Study shows bicycle-friendly cities are safer for all road users even drivers
There are many reasons why safe cycling infrastructure in urban areas is a good thing. It’s good for the local economy, our environment, health, and, of course, it keeps those on the bicycles safe. Turns out, that’s not the end of it. Cities with vibrant biking scenes often boast safer streets for everyone. According to Nicholas N. Ferenchak and Wesley E. Marshall, authors of a groundbreaking study, this connection is no fluke.“Cities with high levels of bicycling tend to be some of the safest cities for all road users,” Marshall wrote.
I had never considered that correlation but it makes sense. Cyclists is one of the two groups of people I have been associated with (in connection with some sort of outdoors or recreational activity) that I always have found notably congenial and accommodating. The other group is scuba divers. With both groups it’s like they put aside all differences and shelve the contentious issues (politics and whatnot) and just get on with what it was that brought them all together.
And if that weren’t the case, I’d probably have never got so “in” to cycling, because they’re mostly a bunch of leftys. But nobody wears their politics on their sleeve at cycling events. Kinda like the way “bikers” take off their “cuts” at events like Sturgis and Speed Week Daytona. It reduces the gunplay. In the end it’s all good because more cyclists increases the economy of scale of cycling products, and the rain falls on both the conservative and the Marxist.
Plus, cyclists as a group tend to be better educated (even those who don’t have college tend to be brighter) and more affluent.
Better jobs = nicer homes = higher property taxes = better infrastructure.
So more cyclists means more accommodating folk and better roads. Plus, cagers will tend to be more considerate of cyclists if they know someone who rides. And the more cyclists in a community, the more likely a non-cyclist is to know one of them.
Of course they’re not all so nice. I rubbed elbows with that Lance Pharmstrong fella a bunch of times at the Tour DuPont (’93-’96). YUGE anal sphincter. That was before cnacer, before he had a cause to champion to give him a reason to tone down his natural assholeishness.
Which is probably why he kept George Hincappie as his lieutenant all those years, for balance. I never yet met a nicer guy than GQ Georgie.