People typically chose their transportation mode based on what’s faster, easier cheaper, and in some cases, greener.  The $4 gasoline prices certainly put a lot more folks on bicycles.

However, through the decades, mode choice has tilted toward motor vehicles for a number of reasons, including artificially cheap parking.

But there are ways to make biking more preferred.  Imagine if cyclists didn’t get red traffic lights?

Copenhagen and Amsterdam have something called the Green Wave.  They time the traffic signals on selected, highly-trafficked routes so that cyclists get all green lights heading into the city center in the morning.  At noon the green wave reverses, giving cyclists leaving the city center all greens.

The City of Odense in Denmark has even installed bollards with a moving green light to pace the cyclists so that they get the green at intersections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEOakvjuIEs