San Jose's New Buffered Bike Lanes Benefit Everyone

San Jose has just done something unheard of in Silicon Valley - the city converted car lanes on several blocks of 3th, 4th, 10th, and 11th streets in downtown, all busy one-way streets with 3 lanes in each direction - a total of 8 miles [1] - to extra wide bike lanes separated by painted buffers from the remaining two lanes of car traffic. What's going on?

These bike lanes are just the first examples of one of the most exciting elements of what the city's Bike Plan 2020 (adopted late-2009) calls "Primary Bikeways", which will comprise a network of enhanced cross-town bikeways (bike paths, lanes, and routes) featuring bike boulevards, green bike lanes, urban trails, and physically separated bike lanes. Similar to how our network of freeways and expressways provide convenient routes for high volumes of motor vehicles, Primary Bikeways are designed to support greater numbers of bicyclists of various skill levels. San Jose hopes to double its existing network of bikeways to 500 miles by 2020, investing over $20 million of funds to be provided mostly by federal, state, regional, and county grant programs [2].

Is it worth it? Of course bicycling would become more convenient, but how does that benefit everyone else? What about residents who might never even ride a bike?

Less Traffic Congestion, More Available Parking
A comprehensive, city-wide network of such high-quality bike lanes would reduce traffic congestion and free up vehicle parking spaces because many residents who currently drive would feel safe bicycling on city streets. Motorists and pedestrians also benefit from better bike lanes because providing a safe, comfortable space on the streets for bicycles results in fewer bicycles on the sidewalks (which are a hazard for pedestrians) and in vehicle lanes (which block vehicle traffic and inconvenience motorists).

Fewer Traffic Accidents
Converting vehicle lanes to wide buffered bike lanes also makes our streets safer for everyone, since these "road diets" have been consistently shown to reduce average vehicle speeds, and each 1 mph of speed reduction results in about 5% fewer traffic accidents [3]. Speeding is a factor in about one-third of all traffic fatalities, killing over 10,000 Americans every year (the leading cause of death for those under age 35), and costing over $40 billion dollars per year [4].

Better for Local Business, Higher Property Values
Reducing traffic volumes and speeds (and therefore, noise), also increases sales for local businesses since the streets become more pleasant and attractive places for shoppers to visit and spend time (and money). Residential property values also increase because such streets are more desirable places to live [5].

Cheaper Transit and Road Maintenance
More pedestrians and bicyclists also increases transit ridership, since residents who walk or bike often include the bus or train in their trips. This helps reduce public subsidies needed to operate transit systems. More walking, bicycling, and transit use also saves public dollars spent on fixing streets, since there's less wear and tear on street surfaces and fewer car accidents that damage public infrastructure and require police and fire services.

Lower Transportation Costs
Being able to walk, bike, or use transit for more trips would also reduce transportation costs, since many residents could spend less on gas and car insurance, and some individuals and families could own fewer vehicles or even choose to live car-free, as many younger workers, especially those living in or near downtown, are choosing to do. In fact, per capita vehicle ownership peaked nationwide back in 2007 and has been dropping ever since [6].

Improved Health
Making streets safe and comfortable for walking and bicycling also improves our health by enabling more residents to get exercise without even thinking about it - while walking or bicycling to work, shopping, or entertainment destinations. This helps reduce our alarmingly high and still increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, and the high health care costs associated with treating those diseases.

Will It Work?
But will enough residents actually choose bicycling to make it worth the investment in the required bikeway infrastructure? After all, currently only about 1% of San Jose residents normally ride a bike to work. The experience of other cities shows that constructing a great bikeway network is actually very cheap compared to other transportation investments, and it doesn't take much to get a lot more people bicycling. Back in 1990, only 1% of Portland, Oregon residents normally biked to work, but that figure has jumped to about 8% now [7], which equals about 50,000 residents. Portland has spent about $60 million on bicycle-related street improvements in that time, which the city estimates is equivalent to the cost of just a single mile of new urban highway [8].

Other large cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York have also seen substantial increases in bicycle use. San Jose is just beginning to join the ranks of these and other bicycle-friendly cities by installing innovative bikeways that are safe and comfortable for many more residents.

If San Jose's Bike Plan 2020 vision of 500 miles of cross-town bikeways is actually constructed, everyone will benefit  from safer and quieter streets, cleaner air, and lower transportation and health care costs - even those who may never ride bike at all.

References

1. New Bike Lanes Introduced to Downtown Streets, Kim Diaz, San Jose.com, August 13, 2012.
2. San Jose Bike Plan 2020, Tables, Final, Table 4, Bicycle Facilities: Past Expenditures & Future Financial Needs, City of San Jose, November 19, 2009.
3. Speed, Speed Limits and Accidents, D.J. Finch, P. Kompfner, C.R. Lockwood, and G. Maycock, Transport Research Laboratory (www.trl.co.uk), Report 58, 1994.
4. Traffic safety facts, 2008: speeding. Report no. DOT HS-811-166, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation, 2009.
5. Traffic Calming has Positive Economic Effects on Small Businesses and Property Values, East Arlington Livable Streets Coalition, July 25, 2009.
6. Highway Statistics, State Motor Vehicle Registrations, Table MV-1, Federal Highway Administration. Monthly Population Estimates for the United States: April 1, 2000 to December 1, 2010 (NA-EST2009-01), U.S. Census Bureau.
7. 'Youth Magnet' Cities Hit Midlife Crisis, Conor Dougherty, The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2009.
8. Portland Mayor Sam Adams says Portland’s spent on its bike infrastructure what it would normally spend on a single mile of highway, PolitiFact.com, 2012.