Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Cycling up 27% in Salt Lake City

An article at Deseret News says that there's been a 27-percent increase in bike commuters in the past 12 months. Impressive!

The findings are based on volunteer counts taken at specific locations, and comparing this year's with last year's. It may not be a truly accurate indicator... but it's all we've got.

What drove the increase? No doubt the poor economy is a factor. Everybody seems to understand that riding a bike is meaningfully cheaper than driving a car. The bike/ped coordinator also cites the positive health and environmental impacts, and improvements on certain bikeways around town.

One of the reader comments is interesting. "Red" suggests that cyclists should volunteer to drive a street sweeper down the primary bike corridors from time to time. (I'd get on board with that notion!)

The article also links to SLC's official bicycle website. I need to check it out - it looks like it has a LOT of good info. For one thing, I didn't realize that SLC is a SILVER level Bicycle Friendly Community (as recognized by the League of American Bicyclists). They passed up our Bronze level. SLC has obviously changed since the days when I visited somewhat regularly. (20+ years ago.) I still envision those big wide awesome streets, but with few cyclists or cycling facilities.

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