Poster: COVID-19 Lessons: NYC Needs to Prioritize Bike Infrastructure for Women & Minorities

Full Poster by Alyssa Pichardo

Author: Alyssa Pichardo, CEO & co-founder of IQSpatial

Other Authors: Jose Pillich, PhD. Co-founder of IQSpatial

Abstract: Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, bicycling has become a low-cost means of socially-distanced travel for many essential workers. Yet bicycle networks and bikeshare systems are not built to serve workers in healthcare and social services. In New York City, the gap in safe bicycling access is vast for women and minority essential workers. Healthcare and social service workers in NYC are overwhelmingly women, 75% of workers, and 54% are minorities. They are often paid less than their white or male counterparts - by as much as 20% - and they live in communities where protected bike networks are disconnected or non-existent. Only 35% of health and social services workers live within a ¼-mile of protected bicycle lanes, limiting their access to safe low-cost bike commuting. With biking on the rise in New York City, we explore who has been left out and opportunities to improve access. Even with temporary measures to provide free bikeshare membership to critical workers and new active-travel only streets, there remain barriers to bike commuting for frontline health workers. Our geospatial research looks at the boom in bikeshare near NYC’s hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis and why the gender imbalance of bikeshare users continues. Our analysis explores the inequitable distribution of bike infrastructure in NYC, as bike access for communities of color is deprioritized even as the City rushes to add lane miles. The geospatial analysis highlights the need to increase bike access for critical front-line workers and their communities in the near- and long-term. 

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