicycling advocates across the country, as well as anyone motivated to help create more diverse and equitable American cities,” said PeopleForBikes Vice President of Local Innovation, Martha Roskowski. “We hope that it can be a useful tool to help people better understand these complicated and crucial topics.”
Some of the newer statistics on equitable biking were derived from the first-of-its-kind US Bicycling Participation Report, commissioned by PeopleForBikes, which was released on 2 March. Some of the key findings include:
- The lowest-income households bike the most
- The lower the income, the less you drive
- Hispanic people bike for recreation the most
- People of colour bike for transportation most
- People of colour care more about protected bike lanes
“Through curating these stories, we learned that advocates and cities need to work with underserved communities in thoughtful and proactive ways, as they have the potential to benefit from advanced bike infrastructure like protected bike lanes the most,” said Alliance for Biking & Walking President / CEO, Jeffrey Miller.
