May was Bike Month. It was also Affordable Housing Month. Why, pray tell, should people who love bikes care about affordable housing? I’m glad you asked. And in fact, we organized two events to explore this question, a tour of affordable housing by bike and a biketevist forum, which you can watch here.

If you weren’t able to ride with us and you don’t want to watch the forum, read on for a quick synopsis of why a bike coalition that ignores the importance of housing will fail miserably.

First of all, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when destinations are spread out, people don’t ride bikes…that is unless you’re a hard core rider that doesn’t understand that us commoners just aren’t going to ride 10 miles to get somewhere. When I did a bike study trip in the Netherlands, one of the statistics that stood out is that once a trip length exceeds 5-6 miles, bike riding drops off. The Dutch know this and they build their cities accordingly so that destinations are proximate (and the bike infrastructure phenomenal.)

This fact is supported by SVBC’s own public opinion research done in partnership with the Mineta Transportation Institute. We asked people how often they ride for transportation purposes, not recreation. Then we sliced the data according to geography. Guess what it shows, clearly? That when communities are built with jobs, housing, services, parks all close together, riding a bike for transportation is way higher.

It’s really no more complicated than that. If we want people to ride bikes, we need to build communities so that people can live close to where they need to go. This is a very simple concept.

Other less obvious reasons for why this bike coalition recognizes the importance of housing is manifested on the trails. On a regular basis, you, the good supporters of SVBC, complain about homeless individuals on trails. Fortunately, most of you also lead with empathy and understand that homeless individuals are people. “They” are us. They ride bikes. They are our brothers/sisters, coworkers, and more. If we want the trails to be clear of debri from homeless encampments, clear of dogs off leash, the answer is not to cruelly demand that homeless individuals be removed from “our” trails. That’s why we support the construction of affordable housing - so that folks are able to afford a roof over their heads.

The last thing I’ll say about this is that strategically, a bike coalition can accomplish very little alone. We also recognize that when we enter into a space with only our pro-bike agenda, one that is blind to the needs of the broader community, we are viewed as self-centered, privileged and as a result, disregarded. We shoot ourselves in the pedal when we ignore and don’t support those organizing on issues that intersect with ours.

If you still aren’t convinced, that’s all right. We can disagree. But for SVBC, housing and transportation are two sides of the same coin.

Welcome to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, where high quality bike lanes are only one piece of achieving the important part of our mission: Building healthier and just communities. Welcome, and hope you had a great Affordable Housing Month.