US Elections

Portland, Oregon, is a major advocate of the new bike culture. Its bicycle network connects all parts of the city. Low-income adults are offered commuter bicycles and a session on commuter safety as part of the Create-a-Commuter Program. In New York, miles of bike lanes have doubled since 2007 to about 500, and Manhattan and Brooklyn have created bike lanes that separate cyclists entirely from street traffic. Universities have also encouraged bicycle commuting for the past few years. Rutgers University in Newark notably built a new bike park and offers free loaner bikes as well as a bike-share program.

Even if it may be too soon to judge the efficiency of such measures, it seems that Americans are not ready to embrace the new bike culture. It is generally argued that bike facilities encroach upon already scarce parking spaces, complicate the job of delivery men, make it harder for parents to drop kids at school and are unsightly. Cyclists are accused of pedalling too fast and being a hazard for old people and mothers with baby strollers in parks. In New-York, the public's heavy scepticism was translated into personal attacks against the two major enactors of change: the Commissioner of the city's Department of Transportation, Janette Sadik-Khan, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A group of Brooklyn citizens even filed a lawsuit against the city for installing a protected bike lane along Prospect Park West. These negative attitudes are encouraged by the fact that, even though ridership is slightly growing, it is still too weak to cut down car drivers' privileges: according to the Department of Transportation, about 15 500 cyclists entered Manhattan’s central business district between Battery Park and 59th Street each day in 2009. That’s in contrast to 762 000 cars.

The entrenched car culture obviously plays a role in these limited figures. People still see the bicycle as a vehicle for the poor or the strange. Car drivers also make it hard for officials to reclaim car spaces for bicycles and the lack of appropriate facilities repels would-be cyclists. Officials are now trapped in a vicious circle: car drivers prevent them from turning their towns into bicycle-friendly areas, which limits the number of bike-users, which gives even more weight to motorists' protests.

It may not be the case everywhere, but it seems that the long-standing trend summarised by William Faulkner in 1948 is still true today: "The American really loves nothing but his automobile."

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