These Suburbs Have Incredible Untapped Potential for Cycling
Вставка
- Опубліковано 31 жов 2023
- With its lower densities and longer distances, is suburbia inherently incompatible with cycling for transportation, or could high-quality protected bike infrastructure make this environment comfortable and practical to bike in? While not all suburbs are created equal, you might be surprised at how much potential there is.
Keep Urbanity rolling:
Join our Patreon for early releases: / ohtheurbanity
Subscribe: / @ohtheurbanity
Join us on Twitter: / ohurbanity
Data & Analysis:
The data analysis was done in R, using the 'osmdata' package to pull data from OpenStreetMap and using 'cancensus' and 'tidycensus' to access Canadian and American population data.
References:
Median commute in different parts of the Los Angeles metro area: scag.ca.gov/sites/main/files/...
I live car free and I definitely feel like I've graduated from having one transportation solution, to having a whole transportation system. Bike, bus, car share, and my feet add up to me being able to pick the best option for the trip at hand.
Car share? Well you're not really "car-free" then are you? In any case outside of the very largest cities in the whole country (like NYC) and perhaps not always then, we don't have that option here. Certainly not here where I live. You either have your car or you simply don't drive one. If you don't have one then your radius is very small. About five miles to the riding limit of this city.
@@derekjolly3680 I would still call that car free as long as it doesn't make up a majority in the actual amount of trips- I don't think most people are truly advocating for a 100% fully car removed life outside of city centers and such
I'd be more comfortable calling the use of a car some of the time, less than half of the time that is, where utility riding factors in, which is what I've got going now, as limited car use, or reduced car use. One of my biggest motivations for driving so much less is just to use far less gasoline and to not be so irked so often over the price of it. I tend to not even notice the price per gallon when I'm on a bike. Obviously more driving in the winter months is inescapable, but hopefully not more than half!
@@derekjolly3680 In extreme cold (about when the coolant freezes at -27, depending on the mix) the heater in the [ICE] car stops working effectively. My cycling cut-off temperature is also -27C [though]: so it is a bit of a wash between the two modes. Would rather walk/take the bus when it is that cold.
Note: Electric cars have better cabin heating in the winter (for short trips anyway): but extreme cold will halve your range.
I don't have the conversion off the top of my head, but our temps aren't as crazy cold as that. We get down to 10-15 F, lowest in the winter. Ok well that's about the same when I looked it up, but you probably get colder than that. If it's that cold I'm not driving, and plenty of the time it wouldn't be so safe for bikes either assuming the ice out there.
In the Netherlands, the cycling infrastructure and experience actually gets nicer in the suburbs. Making the suburbs bike friendly, especially with how popular ebikes are becoming, makes perfect sense.
Similar in Northern Germany: Often suburbs are giant 30 zones, so all traffic is already tamed to bike speed. And separated (!) bike lanes into the city are a no-brainer here as well. Also we have several additional routes for bikes only both withing the suburb and leading into the city. And with ebikes biking between towns/suburbs also becomes a common option.
One thing the Netherlands clearly do better however is bike lanes along the few streets with a bit higher traffic.
Thank God for ebikes. They may just be the thing that catapults cycling into the mainstream. Why drive when you can zip past the cars stuck in traffic? Great for commuters, old people and the lazy/fatties who dont want to pedal. 😂
I think it would be much easier to cycle in the suburbs if more US cities would build bike lanes, especially protected bike lanes. That and connect existing bike paths directly from suburban houses to workplaces and amenities, so that cycling won't be just a sport.
I’d love more protected bike paths, but there’s stepping stone solutions as well. My city has identified several streets as bike routes and put physical humps on them which are uncomfortable to drive over faster than 15-20mph.
The result is that these streets are actually quite safe and pleasant to bike on. My wife and I actually spent all summer using our bikes in the city instead of cars and have found it surprisingly do able and safe!
And now I’m addicting to biking to my grocery store so I don’t have to deal with the horrible parking lot!
Another thing that helps is to have a network of cycling friends. Just like many other things it may take a support group to keep motivated. I only bike because my family was so into it as a kid. I knew no other way.
@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet You carry all those groceries on a bike from the store?
@@DrJams yup, it’s amazing what a quality set of panniers can accomplish!
When I have a kid I’ll get a trailer for taking them around. Then I can also use it on grocery trips for more carrying capacity since my family will now be consuming more calories.
Don't underestimate the power of adding pedestrian and bicycle short cuts to cul-de-sac road plans. It can almost instantly create a parallel road network of low traffic bicycle and walking routes without having to re-build or narrow major roads.
It's ironic that suburbs actually have the most space to add bike lanes, but they actually don't. Most arterial road (i.e. stroads) have large parking lots and if they were connected together, it would be much safer to ride through them then on the streets.
This seems like a pretty good idea to me. Especially with some physical separation of bikes from cars, or even modal filters so cars have to use the arterial instead. Depending on each situation.
Yeah, I have a dream that we'll go to war with street parking one of these days and retrieve at least one side of residential streets for mobility purposes.
@@AmurTiger 1 2-way bike lane is basically the width of a parking spot. There's no reason not to convert them, then again people are closed minded and stubborn so Ill be punching air for a minute.
The video should mention one additional aspect: many US and Canadian jurisdictions have laws and governments that can remove children from their parents if the kids appear in public without adult supervision. Therefore parents won’t let their kids develop independent bicycling habits until they are old enough to drive their own cars. Therefore people become car dependent before they walk or bike.
Most of your videos are great. This one is terrific. Please keep up the good work.
Not the case in Québec, as far as I know. Not sure about the rest of Canada.
Is there a way to find out if one lives in such a jurisdiction
This sounds like a huge exaggeration, but I'd be curious to know if there are any areas with legislation that is actually literally that bad. For the most part I think this is much more about culture than the actual laws. When the neighbors are going to go crazy and call the cops or social services on you, it really does not matter if there are serious legal consequences. The hassle and harassment is dissuasive enough.
@@alexseguin5245 There was a pretty sad case in BC. A family got in trouble because the kids were taking the bus by themselves. Look up "Adrian Crook".
NHTSA says kids under 10 are too young to cross the street alone. (This would have been a surprise to my parents!)
As somebody who bikes in a suburb of Toronto, your arguments match perfectly my experience. Residential streets are fine to bike without any cycling infrastructure, but when you try to go from A to B you invariably have to cross arterial roads and sometimes bike along them for short periods of time even if you choose your route carefully, and that's a scary experience on a bike. Painted bike lanes do nothing to help you feel safe when the traffic around you is going two or three times faster than you.
As a US based cyclist who bike-commutes 10.5miles one way from a rural setting to the inner city, it's definitely possible but very route dependent. On my route, I go through open road, sidewalk (yes it's legal in Kansas), bike path, AND city riding. So, parts of it are fine and parts of it are iffy.
I found route planning, visibility devices (flashers, lights), and defensive riding can really help with safety. This is also a great setting for ebikes. The extra speed keeps the travel times down, especially with a day's worth of clothes and food onboard and suspension, fenders, lights, warm clothes, just not being in Ironman-shape, etc that'd normally slow you down. Honestly, it also feels safer when you have to be in traffic or are dealing with headwinds/hills, since there's less of a speed difference between you and the cars.
For me, a simple solution for making suburban cycling better is to just replace the standard slab sidewalks with wider multi-use pathways. Most suburban places in the US are lousy with extra land and a multi-use pathway really isn't that much wider than a sidewalk. And in US suburbs, sidewalks/bike paths tend to be less busy with walkers (that's why sidewalk riding is legal in so many places in the US), making them good for cyclists, scooters, etc. And while they're not super safe at intersections, it seems like it'd be safer than mixing it up with 50 mph SUVs
Obviously, this doesn't solve the stroad safety issues or distance problems but it's a step in the right direction, at least in my opinion, and would follow the existing road network, making it much more utilitarian for general use. And ebikes solve the distance problem to a certain degree.
@@sean7456absolutely agree. Where I live though, the city just expanded a 4 lane stroad to a 6 lane stroad, so they've got money... But inexplicably not enough for even a sidewalk.😢
@@joelv4495 Yes they’re doing that in Florida also !!! What used to be countryside. has expanded to 3 or 4 lane each way.
@@joelv4495sidewalks are critical infrastructure when there are cars. So many streets in the US are missing sidewalks even though they are sorely needed. It's really unfortunate.
@@DizzyDiddy it's all about money, also the chicken and the egg. It cost more money to add pavements (sidewalks), so the argument is likely no one walks they all drive so it's a waste of money, but if there were pavements then people would start walking more as it's safer and easier.
Finally, you guys show my city, Laval QC. I'm a bus driver here, and most of the city streets (about 75%) are bike friendly, even more than Montreal. The problem is, not a lot of people here use bikes. The new Maire is working on increasing the density of the city and also converting the painted bicycle gutters into protected bike lane or (Micro mobility lane). I hope you make a video on Laval one day.
I grew up in Laval. The problem is, unless you're a kid going to your friend's house or school, you'll need to take a boulevard and very few are bike-friendly. On my first day at my first even job, I decided to bike to work. I was living in Fabreville and my work was on Curé-Labelle near the highway 440. The stretch of Curé-Labelle between Dagenais and the 440 was so scary. No drivers respect the 50 km/h speed limit and the traffic is normally (or used to be, haven't been there in a while) at 60-70 km/h. After this one time, I told myself "never again! I'll take the bus!". Even today as an adult and experienced cyclist, I wouldn't bike on Curé-Labelle, Dagenais or part Ste-Rose.
@@anne12876 Yeah you right, the boulevards are the only major problems we have now, specially Curé-Labelle and Des Laurentides. And for the The stretch of Curé-Labelle between Dagenais and the 440, for some reason, there are no side walk. It's completely disconnect the north of this neighborhood to the south. There is a major side walk repair going on, in the the city currently. I hope they take this opportunity to at list add a sidewalk.
1) As someone who grew up in classic American Suburbia, a very good way suburbs can improve cycleability is by adding in trails to connect otherwise disconnected neighborhoods and along arterials. In my home town there were lots of such trails and it meant I could bike to the "downtown" area almost entirely on neighborhood back-roads and trails. The worst parts were getting around the endless strip malls once I got there and the few short segments I was in the shoulder of an arterial. So in that case, distance really was the limiting factor because sometimes I didn't want to spend 25-30 minutes to get there.
2) Leaving out commutes was a good idea for this, both for the reasons you outlined but also because with the rise of remote work, it may just not be a factor. I got to pick where I live now without worrying about work at all because I am fully remote.
3) I suspect the reason school accessibility was consistently higher in all your metrics was because most were built before the massive sprawl and car dependency of today. They were built when it was expected many kids would walk or bike to school and unlike businesses built in that way, they weren't so easy to close down and move somewhere more car friendly
I can't agree enough about connecting trails and arterials. For me the number one barrier to cycling in suburbia is that if you want to travel more than about 1 km in a moderately direct route, you have to use an arterial and they are so much more intimidating and dangerous than local streets.
I think on 3 the reason is more to do with single-use zoning. All of the other items they considered would be put in commercial zoning, while most schools in American suburbs are in residential areas
I've long held a belief that we should initially aim for bikable suburbs before aiming to make them walkable. As this video points out, the barrier to suburban cycling is the lack of infrastructure. The great part of suburbs are that there's lot of space, meaning that building that cycling infrastructure is easy, in most cases not requiring a major re-design of the road (i.e. make the sidewalk into a multiuse pathway). Cities should try to tap into this low-hanging fruit!
Glad you touched on Suffolk County LI! I've been using an e-bike to get to my gym that is 10 miles away. Biking is possible here, but there's not many places to go, and there's even fewer places with bike racks.
My Northern California suburb is pretty good for biking, and underrated for walking. We love the multi-use paths that are increasingly common, and our residential streets are fantastic for young cyclists... I do agree that the arterial roads are not great... would love to see more protected bike lanes. I love content like this because it highlights potential that suburbs have without insisting that we turn them all into medium density urban environments.
Yes! This is my experience too. I wonder if most irrationally angry "urbanists" on the internet either live in some other country and have never actually been to a north American city or live in some backwater place where the suburbs are criminally bad. Suburbs in California are very accessible to bikes in my experience and if we'd just fix the arterials we'd be doing pretty well. Davis, SLO and many coastal towns are proof of this. I agree there's a lot of potential and we don't need to ruin the character of existing neighborhoods to adapt them.
You could also take into account that the average bike distances between all amenities is between current caffes/gyms/schools etc. That can change in the future as zoning laws get more lax and people start building more buissnesses.
Suburbs and small cities have SO MUCH extra space they could use to built multi-use paths so it would be great to see it used and shared. Great points about the obsession with the commute over other trips - don't know about you but I haven't been to the office in 3 years. Also great point about bike lanes - why do drivers think that everyone is going to be "forced" to bike but when they see a "12 items or less" lane at the grocery story they don't assume that everyone is forced to buy less than 12 items. It's ok to provide different options for people.
Ayyy love the Nassau Country shoutout. As someone who lives here and runs 99% of my errands on a bike it's a perfect place for what you guys are mentioning. I wish I could break through to the local government about this.
Yeah. The suburb I grew up in wasn’t great, but I could walk or bike to school or the closest grocery store. A little longer than I would like, but still doable
Edit: I actually grew up in Fairfax County. So it’s nice to see it being represented here. There were some heavy snowstorms when I was a kid and our neighborhood wasn’t plowed for a while, so it was nice that we were able to walk to get some groceries while our cars were still snowed in
Fairfax County, Virginia? You don’t know what real snow is, but your townsfolk are even worse at driving in it than New Englanders.
My suburb has done a pretty good job of thinking about connecting people to places by bike. One big difference I've seen compared to other suburbs is we have intentionally not placed the main bike routes on the main arterials. We also make use to of separated parkway sidewalks (10ft wide) along many roads that are intended for shared use. We even have these parkway sidewalks on road with bike lanes so people have a choice.
I don't think its so much the distance as much as it is that it not only feels far away, because everything is so separated, but that its dangerous. The speed limits in my particular area is 50MPH (81KPH) and those speeds are often exceeded. All the roads that lead to anywhere you want to go is terrifying for most people even those in cars. The video mentions it, but suddenly you're in a calm area, then suddenly you are confronted with a giant stroad.
I would definitely try biking to the grocery store if it weren't for the "45 MPH" stroad that people do 60 on between me and it.
Even staying on the sidewalks it is an unpleasant ride.
And I'd probably bike the 9 miles to work when the weather is nice if it was possible to do that without getting run over.
Great video! Suburbs are in a pretty easy position to improve cycling already - as their arterials have plenty of space to add separated bike lanes, and the quieter streets are pretty traffic calmed already (you could even remove half the unused on street parking to add protected bike lane in a lot of them). A suburb in Ottawa (Kanata) has a network of shortcuts that cut between certain streets to save time going around the maze of cul-de-sacs, I used to use these a lot when I lived there.
Indeed. One of the advantages of having all that extra right-of-way in North America is that arterials can easily be adapted with bikeways, roundabouts, etc. It's just a matter of time and the will to do it. Already seen it happen many California cities
The bigger problem with cycling in Surrey is just not getting your bike stolen.
Love that you showed even low scoring areas. A lot of Americans suffer with existing in those low scoring areas. Myself included, but not for much longer. I'm about to close on a home next month that will allow me to live car free and was totally affordable ($80k move-in ready home)! Only took like a year of patiently searching and researching most small towns, but IT PAID OFF. This new town lacks a reliable bus network (both frequency and amount of locations), but it does go to all the places I would need it to go that I don't feel safe walking or biking to.
As much as I would love to see my current area feel safe to use any other form of transportation, I don't really want to stick around and HOPE for a the slightest chance it might become walk and bike friendly.
As someone who's never been in a suburb, it's mind blowing to know there are people willingly living somewhere outside walking distance of a grocery store
Yes, or at least easy biking distance if it saves a sizeable amount of money. I have never lived farer than 1km away from at least one dicounter, and I feel a distinct discomfort just thinking about living in a place where I can't walk there.
I lived in a suburb for a while and now I'm in the city I'm almost surprised that people would actively decide to live somewhere without a coffee shop or cafe within walking distance unless they were planning to plant their own vegetable garden and keep chickens.
It is not always a choice. It has a lot to do with affordability and community connections. You comment makes you sound very privileged.
@@mother_tucker About 90% of people manage that, and most of the rest don't seem to care, so I doubt is has a lot to do with privileges.
@@mother_tucker privileged? Dude, I live in Mexico, in fact, living in a suburb in America is the definition of the global 1%
Now that e-bikes are becoming popular more suburban people might become interested in bike commuting that previously wouldn’t. I’m a recent convert to bike commuting. But the commute I have requires me to go like five cities up the interstate. This wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t know I can put my bike on the front of a bus and do my intercity traveling that way. I’ve been doing this for a few months now and it’s been wonderful.
As a suburbanite I'm absolutely seeing people get more ebikes and use them, extremely eye catching vehicles that only add to the convenience of the bike.
That’s my story. Got an e-bike and now I rode almost 20 miles each way to work. I could do it on a regular bike but the e-bike is such a time saver.
Yep. Here in Germany ebikes do something, public transit has failed to do for 50+ years: Getting people in the suburbs and beyond (!) to go car-lite. Traditional the bike distance was about 5 km, which the infrastructure has covered quite ok - but now there is a massive demand for much longer distances. Currently the county here is building and upgrading as many bike lanes as possible for a 10 km radius (mostly because there were already only a few gaps), but there is clearly massive demand to increase this radius even further. And the longer the distance, the more important becomes the quality - so we now get shortcuts avoiding the first row of suburbs going right into the second row; a few of these are even bike only.
Hey, a Collin County call-out. That's me, a bike rider there. I think this is a fair take on suburban biking, I wish our elected representatives were open to actually hearing this argument (they aren't) so I can get that sweet, sweet infrastructure that would make my bike trips more enjoyable.
Tremendous video, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see my county on your list with an 8/10! Living car-lite in an 8/10 county is perfectly feasible for most people. Despite the usually disjunct cycling infrastructure, it’s honestly just fun to run an errand or head to a restaurant by bike instead of in a car. That being said, we're always pushing for better infrastructure and the county seems to be responding in kind.
Biking to the gym has never been a problem. Biking home after tends to be a bigger issue.
New mandate, all gyms shall be built at the tops of hills.
I admit that I sometimes have trouble staying optimistic about cycling suburbs, so this is a great reminder of their potential.
I'd even call it a low hanging fruit… You basically need three things: Enforced low speed limits within the residential streets (which have a ton of other benefits), shortcuts for cyclists and pedestrians and most importantly a good bike lane along the arterial.
The American River Bike Trail is an excellent bicycle commuting corridor in the Sacramento area.
1. weather friendly year round (except summer afternoons)
2. allows many government workers to travel from the suburbs to jobs in California’s state capital, especially with an electric bike
3. is very separated from street traffic
4. is like bicycling through a park the whole length (over 30 miles)
Sounds great.
To you're point 1. Hot summer is probably the hardest weather to solve, as there isn't really a clothing solution. If you're in a rainy or snowy area, you probably already own a lot of the gear required to cycle in it, or relatively cheap vs the cost of operating a car to buy.
@@Zraknul It is shaded by trees a lot of the way. Since it is only hot in the afternoon, most people can take a cool shower when they get home. An electric bike might be a good option.
Some people that race triathlons, road bikes, mountain bikes, or cyclocross, get a training session in on the way home.
As a suburbanite in Ottawa, I bike for the vast majority of my errands (All or most of which is in the defined range). I see very few fellow bicycle "erranders" and tons of pick up trucks and large SUVs simply going to the pharmacy down the street... definitly a lack of existing bike infra, as well as unfettered speeders on side street, and a lack of maintnence and markings on the existing stuff (Which actually could be pretty decent if you know the correct routes)...
It drives me crazy, because there is soooo much space out here, but they just give us a dinky bike gutters on 80km/h stroads.
A factor that would cause people to stay in their vehicles, even if the city is bikable, is crime.
The city I live in is 25 square miles with 100,000 people. It’s absolutely bikeable in terms of distance, just not infrastructure and safety. Which is astonishing because we also have some huge (30ft wide) sidewalk and buffer spaces that could easily have an extensive bike network throughout it. A few of them already do.
It’s definitely the lack of bike lanes. If you get a e bike even the further spots are fairly easy if you can get there alive.
I have lived in DeSoto County most of my life and it's unfortunate just how un-cyclable it is. Bike lanes are almost non-existent, let alone protected bike lanes. On the up-side, most people still live within cycling distance of a school, as is the case with the other suburbs mentioned in the video.
After moving to Canada from the US, Canadian suburbs really do sprawl less than in the US and the basic layout doesn't quite suffer from the excess of capital that leads to some truly extravagant car infrastructure. After living in a city for years and commuting out to the burbs for work, I realized how few jobs are actually in cities. Rarely have I met a person who actually works in city limits and rather than commute from one suburb to another suburb, usually an office park. My wife and I have since decided to try to live as close to our suburban jobs as possible since we're boring people that don't go out and found it is quite feasible to not use our car for going to work and running errands. Mostly our car gets used for a recreational trips, which is what I'd rather use a car for.
From age 1-9 I lived in Nassau County, NY. From 10 to now (35) in Orange County FL.
Went from walking everywhere with my grandma to seeing her get old, out of shape quickly when she couldn’t walk anywhere anymore. She got a car and within 5 years of living in Orlando she no longer was fit to drive. Moved to Orlando because it was cheaper but it is just as expensive as my hometown in 2023 😂
I lived, worked and biked in suburban Nijmegen, Netherlands and was far more impressed by the suburban bike network and modal share than anything I witnessed In Amsterdam.
Because there was space in the suburbs. There is only so much you can do if half of your streets are medieval sized.
My "suburb" in western Tennessee is separated from the city by two miles of a narrow but high-traffic country road with no shoulders and a 45mph speed limit. There is no alternate route. I'll readily risk using this road to reach the less-busy country roads to the north and east, but I'm a lot less willing to use it to go south and west to reach destinations in the city. Nearest supermarket: 5 miles, all on high-speed, car-centric thoroughfares. And that store offers zero bike parking anyway. There's no transit service, so having a reliable car is just a given. I like everything else about living here, and I'm involved in a campaign to improve the one road to make it better for everyone.
A primary issue with mixing cars and bikes is differential speed. If you employ traffic calming measures on busy, fast-moving streets, you slow down the drivers and encourage cycling.
That's a tough one. A class three ebike? That'd at least let you cruise around 28mph, especially if you get aerobars!
That's a bandaid though, that's an infrastructure problem, like you said.
i will always be surprised how suburbs often don't connect nearby places with pedestrian paths at least
You raise a very good point about when we think of cycling places, we think of commuting between home and work. And if that's unworkable, we consider shopping by bike as impossible, even when it's easy.
Amazing analysis. I'm amazed just how good Canada's suburbs are. Here I was as a Canadian giving up on our suburbs lol
I totally love this kind of videos from you guys. Every time you put together some data and analyze it from an alternative perspective is, not only fascinating, but beautiful :-) Thank you!
I didn’t expect the mention of Squats and Deadlifts from this channel 💪🏾🏋🏾♂️
Fairfax County, VA absolutely has the potential to be a cycle paradise. When I lived in the Herndon/Reston area for a couple years, I cycled almost every day, from my commute to getting groceries to simply getting some fresh air. It was MUCH faster than trying to drive around there, too (Street design in that area is moronic). And that was before the Metro's Silver Line got out to that neck of the woods. The area of Fairfax I live in now is much more bike-hostile. There are two big problems that I see. The obvious one is inertia. Places take a LONG time to change. Change is happening. But I've seen proposed cycle expansions on the books for more than 15 years that are still just "proposed." The other big problem here is one of jurisdiction. It seems like every other block is under the auspices of a different municipal or governmental body. Getting any of them to work together on anything is...not easy. For example, we recently had a private business block a cycle trail with a giant fence. The fence was put up on land that is within a city's jurisdiction, but the trail is on land that is controlled by the county. The county can't do anything about it, and the city doesn't want to do anything about it. So, there's now a trail that can't be used by anyone, and nobody is willing to do anything about it. I see variations of that all across Fairfax County. Bike trails that simply stop when they hit the border of a different community. Sidewalks that do the same. Sidewalks that start and end along a highway without ever connecting to anything. Bus stops on the shoulders of highways with no path to the neighborhood nearby, because that land is controlled by the housing development, which has nothing to do with the agency that put in the stop. Grocery stores and shopping centers next to neighborhoods with no sidewalk connections. It's a little thing, but even the post office branch I sometimes use doesn't actually have any official access to the nearby sidewalk of the road it's on. You have to cross a busy access road and walk through overgrown grass & weeds and a parking lot to get to it if you're not driving. Forget it if you're in a wheel chair. It's a "neighborhood branch" that expects you to drive to it.
Again, a lot of potential. A lot of people and places are within relatively short distances. But depending on where you are, if you're not in a car, the connections are spotty at best and a lot of communities don't seem to want to improve those connections.
What kind of business is it that put up that fence blocking the trail?
@@DizzyDiddy, of all things, an autobody workshop. The fence surrounds a big parking lot full of wrecked & semi-wrecked cars.
@@matthewconstantine5015 Can the city take some other recourse against the auto body shop? There must be ways to pressure them to voluntarily do what is best for the community as a whole.
Would love to see all the areas you examined and the scores, it's super interesting!
There are some suburban multi-use trails with good utilization here in the Philly region. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission uses several permanent bike and pedestrian counters on different trails. One such counter on the Chester Valley Trail has recorded nearly 11,000 bikes in September alone, and over 40,000 bikes from January to September.
Build the infrastructure, and it will be used.
Thank you for including Freedom Units when mentioning distances. I believe bicycle infrastructure will improve in certain areas over the long term in the U.S. That is a good thing. However, I cannot fathom the U.S. ever making a serious enough structural change to make anyone in The Netherlands envious. At least not over the next ten to twenty years. I think we'll end up with a couple of larger towns/smaller cities where the bicycle infrastructure will be relatively comprehensive and visitors from other American cities will say, "Wow, it's like Europe." Europeans will see it and say, "It's basic but better than nothing."
YIMBYs of Northern Virginia has a great leadership team in Fairfax County and we are growing quickly there!
Awesome video, I think this channel is one of the best urbanist places on youtube thanks for the great content!
Much appreciated!!
You hit the nail on the head with the safety factor. I'm 3 mi (~5km) from my nearest cafe, and about 2 mi from nearest grocery stores. However - if I want to get there, I have to cross a major highway. Luckily, we have a 10 ft wide multi use path that snakes behind the neighborhood to get to the major intersection, but it's still unpleasant to interact with traffic. Elsewhere in town you have to ride in the street and will absolutely get honked at, even though the speed limit is 35-40 mph, because there's no bike infrastructure. Drivers see cyclists as an obstacle, despite being caught up at the next traffic light.
So we have the density and frequency of amenities, but what is stopping a lot of people is how unsafe it is to cycle to those destinations. We need more traffic calming measures, road diets, and ANY level of cycling infrastructure (even those painted gutters) to start the trend of alt-mode transit.
I'm a fan of yours living in Salt Lake County. I ride my bike to the gym and to church, but I like going to the grocery store 15 minute drive away because it's cheaper and has more selection. (Also with my current bike, it's challenging hauling my stuff home).
I’ma full time bike/transit commuter in the suburbs of Salt Lake! I was happy to hear the shoutout.
It’s not easy, but my e-bike helps.
There’s a lot of classic, North American, car dependent infrastructure here. But there’s surprisingly good trails and transit as well. It takes some work, but it can be done.
Hopefully, in not very long, it will be more doable for more people.
I love the conclusion of this video, and in many ways it is playing out across the Twin Cities. Our suburbs are building more bike infrastructure, and in particular focusing on improved arterials with a bare minimum of separated pathways for bikes and pedestrians. Sidewalk coverage is far more consistent and biking on sidewalks, as another bare minimum, is still legal and tolerated across much of the suburbs, even if less so in the core Minneapolis-Saint Paul cities themselves.
The point about schools is probably one of the most critical, and one where suburban cities and core cities alike have developed what are called Safe Routes To Schools plans. Focusing on those neighborhood trips, building infrastructure that allows kids and staff alike to safely commute to and from schools, thanks to citywide infrastructure connectivity. Richfield MN is one particularly solid example of a suburb that is actively implementing Safe Routes To School, a citywide buildout of bike infrastructure and improved street design which has made it one of our best.
Edit: I also have to say, great job pointing out the quieter suburban residential streets! They have excellent bones for making as sleeper bikeways across cities, especially with smaller traffic calming measures like micro roundabouts!
I was blown away when I visited Fort Collins Colorado. It is mostly suburban subdivisions. When these were built, the developers put in sidewalks/trails that connect to the surrounding developments. You can easily cut across multiple developments on beautiful, landscaped, wide paths. While in a car, you have to exit to the major road, travel to the next development and then reenter a separate street grid. The road network relies on arterials but the cycling network is well connected. I still have criticisms of suburbia but this convinced me that suburban cycling networks are feasible. Granted, this isn't a prime example of retrofitting cycling into an existing neighborhood. But that has happened in Ft Collins. Existing residents felt left out and pushed to connect their neighborhoods to the new, growing network in the newer developments.
Here is an example of one of their subdivision with excellent pedestrian/cycling connectivity.
maps.app.goo.gl/HR8RuvSvPfgZt4ax7
Yeah, the painted bike gutters on arterials are horrible. But you don't have to use them. The paths and ubiquitous, massive sidewalks offer a safer alternative.
Two factors I always consider when I think about your videos and other people in the same realm. And what I mean is people who are promoting cycling heavily. You bring up groceries in the fact that they're not too far away for cycling. People could certainly come up with a way to carry more groceries on their bicycle, but I just think that so unlikely in our society today. There is a fringe element that's willing to do that. And the same thing goes for winter riding. People want to be in their heated car. When you think about standing in the cold where there's maybe some slush and snow, and imagine packing your trailer for your bicycle, out in the cold. Then imagining riding home now on the icy road with your groceries in your pricey trailer. I live in Ohio, and we don't have a great biking infrastructure from where I live to get to other things, so I end up taking a couple months off the bicycle unless I'm willing to hop on the stationery add-on I purchased. I wonder if you guys can answer the question, what is the ratio of users in the warm weather compared to the users that you see during the toughest weather?
Keep in mind that we don't live in the suburbs, we live in an urban area, and there are already plenty of people walking (and taking transit) year round. When everyone is perfectly happy walking to a store in the cold, it's harder to believe that people would never bike in the cold. I recognize that perceptions and expectations might be different in a suburban area where everyone (who can) currently drives.
Montreal currently sees about 10% of the number of cyclists in the winter as in the other seasons, but that's not a great measure of the potential because the number of available bike routes substantially decreases in the winter. In other words, some bike routes (especially protected bike lanes) get really excellent snow clearing while others (especially painted bike lanes) are basically unusable. I've looked at the bike counters in Oulu, Finland, the winter biking capital of the world (which is actually fairly suburban, it's not a dense city by any means), and if I remember correctly retention through the winter was more like 50%.
@@OhTheUrbanity Great answers. Thanks for answering so quickly. I would have never expected that. Maybe over the course of time we also can develop a more all season set up. Like you mentioned about making sure that all bike areas would be cleared with the understanding that they're being used. Just like a "real" road. You'd never leave a bunch of debris laying in the middle of the road, but I've been on bike paths before where I had to get off, and carry my bike over a piece of fallen tree. I live on the far edge of a suburban area, which is really more mixed rural. We have a rails to trail nearby, but everything is not smartly connected. Instead it's just a layover from when it was the railroad.
For example: I have that as a great piece of cycling. But on the other hand there's no grocery store that is along that rails to trail system. And there's a closer grocery store, but it's on a road that has no bike path, no sidewalk, and there's no shoulder. In our village there is a 'sharows" system, but no consideration for the 7 mi stretch of country road with no shoulder. So it's very odd in actuality. We do have a local bicycle advocacy group, and you inspire me to get involved with that organization. This is a ridiculously long response. Thanks for the content you create, it's very interesting.
So you have to be committed to being on a 55 mph road, and there's nowhere for you to move to the side.
Some people will never cycle in the cold, heat or when it rains. That's ok. Even if only 10% of people are willing to use their bicycle in those extreme conditions, then it will still be great to reduce the amount of cars on the roads. And we might encourage others to give it a try too. Or maybe use other forms of transportation other than a car. If kids/teens are encouraged to cycle all year long, then there will be a lot less parents on the road driving their kids to school. And when kids are used to cycling through all kinds of weather conditions, then it will be easier for adults to do the same. In the Netherlands people will cycle when it rains or when it's cold, even in the snow (we don't have snow that often), but a lot of them will also choose to use the car or maybe take a bus/tram. To me that's ok. There's still plenty of days left when the weather is ok to cycle. And with good/safe infrastructure and road management to clear the cycle lanes of dirt and snow, more people will feel it's safe enough to cycle year round.
I live in Salt Lake County, and can confirm. I started cycling for transportation when I returned to Salt Lake after a year in NYC and I realized that cycling in SLC was time-equivalent to walking in Manhattan.
Desoto County is definitely spread out, but it occurs to me that could be a strength. With all that unused space, there's a lot of potential for in-fill. Working out the politics of that would require a lot of work, but it still seems like it could be possible to make it more bike friendly if the residents wanted to.
Great vid! You should probably add trip-chaining for why so many more trips are done by car in the suburbs. Once one trip is done by car (usually the commute), many other daily destinations get chained on
One suburb that I believe deserves mention is Lorraine, Quebec. Mind you, it is STRICTLY a residential town, with just one small shopping center to supply it, so its design is likely heavily biased.
Still, it is, in my arrogant opinion, a cyclist's absolute *dream*. Look up the town on Google Maps, and either enable satellite view, or zoom in very aggressively. You'll notice small pedestrian/cyclist paths linking many streets and cul-de-sacs to one another, allowing one to shortcut right through to their destination instead of using the traditional car-centric boulevards. It was such a pleasant town to navigate that when I was young, I'd take my bike out and cycle around randomly just for the heck of it.
I can only suppose, however, that there's a massive cost factor involved into designing the town this way rather than going for a bog-standard grid layout. Still, it saddens me that Lorraine stands out as such a stark exception. Every other town around it is designed "traditionally".
That said, the Fontainebleau neighborhood in Blainville, just to the west along the A640 freeway, appears to be a sort of "Lorraine lite", where the layout features more standard streets than culs-de-sacs, but there are still a handful of walk/cycle shortcuts here and there that can be helpful.
That's really cool what you have created, appreciate the effort. Have to figure out how to do that for my own suburb out of interest.
Excellent GIS analysis!!!
This is what I've been saying with my anecdotal evidence for the past 10-15 years. I've lived in 5 different suburbs in California, and every place I've lived was within 1-2 miles of a mini mall with a grocery store.
There's obviously many suburbs where this isn't the case, but some people act as if all suburbs are this place where you have to drive 30 minutes to reach a grocery store. As this video shows, that just isn't the case. We don't need to flatten the suburbs and rebuild them from scratch.
I think the largest problem is cultural. People see the car as their all-in-1 transit option. They want to drive. We live about 1,500 feet from our kids' school. People living in the same neighborhood choose to drive their kids and wait in a giant line of cars instead of just walking for 5-10 minutes.
People drive their kids to a school about 1500 feet away? Is there anything that makes that decision seem rational? I.e. car-centered intersections, lack of sidewalks, or terrible weather? Cause that seems particularly extreme into me, even in the US.
@@DizzyDiddy There's sidewalks the whole way. You do have to cross a 4 lane stroad but it's nothing excessive and they have a crossing guard. Weather is fine year round - I live in Southern California.
@@bobbycrosby9765 do you think more would walk if they didn't have to cross the stroad? Would a nice pedestrian bridge help?
@@DizzyDiddy I haven't broached the subject with them. I get the impression that they drive them because they're always "late".
@@bobbycrosby9765 if car lines are anything like car lines at schools here, it seems like walking would be quicker on average. 🤷♂️
I wonder if there are some simple solutions that would get more of them walking instead. Would be safer for everyone and save everyone time in aggregate.
off topic but I love how much green space is present in Canadian suburbs
Interesting! Compared to where?
the US lol; at least from what ive seen shown in your videos. a lot of suburbs in the US lack tree shade and tend to be made up off too much asphalt @@OhTheUrbanity
Surprised my neck of the woods (Oakland County, MI) was mentioned in the vid. In theory a lot of routes by bike would work, but the lack of bike infrastructure and direct bike routes among the massive arterial roads here essentially make it a non-starter if you don't live in Royal Oak/Ferndale. But even then, if you do, it's painted, unprotected lanes at best, and sharrows or nothing at worst.
What gets me frustrated is when cities rework the plumbing under the roads, digging it up over and over again for over a year and not put in a dedicated bike lane. There is just no excuse!
Missississississississississauga! cycling here is "ok", but there isnt protected cycle tracks. a bunch of painted lines with cars parking over them lol
Awesome video! I have been following Dr. Tristan Cleveland for a while now. Great rundown :)
Can I nerd out for a second that my local news made a cameo at 4:27?
In your video you cited the presence of pharmacies and grocery stores as SEPARATE businesses. One thing to note about most grocery stores is the US, most have everything, pharmacy (that offer most routine vaccines), coffee shop, florist, office supplies, and hot takeaway meals. Walmarts, Costcos, Targets, and other big box stores are essentially shopping malls/main streets with one set of cash registers. Many even offer prescription eye glasses and health clinics.
STRAIGHT OUTTA SURREY!! Cool to see my town here.
It's been encouraging to see more cycle lanes being put in over the last few years. I talked with one of the city staff at an event several months ago, and they had a pretty decent map of where they want to put in segregated bike lanes. It still had some patchy coverage but it would be a huge boon for safer biking in Surrey.
While I lived in Holland (15 years, grew up in Vancouver) people thought I was crazy if I rode farther than 3 km to do anything (other than a commute). They thought it weird if I rode a bike between towns if there was a train that already got one there.
That was my experience growing up in the Netherlands too. Even if I did it faster by bike than they did by car.
Ja, waarom pak je niet de trein? I drove to school on my bike all these teenage years, 5 kilometer heen, 5 km terug. Weer of geen weer.
10:23 Thank you for discussing the 132 Ave Bike Lane project in Edmonton 👍
Appreciate the Edmonton shoutout! I feel like we’re heading in a positive direction!
This is all super solid analysis, and I’m really impressed by how much hard work you put into this!
And just as a side thing, as a Dallas resident, while I can confirm that many common destinations (like schools or cafes or pharmacies) are ostensibly bikeable in Dallas if solely using distance as metric, the reality-as you surmised-doesn’t always align with that hope.
And in addition to Dallas’s road infrastructure being a huge impediment (as you had surmised), another daunting factor in this area happens to be the elevation changes. Or to put it another way: many would-be biking destinations from my house would require a lot of biking up hills that, while maybe not impossible to manage on a bike, would likely be quite an impediment to an average biker (including me).
So if I might toss out an idea if perhaps you were to sometime do a “version 2” of this analysis-might it be possible to potentially also incorporate each area’s overall elevation changes into its bikeability scores? If so, I think that that could paint much more of a picture of the bikability state of each area?
As someone from Orange County, FL, I can confirm that biking is a pain - though I do it anyway!
It would be awesome to see one suburb in North America transforming with a more walkable and bike-friendly project just to show others it can be done.
Edmonton, Canada, is spending 100 million dollars doing just that: ua-cam.com/video/KBvBw8kk7bw/v-deo.html
This is a great video! I’m from the southern / more ‘dense’ half of Nassau County on Long Island and have always had similar thoughts! At first glance you would think since it’s the suburbs it would be impossible to bike, but it’s relatively dense for suburban standards and everything you mentioned is in biking distance. The only thing that ruins the experience are the suburban arterials, which have basically no bike infrastructure near me.
I also live close to the Bethpage Bikeway, which is a great multi-use path that runs north to south throughout the eastern half of the county. Branching bike lanes off of this path would be great, but I don’t think something like this would happen anytime soon.
I grew up in a car-dependent suburb in Southern California, and I know that a lot of kids who grew up in my suburb used to bike all over town before the scare in the late 80s-early 90s about kids getting abducted. So yeah, if we build the infrastructure, I say there is the potential.
As a suburban cyclist, I feel that this video does a great job of explaining the huge potential and existing barriers...mainly navigating the arterials and navigating the intersections. A lack of bicycle racks at destinations is also a discouraging factor. At least in the cities you have a variety a signs along the sidewalk you can lock to. But when you ride to a big box store or a super market in the suburbs, the sidewalk and street signs are way too far away from the door and there's often not something good to lock to near the entrance. I'd really like to see bicycle racks near the entrance under a roof, when possible.
My only big issue is the arterials. As long as I take the lane it's not too bad but it definitely causes traffic in my lane. Left turns also suck. Upstate South Carolina in the US southeast.
I find myself riding more on roads than on recreational paths due to there being fewer obstacles (groups three abreast, dogs, etc)
That's really great that some suburbs have the potential for excellent bicycle infrastructure! If cities/towns could get kids and teens riding their bikes to school, it would help a lot with car traffic reduction during rush hours. Plus more bike rides to grocery stores. Some cities might have to plan for grocery stores to spread out more, so people can easily walk or cycle to the grocery stores. People can still drive their car to stock up their pantry, but can use their bicycle/cargo bike to get some extra groceries and fresh produce too. If you're single or living with a partner, you don't need a big car to get groceries. In the Netherlands we're starting to see more (electric) microcars. Excellent for smaller trips, but they have a reduced speed, so they can't be on those stroads. If cities would plan for more speed reduced roads (25 m/ph) and scenic routes/shortcuts, that would get more cars off the roads. And of course transit to meaningful destinations. So much potential... if only the municipalities would listen!!
I saw some webinars during Covid. It seemed cities were serious back then to build a bicycle network because more people were cycling during lockdown. Whatever happened to all of that? People got back in their cars and now there's only a few bikelanes? Some of those painted bike lanes seem very dangerous, not built with sustainable safety of Vision Zero in mind. Other cities do have better infrastructure for cycling now, even copied the Dutch style roads.. I just hope cities don't back down and have the vision to move this forward. You have to spend a little money to earn money. Financially it makes much more sense to get people to walk and cycle.
Schools are a huge cause of traffic jams. I was talking to a local urban planner who absolutely did not want to do a road diet on the school road, even though there were a lot of crashes. The reason was that a road diet would make the monster jams even worse.
@@FullLengthInterstates That's the problem with some of these planners. Instead of actually planning for the traffic you want, they plan for the traffic they have right now :(.
thanks for this great video and featuring my town Mississauga! I absolutely agree it has to do with infrastructure. Mississauga is indeed doing a better job at infrastructure but I still feel safe biking downtown as the big arterials in Mississauga people are driving at highway speeds (sometimes 80km/h!) so even the good paved bike paths with a few meter distance from the arterial still is very unpleasant and the intersections do not feel safe at all. Especially the intersections where bike and highway entrances intersect.
Love the brief callout to Orange County, FL. I live in the Orlando metro area and can attest that it's pretty bad aside from a few paved trails scattered around the metro area
Great analysis and production quality! out of curiosity, how did you calculate % population? was it estimated using building footprint polygons?
Thank you! I calculated how much the amenity coverage polygons (supermarkets, schools, etc.) overlapped with census block groups in the U.S. and dissemination areas in Canada (which have an average population of about 1,500 and 750, respectively). Technically this assumes that the population is evenly distributed within each CBG/DA, which isn't true, but I don't think that had much of an effect on the results. I also tried a few with larger, less precise census geographies (census tracts) and the results were very similar.
Really interesting video! I like your approach of getting a lot of data to make your analysis. Glad to see my city of Laval being featured. On the subject of gyms: Anybody who takes their car to the gym isn't serious. I see that everyday at my local gym and it I can't wrap my head around it. Probably has a lot to do with the nearly non-existent bike infrastructure, if we're being honest.
Every time I hear "drives a car to the gym" I have in my mind the famous picture of the gym with the escalators in front, where 4 people stand on while the stairs are unused.
Irvine does have insanely high speed limits (sometimes 100 km/h on arterials!) and zero on-street protected bike lanes, but it has 113 miles of multi-use paths and density and layout resembling Canadian suburbs like Markham.
I love "when a car is how you get everywhere, it can be easy to think advocates are proposing a bike for every trip too"; that's such a true summation of many people's knee-jerk reactions.
Like, my dad used to drive a car to the nearest train station when we lived in the middle of nowhere so he could commute to the city. He'd also use the car for some grocery shops. The rest of the time he biked. After my parents divorced and he moved to the city he just walked to the train for his commute and walked for groceries and restaurants. He still kept the car for longer journeys that weren't connected by train.
It's a lot like vegetarianism tbh. It's not all or nothing, and everyone treats it like it is.
Reducing someone's/everyone's need for car trips by 90% is still 90% less congestion on the roads, even if you still need it sometimes. The main thing is to ensure the public transport and bike options aren't de-facto more expensive than car ownership. Insurance is a fixed-cost, but fuel doesn't need to be subsidised so heavily in some countries.
The Netherlands have one car on two persons. That makes nearly 9 million.
I've been making this argument for years. My analysis was a bit simpler: I just looked at how the city I was living in at the time was 4mi wide by 3mi long. A quarter million people and thousands of businesses accessible by bike in 45 minutes max. As it is, it takes 35 minutes to cross the whole town by car because of traffic and intersections. Think how much richer, healthier, safer, and happier everyone would be if they ditched cars and turned all those trips into bike trips.
Hey, that was amazing data, well presented and a great argument made. Thank you so much!
May I ask: Which programme did you use to make these maps?
Thank you! It was Google Earth Studio.
This map and score process is awesome. I would like to see the same for my city.
I want to thank you ever so much for creating this video is definitely going to be repeated watch for me in the future I currently live in the county of Queens in the state of New York and to my East is the county of Nassau in the state of New York and I find it really really awesome to know that 8 out of 10 it is bike friendly
Man, that grocery map just reminded me of how much of a food desert the suburbs are.
7:42 fellow R fan :)
Westerville ohio is probably a good example to visit for a bikeable suburban area. I remember when I lived there, we biked almost everywhere, sometimes even into columbus since we built up our biking legs and would visit german village.
I just got to Oshawa and damn yeah if we had some safe bike lanes, I definitely could go to most of the destinations I want to go to easily
I do it (my SO lives 15 minutes by bike from an Amtrak station) -- I get yelled at a LOT.
Very well done. Great perspective. I don't think the distinction of safety over distance has been made this well.
I live on the east side of Orange County, Florida, and I found I could do 40% of my trips by bike. That is essentially all the trips in my local neighborhood (grocery store, pharmacy, coffee shop, etc.). Anytime I have to go beyond that, it's in the car. I commute 19 miles each way to my office once a week, too. ALL of this is done on safe roads, sidewalks or bike lanes. Orlando is not as bad as its cycling reputation! (But more bike infrastructure here would make this much better!)
As grocery shopping is typically a weekly rather than daily activity, & often needs more carrying capacity than a typical bike can carry for more than one family, I think putting it into its own “category” would be appropriate. By doing so, people are less likely to get hung up by that ONE activity & not look at the multitude of MANY weekly activities/errands they can do without a car. Similar to how people get range anxiety thinking about what it’ll be like if they want to take the biannual trip beyond their metro area keeps them from seeing how all the other trips can be done with an electric car.
In more advanced countries, you do your shopping more than once per week (you want stuff fresh, right? Old bread is terrible!) and if you have a big family, you can use a cargo bike, right? Or just go there every 2 weeks with the car and haul the non perishable stuff and only buy the rest on a per-need basis.
I bicycle to get groceries but have to use my car for heavier items such as cat litter and sand for my icy driveway. E cargo bikes are an option because I'll probably be selling my car In a few years .
@@steemlenn8797 I buy mostly fresh produce so I have to shop every few days, often at multiple stores every week. But I’m a single adult. Most people don’t actually consume much fresh produce that won’t survive more than a few days so I’m okay with considering just a weekly trip for most households.
The issue of a cargo bike often comes up. However I’ve yet to see how households living in apartments or flats with stairs deal with them. I’m not willing to accept leaving them outside as an option & yet not everyone has access to a garage or secure bike parking, even in NL.
@@ttopero with the right attachments, a bike trailer can be mounted to an e scooter. the scooter, trailer and groceries can then be easily carried up the apartment stairs by someone with a moderate amount of strength
@@steemlenn8797Going to the grocery store is a drag so I don't want to do it any more than necessary. Plus my grocery bill would be a lot higher without the carrying capacity to take advantage of buy one, get one free deals.
Another thing that makes suburbs feel more distant is the roads that wind around. But bike paths could make a much more direct path
The west island area of Montreal has vastly improved its cycling infrastructure over time but it also has gotten more populated with more traffic as a result. So I would say its just about maintaining its cyclability .