m-bike.org

It’s not about the bike. It’s the roads

Written by

Todd Scott

in

,

WXYZ ran a tech piece on a powered bicycle wheel:

Detroit of course, is the car capitol of the world, but what if everyone started riding bicycles? That’s the vision of a group of MIT engineers.

The Copenhagen Wheel turns an ordinary bike into a smart electric hybrid. It’s a tiny motor designed to make cycling easier.

So powered wheels are what’s holding Detroit back from re-embracing the bicycle? Oh please.

A third of Copenhageners use bicycles as their primary transportation choice. It’s a flat city not unlike most of Metro Detroit. They don’t need powered wheels to make cycling easier.

What they do have is road infrastructure that encourages safe cycling — something nearly all of Metro Detroit lacks. We’ve built a metropolitan area that discourages healthy transportation choices.

WXZY should know that. They’re located on West 10 Mile in Southfield, which is a terrible road to bike on.

Powered bike wheels aren’t going to encourage anyone to ride roads designed only for powered car wheels.

We need Complete Streets and bike lanes — and that’s the real story.

Comments

One response to “It’s not about the bike. It’s the roads”

  1. Nicholas K. Avatar
    Nicholas K.

    Infrastructure is important, but what is more important in increasing the use of bicycles as a means of urban transportation is destinations. Without them, where will you bike to? A more destination-rich place is inherently more dense, which means policies that address Michigan’s land use are what really need to be addressed.

    In a short documentary on Dutch cycling, we discover that the average trip by bicycle in the Netherlands is “just over 3 kilometers” (<2 miles).
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb0QjASuuqI)

    In a place like Detroit metro, two miles is like nothing when your destinations are so far spread out. For even the Dutch or the Danes, there is a limit to how far people are willing to bike in order to reach their destination. E-bikes CAN help address some of these barriers by extending the range the average person is willing to bike, which increases the number of destinations he or she is also willing to bike to. For older adults, people with mobility or health issues, and people who may not like arriving sweaty to their destination, e-bikes are definitely a potential solution to participating in cycling altogether.

    I agree that Michigan needs complete streets and huge capital improvements to the road networks to accommodate cyclists. But unless people have places to go, they won't want to use these investments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts