Bike to Work Day

This Friday was Bike to Work Day here in Seattle. And as someone who wishes for more bike-friendliness in Seattle, I seriously hope it was abysmally ineffective at getting people who normally don't bike to work to do so this Friday. Because if you had decided to bike to work on this day of all days, you'd likely think twice about doing it again: sun in the morning changing to wind, pouring rain and a thunderstorm in the afternoon will do that. I bike to work relatively often, and it certainly made me reconsider doing so on days when I have to bring my laptop with me!

However, luckily in this one specific case but unfortunately in general, I do think Bike to Work Day isn't a very good tool for getting people into biking to work. For most people, biking to work isn't something they can do semi-regularly without some investment of time and money and expertise. Unless that changes, offering a one-time set of goodies for people to bike to work will at most entice them to do it once. Ultimately, Bike to Work Day ends up being about as effective at increasing bicycle commute levels as Take your Kids to Work Day is at increasing child labour.

Bike to Work Day did get me thinking, however, about the difference between a place like the Netherlands, where a lot of people bike commute, and the US, where they don't. What do I mean "a lot of people"? Take a look at this video (you don't need to watch all of it - nothing any more or less exciting happens towards the end than at the beginning):

The point is, that is unimaginable here in Seattle. Part of that is that Seattle is annoyingly hilly. All in all, I'd rather live in a hilly city next to a place like Mt. Rainier than in a pleasantly flat city if that means that there aren't any mountains in your entire country. But there's more to it.

Another big difference that isn't up to us is perception. To undercut my point from earlier in the post, which I confess was mostly made cause I liked the joke it led up to, if you try commuting by bicycle, you may realise that it's actually a way better idea than you anticipated. This has certainly been true for me: I started bike commuting in the Netherlands, because that's what everyone did. And having seen its benefits, I continue to do so in Seattle, whereas in Vancouver, I think I biked to UBC a total of about three times (even though Vancouver is way less hilly than Seattle). So the way to get more people to bike commute is to make it the norm. huh? That's not that realistic, but it would be the reason for having things like Bike to Work Day.

Which brings us back to this Friday, when the Seattle Times ran a front page headline in alarming red font "DANGER ZONES!" What happened? Well, as you may have guessed, it was Bike to Work Day, and the Seattle Times was doing its part by listing which places in the city are not safe for biking. The article is much better than a cursory look at the front page suggested, but here's the thing: a normal, rational person should look at the title and think: "maybe this biking to work thing isn't such a great idea! It's just not safe!" In addition to promoting bike safety, the Seattle Times are actually promoting not biking.

The big problem here is that the best way to improve bike safety is to promote biking. The more people bike, the more drivers are aware of bikers. The more people bike, the more bikers are aware of each other. The more people bike, the easier it is to find bike-friendly routes to places. The more people bike, the more cities have to devote infrastructure to concerns of biker safety (..., the more people bike... it's a positive feedback loop!).

I'm not saying lie and pretend biking is safer than it is. But devoting probably the only front page on bicycles in the year to how unsafe biking in certain places is, and then writing as if you're doing it to somehow benefit the biking community is either misguided or dishonest. The thing is, even in the Netherlands, biking is not totally safe. Every time I biked down van Woustraat in Amsterdam, I had the distinct impression I was about to get killed. The only time I was anywhere near as frightened biking in North America, I had been awake for 24 hours straight and biking on Highway 17 in Nanaimo and there were trucks going past me at 90 km/h (I WAS AN IDIOT! DON'T EVER DO THAT!!!). You're never going to make everywhere safe for bicycles (or otherwise, for that matter). But the best way to make more places more safe for biking is to increase the amount of bikers out there. Part of that is not being a bike safety alarmist.