On Sep 13, 2012, at 5:58 AM, Robert Zeidler wrote: > Portland is the obvious leader in terms of infrastructure, and adoption of > the cycling culture, in terms of alternative transportation. > > That said, it's economy is so-so, compared with Minneapolis or D.C. These > will have to be the places where this total integration is showcased for > people to sit up and take notice. Minneapolis more so, because D.C. will > always have the stigma of having easy gov't money thrown at it. > > A fair(er) weather Minneapolis would be ideal. When a working father of 3, > for example, decides to start commuting down to the plant or job-site, by > bike instead of the F-150, whenever weather permits, we'll be onto something.
We are already on to that in theTwin Cities, bike commuting having risen by an off-the-cuff-totally-subjective factor of about 4 in the past few years. The gas price spike of a few years ago brought gas to about $4.25 a gallon here and I immediately saw a large bump in self-transporting cyclists. When the price of gas went back down, interestingly enough the numbers of commuters on bikes didn't seem to drop that much. I see people of all varieties riding bikes around town- urban hipsters, grandparents, middle aged folks like me, etc. Most are dressed in normal clothes. The "Nice Ride" bike rental program seems to be booming- new kiosks continue to go up and I see people riding those bikes every day. Of course, that factor-of-four increase is a rise from .05% of commuting trips to .2% of commuting trips, so we have a ways to go before we are the Copenhagen of the US... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
