Infrastructure eats Culture for Breakfast - Strike Two

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We are still looking at San Mateo’s recent decision to remove bike lanes because the San Mateo city council members didn’t see enough “Bicycle Culture” to keep the infrastructure going or improve. They do it just before the elementary school is transformed into a low-income Community School.

Transportation Equity states that these children need Safe-Routes-To-School (SRTS) even more so than others. Yet, the council decided to strip children in this neighborhood of their Right-To-Safe-Travel and go against its 2040 General Plan.

[Source: City of San Mateo – General Plan 2040 Strive]

The American Cult around “Bicycle Culture”

A certain cult around “U.S. bicycle culture” simply does not exist in Europe. Many European cities just abide by these two rules:

As Easy As Riding a Bike.
If you build it, they will come.

Many American cities, on the other hands, abide by these two mottos:

Riding a bicycle is dangerous
There isn’t enough “Bicycle Culture” to make it safer

Who got it right, who is still getting it wrong? The European rules go hand in hand and seem coherent. The U.S. mottos seem cynical and nonsensical.

Now, the San Mateo Grand Jury Report (2022) agreed that bicycling in the county is still too dangerous but also stated that C/CAG cities – like San Mateo and Redwood City – did not build the bike infrastructure they promised.

The Bike Lane is coming of Age

The Germans invented the motorcar, the bicycle and, most importantly, the simple bike lane to separate the two. By 1927, the City of Magdeburg had its municipal architect, Dr. Henneking, work with the Cycle Path Association on a working design. And the Radweg-Netzwerk or Separated Bike Lane Network was born (and ‘network’ is the key here).

“The creation of specially conceived paths for bicycles is the only real solution to the annually escalating problem of creating safe traffic conditions for cycles and pedestrians.” [Dr. Henneking, Magdeburg]

Some Germans thought the primary and sinister purpose of the lanes was that cars could go faster. The Dutch used and improved on the idea of separate facilities. They aimed to get people out of cars and onto bicycles – as they saw a congestion problem and needed a healthier and safer way to keep people moving. The Imperial British, however – always the warriors – thought it was wiser to have motorists and cyclists fight it out for themselves, so they invented “vehicular cycling” or “driving your bike” and “sharing the road”.

One could say that the Dutch policies were people-centric. The German policies might have been more car-centric. The British policies, however, seemed dangerously knucklehead-centric.

World’s Best Cities for Cycling (2010)

To this very day you find a mix of these British, German, or Dutch philosophies in any city and city hall in the world:

“Sharing the Road” means there is no separation or safety for vulnerable road users. You got yourself a car-centric city.
Separating slow road users from people driving because it’s better for the driving experience.
It is better to separate vulnerable road users from people driving because it’s better for the vulnerable road users and society.

World Bicycle Cities per Country — World’s Top Bicycle Cities per Country.

In this graph about the World’s top bicycle cities, the top three countries with some of the best bicycle infrastructure are the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where the safety of vulnerable road users is the highest priority. The fourth country from the top is Germany – in general, regarded as a bicycle and car-friendly country. Somewhere in the middle of this graph are countries like Switzerland, Japan, and Austria, which also have a few bicycle-friendly cities. The countries that are at the bottom are very interesting. These are countries like France, Spain, and even the United Kingdom are moving up. These are countries that weren’t explicitly bicycle-friendly. They had little “bicycle culture,” so to speak. But once they started providing actual bicycle facilities, they increased rankings. The bottom space still belongs to the United States. Many of their best bicycle cities have a commuter bike mode share of 1% or less.

So, we can say that the bike lane has been around for a while. It has been well tested, and we can say with conviction that it is the best – in fact, the only – acceptable form of Bicycle Infrastructure. None of the U.K. and American “inventions” (slow street, bicycle route, bicycle boulevard, quiet street) has been able to copy its success. None has ever exceeded the 1% threshold.

European “Bicycle Culture”

Now, in Europe, the question between “Infrastructure” or “Culture” was never even asked. It’s always been about what professional culture you have at city hall and advocacy that holds city hall accountable. Germany is regarded as bicycle-friendly, but the quality and availability of bicycle facilities determine where each city is ranked in bicycle mode share. It should be the same “German Bicycle Culture,” and still, there is so much variety based on the quality of engineering. Some cities here are competing with the Netherlands for the top spots. Others are just as bad as the Commonwealth Countries or the United States.

London and Paris

Two of the most congested cities on this planet are London and Paris.
Two of the less congested cities in Europe are Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Is it because Copenhagen or Amsterdam has “Bicycle Culture” and London and Paris do not?

Big cities will always be congested cities. The only question is whether people are allowed to opt out by choosing different modes of transportation. This, of course, requires adding convenient infrastructure for all these other transportation modes.
Copenhagen chose to become more bike-friendly when they realized they couldn’t afford all the car infrastructure anymore. They haven’t looked back, and their citizens are happier and healthier because of it.

London and Paris have a solid public transportation network but so far lacked the adequate infrastructure for micro-mobility. At one point, Boris Johnson (yes, that Boris Johnson) and Anne Hidalgo (current Paris mayor) must have looked at that and decided that car-centric development wouldn’t be cutting it anymore. Boris Johnson – a cyclist himself – introduced London’s first cycling superhighway. Anne Hidalgo wanted to create a more sustainable Paris.

“Our original painted lanes were revolutionary at the time. But knowing what I do now, we would have blasted ahead with our new segregated cycle lanes from the beginning.”
[London Mayor Boris Johnson]

Since then, London has improved its infrastructure, and Paris has embraced bike lanes as a major solution to their pollution problems. And while the Tour De France usually ended along the Champs-Élysées, few would have called Paris a city with “bicycle culture” – Anne Hidalgo and her infrastructure push changed that. London certainly had its ups and downs with Mayors who are less committed. It is slowly but surely making some progress as well.

Seville

The Spanish have many professional bicycle athletes competing and winning the grueling Tour De France. And yet few Spanish cities would make the list of having great “bicycle culture.”

Twenty years ago, Seville had hardly any separated bike lanes to speak of and, therefore, no “bicycle culture” either. Their bike mode share was lower than 1%, basically on the level of most American cities.

But then some city leaders decided to go all in on infrastructure. Then, in one big swoop, they completed 77 km of a solid separated and protected bike lane network. While San Mateo cities keep making plan after plan after plan for over 50 years now, Seville made a plan and transformed itself in less than two years. By 2024, they now have 180 km or 110 miles of bike lanes. Daily cyclists increased from 6,000 to over 111,000.

Culture of Execution

Infrastructure absolutely does eat culture for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s just San Mateo County leadership can’t seem to execute even the simplest of plans. When San Mateo Democrats invoke the “Bicycle Culture” clause to defund active transportation, they are really admitting their lack of execution skills.

Let’s call this Strike Two on Mayor Rob Newsom Jr., Adam Loraine, Lisa Diaz Nash, Danielle Cwirko-Godycki and Nicole Fernandez.

All cities have plans to create bicycle facilities because of budgets, pollution, sustainability, freedom, choice, liveability, and overall health and happiness. Paris had them, London had them, Seville had them, and the City of San Mateo had them, too. But before Anne Hidalgo, Boris Johnson, and José García Cebrián came along, these cities did not have the necessary “Culture of Execution” to make it happen. It was their execution that eventually led to a quality of infrastructure inviting people to cycle more.

Source: Superior Court of California – San Mateo Grand Jury

Post.Scriptum.

Especially in the stories about London, Paris or Seville, it is also important to take note how advocates and advocacy groups have been essential in holding politicians accountable. This component is completely missing in San Mateo County, where the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) is occupying the space of a regional advocacy group. Still, it famously stays out of doing this particular job.

Organizations like this should never become less effective after they move to a professional leadership model. That’s how you can make yourself look like an Astroturfing outfit.

“People that are Paid can also be Bought.” [Zarathustra]

Paris: people here can choose between traveling by ship, bus, walking, cycling. There is space for garbage pickup and there are still cars on the move as well. Because of lack of ‘Bicycle Culture’ and Astroturfing everywhere, planning like this might look foreign to San Mateo County. [courtesy: Gettyimages]

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.