Bikes and Micromobility in North America, 2022: Cities With Bridges that Prioritize Bike Traffic
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- Опубліковано 19 лип 2022
- I get lots of requests for bike topics, like what's the best bike city in the US, or which city in North America has the highest bike mode share, etc. You know what gets me going, though? Bridges!
Bridges are constrained transportation links that funnel traffic of all kinds across a barrier -- usually water -- and the more modes they accommodate, the better, in my opinion. The vast majority of urban bridges in North America were built only with motor vehicles in mind, but some cities have reallocated space to create more comfortable facilities for people biking, scooting, and walking. Which cities (and bridges) are doing it best? Watch and find out!
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So New York saw a pretty steep drop in public transit ridership during the pandemic, and I think the theory is that a lot of the riders moved over to biking instead. That is what initially triggered the installation of the extra bike line on the Brooklyn Bridge: Much more bike traffic and empty subways. I suppose NY just has a bigger share of non-drivers that wanted to avoid the subway but still needed to get places, so they biked.
It's almost like misfunding public transit leads to more individual transportation. I think that certain politicians think that by doing this they'll create more car users, but driving is just prohibitively expensive for what you get, to the point that it just doesn't make sense for people's wallets.
“Extra bike lane” is a stretch, it’s the same width as the old one but now is on the car deck. It’s difficult to use without inhaling exhaust and there are areas that are completely submerged during rain.
They should have taken a lane from both sides of the car deck at least.
(Just use the Manhattan bridge anyway)
nope, lots of people fled out of the city and many still work remote. I drive into manhattan for work periodically and it's not even close to 2019 crowds.
a lot of people still moving out of NYC as the number of kids in school is down 20% or more from a few years ago
@@burby_geek school populations have been dropping for a while now. Even a cities increase population. The school population has been dropping. Lower school enrollment is more to do with people having fewer kids.
Bike infrastructure seems to be one area where North American cities are actually progressing in the right direction. Every city I’ve visited recently seems to have noticeably improved and expanded their bike lanes / trail systems. While we have a long way to go, at least this one mode is showing real, tangible progress.
yeah, i think more people are just venting about the scale of the problem, and how slow the change is. it is measurable change, but it's often patchwork, and liable to rollbacks like with toronto. there was an active discouraging of bike transportation for at least a century, and an active encouraging of polluting cars. i wonder who profited from that. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
it's progress, but we need to guard ourselves from the viewpoint that rationality is inevitable.
@@ethanstump It's definitely a patchwork (at best) in most cities. But I also see tangible efforts being made in my area to connect the patchwork routes to make it more of an actual network. Let's hope it sticks.
Even tho many cities are starting to now put bike lines now to make it easier to navigate like example In Phoenix we still the issue to spraw and zoning laws in many cities which makes biking utterly useless since you need a car to get to anywhere cause everything is so spread apart like housing from commercial places.
100%. We just visited Boston and stayed around Somerville in Cambridge and we're easily able to bike around Boston. I would be 5 - 10 years ago I wouldn't have been able to comfortably do that with my girlfriend. That and Boston drivers seem to be fearful of legal repercussions around pedestrians and cyclists. I felt a lot more power as a road user on a bike or walking than I do in my own city.
Hope you are right. I hate having to visit my sister in suburban Cincinnati, with stroads, and twice daily bus service, I am dependent on her to get around. Just being able to walk across a bridge over the interstate would be an improvement.
Video suggestion - Alleys: What are they good for?
Growing up in the suburbs I didn't really understand their purpose but now that I live in a neighborhood that has them I appreciate how they limit driveway conflicts and provide a place for utilities to go (both powerlines and garbage collection). But they fill a very different role today than what they were originally built for, which is as I understand it was largely for horse and carriage access. I'd love to learn more about how different cities have and continue to use their alleyways and what they could be used for tomorrow (I've heard some propose turning them into city-wide bike networks)
Buildings need truck access and it's better for everyone involved if that access is through an alley than through the main street-facing side.
Here's a really cool video all about the history and current state of alleys: ua-cam.com/video/O12po86Gh-I/v-deo.html
Though it would be cool to see modern alley use adaptations, I have a sense that cities aren't able to change much about the alley structure they started with, so most likely the video above already captures most of the differences in design choices that still exist today. I could be wrong and I'd be happy to be corrected of course.
As someone who's lived in Chicago close to 20 years I often wonder whether alleys are really as useful as they seem to be in my own experience. Granted it's more of an analysis topic than a top 10 list or something.
@@aaron-bieber I was going to suggest the same video :)
Alleys don't have the best reputation. Think Crime Alley in DC comics.
I am a work from home person in New York who bikes across one of our four bridges about once a week. My theory as to why NYC bike ridership is up from 2019 to 2021 is 1) during covid, the subway became less desirable to ride due to public health/ general safety concerns 2) this prompted many newbies to start biking 3) food delivery by bike courier has significantly increased. Many of the newbies who started riding bikes during the pandemic are continuing to ride bikes due to NYC's fairly good bike infrastructure with good bike lanes and the excellent and expanding citibike program.
a lot less traffic on the streets too
This all rings true
We saw the same (approximately) phenomenon in most French cities where the bike use exploded during the pandemic. The politics were afraid of a raise in car traffic after the lockdown (which happened to be on may 11th 2020) and they used the fact that there were basically no car out to build a lot of experimental bike lanes (the French for bike lanes is piste cyclable an these ones were called "coronapistes"). They started encouraging people to take bikes and to reassure people about public transit even before may 11th.
Some of the coronapistes have now been removed but some of them are now definitive and the increase in traffic is still visible today.
We don't have a lot of data about the increase of bike traffic yet except on the places where there are bike counters. I think it might keep increasing with the raise of gas prices.
In regards to the increase in NYC bike traffic, I think there are a few factors.
1. I think the pandemic has caused a lot of people who still have to commute to work to ditch commuting by subway. The subway generally feels less crowded than it did pre-pandemic. The obvious alternative to subway/bus commuting in NYC is obviously biking because of how impractical cars are during most times of the day.
2. NYC has reduced a lot of its former restrictions on e-bikes which has caused an explosion of new e-bikes on the road.
3. Citibike has expanded to new neighborhoods and added pedal-assist bikes.
As a NYer, I agree with this. I also would add that subway crime fears (whether more perception that reality) could be another factor. And for me, personally, commuting by bike is simply faster and more enjoyable than the subway.
Yea, when my office re-opened I initially decided to do the 20 mile round trip bike ride out of covid concerns. While I do ride the train sometimes now (Like today, heat index over 100 :|) I've kept riding the bike as I enjoy it and it's good exercise. I will say, other than some bad headways I feel like the complaints that the trains have gone to hell are somewhat overblown. While crime is up, crime on the train is still very rare. It's mostly the same as it ever was, just easier to get a seat now.
Theres a huge disparity in bike lane availbility in brooklyn same with citi bikes. Some parts in brooklyn are hell
100% this comment. Citibike has expanded a ton into Astoria and still has yet to grow in Sunnyside and Woodside. That and the new popularity of e-bikes are huge factors.
They've also been expanding bike lanes everywhere. If you did a video on biggest improvements in bike infrastructure during the pandemic, NY would be up there.
@Zaydan Naufal I think Lyft sponsors it
NYer here. More people, like me, are (e)biking rather than taking the subway, and I see a lot more gig-economy delivery “cyclists” flying over the bridges to get from their outer borough neighborhoods to do food deliveries in Manhattan. I think this is especially true for the 59th bridge.
Very true. Traffic from non-bikes (aka unregistered mopeds) is probably bringing up the numbers.
Gig workers taking over the delivery business, and displacimg also car rides needed for Pick up, it seems
I live next to that bridge and I sure do hate how fast they come off when I'm rolling my son by in the stroller, lol.
So the bike lanes are being used by non-registered mopeds doing non-licensed commercial delivery service... capitalism finds a way to ratfuck every good thing.
@@MrTaxiRob yeah there are many inadequate and failed policies and systems at the root of those problems
With regard to NYC, Citibike has been expanding into underserved neighborhoods and building out a massive e-bike (pedal-assist) fleet which has incentivized people who normally would take public transportation or even drive to start riding bikes instead.
Yeah, anecdotally, as I reviewed and edited, several of the bikes I picked up in my footage were Citibikes -- it's a more important component of overall bike volumes than I would've thought.
@@CityNerd A lot of New Yorkers use Citibike for commuting, I personally prefer it over a regular bike for commuting and shopping - First, I don't have to lug a bike up and down 3 flights of stairs just to bike to and from work, second, if it's a nice day when I go to work and a torrential downpour when I'm going home I don't have to worry about leaving my bike somewhere. Those are my reasons for bikeshare, I suspect there are a lot of like minded people. I don't know exactly how many bikes are in the network (it's at least 12,000), but they are currently planning to expand to 40,000 bikes, and the highest single day usage was 126,360 rides. I think its safe to say it's a major component of our transportation infrastructure at this point
Living in one of those neighborhoods, I have noticed the significant uptick in Citibike usage. I'm one of the converts myself! Also agree with other commenters that in many ways it's more convenient than owning a bike (small apartments, multi-story walk ups, etc)
@@CityNerd Will there be a video on the Citibike shift?
NYC still has a lot of in person workers who are afraid to use the subway. In other cities those people got in cars, in NYC they got on a bike
Car ridership is also up in NYC. There are more cars than ever.
@@rashad123us people say it but it's not really true. people just got spoiled by the lack of pandemic traffic. I drive into manhattan periodically and it's about as fast as the NJ Transit bus
@@burby_geek you’re forgetting about traffic in Brooklyn, and Queens and people driving in from Long Island. It’s definitely gotten worse than prepandemic traffic.
Car sales increased in 2020, not sure about 21-22. Also uber got rid of the pool option, and people got things delivered at dramatically higher rates which increased the number of vehicles from Amazon, UPS, FedEx, Hello Fresh, et al.
@@josephenglish8980 yeah I'm sure car sales increased. I bought a car in Queens and drove to Arizona 🤷♀️
In Chicago, the lakefront trail Navy Pier flyover, joining directly into a newly-expanded river bridge, was finally completed in May 2021. It's really nice. This should go a long way in boosting the bike and ped numbers. And hopefully avoid countless bike-ped conflicts in tourist season.
> 6:42 < Chicago
@@295g295 What's there now is pretty different from what was shown in the video. That's how you used to have to cross the river. Now there's a completely separate bridge called the Navy Pier Flyover that was built out for pedestrians/bikes
fun fact: back in the 80s, I wrote a post apocalyptic story set in and around Portland. I predicted that by the time of the story another bridge would have been added, and I placed it more or less exactly where the Tilikum bridge is.
Is it lost?
Nice. I'd love to see a ped/bike bridge at Salmon Street, honestly
@@robotx9285 no, I've had to update the document format a couple times since I wrote it, and it's not good enough to be bothered submitting it for publication, but it's still on my computer.
Two things I thought of for New York
1. Many delivery drivers used to drive small mopeds with two stroke motors, most of those have now been replaced by ebikes.
2. The city significantly increased bike infrastructure during the pandemic, they used the decreased traffic as an excuse to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
The same change happened pretty much everywhere in Europe, too.
it’s quite an experience to not yet be out of my 20s, yet I’m already starting to get severe nostalgia for things like those moped engines!
Chicago LSD bridge was finally expanded with separated biking / running lanes. So much nicer.
Topic suggestion: anything to do with urban heat. Something like figuring out which cities have the biggest difference between the hottest and coolest parts of the city, using the kind of data that geotab uses, for instance.
It's interesting stuff for sure. Good suggestion!
For me in NYC, I converted from riding the subway to buying Citi bike annual membership due to the pandemic, and never looked back. Citi bike is much cheaper, its coverage is great, its travel time is much more predictable, and cycling infrastructure has gotten much better over the years
There's plans for the Queensboro Bridge to make a ped path out of the outer lane going eastbound, thereby making the current path a dedicated bike path. The plan has been stalled though due to lane closures from construction, apparently the outer lane must stay open to "ease traffic." Really shows who the DOT prioritizes
They just ‘conveniently’ started to replace the deck on the upper level right before peak season and delaying the bike path. Nor is the congestion pricing being worked on smh
@@Jabid21 I watch the traffic on the upper level out my window every day. Even at 3 am it's packed. All because of this dumb project.
My first reaction to this video was. "Finally a video where Denver can maybe get some credit" then I realized our only "water" is the S. Platte River which is maybe 40 feet wide. But it has a dedicated bike / pedestrian bridge across it that connects with the Cherry Creek trail!.
Man I struggled to find data for Denver -- I looked this time AND in 2018. It's a good bike city!
3 reasons for NYC's bike bounce back.
New bike lane improvements. For Queensboro Bridge, Cresent St to Astoria (A-sto-ri-a) and 61st/62nd Sts were installed during the pandemic, as well as Brooklyn Bridge. Rise in e-bikes/citi-bike was a big boost to bridge counts, and Food delivery has been shifting to bikes.
The Chicago River bridge was significantly improved recently, with the existing bridge widened to (sort of) separate pedestrians and cyclists more, as well as lengthened to go over two busy streets instead of crossing them at street level. It's unfortunate the data is so bad but I'm willing to bet this really upped the numbers. It's a nice, smooth ride through the whole area that involves no at grade crossing with vehicles :)
Love it. Great info, great sense or humor. Everything backed by data or a disclaimer about lack of proper data. One of my favorites and I look forward to a new video every week. Keep it up!
Man I love the Tilikum. Best bridge in Portland after St. Johns, I said it. But also the Steel Bridge is quite an impressive classic. There is an old video from the Worlds Fair in the early 20th when it was still young showing trains crossing alongside pedestrian traffic. It's kind of amazing to see a bridge still doing the same duties for 100 years without any drastic changes.
Did you mean Tikkum? :P
It's not the Tilikum. It's the Tilikum, Bridge of the People. The St. John's is gorgeous!
@Zaydan Naufal Honestly, I'd love a worlds fair but it would be so mundanely corporate in the 21st century I don't think it'd feel the same. I doubt we'd see the worlds largest log cabin built in Portland in 2035. We'd probably get the worlds largest Stumptown coffee cup or some crap.
SF/Oakland deserves a dishonorable mention. There is no way to cross the bay bridge on bike alone. Your options for the cross bay trip are:
1. Take BART or bus across the whole way
2. Take the bus to/from Treasure Island and then get on the bike path on the new side of the bridge
3. My personal favorite go across both the San Rafael Richmond Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge (a 2.5 to 3 hour ride).
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
As a Bay Area resident, agree 100%. SF/Oakland should not have been mentioned in this video. You forgot one other option: Head south to the Dumbarton Bridge, probably closer to a 5-hour ride for slowpokes like me. On the plus side, if you ride the Dumbarton Bridge, you won't need to dodge tourists on rented bikes liek on the GG as you'll be the ONLY rider on the bridge.
I was just looking for a video like this, there isn't enough of this kind of content out there.
DC and Virginia are actually building a dedicated bike bridge across the Potomac River as part of the Long Bridge Project
I'm really happy with how quickly this channel appears to be growing
Enjoyed this video! Keep up good work.
Always love it when you get a bit technical. Nerd out, baby!
Great content as always
The view from the Williamsburg Bridge is phenomenal. On the train, the L is almost always more convenient for most trips even when the M is a one-seat ride, but the view from the tunnel just isn't the same.
Your pronunciation of Astoria gets an E for effort 😂
Wonderful video as always!
As a bike user for pretty much everything in paris.
I can tell you, that the view, by night, on the seine bridges, NEVER gets old.
It's always fascinating. It's been going like this for 20 years, for me.
Thanks for the content!
I personally believe that all car bridges in cities should have a bike bridge directly next to them so commuters stuck in car traffic have to witness bikes whizzing by, which will hopefully convince drivers to bike more.
Watching this as Arsenal is top of the league COYG!
PS… Great videos! I just discovered your channel and am now perusing your back catalog. Lots of gems!
When I was up in NY earlier this year I was blown away by how many delivery guys on e-bikes I saw (and spotted a bunch in your footage). That’s not really widespread in DC yet and I can’t stop thinking about how that is obviously much better than all the DoorDash etc drivers I see double parked everywhere to pick up or drop off an order. I’ve been especially thinking about it this week as DC is starting to share some of their plans for bus-only lanes and keeping a TON of parking spaces, often specifically for pickup/drop off spots. Seems like one of those things that’s a good idea for the way things are at this exact moment but is hopefully not where we’ll be in a few years, and maybe baking in more delivery being done with cars than we’d have otherwise.
It's insane in NY. Noticed it last year, and it was even more pronounced this year. Those people are on a mission, too -- step off the curb at your own risk!
@@CityNerd New York is basically the only place delivery apps can make money because almost a meals are delivered by bike instead of a car.
Good point about the delivery bikes. I'm sure that has contributed to the jump in the bike numbers since the pandemic. More people working from home and ordering delivery.
@@SpencerHeckwolf see a lot in Toronto too. Seems to be all Indian immigrants doing it.
Was watching for the bridge in Minneapolis. Glad it got an honorable mention.
Waiting for the cross-over episode with Shifter
The Mass ave bridge in Boston probably has a higher bike count now because in 2019 there were just painted bike lanes but recently they have installed fully protected bike lanes as part of a larger planned transformation of the bridge
Nice -- I'm hoping there continue to be reasons to update this list!
Queens denizen here. A four-bridge bike tour of those East River crossings is a favorite weekend activity of mine. Never get enough of those views!
Glad to hear! Biking over the bridges is really one of my favorites when I visit.
Love your channel.
My father once complained that the government would take "one lane from us to give it to cyclists", he argued that whenever he drove through it, barely anyone was using it.
I thought later, how many streets I had seen with barely any traffic, some of them very wide. Nobody ever thinks of those redundant streets and the money that was spent building it and maintaining it, for barely any use at all. But they improve access to some area or building for someone, and so do bike lanes
Not to mention empty sidewalks that are much more expensive to build than bike lanes.
For every trip I take to the grocery store by bike, that's one less car in the way of all the other cars. If enough of us rode around on bikes, he could drive his automobile without having to follow any other cars.
There are an incredible number of overbuilt streets where I am now in Las Vegas. What you said is particularly true of the US sun belt.
The picture you show when talking about San Francisco-Oakland is the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects SF to Marin County. The Bay Bridge only has bike facilities on the eastern portion, which connects Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, so you can't actually bike between SF and Oakland. Thanks for the videos. I actually look forward to seeing what you've come up with each Wednesday. (Incidentally, I hope YT is paying you something. They show plenty of ads during your videos.)
I think a full span Bay Bridge bike lane would be an interesting case study on this as it is much longer than all the other bridges on this. All the top NYC bridges are 1-2 miles over a heavily transited path. Full Bay bridge would be 7 miles from SF to Emeryville which seems like it would seriously limit the watershed of potential riders. Though don't get me wrong I'd love to bike RSR, Golden Gate, and Bay bridge in one loop!
@@ryanmccormick4686 I think the full span (i.e. western + eastern) would be a huge win for bikes in SF, and would probably get a ton of e-bike riders. The Golden Gate's cyclists are mostly tourists and not commuters, and has weird times when you're allowed to bike on it (it switches with the eastern and western walkways)
The clips of bike lanes in the first 45 seconds are on routes I take multiple times a week!! That’s so cooooooool
I rode over the Williamsburg bridge to high school every day, rain or shine... the wide open lanes and the magnificent view never got old. For years as a depressed teenager it was the best part of my day...
It’s nice to see cities start repurposing unneeded travel lanes into bike and pedestrians facilities.
Glad you gave a shoutout to Washington Ave bridge in Minneapolis. It's absolutely packed September-Thanksgiving and March-May, and plenty of people still use it even in January.
Video Suggestion: Top Public transit projects in development! For example Minneapolis currently has the Green line SWLRT expansion under construction, albeit delayed, and the blue line expansion route recommendation undergoing environmental studies. I know you mentioned seattle having it's LRT extended in a previous video, and Toronto is host to a whole bunch of projects. Would be cool to know what cities/areas would be worthwhile visiting and taking transit... in a few years. Could rank by miles or public transit added, percentage of miles added or monetary values for statistical ranking for a couple suggestions, but I'm sure you've probably got a better more interesting way of explaining it haha.
Top notch as always. As a cyclist I appreciate this topic. I cross the Freemont bridge in Seattle often and really dislike the setup, way to narrow for muti use but its safer than the Ballard bridge for bikes a peds. The Freemont also connects to the ship canal trail to the west heading towards Interbay/Magnolia and the Elliot bay trail. Thanks again for the great content.
Yeah, I kinda wanted to mention the trail on the south side too but didn't wanna digress too much. (I used to live in Interbay!)
It was cool to see multiple bridges I’ve used for bike commuting show up in this video: the bridge along the strand and the Mass Ave bridge.
The Mass Ave bridge has gotten a very wide protected bike lane in the past year. It’s currently just protected with large orange traffic cones, but a more permanent solution is in the works.
I was about to say - the cone separated lane seems to be getting a lot of use.
Also, i thought that the September 2019 count showed 5,000 cyclists going across the bridge. I remember being really impressed/shocked at just how many people were on bikes at the Mass Ave in Back Bay.
Now this is what I'm here for! Would love to see some of your transit-oriented videos/lists but for bike-ability and micromobility (most/least bikers, etc.) In particular - what cities connect their biking and transit infrastructure the best/worst? Individual bus stops are one thing; thinking connections to major transfer points and higher-capacity modes of transportation especially.
Recent subscriber and I've gotta say, every video of yours I watch makes me more and more grateful that I live in Portland.
Got to love a personalised email from an advertiser starting with "Hello Creator!"
Love the bike videos! Id love to see more. Possibly on largest network relative to city size. I think one thing that cities often lack is having their bike network actually be a network throughout the city. I almost prioritize it over a city passing a fancy separated bike lane in one area and accomplishing nothing else. Although both are appreciated haha
Your channel is only one year old?!? I don’t know how I lived without this kind of information before. :)
12:58 so much metal and concrete, and that airy breeze with a tang of fumes.
As a resident of Amsterdam I feel oddly slighted in this video (if I must ;-) ) great video overall! Love to see bike use growing! I lived in the SF bay before here, and was surprised to hear u say there's great bike infrastructure. I mostly remember just gutters, if that. Aside from very few new developments, everything else felt suicidal
I work on the Queensboro Bridge. (Proud to see all 4 of our East River Bridges make the list.) You're spot on with most of your conjecture. Also, the bike infrastructure going north into Astoria, though primarily used as parking for car repair shops, does make it more inviting to bikers. The big news now is that when we're done redecking the upper roadway, we will open the south outer roadway as a bike lane. First we need the capacity during construction and then we need to modify the lane and barriers for bike use. I can't wait, the tiny shared lane on the north is scary with the motorbikes.
Good timing, considering the Douthat article that dropped today.
Love the channel
I live directly next to the Queensboro Bridge and ride the bike lane a few times a week. Once the ongoing road project on the upper roadway is complete they’re going to move the pedestrian pathway over to the southern exterior lane and dedicate the current bike/pedestrian lane to bikes only. It currently gets very crowded, so once it’s bike-only I expect ridership will go up even more.
There has been a big shift to e-bikes, scooters, EUCs, etc lately and you see them all on that bridge.
Thanks for the great videos!
This was an interesting topic! Wish there were more bike count data, it's not something I've ever thought about but it seems like a super obvious thing to track.
I’m glad that you factored in the Brooklyn bridge data post dedicated bike lane installation. Curious to see if ridership continued to increase in 2022. Prior to the bike lane install, the bikes shared space with pedestrians on an elevated wooden plank walkway. It was absolutely terrible and dangerous for both parties.
Hi there! I'm loving your channel -- right up my alley, especially with your analytical approach and sense of humor 🙂 If you're still looking for video suggestions, I'd love to see a top ten list of North American cities that have found ways to offer excellent transit solutions with bus-exclusive or bus-focused systems. I know they're not as sexy as trains, but, having lived in Madison, WI, I know they can be really useful. (I remember you did a really interesting BRT video a while back, but I'm thinking of something that wouldn't be quite that narrowly focused.) Keep up the terrific work!
Boston has been experimenting with taking the Mass Ave. bridge down to 2 car lanes to expand the bike lanes and are taking data on trip volumes, hopefully it'll be released soon! Happy to see the city investing in bike infrastructure, especially at the expense of cars. Now if only they would also improve the networks that the bridge connects to instead of just improving the route for people going between Back Bay and MIT.
As far as Portland dropping in ridership I'd say a large part of it can probably be attributed to downtown generally becoming a much less desirable place to be over the last few years. There's plenty of discussion to be had as to the causes of and ways to fix downtown Portland but sadly I think it's pretty hard to deny that it is just not as pleasant a place to be as it used to be.
For some comparison, from 2021 data there were two bridges in London with higher average daily cyclist counts than Williamsburg Bridge - Blackfriars Bridge with 8045 and London Bridge with 8361. Westminster Bridge (4898) and Waterloo Bridge (5418) would also have made the top ten.
Oh thanks for that! I've biked over a couple of those myself, and I believe it!
Excellent!
Montreal has many bike counters including one on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge but you have to dig a little to find the raw data. I did extract the data for Jacques-Cartier Bridge for 2019, here are the numbers
From April 1st 2019 to October 31 2019: Average of 2,352 bikes daily
From May 1st 2019 to May 31st 2019: Average of 1,779 bikes daily
From July 1st 2019 to July 31st 2019: Average of 5,453 bikes daily
The Jacques-Cartier Bridge connects the suburbs (and not so bike friendly) of the south shore of the St Lawrence River with the Island of Montreal. There are two islands in the middle of the river on which there are popular activity sites, especially during summer (parks, a roller coaster park, beach, swimming pool, festivals, etc.). So, outside of summer (July and August), most of bike traffic is made of commuters or long-distance cyclists on the weekends.
One reason why it may not be as popular is because the Metro connects the Jean-Drapeau park with Montreal and Longueuil, and the bridge is very steep
@@gaelfortier2668 The bridge is quite steep and quite a long ride. It's a bit of a weird list though because where do you draw the line? The various bridges over the Lachine canal probably break all these numbers in the summer but they're much smaller. It would be interesting to show the old Monk bridge where they replaced a road bridge with a new bridge and just kept the whole old bridge as a cycle bridge.
@@gaelfortier2668 i dont go on jacques cartier cause it is way too high and way too scary. I traversed it on foot once and it was one of the scariest things ive experienced
Lol, April-October (well, May-September) is the "off-season" for biking in Houston.
Also, if you do go ahead with a "top 10 protected bicycle networks," be careful of Google Maps! It tends to lag a couple of years behind.
Loved this video! Could you do some more active transportation videos? Maybe something like the top ten complex (but effective) bike intersections?
Thanks!
In addition, as someone who started biking during the “quarantine” era, I felt it was a good time to learn because there were just fewer cars out on the road. And, yeah, felt weird about the subway for a long time.
Love seeing my city in your content! And appreciate you calling BS on our stupid local publications.
O baby let's go! A new CityNerd video is here!
I biked the Queensboro a lot when I lived in Astoria and that was before all the newer infrastructure. I'd love to bike that route now.
Fascinating video! Great content as always! Would you be interested in making an analysis video comparing the three proposed modes for the Inter Borough Expressway project underway which will connect brooklyn to queens? I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts on the potential benefits and drawbacks of conventional rail, light rail transit, and bus rapid transit. Thank you for the excellent video. : )
You should do a video entirely about Boston. Absolutely everything about it, all of it's quirks, and things that make it unique. I'd watch hours of content on it.
Good job on collating stats for that one. I couldn't find any in french for Pont Champlain in Montreal or the smaller ones and apparently 75000 yearly trips for Quebec Bridge in Quebec City.
Ce n'est que depuis l'ouverture du nouveau pont Champlain qu'il y a une piste cyclable de ce côté. La plupart du trafic de vélo passe par le pont Jacques-Cartier ou le pont Victoria (compteur "Estacade"). Les données sont sur le site de la Ville de Montréal, mais il faut chercher un peu.
Ballona Creek Bridge user here. Another thing that may add to its usage is that all of the other nearby crossings over the creek don't even have SIDEWALKS, let alone bike lanes. I live 2 miles inland and the Strand bike path is still the fastest way to get north of the river
Des Moines IA has some pretty great bike paths and infrastructure including a dedicated ped/bike bridge downtown. Of course usership is low because red state murica but still
I'm from New York and a big reason for the higher bike ridership is the NYC open streets program that made a lot of streets public space for all which encouraged people to ride on bikes since cars were deprioritized by the program
As a resident of Sunnyside in Queens who also bikes to work in Midtown 4x a week, I think the big jump in riders is a function of the creation of several protected bike lanes: Skillman heading west, 43rd Ave heading east, and perhaps most importantly, on Queens Boulevard itself. I’d say the ride portion in Queens is safer than the part in Manhattan.
love the data approach! Have you considered surveying your audience to generate demand data so that city planners can make more informed decisions?
Back when you were here! And yes, that bridge traffic, at my doorstep, shot way up. A lot of mopeds too. They are supposed to pull a Manhattan Bridge and put the walking on the south side but they're dragging their feet.
Love your content. Would love to see a top ten list of cities that have successfully implemented zoning reform initiatives or neighborhood scale rezoning efforts.
I'd be willing to bet that the divergence in trend lines between NYC and other places has to do with interplay between bikes, transit and autos in the context of a respiratory disease pandemic. The pandemic makes transit a less desireable mode of transportation relative to both bikes and autos, given the highly congested and restricted air flow inside of train cars and buses. In NYC there's both more people looking for an alternative to transit, and bikes relative to autos is more doable for more trips in NYC, particularly in the areas around some of these bridges mentioned, than in most other cities. In other words, if you had an auto commute prior to COVID, you weren't getting on a bike because of COVID, but if you had a subway commute, you very well might.
For the Queensboro Bridge, Citibike expanded a lot into the LIC and Astoria neighborhoods during the pandemic and is now expanding into Sunnyside and Woodside. And both sides of the bridge already had decent bike infrastructure that's been making slight improvements here and there such as upgrading lanes to be protected, etc. The Crescent street two way protected both lanes are a big help connecting Astoria directly to the bridge as well.
The city is planning to convert the eastbound outer car lane into either a two way bike lane and making the current lane just pedestrian oriented or vice versa. The current setup is okay, but a bit tight for pedestrians and cyclists going in both directions, especially at ebike speeds. So separating the two and making one side only walking/running and the other just cycling is probably the best and safest idea for all.
I also wanna shout-out the new bike and pedestrian lanes on the new Koscuiuszko Bridge. It's quite nice with some lovely views. Not too steep like other bridges, very wide. They did a good job.
I think a video on the top 10 urban Aerial tramways in the Americas, or the World, would be cool. Your footage of the Roosevelt Island Manhattan tramway made me think of this. That one is quiet cool because of the views of the city it offers and since you can ride it using just your subway card for the same cost of a normal subway trip. I know Portland also has a Aerial tramway as well. I'm not sure of any others in the US though which are used to transit rather than just tourism.
The New York bridge count makes sense, like many folks have said, MTAs ridership still hasn’t reached (I believe) 65% of pre-pandemic levels, many folks who are going into the city are choosing other methods. It also makes sense because the Williamsburg bridge seems like the flattest of all of the bridges and East Manhattan has notoriously bad train connections
the new lane on brooklyn bridge is *shockingly* flat, if you haven't tried it yet
What a great topic idea. As a cyclist in Chicago, it is truly frustrating how terrible the options are for crossing the north/south branch of the chicago river. I would imagine that the outer drive bridge is higher up on the list if the data were clean. That bridge is constantly packed
The busiest bike counters in Berlin, Germany, register around 9000 cyclists per day (7am-7pm weekdays, annual average) but the Dutch 30,000+ are next level :)
COYG! Now your sub count is up to 3 full emirates stadiums. Luckily the squad is much better now than when you made this video
Check out the Atwater (bike only) bridge or Des Seigneurs bridge in Montreal across the Lachine canal!
I used to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge every weekend. Never got bored when that view. I’d say when the Bay Bridge gets its bike lanes on the Western span you’ll see more bike counts, if they keep data on it. The bridge is 4 miles long though, with a lot of stroady sprawl on the eastern end between the bridge and any urban streets. EBikes might play an important role there
I think that geography really does a disservice to the actual count - Montréal has made huge strides but essentially has no bridges, as the city is entirely on the island - it's a long ride to the burbs over one of the longest bridges in the region, very few do it. Also, total counts or per capita? I bet Portland beats NYC, but it would be a much more interesting list in any case. Thanks for the video, nerdz !
I found the Montreal data.
Avg. 2,352 bikes daily from April to November and a peak in July of an avg of 5,453 bikes daily. (2019 data)
@@anne12876 Makes a lot sense, July is peak festival season on Île Sainte-Hélène.
Yes! Love seeing some bike content. Really hope to see the top 10 protected bike lane networks video you teased!
Also, Manhattan bridge connection to Brooklyn is great except for one thing: when coming from Brooklyn heights the official signage takes you down cobblestone streets. Not ideal for bikes at all. NYC should do better.
Can you do a video on the transit projects (planned or under construction or even recently completed) with the most transformative potentials to their metro areas? Based on future ridership potential, new access to transit, car trips reduced, etc
It was probably too late to add to your calculations, but the Chestnut St. bridge in Philly was recently reopened after a three year reconstruction. It has a dedicated bike lane, and furthermore, one traffic lane was eliminated in the University City section of Chestnut St. (west of the bridge) to create a dedicated bike lane.
I totally used the Ballona trail from Mar vista to Manhattan Beach once or twice a week on my bike.
Unrelated topic suggestion: best (and worst) transit connections to universities. I have to assume students ride transit more than any other demographic but this feels underappreciated by many cities.
I wonder if you count different campuses or just university campuses. Arizona State University is split up into 4 major campuses across the Phoenix valley with facilities elsewhere, though only the downtown Phoenix and Tempe campuses are connected by the light rail, while the west and Polytechnic campuses only have bus connections (you can transfer from the light rail to a university shuttle when going to Polytechnic, but not west campus). I wonder if the different University of California areas are separate universities or just all a part of 1 university (I bet the former).
@@grahamturner2640 that's an interesting wrinkle! In my experience most universities have one main campus but that's definitely not the case for all. Some don't even really have a proper campus - just a bunch of buildings spread throughout a city. It probably doesn't matter too much for this question though because universities that are spread out presumably don't have that much transit demand at any one location. If there's two or maybe 3 locations that all have a lot of demand, you could probably do an average.
Hey look Fremont Bridge in Seattle! I commuted over that bridge for like a year on a bike. I recommend looking down with contempt through the grates at all the tech bro yachts beneath you.
i knew williamsburg bridge was #1, back when i was younger taking the J train i would always see bikes zooming across the pink dedicated way
Chicago resident here. Our mayor recently said we are a "car-city". :/ So I don't expect the city to collect bike data other than taking it from strava.
"The practical reality is we are a car city"...Lori Lightfoot might be one of the worst mayors in the US. She has to go...
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Rather than it being her fault entirely, the system by which she came to power is fucked up. Unless serious voter education ensues, voters will fall for another car centric politician that will stall progress for decades.
That's really too bad because Chicago could be a great bike city. It's flat on a grid. The bones are all there.
@@ethanstump damn we are having the same issues with London Breed, been backpedaling on all the safe, car free or slow street initiatives.
It kills me. My tax money is going to petroleum giveaways. I'd pay money to take my vote back.
Brooklynite here! I've noticed a massive increase of bike mode share in my part of North Brooklyn. While some people believe it is due to depressed transit ridership, I've also noticed that even as ridership has begun to recover since 2021, bike usage does not seem to be decreasing. I'm think a lot of the increase might be in local trips, or maybe some trips originally made by car, especially as a lot of improvements to cycle infrastructure in neighborhoods like Williamsburgh make biking a much more viable option for both of those types of trips.