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Smart Cycling: Teaching the Basics of Bike Infrastructure in Bicycling Education
SMART CYCLING
THE VALUE OF PROTECTED BIKE LANE EDUCATION
BY KURT KAMINER, DR. MICKEY WITTE — UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI BIKESAFE PROGRAM
Some may call them Traffic Gardens, others call them Safety Towns, but whatever name you use, we can all agree that youth-scaled bike riding environments are places for fun and creative learning!
There is an unspoken vehicular cycling bias that comes with being a bicycle rider in the United States. We are told to believe that the only assurance of safety is to “claim the lane” and ride as if one were driving a car, lest anyone try to marginalize the bicyclist’s right to the road. But this mindset fails to consider that sharing the road on our dangerous-bydesign streets is an impossible sell outside of the most fearless of us in the cycling community, and fails to reflect the needs of the many who would ride if given a safe place to do so. Thankfully, the US has come far enough that protected bike lanes and protected intersections are no longer foreign concepts, nor are their safety benefits debatable. Thanks to a 13-year study from the University of Colorado Denver and the University of New Mexico, we now know that the addition of protected facilities to a city’s road network is estimated to reduce bicycle crashes by 50% and deaths by 44%, making protected bike lanes the single most effective intervention known for rider safety—even more than helmets. Though a helmet protects a rider during a crash, a protected bike lane prevents the crash from happening in the first place. Even though protected facilities are already making a huge, positive impact on bikeability around the world, bicycle safety education in the US—even for youths—still relies primarily on the tenets of vehicular cycling. Most educational materials do not mention the existence of protected bike lanes (nor do they discuss places to ride at all); instead they emphasize helmets and high-viz. So prevalent is this approach that it has become the target of satire, with cycling advocates on social media frequently admonishing organizations for upholding the narrative of rider selfresponsibility—especially when the role of some of those organizations is to build safe streets in the first place.
While lampooning the failures of education often helps us vent our frustrations, it also illuminates an untapped opportunity to merge education with infrastructure. After all, if safety is the point of cycling education, then it is remiss not to discuss the type of bike lanes that afford the greatest level of safety. As such, we need more bicycle educational programs to escape the traditional vehicular cycling mindset and explain why protected bike lanes are our most important safety tool. We need bike rodeos to thoughtfully integrate protected bike lanes to introduce (and reinforce) them to communities that want safe streets. (*Author’s note: These new approaches to bicycle safety education are being championed as part of the University of Miami BikeSafe program at ibikesafe.org). To wit, protected bike lanes are not only safer because the data says so, they actually appear safer, and with that comes emotional appeal; absolutely essential for effective advocacy. Show parents a curb separator topped with a row of pretty planters and you’ll find it easy to convince them that cycling can be a safe family activity—an argument that vehicular cycling will never win.
When people actually see protected bike lanes, it becomes apparent that they deserve support—the same public support that is required to gain the political will to get them built. Approach education with a more idealistic view of the future and you’ll inspire the future.
Editor's Note: The League welcomes a wide variety of perspectives on bicycling education within our Smart Cycling program. Whether people are more comfortable biking on a multi-use path or taking the lane, the League works to celebrate and preserve the freedom cycling brings to our members everywhere.
