The national statistics showing a decline in bike ridership are a bit misleading. It is indeed down in rural and suburban areas — but cities tell a different story. Biking in cities has exploded recently with millions of Americans mounting bicycles for the first time in years. Is it the start of a long-term trend?
There are good reasons to hope so. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse emissions (排放) in the U.S., and cars and light trucks account for 58 percent of transportation emissions. Switching from cars to bikes cuts emissions much faster than switching to electric cars.
And motor vehicle accidents still kill more than 39,000 Americans a year — including more than 700 cyclists. Some 70 percent of people surveyed in the U.S. say they're interested in biking. Why don't they bike more? It comes down to safety. Half of the people surveyed said they were， understandably，too afraid to bike on the street.
Putting a painted biking path on a 40-mph road is not going to appeal to potential cyclists afraid of a close encounter with a car. Bike safety isn't about painting bike paths on every street. It's about creating bike networks that can take you safely from point A to point B. Good bike networks are made of things like greenways，protected bike paths with physical barriers separating riders from cars，and quiet streets.
The good news is that bike networks were expanding in the U.S. years ago. Between 1991 and 2021，there was a six-fold increase in painted，off-road paths，from 5,904 miles to 39,329 miles. And the increase in protected bike paths is even more dramatic：Their total length，nationwide，went from only 34 miles in 2006 to 425 miles in 2018. In fact，cities in the West and East are leading the pack，but the trend is nationwide.
