An addendum on bicycling in Europe and USA--is there a sociology of biking in the city?

(This is a reprint of a post from an e-list by Professor John Gilderbloom of the University of Louisville.)

Here is an effort to answer to her question on Amsterdam biking, the residents do not share the road but have separate bike and car lanes. As a person who still bikes, Amsterdam is our Nirvana (without the Kurt Cobain). It's also an integrated part of the tourism industry--folks go there to ride bikes since it is so unsafe in so many U.S. cities althought the exceptions would be Davis and Santa Barbara (I rode my bike their exlusively for 8 out of 10 years there) and in terms of big cities Portland and Chicago might be among the best places.

More interesting is that the historic part of Amsterdam is less accessible by car encouraging folks to either walk or ride bikes (some progressives are pushing historic Amsterdam to eventually be car free but that is unlikely because of the infrastructure of existing car garages and parking spaces).

In terms of dress, the Dutch use bikes not only to go to work but to go out at night to clubs or shop. Yes, you will see women in short skirts (even micro ones!) and dresses peddling along as well as men dressed dressed in a suit and tie.

More interesting is that virtually nobody wears a bike helmet in Holland (unless they are on a competititve bike team) which is a sign of safety for riders--as John Pucher see attached post below) notes in his research the odds of a serious injury on a bike is far less than riding in a car. More interesting is that 4 out of 5 folks in Amsterdam use a bike or walk to commute from home to work.

Another number of interest is that for every citizen of Amsterdam you have two bikes. The Dutch embrace biking in terms of getting to work as a more efficient and economical way--no gas needed, environmental reasons, parking closer to the office, health benefits both physical and mental (see below on John Pucher), affordable and safer.

Biking is safer in places like Amsterdam because bike safety is taught early in grade school, discussed in the media and bikes are required to have safety equipment along with bike fins to prevent mud from being splashed on others. The bikes are built for comfort and crusing not for racing. While the percentage of the Dutch elderly riding bikes falls somewhat, you still see many of them still riding bikes throughout Amsterdam as well.

Even the elite ride bikes including members of the royal family. When I take my graduate students to Holland, they must go car free by walking, biking or using the tram. The entire experience of just 10 days in Holland has radicalized many students to being pro bike.

So who doesn't bike? Many immigrants from Muslim countries do not embrace biking from their country of origin. It's also another sign of the lack of integraton and separation of many Muslims into Amsterdam (certain stores only advertise goods in Arabic language only). But the Dutch are trying to encourage more biking by Muslims by offering workshops on how to ride bikes and be safe. If you really want to embrace the "sociology of biking" I would urge folks to watch the powerpont presentation made by John Pucher of Rutgers when he visited us earlier this year.

Several weeks ago I posted a message on several listserves on the the great work of Rutgers University Professor John Pucher who has mustered up the empirical data showing the following: urban residents who walk or ride bikes because of the installation of bike lanes gain an extra hour of life for every hour of biking or on average biking culture can increase the lifespan of a person from two to four years in Holland and Germany. It's pretty amazing stuff. That would seem like headline news yet it gets very little mention here. Moroever, the state saves on health cost payouts because folks are healthier.

I think he also noted that folks who ride bike tend to be smarter and happier--I am sure a sociologists will also come out with a finding that sex lives are better as well which will result in an explosion of biking. Finally, Professor Pucher also notes that we save money on commute times, give less money to countires that REALLY hate us, and we pollute the environment less. Here is the web address of getting the powerpoint and his ideas form his Louisville talk. It's great stuff: and here is how to see it:

Professor John Pucher's webpage -- scroll down to the Recent Publications section (where you can access PDF files of about 10 or so articles) and then a bit further, to the Powerpoints posted just below that.