Long version : This is a dumb thing to make our “Next Big Infrastructure Project” as its like asking if “rubber band-based propulsion” will be the best goal in making our “Next Big NASA Project.”
There are many reasons as to why, but basically the reasons “bike lanes” would be an inadequate, poorly received, half-assed, politically divisive project boils down primarily to U.S. existing city structure and a lack of planning of the cities around biking in the way that many other countries with embarrassingly far more robust public transportation systems have had for decades now. NotJustBikes explains it best.
A MUCH better (but far less likely to happen as it would require taxing billionaires a lot more to pay for it) plan would be 2 things specifically :
MASSIVELY increase the budget for public transportation and regulate it much more strongly. Things like requiring all public transportation providers to need to actually hire the number of people needed to do a job - like adequate numbers of janitorial and maintenance staff, make facilities safe and provide proper tools for the jobs, and not pay dog-shit wages.
Constantly available high speed bullet trains traveling between all major cities, lower-speed smaller trains running between all smaller city hub locations, and finally small local trolley / light people mover type trains to transport people between areas throughout towns.
And honestly, as much as I want them to, the rich assholes own both parties, so neither of those plans seem like they’ll ever happen, and even number 2 wouldn’t work without MASSIVE upheaval in city planning in the US wherein zoning prevents you from even being within a 5 mile radius of things like grocery stores.
Bikes often solve or supplement the last mile problem with connections to transit. Proper bike lanes would be a massive boon to the reach of new and existing public transport.
To say nothing about the large amount of zoning reform and organizing happening in every major city in the US. NY’s plan for example doesn’t just come out of nowhere.
Bike lanes are not my favorite thing to ride on. I’d far rather move over a block and ride down a quiet residential street than ride down an arterial in a bike lane.
I live in a small rural town and we converted a ln abandoned rail line into a bike path. It’s glorious because it cuts straight through town with only a few intersections.
Bike lanes can be very cheap to make, put down some of those large planters to forbid car traffic and voila :)
A city close to mine additional had a bike purchase voucher for lower income individuals to help subsidize bike purchases (which is a much bigger upfront investment compared to a bus ticket!)
Overall I think you bring some good points! Ultimately the best choice will depend heavily on the area and its context.
That’s a good point. I’ve seen bike lanes added successfully with some simple paint even.
Getting enough bike lanes to be useful is the tricky bit, but those bus mounted bike racks mad e a huge difference for me, since I could hop a bus to get through the unbikeable areas.
I would much rather have bike lanes though, and I would have more time to shop at local business is they had bike access, of course.
Bus-only traffic lanes (or bus/streetcar shared lanes) are also easy to “add” by repainting existing shared use lanes. Where I live (Portland OR) the city converted a few of our major streets to work like this, and it’s noticeably improved the bus experience during heavy traffic.
Some people just aren’t in a position to deal with riding around in 100F+ heat like we’ve had this last week, myself included. Having quick bus access (and busses with AC!) has been so great!
Even busy urban centres here in North America are struggling to add basic bike infrastructure and transit options, let alone major bicycle networks and pathways. NIMBYism and self-centred drivers often axe these projects before they even break ground. Once you get outside of dense urban cores then you barely even see things like sidewalks for pedestrians and certainly not even the most basic of bicycle gutters.
The damage that car-centric urban planning has done to North America is absolutely catastrophic and there is still enormous resistance to altering anything even on a basic level. Fixing such poor urban design is going to take a lot of work and money and even putting in basic things like accessible sidewalks is constantly being fought against.
Nothing will change as long as people keep voting for the same old policies for non-related reasons. I think a lot of conservatives and rural citizens would actually like bike paths and sidewalks everywhere, but keep voting against candidates who want these things because of non-related issues like abortion and resistance to LGBTQ rights. It’s an awful feature of the two-party, winner-take-all system.
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