Missouri Bicycle News Article

Can we take this as a call to action?

A recent analysis of commuting modes by the U.S. Census Bureau found that the amount of bicycling to work in Kansas City is so low, so dismal, it is right off the map.

Compared with many cities in industrialized nations around the world, none of the U.S. cities stack up very well--the highest is about 3.5% of commutes by bicycle.

So even our top cities don't look all that great.

And well below them is a very long tail of rather dismal cities with very little bicycle commuting--less than 1/2 of one percent of commutes in cities like Tulsa, Detroit, Nashville, Omaha, and Memphis.

Then there is Kansas City.

It is hard to find words to describe how bad it is.

It is the tail of the tail. The worst of the worst.

Notice that at the end of the long, depressing, downward slope of the graph, there is a noticeable, sharp downward turn right at the end.

That is Kansas City.

Memphis is the 49th worst of 50 major U.S. cities in bicycle commuting--not a record to be proud of.

Memphis has about 2% the bicycle commuting of the highest city. So it is way, way down the list. Very low.

And yet Memphis has THREE TIMES the bicycle commuting of Kansas City.

It's sort of like if we thought we belonged up near the top of the major leagues and went to play against the benchwarmers of the lowliest minor league team of the smallest and scrubbiest league in northwest Canada, made up mostly of rejects from the local high school teams, and they whipped us 21 to zip without even breaking a sweat.

We're not in the major leagues. We're not even in the minor leagues. Or college or junior college. We're not even junior high varsity.

We came in last place in 5th grade intramurals, and even the 3rd grade teams laughed at us . . .

The good news is, the city has just hired some new managers and maybe they can start to build a team now.

Because all is not lost--many of the current top cities, like Portland and San Francisco, estimate bicycling in their cities has increased about 10-fold in the past 10 to 15 years.

That didn't happen by accident, but because the cities took definite and well-planned steps to improve conditions for bicycling and to promote bicycling.

Bicycling--and walking, trails, transit, riverfronts, parks--are part of what makes a city vibrant, diverse, and a great place to live.

It all starts by taking our current terrible, dismal, awful, no-good situation and making it a call for action.

Let's turn things around starting right now.

Related:

News: Has Kansas City hit the bottom? New trails plan moving forward . . .

News: Census:Bicycle commuting up 40% in Missouri since 2003

News: Kansas City participates in national bicycle & pedestrian counts

News: Bring national bicycle & pedestrian benchmarking to your city

News: Scuola Vita Nuova Bike Club to join MoBikeFed for Katy Trail ride with legislators