Friday, June 28, 2013

American City Bike Usage Can Stand To Become Elevated

By Rob Sutter


I enjoy the idea of city bike usage because I think that it can help people in a number of ways. It's fair to say that people utilize this as a form of travel, especially when you get into the denser areas of the world. However, take into consideration the possibilities that it has in terms of exercise. When it comes to those who can't work out on their own time, this method of traveling can prove to be useful. What I didn't realize, until just recently, is that America may be trailing behind in terms of such usage.

An article on WNYC talked about the top twenty cities which engaged in city bike usage the most. The results were tremendous for a number of reasons, one of them being just how many places engaged in cycling. The list in question scored 150 cities in total, so you would imagine that more places would be apt to having stronger cycling communities. However, as biking authorities like Linus Bike will be able to tell you, the United States did not stand much of a chance of cracking the top 20.

As one could probably imagine, the United States needs to have a stronger cycling structure in which people take part. In fact, the only place from America that placed on the top 20 list was Montreal but even then it ranked 14 out of 20, which isn't quite as substantial. It seems like this method could be quite popular but why is it that the US has seen very little action in this regard? I think that there are a bevy of factors that plays into it.

You may want to think about the climate of the area that you live in as one of the factors. Another one is the actual cycling infrastructure, from the people who actually ride from place to place to the pathways build in order to increase activity. Perhaps more people want to become dedicated cyclists but they are afraid because they don't know how safe it'll be on the normal roads. Building such highways and pathways will be able to show that there is support for these riders.

Seeing as how Amsterdam was ranked number one on the list, wouldn't you think that it'd be ideal for those who love to engage in city bike usage? However, I still believe that other areas of the world - the United States in particular - can bolster their efforts to become more cyclist friendly. I believe that the best way to do this is through the construction of pathways made for them. Of course, these steps have to be taken slowly until the final results show themselves.




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