Hub and Spokes

Hub and Spokes:Imageability of the Daily Bicycle Commute in New York City

Matthew IdesSeptember 2008

1 Comments from study participants:

“The worst part about biking is feeling like you're going to die (cars). I try to stay out of Manhattan, and a lot of other people I know do the same.”“I commute to work and school on a daily basis and I love it. Riding a bicycle in NewYork is risky but well worth it.... the city I know as New York is completely different fromthe one a train or car commuter knows...”“There have been remarkable improvements in NYC biking that brings a snowball effect to improving bike culture and awareness more and more, and the environmental and health benefits are of course wonderful; however, bottom line is that 24 people werekilled last year biking in this city and who knows how many injured.”“There would be 50 bicyclists commuting at my job if they had a place to lock up. I cantell people are jealous of me for commuting by bike. If there were shower facilities for bike commuters, there'd be at least 100.”“I gave the city a "C" because I've lived in Germany, where biking is much, much more pleasant. The most difficult thing to deal with while riding are the drivers who think they're going to somehow get places radically faster if they just can pass this one bike...then I pass them as they wait at the next red light! But they often take risks in passing methat frankly endanger me a lot more than themselves.”“I feel there is a major gap between cars, pedestrians, and bicycle riders; there is norespect in either direction. I see a possibility for much improvement.”“Flatbush Avenue, in particular, as a key artery to get to south and east Brooklyn, iscompletely absurd yet I take it almost every time I need to get into or out of Manhattanbecause there is no alternative.”“There really should be bigger campaigns to educate drivers and not just cyclists. Especially to look before opening the car door as I have been doored 5 times and theyall seem to think it's my fault after almost killing me…”

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Introduction

In a city that is dominated by automobiles (1.6 million people enter Manhattan by car daily andof those 1.2 million of them drive alone), I wanted to find out how its residents who use other modes of transportation actually view the built environment. Although all forms of transitmodes can be studied, I find this small minority (0.5%) who commute by bicycles the mostmarginalized by the existing infrastructure of New York City. The sole purpose of this study isto record the subjective perspective (mental mapping) that New York City bicycle commutershave of the build environment, good or bad.While New York City has a vibrant and active bicycle commuter culture, there still exists astigma attached to people who commute by bicycle. While a cultural shift is important tomaking bike commuting more acceptable in New York City and nationally, to achieve an equaland multi-modal approach to our street space New York City must prioritize the creation of acomprehensive bicycling network that supplements pedestrian, open/green space, and publictransit improvements.

Background

In the last twenty years an explosion of scholarship and reporting has been done focusing on bicycling infrastructure. In this regard, my focus was on The New York City Bicycle SurveyMay 2007. This report was thorough and covered all cyclists; it was not specifically focused oncommuters. It has been the base for many of the recommendations and overall cyclist statisticsused in New York City. One point of interest is that while the Department of City Planningconducted the report, the Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over bicycle planning in New York City and is the author of the city’s bike master plan.Recently, graduate students Wallace Murray and Jason Nu for the transportation department of city planning did the New York City Bicycle Parking Survey. While this report did notexclusively focus on commuters, it managed to tackle one of the largest problems that keep people from commuting which was safe and secure bike parking.In this report I will refer to both these surveys since many of my results confirm and conflictwith their findings. This is not to say that either study is flawed or not valid, but perhaps is anindication of the diverse viewpoints with in the bicycle community and over reliance onquantitative data.

Methodology

This study was conducted in two parts. The first part consisted of an online survey. The surveywent live on March 7 and was taken down August 1, 2008.

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It was hosted at questionpro.com,which provides free services to graduate students. Through August 1 it has received 854 views,505 starts, and 396 completed surveys. The survey was advertised on many forums,

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The data period used for this report is March 7– August 1, 2008.