11 Evidence-Based Benefits of Protected Bike Lanes
Bike lanes have found themselves at the center of a culture war. On the one hand, you have the status quo: car-dependency, traffic, pollution, and a ginormous waste of city space that we need to move them all. On the other hand, you have an inexpensive, elegant solution to take cars off the road and give people another option: bike lanes.
Today I’m talking about protected bike lanes.
Protected bike lanes, when there’s a physical barrier between a cycling lane and a car lane, are where the real benefits and political fights are.
Whether you’re a cyclist, a driver, or more, I want to make the case that more protected bike lanes are good for everybody.
Yes, I have plenty of editorializing here and sharing my opinions. However, I do my best to ground these benefits in the evidence we have available about the impacts of protected bike lanes.
In the U.S., 52% of Trips Are Less Than 3 Miles
According to those same national stats, 28% of trips are less than a mile.
This tells a different story from the dominant narrative that the U.S. is “too big” or “too spread out” for cycling to be a practical transportation method.
I experienced the reality firsthand when I traveled around the U.S. car-free.
If biking were separated from cars with their own lanes, you could imagine millions more Americans choosing to ride their bike for anywhere from 28% to 56% of their trips.
You could imagine a household saving money by selling one of their cars, or more people who are stretched financially choosing to sell their car altogether.
We don’t need to imagine these either, because this is what happens when cyclists have protected lanes that make them safer and separated from car traffic.
When Cities Build Protected Bike Lanes, People Use Them
In Philadelphia, protected bike lanes led to a 95% increase in bike traffic. In New York and Washington, D.C., the story is the same: more bike infrastructure doubled biking in four years. It’s true, each of these also had their fast-growing bike shares to help out. Yet research that isolated the protected bike lanes as a factor found improved ridership at 80% of routes. Even those now “unsuccessful” ones will have more appeal or cities build more protected bike lanes and create a network that people can use.
Research on new protected bike lanes in Austin, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. found, “a measured increase in observed ridership on all facilities within one year of installation of the protected bike lanes, ranging from +21% to +171%. The increases appear to be greater than overall increases in bicycle commuting in each city.
The same research surveyed thousands of residents across the cities and found that 2 out of 3 people agreed with the statement, “I would be more likely to ride a bicycle if motor vehicles and bicycles were physically separated by a barrier.”
Protected Bike Lanes Lead to More Women Cycling Too
A 2022 study published in Cities looked at the gender differences in cycling and how protected bike lanes in New York increased women’s cycling by 4%-6%.
They write, “This corroborates the hypothesis that both men and women are more likely to bike when it is safer, and even more so for women.” Women are more likely to be harassed on public transit and more likely to spend money on rideshares. Protected bike lanes give women a harassment-free transportation option.
Given That Protected Bike Lanes Work, Let’s Get Into The Benefits
The bottom line with all of this prelude is that protected bike lanes work. They achieve their main goals, which is to provide an alternative transportation option.
Now let’s get into the benefits of this.
Benefits of Bike Lanes for Cyclists
More protected bike lanes mean it’s safer and easier to cycle more or cycle at all. Here’s what that translates to for direct benefits to cyclists.
1) An Additional Transportation Option
Throughout much of the United States, driving a car is the only option to get somewhere. As I’ve written about before, this is not what “freedom” looks like. To me, needing to buy, insure, and operate an expensive and dangerous vehicle to fulfill basic needs is not freedom.
For millions of Americans, driving isn’t an option. Some of these reasons may prevent someone from biking too, but for others, cycling provides another option. I think of many New Yorkers who live in transit deserts and can’t afford a car. For them, bike lanes can unlock access to jobs, schools, and the community.
To me, freedom looks like choices. Protected bike lanes give millions another choice.
2) A More Reliable Transportation Option
Aside from walking, cycling is the most reliable transportation option.
By reliable, I mean you know exactly how long takes. If you take transit or drive, you’re subject to traffic or delays. That drive could be 15 minutes or 30. That train may usually take 20 minutes, but on weekends, when it only comes every 20 minute,s you have to plan for that.
In contrast, cycling will almost take the same amount of time. I know that if I go at a chill pace, it takes me 22 minutes to get to the Upper East Side library. If I’m running late, I can speed it up. If I want to have more of a joy ride, I can slow down.
3) Improved Health Outcomes: Less Cancer Risk, Lower Risk of Death
Do I need to talk about the health benefits of moving your body?
There’s even research specifically on bike commuting. A 2017 study in the British Medical Journal followed around various commuters for five years.
They found that bike commuters, compared to car commuters, had…
- 52% lower risk of dying from heart disease.
- 40% lower risk of dying from cancer.
- 46% lower risk of developing heart disease
- 45% lower risk of developing cancer at all.
4) Save Hundreds of Dollars Per Month
According to AAA statistics, the average cost of a car is over $1000 per month. When we build protected bike lanes, you have the option to use your car less or not at all.
From the cost of the car, gas, insurance, parking, and repairs, going car-free or car-light can save you thousands per year.
Meanwhile, my Citi Bike unlimited year pass is $220 per year.
Benefits of Bike Lanes for Society
Protected bike lanes are good for everyone. Whether you’re walking, cycling, or driving, here’s why.
5) Safer Streets for Everybody
There’s this narrative that bike lanes make streets more dangerous. I think this is because we are desensitized to how dangerous cars are, and an e-bike flying by jars our senses.
However, the data show clearly that protected bike lanes make streets safer.
Data by the New York City Department of Transportation has shown that protected bike lanes reduce total deaths and serious injuries by 18.1 percent, and pedestrian deaths and serious injuries by 29.1 percent. For seniors, the risk goes down by 39%.
Separated bike lanes nationwide, according to U.S. Department of Transportation stats, decrease cars crashing into cyclists by 53%.
Data across 12 large cities published in the Journal of Transport & Health found that cities with protected bike lanes had 44% fewer deaths and 50% fewer serious injuries than the average American city.
Why? Several reasons.
- Cars don’t have to overtake cyclists, which means cars getting very close to cyclists and cars moving into lanes of incoming traffic.
- Protected bike lanes slow down speed limits
- Protected bike lanes usually mean fewer cars on the road. Fewer cars, fewer accidents.
Fewer Crashes, Fewer Costs to Taxpayers
Because so many drivers are underinsured (because of how expensive driving is), the costs of crashes often get passed on to society. Protected bike lanes justify their taxpayer cost with this alone.
Less Riding on Sidewalks
On my TikTok lives when I talk about this stuff, I often get, “Yeah, well cyclists should stop riding on sidewalks and follow laws.” Well, then you should support protected bike lanes.
In New York, a protected bike lane project led to a 56% increase in cycling, 34% decrease in crashes, and less sidewalk riding.
Philadelphia found that a bike lane decreased cyclists on sidewalks by 22%.
As a cyclist, I could’ve told you this. We go on sidewalks when the roads are congested or not safe. If there’s a protected bike lane, we’re going to use it.
6) They Don’t Worsen Traffic, and Can Improve It
This benefit has more nuance to it and depends on the case, but it still shows a clear benefit of protected bike lanes.
When you build a protected bike lane, you often do that by replacing a car lane. This is why drivers get pissed off. They think that now that there’s one fewer lane, the traffic will just get worse.
This logic is simple enough, but that’s not what happens. Sometimes traffic stays the same, and sometimes it decreases. Why? A concept called induced demand.
When you build more car lanes, when you make roads wider and speed limits faster, you make the environment less practical for transit and more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. So more people drive. This is why cities like Los Angeles and Houston, despite their ginormous highways, are among the most congested.
In contrast, if you make it easier to take other forms of transportation, people use those options. This means you can take away a car lane, and by encouraging cycling, fewer people drive so the traffic stays similar or the same.
In New York, this has consistently been the case, like on an Upper West Side bike lane, which showed faster traffic after adding a protected bike lane.
Fewer Cars Parked in Travel Lanes
In New York, anywhere without protected bike lanes has an epidemic of “double parking,” when a car is parked parallel to another parked car, blocking the lane.
The design of protected bike lanes, which includes more loading zones, has been shown to reduce double parking. That Upper West Side bike lane is a case study in that as well.
So even if you’ll drive regardless, more protected bike lanes means less double parking and often less traffic.
7) Great Public Health Investment
As reported in 2016 by Reuters Health, protected bike lanes provided “a better return on investment than some direct health treatments,” like dialysis.
In some ways, this is obvious: more bike lanes, more cyclists, and more people moving their bodies. We know that prevention is the best cure, and it’s hard to find something as miraculous for our health as exercise.
Car-free transportation is a health investment.
Protected bike lanes can also mean fewer cars, which means less air pollution. Cities like New York see incredibly high costs due to asthma hospitalizations, which are directly caused by urban highways like the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Down The Line, This Saves Us All Money
Again, this means fewer healthcare costs for society.
8) Cheaper Than Car Roads and Transportation
In New York City, a protected bike lane costs about $600,000 per mile.
Even reconstructing an existing lane of urban highway costs about $7.7 million per mile, according to Federal stats, as reported by Strong Towns.
If you’re building a new road, it’ll be even more. These highways only relieve traffic in the short term. In the long term the only way to do so is to build alternatives to driving. In cities, highways caused huge problems, cutting off neighborhoods and polluting air. Simply, we should not be expanding any urban highways, we should be taking them away and providing other options.
I’m a huge advocate of expanding public transit, but the 2nd Avenue Subway expansion cost $2.5 billion per mile. Of course, subway expansions are generational projects with massive benefits beyond a bike lane. However, it gets the point across that, dollar for dollar, you won’t find a better investment in transportation improvements than protected bike lanes.
9) Better Land Use = More Walkable and Green Neighborhoods
Let’s talk about one of the least-discussed, yet most transformative benefits of protected bike lanes: land use.
Cars are space-inefficient. They require wide roads and expansive storage space (parking), all while often carrying just a few people at most.
In cities, this adds up to a massive amount of public space being devoted to the movement and storage of private vehicles. Most roads in New York have an extra lane dedicated just for free parking. On public land!
Meanwhile, biking is slim, space-efficient, and high-capacity. A single protected bike lane can move far more people per hour than a car lane in traffic — and it does so with less space, noise, pollution, and danger to others.
As more people choose to bike, we free up land that’s currently sacrificed to car infrastructure — land that could be used for bus lanes, wider sidewalks, housing, green space, and outdoor dining. All of that sounds better to me than street parking.
In New York City, for example, 76% of public space is devoted to cars. Not parks. Not sidewalks. If you’re wondering why American cities often feel starved for public squares, outdoor seating, and parks, cars are a big reason why.
I love this headline from the Los Angeles Times, “Los Angeles is Building Plenty of Housing… For Cars.” At a time when our cities don’t have enough housing and we can’t seem to build it, we space so much money and precious city space on cars.
As Transportation Alternatives said in their 25×25 report, “By repurposing 25 percent of current driving and parking space, the future leaders of New York City could create more than 13 Central Parks.”
Protected bike lanes challenge this status quo. There is no fighting against it without robust cycling infrastructure.
10) Environmental Impact: Less Emissions, Less Air Pollution, More Flood Protection
Every time someone takes a bike instead of a car, that’s fewer emissions in the air.
Especially for short trips, switching from driving to biking can cut a disproportionate amount of pollution, since cars are least efficient on short, cold starts.
But it’s not just about the climate crisis in the abstract. Cleaner transportation means less localized air pollution. That translates to lower rates of asthma, lung disease, and other respiratory issues, especially in communities near major roadways. This is a public health issue as much as an environmental one. Noise pollution matters too, and a bike makes a lot less noise than a car.
There’s another piece that gets overlooked: protected bike lanes can help with flood resilience.
When we devote huge portions of our cities to highways and car infrastructure, we remove trees, green space, and permeable surfaces. These are the exact things that soak up stormwater and prevent flooding.
11) Bike Lanes Support Nearby Businesses
Often, people oppose bike lanes, saying that they’ll hurt nearby businesses. It’s so ridiculous because the opposite is true.
- More Foot Traffic = More Customers: When streets feel safer to walk and bike, more people spend time there. That means more eyes on storefronts and more spontaneous visits. Cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City all saw retail sales rise after adding protected bike lanes.
- Less Parking is a Good Thing: Businesses worry that if parking gets taken away, then nobody will come. But people actually go to places that are more walkable and pleasant. Do you go hang out in parking lots? Usually, a protected bike lane only takes away a few parking spaces, if any, so this is often a moot point.
- New Customers, New Loyalty: Biking and walking customers tend to be more local and more loyal.
To anybody who walks anywhere ever, all of this is so intuitive.
Rachel Quednau’s article, How Bike Lanes Benefit Businesses looks at the data from New York to San Francisco to Seattle: bike lanes help businesses.
Protected Bike Lanes Benefit Everyone
They make our streets safer, our air cleaner, our lives more affordable, and our communities more connected.
When we build them, people use them. And when people use them, we all benefit.
Let’s stop fighting over a few feet of street space and start building a better future one protected lane at a time. Enough of this culture war crap. The data on the benefits of protected bike lanes is clear.
And let’s not stop there. Now let’s retime the lights to make green waves for cyclists and legalize the Idaho stop.
More Transit Culture Wars
I won’t keep myself out of trouble.
6 Comments