Bikeable Cities: Point-Counterpoint

Blogger and cyclist Will Campbell writes: "Two of the cities with which Randal said he has in-depth cycling experience — San Francisco and Portland, Ore. — are notoriously bike-oriented, and I'm certain he can build on my general statement with specifics as to why. Berkeley is another one I've long wanted to visit for the sole purpose of riding its integrated network of bike boulevards. So is Davis, renowned for its efforts to support and encourage the growth of cycling. In fact, the League of American Bicyclists has bestowed on it the highest honor of being a Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) — the only one so designated in the entire country.

What about locally? One might consider Burbank a BFC candidate, but then again in October 2006, when its NIMBY-stoked city council summarily killed established plans for a bike boulevard that would run through that town, connecting the Chandler Boulevard Bikeway to the L.A. River Bikeway, it blew it big time. Pasadena might have been in the running too, until last year, when in response to complaints about the pelotons that circle the Rose Bowl at speeds destroying everything in their path (not really), the city council briefly considered then dropped a proposal that would have made outlaws of any cyclists who ride two abreast. Alas, such actions represent all too well the disconnect existing here that's so absent in places throughout Northern California."

Randal O'Toole responds: "Will, you point to many bicycle-friendly cities. But the question here is, where do bicycles and cars happily coexist? In most of your examples, planners explicitly favored bikes at the expense of auto users.

Like San Francisco, Portland bicycle numbers are aided by land-use policies that made housing unaffordable, so families with children have moved to distant suburbs. The population left behind includes large numbers of twentysomethings who are more likely to cycle than older people and families. For all these reasons, Portland is a poor model for both auto drivers and cyclists.

Davis is indeed bicycle-friendly. But it, along with Eugene, Ore., and other university towns, has a disproportionately large population of young people. Both Davis and Eugene are also somewhat long and narrow in shape, and so can be served by one or two trunk bike paths. These features aren't found in L.A."