This Monday, June 3, is World Bicycle Day, an opportunity to highlight all the good initiatives dedicated to promoting cycling, such as the installation of safe cycle lanes. Not only do they make it easier to use your bike in town, but they even tend to boost this practice in all surrounding areas.
The example of Cambridge, in the United States, is particularly significant, with a spectacular increase in the number of trips by bicycle within a radius of 800 meters around a new safe cycle path, according to the Boston Cyclists Union (BCU).
These statistics actually relate to a particular section, approximately 800 m on Garden Street. In November 2022, Cambridge made a significant change to a portion of this road, as part of its Cycling Safety Ordinance project, a program which provides for the creation of a total of around forty kilometers of separated cycle paths from here 2026.
Until now, this portion was only equipped with ground markings. From now on, these are real cycle lanes well separated from the road, in both directions of traffic. For the purposes of this new development, the street has been converted into a one-way street for cars, and no parking spaces have been removed.
According to counts carried out by the city, the arrival of this safer path has boosted bicycle use throughout the neighborhood. This is how, after just four months, the number of bicycles in the surrounding streets increased sixfold. In fact, residents of adjacent streets feel safer for short bike trips. So the whole neighborhood is cycling more and more, and not just on the cycle path alone. This bodes well for other developments to come.
By making Garden Street safer, the city is encouraging all surrounding residents to take their bikes for short trips. In fact, the BCU concludes that the mediocrity of certain infrastructures slows down the development of cycling in the city, much more, for example, than the weather conditions.
