Ralph B. Hirsch

An Overview of the Bicycle's Situation in the United States

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Internationales Planungsseminar für Fahrradverkehr

Excerpt from: Bicycle Reference Manual for Developing Countries. Edited by Barbara Gruehl Kipke, April 1991.

The text below summarizes a presentation made in the opening plenary session of the International Planning Conference on Bicycle Transportation, held in Bern, Switzerland, on 4-5 September 1986. Mr. Hirsch is a consultant in transportation Planning: his address is 3500 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2440. USA.

"Bicycling has gained dramatically in the past 22 years on ever, available yardstick, more than tripling its population participation rate", according to the findings of the U.S. government's 1982-83 Nationwide Recreation Survey. "Especially noteworthy is the increase in adult bicycling, which was practically insignificant in 1960. Cycling is part of the free-time repertoire of 37 percent of the young adults (aged 25-39) and 22 percent of the middle-aged (40-59 years)."

The same study also found that in the number of activity-days (i.e. the frequency with which the activity is done) bicycling was second only to nature study on the list of all recreational activities, and bicycling was highest in activity-days among all of the physically active types of recreation, ahead of swimming and outdoor team sports.

Competitive cycling has also seen a great increase. The 1984 Olympic gold medals of Connie Carpenter, Hark Gorski, Alexi Greval and Leonard Harvey Nitz, and the 1986 Tour de France victory of Greg LeMond, are merely the tip of a rapidly growing iceberg: membership in the U.S. Cycling Federation has been rising at the rate of around 15-20 percent per year.

The trend is less clear in cycling for transportation, partly for lack of good Data. The United States Census of the population, taken every ten years, has shown the bicycle as a separate transportation mode for the work-trip only since 1980 (In earlier censuses the bicycle was lumped in with "other modes"). Nationwide about 0.5 percent of all workers used the bicycle for the journey to work in March 1980. However, there were sharp regional differences: in California the rate vas 1.2 percent and in some of that state's metropolitan areas and cities the rate vas much higher (Berkeley 4.9 percent, Palo Alto 11.3 percent, Sacramento 2.7 percent, Santa Barbara 4.4 percent, and San Jose 2.0 percent). Similarly high rates are also found in a few cities in other states, such as Madison, Wisconsin and Seattle, Washington.

While we'll need to wait for the results from the 1990 census to see a clear trend nationwide, the fact that California often leads the way in social and cultural change -- sometimes by only months, sometimes by years -- suggests that we may reasonably expect a nationwide increase in bicycling for transportation.

Legally the bicycle came of age in the United States this year. Regulation of traffic takes place at the level of the individual state, and in 1986 Utah become the 50th state to grant legal status to the bicycle as a vehicle (or to give the bicyclist the rights and duties of the operator of a vehicle).

Some restrictions on the use of certain roads -- mainly controlled-access highways -- still exist in many states, however, and some major bridges, as well as most tunnels, do not permit bicycles. In addition, some states and many localities require bicycles to use a path if there is one along the roadway, and often these paths are badly designed and poorly maintained.

In many jurisdictions there is little or no enforcement of traffic laws vis-a-vis bicyclists. Flagrant violations are often ignored by police, especially in the larger cities. Moreover, many police officers appear to be ignorant of the traffic laws that regulate bicycling. Progress can be seen, however, in New York City's concentrated enforcement program in Manhattan, and in the course on bicycle law enforcement developed and taught by the University of North Florida's Institute of Police Technology and Management. The Florida course, which began in 1985, has already drawn police officers from as far as New York and the District of Columbia.

In a series of federal requirements during the past decade (in the Federal Highway Acts of 1978 and 1982, and in the regulations for environmental impact statements) there have been mandates to take bic7cles into account in the planning and design of roads and bridges. The 1978 law also required the preparation of a new set of design guidelines, published as the Guide for development of new bicycle facilities, 1981 by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, that incorporates the best current knowledge In this field. In practice, however, the extent to which these guidelines are taken into account when a new road or bridge is planned will often depend on the alertness of the local organization of bicyclists and their willingness to become closely involved in the usually lengthy design process.

A just-completed report on bicycle route selection (by the Bicycle Federation of America, 1986) is likely to offer further detailed guidance to local planners and officials. A basic assumption of both guides is that most cycling will take place on the general network of roads and streets, rather than on lanes or paths especially designated for bicyclists, and that therefore the long-range goal needs to be to make roads, bridges and streets as safe for bicycling as will be economically feasible.

Perhaps the most encouraging recent development is the Florida Department of Transportation's series of courses to train highway planners and engineers in proper provisions for bicycling. Under the leadership of Dan Burden, Florida's coordinator of nonmotorized transportation, hundreds of professionals at the state and local level are recieving this training, and it has already begun to make a difference in the design of facilities in that state.

At present nine rail transit systems and more than a dozen bus systems around the United States carry bicycles on their vehicles, and many more provide some amount of bicycle parking at their terminals. However, several of the largest rail systems (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia) do not carry bicycles. Most of those that do carry bicycles have restrictions -- in requiring permits, and in banning bicycles at peak hours -- that make the linkage much less useful than it could be. An important study by Michael Replogle, Bicycles and public transportation: new links to suburban transit markets, published in 1983, made an eloquent case for better bicycle provisions on the basis of the transit operator's own self-interest.

The national passenger railroad, Amtrak, carries bicycles on those of its long- distance trains that have baggage cars, but only if the bicycle has been packed in a carton. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 bicycles are carried annually by Amtrak under this arrangement.

Until recently the materials available for training bicyclists, both child and adult, have been rather a hodgepodge. The National Bicycle Education Consortium, a coalition of eight organizations (including two that specialize in bicycling and several others such as the American Red Cross, the National Safety Council, and the Agricultural Extension Service) has undertaken a three-year project to prepare a comprehensive set of bicycle education materials for all ages. Some material aimed at adults, which has been particularly lacking until now, has already been made available.

Several states have taken the lead in teaching bicycle proficiency. Perhaps the most progress has been made in Montana, when more than half of the elementary schools now have active programs. In Montana's Missoula Valley, a reduction in bicycle accidents of 50 percent has been attributed to these programs. Florida recently became the first state to authorize by law the provision of bicycle safety training, including both on-bike and classroom instruction, as part of physical education in the 4th grade. Palo Alto, California has created a mandatory bicycle traffic school where juvenile violators of traffic rules will be sent for retraining.

However, there are no commercial schools in bicycle training for adults, comparable to the thousands of driver training schools. Persons who seek such training are largely dependent on guidance from local bicycle shops, which may, know of a local bicycle club where such instruction is offered informally. In a few colleges, courses in bicycle proficiency for adults are available, typically not for academic credit. Often the instructor in these courses have graduated from the rather rigorous "Effective Cycling" training program conducted by the League of American Wheelmen (now called BICYCLE USA), which has trained several hundred instructors in the past decade.

Guidance for motorized road users in how to share the roads more safely with bicyclists is available in a few of the driver manuals issued by the states. The courses by the major private organizations, the National Safety Council and the American Automobile Association, deal with bicyclists in only a limited way. The District of Columbia has a set of slides designed to help train bus drivers, and Florida currently is preparing a videotape for drivers of trucks and buses.

From the late 1970's to the early, 1980's the federal government played a major role in compelling state and local governments to consider bicycles as part of the total transportation system, and in providing money in the form of grants to undertake bicycle-related projects. Although only a few million dollars were given for this purpose in any given year, the influence of these grant programs has been considerable in drawing attention to the needs of bicyclists and in providing a source of funds when other sources, such as general highway funds, were unavailable.

In the past few years the atmosphere has not been conductive to direction from the federal level, and the main arena of action has shifted to the states. A few states have undertaken major new programs, notably Florida, where bicycling enjoys the strong personal support of Governor Bob Graham. Other states with significant achievements include North Carolina, New Jersey, and Minnesota. The state of California at one time had the most extensive and best-staffed bicycle program in the country, but after a change of administration in 1983 most of the staff was dismissed and the program largely dismantled.

Perhaps half of the states now have a person, usually in the department of transportation, who bears the title of bicycle coordinator and spend most or all of his (or her) working hours on bicycle matters. The powers vary widely and often depend on the degree of political support the program enjoys. In a growing number of states there also is an advisory council, usually made up of a crossection of bicyclists in the state and sometimes also of the representatives of state agencies, that provides guidance in the selection of issues and projects.

In the past few years a handful of major corporations have become deeply involved in bicycling as sponsors and supporters. Most notable in the work of the Southland Corporation, which operates some 7,500 grocery and convenience stores. Southland financed the construction of the Olympic velodromes in Los Angeles and Colorado Springs, and it sponsors the 7-Eleven racing team, which includes several world-class riders and competed in the 1986 Tour de France as the first American team ever entered in that race. It has also contributed to the funding of the National Bicycle Education Consortium.

As part of the growing nationwide interest in physical fitness, more and more corporations are sponsoring bicycling or triathlon (cycling/swimming/running) events. Host of the corporate emphasis has been on bicycling as a recreational activity, however; while some corporations have also seen the advantages in fostering bicycling for their employees' commuter travel, these are still in the minority.

As late as the mid-1970's only one national organization, the League of American Wheelmen, attempted to address issues that affected bicyclists. Only a very few state and local groups, perhaps no more than a dozen altogether, dealt with such issues at their own level. In the past decade there has been a major increase in both the degree of organization and the effectiveness of these advocates. Although no complete count is available, several hundred bicycle clubs and activist groups throughout the country try to represent the interests of their members, and the League of American Wheelmen has well over one hundred representatives in state capitals and Congressional districts.

The groups concern themselves with a very wide range of issues, as one might expect in view of the country's vast size and diversity. They include design of roads and bridges, maintenance, safety programs (including drunk driver measures, helmet promotion, and others), economic issues such as tariffs on bicycles and parts, the content and enforcement of traffic laws, and access to transit systems.

Copyright 1996 by Ralph B. Hirsch