The bike access provided on Caltrain between San Francisco and San Jose exceeds that in any other major American city. The car being boarded takes 40 bikes; each train has two bike cars.Green: Living
Two things about my colleague Christine Haughney’s article on the reluctance of New York-area women to become bicycle commuters were striking. One was the main reason cited: fear. (Excessive sweating followed.) The second was an accompanying graphic with data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey indicating which cities have the most bike commuters and from an Australian study looking at gender differences in bike commuting.
Scanning the leader list of this country’s bike commuting meccas — Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and San Francisco — made me wonder if there was a corollary between the percentage of commuters who pedal to work and the degree to which the mass transit and commuter rail systems in those cities welcome bicycles. Ideally, bike commuting should not be restricted to those living relatively close to the workplace, but should include those who need an assist from mass transit.
The women’s fear of bike commuting has to do with competing for road space with larger and more aggressive vehicles. As a former biker in New York City, I understand; before the new bicycle-lane blitz, city streets were unwelcoming. The Bay Area’s roads are a tonic by comparison, even if 101 cyclists in San Francisco were “doored” by car occupants over the last two years.
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