In a January analysis, the London-based think tank Ember compared the energy makeup of China and India at similar personal income levels and uncovered a massive difference. At $11,000, India’s current level and China’s 2012 level when purchasing-power parity is accounted for, India generates only 40% as much coal power as China did. Solar makes up 9% of its energy, compared to “negligible” amounts for 2012 China. India is the world’s most populous country, with almost 1.45 billion people, and China is second, with 1.4 billion.

But solar isn’t the only reason India is on a different trajectory: Ember is one of several global energy watchers drawing attention to the role of zero-emission bikes and tuk-tuks — three-wheeled motorized rickshaws — in the country’s accelerating green shift.

India remains the world’s second-largest net oil importer, half of which is used for vehicles. But Ember suggests that use has nearly peaked, compared to China at the same economic stage. “Road transport oil demand per capita is significantly lower, thanks first to smaller, lighter vehicles and now to the rise of electric vehicles,” write Kingsmill Bond and Sumant Sinha. Altogether, India is using cheap electric technology to “industrialise without the long fossil detour taken by China and the West.” With the country eyeing zero emissions by 2070, further electrifying road vehicles through policies designed to boost ease of use and adoption will play a critical role.

India can’t follow the same net-zero pathways that Western nations have embraced by encouraging EV adoption – only 7.5% of Indians own four-wheel passenger cars. By 2030, the Indian government’s policy think tank NITI Aayog and the Colorado-headquartered Rocky Mountain Institute have projected that 80% of two- and three-wheeled vehicles sold in India could be electric, compared to 30% of private automobiles. The IEA calls electric two- and three-wheelers “the most affordable and accessible entry point into electric mobility.” Not only do they not require significant charging infrastructure, but many of these smaller EVs can easily charge using standard sockets.

Navigating roadblocks

But there are speed bumps. Public charging and battery-swap infrastructure lags in India, especially outside of major cities like Delhi. With only about 25,000 public charging stations and 2,600 battery-swapping kiosks nationwide as of last April, rapid development is needed to reach zero-emission-vehicle goals.

Last year, Cardiff University professor Peter Wells told Polytechnique Insights that India was “lagging behind its ambitions.” Sales figures tell only part of the story. For instance, though nearly 60% of new two-wheelers sold are electric, their overall share was still only 5% in 2024. (Electric three-wheelers are more prevalent, at 50%.) EV performance in India is also still new enough to leave unsettled questions that could affect widespread adoption. “Long charging times, high ownership costs, and limited range can increase the risks for business owners investing in this new technology,” Wells said.

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In an International Council on Clean Transportation report on electric two-wheelers, Zifei Yang writes that buyers “are generally highly price-sensitive and upfront cost is often the main factor in purchase decisions,” since two- and three-wheeled EVs still cost more than gasoline models. But, Yang adds, the five-year total cost of EV ownership is less in India than for their fossil-fuel-powered cousins thanks to “battery capacity-based subsidies provided by the central and some state governments” and lower sales tax on EVs.

Competition is lowering prices, and if manufacturer announcements play out, domestic production capacity will increase by 70%. If India keeps on track with its goals, these small electrified vehicles will help it leave peak oil in the rearview mirror.

Rob Csernyik is a freelance journalist specializing in business and investigative reporting, as well as long-form features.

The post India’s many e-bikes and tuk-tuks are putting peak oil in sight appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The presence of heavy industry was felt throughout Odense for decades. Its first shipyard opened in 1918. A four-lane highway – named after Danish industrialist Thomas B. Thrige – carved through the city centre, splitting it in two. 

This all started to change after the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. The crisis, coupled with international competition, led to the Maersk shipyard closing in 2012. But where other industrial towns started falling into disrepair, Odense experienced a rapid post-industrial transformation into a high-tech hub. And the secret to that metamorphosis partly involves two wheels. 

When heavy industry started to leave Odense, the city needed to reinvent itself with a new strategic vision. Elected officials wanted to draw a new type of industry: tech and robotics. They had to change the way the city thought about urban design and mobility so that car traffic flow wasn’t the top priority.

For Joost Nijhoff, the head of economic growth and tourism at the City of Odense, it was a given that Danish people cycled everywhere. But some of the tech companies he pitched Odense to asked whether the city had a subway system. With around 200,000 residents, that wasn’t something the city could deliver (although Odense does have a light-rail system now), but it did have superior cycling infrastructure. 

“It suddenly became an issue of ‘How is the bicycle infrastructure?’” he says. “Because they realized that cars are so expensive in Denmark that a family could not afford a second car. But what they can afford is an electric family cargo bike where you have two kids in front of you and maybe one at the back.” 

The Danish city, where 19% of trips are taken by bike, has long had superior cycling infrastructure compared to other parts of the world. In Paris, a city praised for its recent investments in bike infrastructure, just 11% of trips are done on bicycles. Odense has 560 kilometres of cycle lanes, as well as 65 tunnels and 125 bridges exclusively for cyclists. But it’s taken its commitment to sustainable transportation to another level. 

“We turned the hierarchy upside down,” says Peter Rahbæk Juel, the mayor of Odense. “Now we’re thinking what is the best [thing] to do . . . for having good conditions for pedestrians and people on bikes.”

It paid off being ambitious. You need some old-style courage to move your city in the right direction.

 

– Peter Rahbæk Juel, mayor of Odense

In recent years, the city redeveloped a chunk of its city centre and shut off car traffic to the Thomas B. Thrige roadway to build a new automobile-free district with bike lanes, squares, parks, retail and restaurants. Local leaders say these efforts have brought investment to the area and have helped make Odense a place where new industries can thrive, draw talent and retain it. “It’s part of what makes Odense attractive,” says Rahbæk Juel, who uses cycling as his primary means of transportation. “It’s a green city. It’s a city where you can breathe, you can live, and it’s a part of the lifestyle that you can go by bike.”

It’s hard not to feel like the city is ascending. In 2019, Meta, then Facebook, opened a data centre in Odense. American robotics company Teradyne has bought two Odense start-ups and is building a new facility to house them. In recent years, the city centre has come to life with an increase in cafés, bars and restaurants. And Odense, which was named after Odin, the Viking god of war, and was the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, has become a growing tourism destination, even making The New York Times’s 52 Places to Go list in 2023.

“It paid off being ambitious,” Rahbæk Juel says. “You need some old-style courage to move your city in the right direction.”

Could this happen in North America?

Being bike-friendly is only natural for a Danish city. During the global oil crisis of the 1970s, Denmark decided to make itself less dependent on foreign fossil-fuel producers by becoming a leading cycling nation. Any North American bike advocate would drool at the country’s cycling infrastructure. But even in car-centric North America, there’s a growing understanding among urban leaders that building out their bike infrastructure and making their cities more walkable helps attract investment and business. 

In 2013, at the opening of a new protected bike lane, Chicago’s then-mayor Rahm Emanuel declared that his city was becoming a tech hub thanks to the cycling infrastructure being built there. He drew a straight line between Chicago’s growing investments from the tech sector and its progress building more bike lanes. “You cannot be for a start-up, high-tech economy and not be pro-bike,” he said at the time. 

That sentiment has been true for National Landing, a Virginia neighbourhood just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., which Amazon chose as the location of its second headquarters, HQ2. The e-commerce giant opened its facility last summer with an indoor bike cage with 620 racks and two repair stations.

In 2017, Amazon announced it was planning to open a new corporate headquarters somewhere other than its original head offices in Seattle. The company released a request for proposals, inviting cities to pitch themselves, and in that document, Amazon asked cities to include information about bike lanes that commuting employees could use.

Local leaders in National Landing say the area’s existing cycling infrastructure, as well as commitments to invest further in active transportation, made the area particularly attractive to Amazon. (Of course, US$750 million of tax subsidies from the state of Virginia helped, too.) When Amazon chose National Landing, the area had 2.7 kilometres of protected bike lanes, which has grown to 4.5 kilometres (with more than 18 kilometres total). This may seem small when compared to Odense, but it’s not bad for a U.S. neighbourhood with only around 24,000 residents. More bike lanes are in the works, and the area also has a bike share with more than 20 stations.

Since the early 2000s, local governments have worked to transform the once car-centric place into a people-centred environment. Roughly 75% of trips taken in National Landing, which is also now home to Boeing and a Virginia Tech campus, are by modes of transportation that are not cars, such as bike, walking and public transit. 

“We knew that in order to accommodate growth and to attract both residents and employers, we would need to compete on place,” says Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, the executive director of the National Landing Business Improvement District. “One of the essential ingredients [that] workers, residents and visitors alike are seeking is highly walkable, bikeable and vibrant public realms and urban environments.” 

Michael Anderson, an urban policy analyst who wrote a report about how protected bike lanes helped urban economies boom in the United States after the great recession, says that the competition to attract economic investment nowadays is largely a competition to attract people. And for the last few decades, Anderson says, jobs have chased people rather than the other way around. “So to the extent that you can create a pleasant city to spend time in – one that’s built for human interaction, health and subjective well-being, among other things – you are also creating a place that will attract employers and investment,” he says. “Bike infrastructure isn’t the only ingredient in that recipe for a city that people want to live in, but it’s good at being one of the ingredients.”

Back in Odense, the local government is working to further cement its place as a modern green city where young people want to study, work and live. The city is striving to be carbon-neutral by 2030. For Rahbæk Juel, that means getting even more people riding bikes. “We are not there yet, but we have plans and we’re striving to be sustainable. It’s not just good for the climate,” he says. “It’s also good for the city if you can walk the talk on that narrative. I believe we are close to walking the talk in Odense . . . We have some steps on the road yet.”

Alex Robinson is the Ottawa-based deputy editor at Corporate Knights.

The post How this Danish industrial city attracted start-ups with two wheels appeared first on Corporate Knights.

As car ownership took off in the 1950s, urban planners and engineers designed streets and roads around automobile travel, allowing suburbs and sprawl to proliferate along highways. 

Many parts of Europe avoided this car-centric approach. The Netherlands, which was quite car-friendly in the 1960s, rethought its roads after more than 400 children died in car accidents in 1971 and widespread protests called on the government to “Stop de Kindermoord” – or stop the child murder. During the 1973 oil crisis, Denmark figured it was better to use transportation methods that reduced its reliance on oil-producing nations. Ever since, both countries’ cities have led the world in their cycling infrastructure.

A growing number of congested cities in North America are now trying to rethink their streets in similar ways to make them safer and more climate-friendly, but they’re having to undo decades of entrenched engineering practices and standards that favoured cars. Some blame John Forester, a Californian cycling advocate, for those engineering standards. In the 1970s, Forester fought against rules that were introduced in the town of Palo Alto, in Silicon Valley, that forced him to ride in protected bike lanes and on the sidewalk, banning him from sharing roads with cars. He became highly influential, mobilizing cyclists against separate bike lanes and publishing an engineering guide that argued that roads should be shared by drivers and cyclists.

“There’s no question that the John Forester effect on engineering standards has been huge. And those engineering standards are still in the process of being revised,” says Kay Teschke, a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia who has done groundbreaking research on helmets and bike infrastructure. 

For decades after Forester’s efforts, much of the research around bike safety focused on helmet wearing and showed that, yes, if you’re in an accident while cycling, a helmet will lower your risk of head injury. But the sole focus on helmets neglected something studies later revealed: that proper bike infrastructure prevented cyclists from getting into those accidents in the first place. And research has also shown that a lack of separated bike lanes was the largest obstacle to people feeling safe cycling. 

“It’s a bit of a vicious circle,” Teschke says. “When you don’t have infrastructure, people don’t bike; they drive. And then the demand falls off for biking infrastructure. Kids don’t bike to school any more. Parents don’t bike. The whole thing compounds.”

Across the U.S. and Canada, the landscape for urban cycling is rapidly evolving. In some cities, like Montreal, things have shifted into high gear as holistic cycling networks with separate bike lanes are being built. In Washington, D.C., like a lot of North American cities, a combination of bureaucratic inertia and political pushback have kept cyclists in harm’s way. 

Like the legislative and vehicular congestion it’s known for, the progress of D.C.’s bike infrastructure has been slow when compared to international cities. So much so that of the G7 capitals in advocacy group PeopleForBikes’s 2023 rankings of the best cities for biking, Washington, D.C., ranked dead last. It came in 261st place overall in the ranking of more than 1,700 cities thanks to its dangerously disjointed bike lanes. Last year, 33 D.C. cyclists suffered major injuries in collisions, and three died. Cycling advocates admit that bike infrastructure has progressed a lot in the city over the last two decades, but its fragmented network of lanes is leaving cyclists exposed.

“By American city standards, D.C. is doing very well. By global standards . . . we have a long way to go,” says Colin Browne, director of communications for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, an advocacy group that pushes for better cycling infrastructure. “There are a lot of places that you still can’t get to in a way that feels safe on a bike.”

D.C. has built approximately 167 kilometres of bike lanes, including just 39 kilometres of separated lanes. When the district looked to build a 2.5-kilometre separated bike lane on 9th Street, the project saw years of delays after a loud contingent of residents and business owners voiced concerns about losing parking spaces and the effects of bike lanes on their bottom lines. And cycling advocates are worried that a proposed project on Connecticut Avenue – a major thoroughfare that runs from suburban Maryland to downtown Washington, D.C. – will suffer the same delays.

“When they say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, they mean it,” says Elizabeth Kiker, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. 

To counteract these forces, cycling advocates are organizing one-on-one conversations with business owners to explain the environmental, health and economic benefits of bike lanes. Getting support from within the business community is always a big step up, Browne says. And it’s hard to argue with the research: studies show that building bike lanes improves business in retail and restaurants and that taking one trip a day by bike rather than by car can lower your individual transportation-related carbon footprint by 67%.

When they say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, they mean it.

 

– Elizabeth Kiker, executive director, Washington Area Bicyclist Association

Advocates say policies that mandate separate bike lanes can help cut some of those arguments off at the pass. “It shouldn’t really be a debate at the start of every bike project – whether we’re going to [build bike infrastructure],” says Rebecca Davies, the city ratings program director for PeopleForBikes, which has released a legislative guide for lawmakers. “It should be about how we can [build bike infrastructure] in a way that best meets all of the needs of the community.” 

Mayor Muriel Bowser has helped spearhead a lot of the new cycling infrastructure in D.C., but advocates say her office has let bike-lane opponents stall important projects, such as the 9th Street one. 

Electing strong, consistent leaders who won’t let these kinds of arguments slow down bike infrastructure can be a huge part of the battle, say advocates, who point to cities like Montreal and Paris, where Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s government shut down a major road running along the River Seine to car traffic. 

“Without the political leadership, it’s hard to move quickly on anything,” Davies says. 

Lessons from Montreal

D.C.’s bike network stands in stark contrast to that of a city that has been an outlier in North America: Montreal. Quebec’s largest city boasts a network of more than 900 kilometres of bike lanes (717 kilometres of which are cleared of snow during the winter months and 218 kilometres of which are separated from car traffic) – and it’s building more. 

The city, which placed 57th in the PeopleForBikes ranking (and was the top-ranked large Canadian city), has had a bit of an active transportation renaissance in recent years under the leadership of Mayor Valérie Plante, whose Vision Vélo initiative plans to expand the bike network with an additional 200 kilometres of separated cycling lanes by 2027 and a network of high-capacity lanes called the Réseau Express Vélo.

Montreal built its first bike paths in the late 1970s, connecting a few parks. Cyclists later started pushing for paths that would take them to other places they needed to go. In the early 2000s, the city built westbound bike lanes on De Maisonneuve Boulevard in downtown Montreal. Simply having those paths made residents see what was possible, and from there, they wanted more. “You can see a progression in the bike infrastructure in Montreal that shows what can be done,” says Stéphane Blais, the director of research and consulting at Vélo Québec, an advocacy organization. 

It’s taken a while since its first bike paths for Montreal to build out its infrastructure, but things have been accelerating in recent years. And electing a staunchly pro-bike mayor has gone a long way in getting good bike infrastructure built. Advocates say that the city, under Plante’s leadership, refocused its efforts on bike infrastructure that is separate, rather than simply painting “sharrows” on the roads. The city is looking to expand popular bike lanes that opened on Saint Denis Street in 2020. 

You can see a progression in the bike infrastructure in Montreal that shows what can be done. 

 

– Stéphane Blais, Vélo Québec

Beyond electing the right leadership, bike advocates in Montreal say it’s important to have meaningful consultations on bike plans to figure out exactly what communities want. “So every time people are arguing that we’re taking away space for not the right reason or that we should put it on another street, we go back to these consultation nights and say we heard what people had to say, and this is what they wanted,” Blais says. 

It’s also vital to have officials go door-to-door to explain the new infrastructure that’s coming. But the point is not to restart the whole debate on whether the infrastructure is necessary. “You are not consulting people [at that stage] on whether we need a bike lane or not,” Blais says. “You’re consulting people on small issues that maybe the designer didn’t see.”

And rather than making the debate about bikes versus cars, Blais maintains that we should be talking about the fact that these kinds of projects simply provide more choice for how people can get around a city. 

Blais says that within three to six months of a bike lane being built, the anger tends to dissipate and people tend to see the benefits and forget what it was like before. 

Blais and many other Montreal residents now bike with their children down streets that they would never have imagined biking down just a few years ago. With any luck, that will also be the case for a growing number of Washington, D.C., residents and cities across North America as the bike infrastructure grows. 

“We’re really fortunate to live in this period of time when a lot of change is coming,” Blais says.

This story is part of the Sustainable Cities package in our Spring 2024 issue. 

The post Lessons on how (and how not) to build a bike-friendly city appeared first on Corporate Knights.

While non-motorized transportation is an important tactic for reducing emissions, many people still associate biking with something that kids do — or think of it as the last resort for people who can’t afford cars.

In BIPOC communities, that is compounded by external factors such as perceived or realistic safety issues, police harassment, and lack of access and infrastructure due to decades of disinvestment.

Olatunji Oboi Reed, president and CEO of the Equiticity Racial Equity Movement in Chicago, aims to change that.

“There are some systemic barriers that keep Black and Brown people driving, that keep Black and Brown people driving by themselves, that push Black and Brown people away from transit or cycling or walking. So, we’ve got to think about this holistically and at the systemic level … some of the systemic barriers that keep us from getting rid of our cars,” Reed said.

Based in North Lawndale on Chicago’s West Side, Equiticity is a multifaceted, multi-racial organization focused on eliminating racial inequality. Reed, along with his staff and an active board of directors, guides the organization in its pursuit of racial justice — largely pedal-powered by bicycle.

For Reed and for Equiticity, getting more Black and Brown people on bikes is about more than recreation or even transportation. He sees it as a vehicle for enhanced community cohesion, economic development, and improved health outcomes for Black and Brown residents, whose life expectancy is a full decade lower than that of White residents of the city, in part due to poor air quality generated by fossil fuel combustion.

From Slow Roll to Equiticity

Reed, along with childhood friend Jamal Julien, launched Slow Roll Chicago — a local outpost of a global bicycle movement — in 2014 as a means of encouraging more Black, Brown and Indigenous people to embrace bicycling for both recreation and transportation. While Reed has stepped away from leadership, Slow Roll Chicago continues to work to strengthen community connections and development.

There are some systemic barriers that keep Black and Brown people driving … that push Black and Brown people away from transit or cycling or walking.

 

– Olatunji Oboi Reed, president and CEO of the Equiticity Racial Equity Movement

In 2017, Reed expanded his vision of promoting racial equity beyond Slow Roll Chicago with a well-attended soft open of Equiticity in Chicago’s tony River North neighborhood. A number of delegates from the National Association of City Transportation Officials conference, along with local advocates, supporters and members of the media, were in the audience. The new organization was initially tasked with a plan to establish bike libraries on the city’s predominantly Black and Brown South and West Sides.

Since then, the organization has expanded its programming reach while remaining firmly rooted within a framework of advocating for BIPOC communities. Today, Equiticity encompasses advocacy, social enterprises, and programming, along with “community mobility rituals” where Black, Brown and Indigenous people take to the road on two wheels.

Three of its major programs — the Mobility Opportunities Fund, GoHub Community Mobility Center and BikeForce Workforce Development Program — are specifically designed to make biking more accessible and affordable for Black and Brown riders by addressing inequities, disinvestment and disparities, along with promoting economic development. 

The Mobility Opportunities Fund

In November 2022, Equiticity launched the Mobility Opportunities Fund, supported by a grant of $448,950 from ComEd. The fund initially provided $350 for the purchase of a conventional bicycle, $750 for the purchase of an electric bicycle, $1,500 for the purchase of an electric cargo bicycle and $3,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle. (Stipends were later increased to $8,750 for EVs.)

Only four EVs were purchased using resources from the fund. However, community members bought 111 bikes, 85 electric bikes and 57 electric cargo bikes with their stipends, according to an August 2023 report on the program.

“When I came on board, I was very excited, because I understand being someone who resides in North Lawndale,” said Remel Terry, director of programs at Equiticity. “I understand the benefit of having alternative modes of transportation especially if you can’t afford a bike or even the cost of, as we’ve seen, gas and things of that nature.

“And then the overall climate-friendly aspect is also a big deal, in my opinion, and helping us to understand how to be more environmentally friendly without having to harp on things in the way sometimes it gets communicated.”

The GoHub Community Mobility Center

Equiticity is developing the GoHub Community Mobility Center to help address EV charging deserts along with other mobility and transportation needs for residents of North Lawndale.

“The GoHub would have charging stations accessible to the community who may have electric vehicles,” Terry said. “So, it’s really like a one stop shop bringing all of the various programs into a physical space within the community of North Lawndale.”

But the GoHub is not limited to facilitating EV adaptation. Reed envisions multiple functions to address transportation-related inequities that Black and Brown low- and moderate-income residents experience, some of which may not be readily apparent.

That includes “hardware” — physical infrastructure — and “software,” which Reed describes as “the work we do to socialize people around the act of mobility.”

“For us, that’s our community mobility rituals. We do community bicycle rides, neighborhood walking tours, public transit excursions, group scooter rides, and open streets festivals,” Reed said.

“We also, as a part of the GoHub, want to have a hyper-local advocacy coalition. So, these are people at the neighborhood level who identify the needs to grow our mobility. And then we organize ourselves to move the stakeholders and policy makers in the city to bring the resources to bear that we need to grow our mobility in our neighborhoods,” Reed said.

North Lawndale suffers from a high crime rate, which is highly publicized in local and national media. In acknowledging the prevalence of violence in the neighborhood, Reed also envisions the “software” of the GoHub as a means to reduce the presence of violence that can discourage residents from biking.

Equiticity’s research found that between 2014 and 2019, police disproportionately issued citations for bike riding on sidewalks on the West and South Sides, which are predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods.

“Violence in our neighborhood is not something that we are able to pontificate about often. It is pretty close to us. Trauma is driving our concerns around mobility. So, we want to address trauma.

“We want mental health services to be a significant part of our work in the GoHub… We want space in the GoHub where that space is dedicated to other forms of healing to help people move through their trauma and begin to consider other modes of travel that, heretofore, they weren’t focused on,” Reed said.

Workforce development

Equiticity launched BikeForce in 2022 as a workforce development program for teens between the ages of 15 and 19 living in North Lawndale and adjacent communities. The apprenticeship program focuses on the emerging electric transportation sector, through the mechanics of e-bicycle construction, along with electric vehicles, e-scooters, battery systems, and electric motors. The Cook County Justice Advisory Council awarded Equiticity a $600,000 grant earlier this year, which allowed the program to expand to serve 60 trainees over 18 months.

“BikeForce is providing these participants with comprehensive and targeted mentorship, career services and workforce training in an emerging, environmentally sustainable sector — all while increasing access to climate-friendly mobility devices in North Lawndale,” Terry said in an email.

The apprenticeship program also provides networking and opportunities for living-wage jobs to as many as 30 young people each year. Participants who complete the program also receive a cash stipend of $1,100 and a non-electric bicycle, Terry said.

“They’ll be able to leave this program and be hired as a bike mechanic somewhere with the experience of also understanding the battery aspect of the electric bike, which is a very big deal,” Terry told Streetsblog in September.

Ongoing advocacy

Equiticity launched the Free 2 Move Coalition during the summer of 2022 to advocate for improvements in biking infrastructure and policy changes, especially around the issue of police harassment of Black and Brown bike riders, including aggressive enforcement of street crossing regulations and prohibitions against riding on the sidewalk. These types of stops increased exponentially as an alternative to stop-and-frisk, said Jose Manuel Almanza, director of movement and advocacy building at Equiticity.

“Right now, the Chicago Police Department can stop vehicles for a number of reasons, including a busted taillight, no registration or expired registration, [or] no city sticker — stuff that we think that should not be in the hands of the Chicago Police Department” Almanza said.

Equiticity’s research found that between 2014 and 2019, police disproportionately issued citations for bike riding on sidewalks on the West and South Sides, which are predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods.

“At the same time, those areas have little to no biking infrastructure. So, it makes sense that people just feel safer riding on the sidewalk,” Almanza said. “So, we want to eliminate the CPD’s ability to ticket folks for these offenses, and at the same time invest in these neighborhoods to give them the space and the safety they need to ride their bike safely on the road.”

Like many Black and Brown communities, North Lawndale has suffered the effects of decades of disinvestment. However, dollars intended to mitigate disinvestment frequently don’t make their way to areas where they are most needed.

At the same time, initiatives to mitigate disparities are sometimes met with pushback — driven by mistrust and anxiety about displacement, and exacerbated by the failure of municipal and other entities to engage community stakeholders, Almanza said.

We really want to expand biking infrastructure. However, a lot of people on the West Side and South Side see biking infrastructure as a sign of gentrification. A lot of people think, well, who are these bike lanes really for?

 

– Jose Manuel Almanza, director of movement and advocacy building at Equiticity

“We really want to expand biking infrastructure. However, a lot of people on the West Side and South Side see biking infrastructure as a sign of gentrification. A lot of people think, well, who are these bike lanes really for? It just seems that whenever the city does any kind of improvements in, for example, North Lawndale or Little Village, we get priced out. And I think just seeing that over and over and over again, it just creates suspicion in people that, well, in the past, everything they’ve done was not for me. So why is this for me now?

“Different communities in Chicago have different needs and people who live here know what’s needed, know what’s working, know what isn’t. However, we just keep seeing a lack of engagement from city agencies when it comes to creating a plan around infrastructure. A lot of our communities have been here for a very long time, so there’s a lot of history in it, and it seems like a lot of that history isn’t taken into consideration.” Almanza said.

For Reed, advocacy, education and improving biking infrastructure are all integral to Equiticity’s mission of getting Black and Brown people on bikes — and having them feel safe riding.

“How are we going to convince somebody not to drive and they should walk or bike, and there’s no sidewalk? This is not a rural community. This is the city of Chicago. People consider this the welcome center to the country,” Reed said.

“Corporations are headquartered here. And we’ve got a neighborhood in our city with no sidewalk. And it’s been like that for decades. The intersection [at] 79^th and Stony [Island] is one of the most dangerous intersections in the state of Illinois. It’s been like that for generations. And we’re supposed to convince somebody in that neighborhood to ride a bike. I wouldn’t dare tell somebody to ride a bike on Stony Island. I wouldn’t ride a bike on Stony Island. So, we’ve got to improve the quality of our infrastructure. We’ve got to use infrastructure to reduce all types of violence, interpersonal, police, and vehicular. And this is taking place.”

This story originally appeared on Energy News Network and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.

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Across Canada, cyclists are enjoying new respect. Calgary city officials started closing major roads on weekends to give walkers and cyclists more room to roam. Vancouver banned cars from Stanley Park Drive, the picturesque road through the city’s famous park, and partially closed nearby Beach Avenue to make more room for humans. Toronto is fast-tracking plans for 40 kilometres of new lanes. Montreal announced plans to add 327 kilometres of bicycle paths and pedestrian lanes this summer. Abroad, France is creating 650 kilometres of cycleways and offering €50 per person for bike repairs.

The bicycle’s shining moment may have been in April, when both Toronto and the province of Quebec named bike shops “essential services,” enabling them to stay open during the lockdown.

Vélo Québec, a non-profit that promotes cycling, made a strong case for the exemption. “It’s a way of travelling where you can keep physical distance from each other,” said VQ president Suzanne Lareau. “The number-one reason people don’t ride bikes in the city is because they’re afraid of the cars, but from one day to the next, that problem disappeared. So it’s important to remember that biking is a great form of transport, even in a pandemic.”

Even bike mechanics have become heroes, braving infection risks as they handle other people’s bike parts. “We’re on the front lines because everyone wants their bike [repaired],” one store owner told the Montreal Gazette. “We’re trying to be extra careful, but it’s scary.”

The same bike boom is happening around the world. The number of bicycles crossing New York City’s East River bridges doubled following the COVID shutdown. Bogotá, Colombia, added 76 kilometres of bike lanes to provide additional cycling capacity. Berlin has already widened some roads to make room for cyclists. According to The Guardian, 133 other German cities submitted applications for more “pop-up” bike lanes.

Celebrity urbanist Richard Florida is urging cities to expand bike lanes and encourage bike- and scooter-sharing programs – not just during the lockdown, but for the long haul.

The Netherlands’ reserved bicycle “highways,” and their inner-city bicycle corridors that can be opened to vehicles at the press of a button in case of emergency, demonstrate that North American cities have a long way to go to catch up to Europe’s pedal-powered infrastructure.

For individuals, cycling “means cheaper travel and better health,” says Chris Heaton-Harris, the U.K.’s transport minister. “For business, it means increased productivity and increased footfall in shops. And for society as a whole it means lower congestion, better air quality and vibrant, attractive places and communities.”

A version of this story appeared in the Summer Issue of Corporate Knights.

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