NYC Cycling report has some good stuff!

I just saw in this blog post that a Rutgers University team has released a report entitled Cycling in "New York: Innovative Policies at the Urban Frontier". I just read over most of it and there's some very good stuff in there.

Here is a summary of what I found most interesting:
- The percentage of female cyclists on any certain bike route seems to be proportional to the degree of separation from big vehicle traffic. (pp 6-9) (Also check out this article)

- Page 28 mentions traffic calming as a cycling facility that is absent in most U.S. cities. Traffic Calming is certainly a pedestrian and family friendly facility as well. In residential neighborhoods, traffic calming slows traffic to a human speed (20 mph or preferably even less), increasing safety, reducing car-bike speed conflicts and encouraging walking and biking for short routes.

- Page 13 notes that one big contributor to increased bike safety is the "safety in numbers" effect. I personally believe that most if not all safety benefits of bike lanes are a result of the increased number of bikers they do seem to encourage. I think it is extremely important to remember that many of the safety benefits of bike lanes come from the non-bike lane aspects. This includes narrower (and thus slower) big vehicle lanes. Many of these benefits could be had otherwise, for better or worse.

- Further in, the report goes into detail about bike parking. Obviously, if one does not have a safe and secure place to park a car or bike both at home and at every or most possible destinations, that person will be unlikely to use a car or bike or at least to drive to that destination. So bike parking is critical. However my own take is that maps showing the locations of bike parking are somewhat useless unless they aim to point out the more advanced facilities, such as those with maintenence stations, rooves, showers or etc. How often do people utilize a map of car parking locations? I think a better strategy is to come up with a level of service rating. This might be one bike rack in front of each store front. Or maybe two bike racks per each car parking space. Then it would be easier to remember that Davis Square or Hanover St, for instance, will have a rack nearby.

Anyway those are my thoughts, I don't mean to diminish the other points made in the report, but I think the ones I just pointed out are super important when it comes to encouraging bicycling.