Day 25 – 29 July 2019

This morning I finished up my final presentation before joining the group to enjoy everyone’s work and final presentations.

5 Takeaways:

1. People bike because it is easy and efficient. To encourage people to bike we must build appropriate, direct infrastructure.
   1. The bigger the street, the better the bike infrastructure must be.
   2. Biking must be the fastest way to get from point A to point B.
2. Framing is important – we are not taking away from people by adding bike infrastructure but rather are adding another mode option.
3. People in the cities we visited do not associate their identity with biking, and the current cyclist identity in Portland, for example, is exclusionary. We must extricate biking from cycling identity and reframe the bike as a tool for travel.
4. Design may reflect and refine behavior. Good design does not need extensive signage or enforcement.
5. Density is one critical component to the success of the bike networks we experienced, especially when considering the decrease in biking over 7km that Ronald explained. While growing populations in US cities will force density, we must also develop a robust and integrated transit and bike network.