The 200-Year-Old Answer To Our 2020 Crisis

“Cars are guests” reads new signage–not always officially sanctioned–posted by residents on streets closed to cars in New York, Portland, the Netherlands and elsewhere. By minimizing car traffic, they hope, our COVID-19 streets will newly encourage the health benefits of walking while social distancing, reducing crowding on public transit, and minimizing car air pollutants. 

Safe street advocates are too often viewed as the “lycra class”–cyclists zooming down streets. However, every upheaval brings bicycles further into the mainstream for both commuting and recreation. The 200-year-old bicycle continues to reemerge, seeing cities through crises both man-made and natural.

In 1973, when Western Europe and the United States faced an oil shortage, the Netherlands instituted bike-friendly streets that have become a worldwide model for sustainable transport. In 2011, when Tokyo was rocked by an afternoon 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, bicycles were bought out across the city by stranded commuters who could no longer use the metro. More recently, in 2013, when New York City subways were largely interrupted after Hurricane Sandy, cycling increased up to 30 percent, giving New Yorkers new access to their still-open offices.

Now, during COVID-19, cycling is once again key to urban resilience. It helps the two-wheelers that city residents are wary of returning to subways and buses: one survey of New York City residents found that 44.4% will avoid public transportation entirely, and 31.5% will shift to a different mode, like cars or bicycles. Car sales will inevitably rise, as they are perceived as the safest mode of travel during the pandemic. However, major cities’ physical space simply does not allow for every resident to drive. 

New Yorkers are already jumping on the bandwagon: bike sales are up 600% at Brooklyn Bicycle Company, a popular bike shop. Likewise, Citi Bike, New York’s bike-share network, is seeing near-normal ridership numbers for spring. It’s ironic, because this year, far fewer people have somewhere to go.

In the current crisis, bikes have company: mopeds, motorized skateboards, e-scooters, and even e-unicycles. These types of vehicles comprise the suite of “micromobility,” a term for lightweight, low-speed transport, and they are growing in popularity: a McKinsey study estimates that the micromobility market could reach $300 billion by 2030 in the U.S.

The regular emergence of new micromobility vehicles generates transport matching a variety of riders and needs, from the thrill-seeking commuter weaving through traffic on a OneWheel motorized skateboard to the parent toting multiple kids on an Xtracycle, the station wagon of cargo bikes.

Of course, not every city resident can or wants to ride a bike, especially people physically unable to do so, and caregivers of dependent relatives. But the benefits reach them too: protected bike lanes lead to safer sidewalks by placing a buffer between pedestrians and cars. 

Additionally, as more people choose alternative modes, crowding can be reduced on public transit. More spacing between people on subways and buses improves the safety of passengers and transit workers. And assigning micromobility users to specific, separated lanes will help speed buses traveling in their own lanes.

Still, micromobility faces a persistent sticking point: the popular – and often correct – notion that micromobility is associated with white, young, able-bodied and male riders. A February analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle found that the city’s bike commuters are 65 percent white, about 70 percent between 20 and 40 years old, and 70 percent male. Over on the East Coast, every year, three-quarters of Citi Bike trips are taken by male riders. 

The challenge now is to ensure that the resilience benefits of micromobility extend beyond a largely homogeneous group. Some cities have already begun to vary their offerings. Detroit now offers adaptive bike shares for riders with physical disabilities. Other cities have launched children’s bike shares, so they can ride alongside their parents: in Paris, it’s free, and in Fortaleza, Brazil, it comes with training wheels. Cities with protected bike lanes see more parity in bike usage. 

Across the United States, women repeatedly cite safety concerns as the main reason for largely avoiding city cycling. Their fear is justified: in New York City in 2019 alone, 29 cyclists were killed in traffic crashes.

This is especially unfortunate for a mode that has enhanced resilience during so many crises before, a mode that has, for two centuries, provided low-emission and low-decibel transport in cities. To expand access to micromobility while improving the health and social distancing of residents, cities must continue to build protected streets. And for now, at least, cars are guests.