577 a tale of two cities

If you love to drive, this one is especially for you.

Today we're going to compare and contrast biking in two cities, Paris and Portland. As in France and Oregon.

Portland, the biking capital of the US, has seen a decline in bike ridership. Bikes went from 6% of commuters in 2014 to less than 3% last year. (That's still the most in the US.)

Nobody is totally sure why. They've continued to expand biking infrastructure. It still rains. Maybe the dream of the 90s died a bit?

One of the explanations is the pandemic. Everyone stopped going everywhere. The turned on people started working from home a lot more. Everyone did, really.

But people staying home doesn't really make the numbers work. Car drivers stayed home too.

And it started before the pandemic.

From 2008-14, when "the economy" was suffering, bike riding surged. Then it began a long decline.

One of the guesses as to why this is happening is driving a car in Portland is easy. There's plenty of parking, and not so much traffic. As much as they've made biking better, car driving is still convenient. 

My guess? Gentrification. Wealthier people have moved to Portland, and while they love all the things the former artsy-class built, they, you know, don't want to sweat for them. And will eventually scratch their heads wondering what happened to all the cool shit.

Meanwhile in Paris, car traffic has gone down 60%.

What's the difference?

Paris recognized a certain reality: you can't just be pro-bike. You have to be anti-car. 

They actively made driving a shittier experience. This is fine. Making driving easy was a choice, and making it hard can be a choice, too.

They jacked up parking costs and lowered speed limits.

And they recognized the wealth divide between drivers and the rest of us and said, "c'est la vie."

Then they chipped away at the idea that cars should take over all public space.

And got real about what exactly cars are: privatization of public space.

This is all too radical for the US. We invented the car lifestyle, and most of us are so invested in it we don't even recognize it as being new and alien to the human experience.

But Paris? They've been around, baby.

They already had small cars. It's not that big of a leap into a bike-based-vehicle.

But isn't this all very elite? Don't we need to drive for work?

Back when leaded gas was driving us all crazy and making inner city neighborhoods more dangerous (See my book Plumb Crazy: The Secret history of Cops, Cars and Crime in America), city planners had the bright idea that a city should be a hub for suburban life: you drive into the city to work, then get out before the craziness of dark.

So we plowed down all kinds of inner-city neighborhoods and built freeways and parking lots where they once stood. Even Portland did this. Paris, too.

Still, somehow, Paris is pulling back where Portland couldn't. Why do you think that is?

Keep shining!