Paris Proved It. London Proved It. Will LA?
One of the reasons I love riding bikes and working in the bike industry is how multi-faceted bicycles are: sports equipment, Olympics, urban planning, transportation, technology, public health, public safety. Bikes touch all of these things. I am by nature a generalist, and I love outdoor sports, so bikes have a huge appeal for me.
Over the last year I’ve become fascinated by bike infrastructure: how it gets built, who uses it, who pays for it, and why it’s important. If I look at my past, this makes sense. I started a running event (The Santa Monica Classic) that involved closing miles of roads, and doing the political advocacy to make the event possible. After selling that event to the LA Marathon, I became the head of marketing there and was part of the team that developed the “Stadium to the Sea” course, which basically closed down five cities across LA for a day. So the physical activity + infrastructure combination has always been interesting to me. Add to that my own experiences training and racing on bikes over the last 45 years and this all starts coming into focus.
I also volunteer my time to help the largest bike industry non-profit group, People for Bikes. Last year PfB CEO Jenn Dice pulled me into a task force that would look at how we can encourage more bike infrastructure to be built around the LA28 Olympics. So I’ve been discussing bikes and cities with many stakeholders here in Los Angeles. Not to mention interviewing many guests on my podcast (with co-host Mark Riedy) Speaking of Bikes.
Here’s why bike infrastructure is a leading indicator for successful cities:
1. Quality of Life: Living in any urban area is more enjoyable if you are not forced to get around by car. I’ve spent a lot of time riding bikes in places like Bentonville, London, France and Prague. Yes, I’m biased. But there’s no question that cities that welcome bikes are more enjoyable to live in, even if you never ride a bike. Places like grocery stores are more accessible, there is less noise, and, let’s be honest, people overall are just happier. There is quite a bit of research that shows cyclists are the happiest commuters (vs cars, pedestrians, buses, trains). And if you have ridden bikes in cities that have safe bike lanes or bike paths, there is no doubt that you yourself can confirm this.
2. Public health: Our society is less sick when we’re more active. That should not be a surprise. But there’s more to it than that. Data from the last 20 years in London and Paris, where bike infrastructure has been a priority, shows that pedestrian, cyclist and driver deaths all decrease as bike ridership increases. And, importantly, the air quality improves dramatically.
3. The Olympics are a rare opportunity for a city to expand its bike infrastructure. I have spent time speaking with the people who led bike ridership initiatives in both Paris and London around the 2024 and 2012 Olympics. They were very strategic about how they thought about building infrastructure. It was not just “let’s build some bike lanes.” Careful thought was put into motivating people to get out on bikes, to ride to work and participate in cycling events. Big urban bike share systems were built into the plan as well as extensive investments in infrastructure. And importantly there was true leadership around bikes from the mayor of each city. Read former London mayor Boris Johnson’s 30-page manifesto on bike infrastructure, or the story of Anne Hidalgo’s leadership in Paris around bikes. We’re two years out from the LA Olympics, and I don’t see this kind of leadership from either the Governor Newsom or Mayor Karen Bass. That’s a shame. I realize there are many challenging things going on in Los Angeles right now: recovering from the devastating fires we had last year, ICE raids, the FIFA World Cup and elections this year for both LA mayor and California governor. But I would love to see some of our political leaders prioritize safe streets for pedestrians, bikes and cars.
Come on Los Angeles, I know we can do this. The recent LA Metro board approval of the LA River Bikeway (I spoke on behalf of this at two of their board meetings) makes me optimistic. That is a $430 million project, approved by voters in 2016 as part of Measure M, that will build 9 miles of new bike lane through downtown LA along the Los Angeles River. I believe this project, and it’s large scope, can serve as a tipping point for bike infrastructure leading into the Olympics. Maybe this bike path can make it ok for other municipalities, politicians and non-profits to invest time, energy and resources into safer streets.
