Taking the Wrong Route to Bike Lane Benefits: A Rebuttal to 538
FiveThirtyEight went viral in our circles earlier this month, with a post titled "Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams If You’re Smart About Where You Build Them." Our colleagues and friends, people who love to ride bikes and want to make cities more bikeable, sent this article zooming around the tightly-wound corner of the internet that is all about #bikes. The post had a much-welcomed conclusion, backed by data, charts, and statistical tests: Bike lanes have a negligible effect on congestion. Streetsblog noted the implication that complete streets need not be a zero-sum game, while arguing that bike lanes should be measured by safety, connectedness, and other measures beyond congestion.
April 24, 2014