Building Bike Lanes Really Does Get More People Out Of Their Cars | Co.Exist

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

It might seem obvious that building bike lanes would make more people ride bikes in a city, but intuition and hunches won’t convince local government to build them. Science, on the other hand, might. And researchers at McGill University have just published a new study detailing how better bike infrastructure encourages people to ditch their cars and commute by bike, cleaning up the city’s air in the process.

The team looked at its own city, Montreal, for the study. It compared car and bike trip information from 1998, 2003, and 2008, along with changes in the "built environment," i.e. the increase in bike lanes and other bike-friendly changes. The results showed that building bike lanes definitely increases ridership and reduces car commuting, which in turn leads to cleaner air.

Link: 

Building Bike Lanes Really Does Get More People Out Of Their Cars | Co.Exist

MoBikeFed comment: Note that this report confirms what much other research has shown: That adding good bicycle infrastructure to communities dramatically increases the amount of bicycling.

In urban areas, bicycling mode share increased from 2.8% to 5.3%--nearly double. In suburban areas, the mode share increased from 1.4% to 3.0%--more than doubling.

The reduction in pollution is equally significant: "as much as converting transit buses to hybrid and electrifying commuter trains."

It is worth noting that adding bicycle facilities to our communities is generally *far* less expensive than these other options for reducing an equivalent amount of pollution--and increasing the amount of bicycling also has significant health and mobility benefits that the alternatives do not offer.