Sightline Daily asks, "Who Bikes?" using Pucher, Buehler data

 

Eric De Place, of Sightline Daily put together a few very informative charts in his post that goes a long way to help visualize the numerical reality of who is bicycling in America.  Most notable is the pie chart above that goes far to disprove the false notion that most cyclists are "rich, yuppie elitists."  In fact, that is far from the truth with the poorest making up the largest portion of cyclists but with people of all economic fortunes almost equally represtend.

The data for Da Place's article comes from a new report from our very own John Pucher of Rutgers University and his protegee Ralph Beuhler who is now at Virgina Tech.  The report title "Analysis of Bicycling Trends and Policies in Large North American Cities," take a look at trends in number of large American cities and takes special focus on New York City highlighting its achievements as well as its failures.

I highly advise that you take a look at both De Place's short blog post and Pucher and Beuhler's report.

Rutgers' John Pucher and VT's Ralph Bueler do it yet agian

I've said it before but when John Pucher speaks, the bike/ped world listens. While his latest work with his protégé Ralph Buehler, now at Virginia Tech, is not revolutionary, it is none-the-less a comprehensive update of the comparative analysis work that Pucher (and now Beuhler) have become famous for. This latest paper titled "Walking and Cycling for Healthy Cities" is a feature article in the UK journal Built Environment. An e-copy of the journal issue can be found here and a free copy of a plain text version of the article from John Pucher's webpage can be found here.

The abstract of this article is as follows:

Walking and cycling are the healthiest ways to get around our cities, providing valuable physical activity for people on a daily basis. These forms of active transport also generate indirect public health benefits by reducing the use of automobiles, thus diminishing air, water, and noise pollution and the overall level of traffic danger. This paper provides a broad overview of the role walking and cycling can play in making our cities healthier. First, we summarize the scientific evidence of the health benefits of walking and cycling. Second, we examine variations in walking and cycling levels in Europe, North America, and Australia. Third, we consider the crucial issue of traffic safety. Finally, we describe a range of government policies needed to encourage more walking and cycling: safe and convenient infrastructure such as sidewalks, crosswalks, bike paths and lanes, and intersection crossings; traffic calming of residential neighbourhoods; integration with public transport; land-use policies that foster compact, mixed-use developments; people-friendly urban design; improved traffic education; strict enforcement of traffic regulations; and reductions in motor vehicle speed limits.

Essentially, much of their work looks to compare the difference countries make in investments in walking, biking, transit, education and polices, and then find corresponding correlations in walking, biking and transit use rates, obesity rates, crash statistics, etc.. Their work in making the argument for investments in walking and biking (and transit and good urban form) is quite compelling.

An example of Pucher's and Buehler's comparative analysis work from a previous publication. Not surprisingly the USA always has the lowest rates of walking and cycling while being the fattest and most dangerous to walk and bike, amongst many other dubious distinctions.

Previous WalkBikeJersey articles on New Jersey's and Rutgers' own John Pucher can be found here and here.

NJN News interviews New Jersey's own Dr. John Pucher on his latest research.

I had the great pleasure and honor studying under Prof. John Pucher at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Dr. Pucher or as he calls himself "Car-Free John" is one of the leading researchers when it comes to analyzing the effects of proactive bicycle and pedestrian policies with that of public health, transportation expenditures, transportation mode shares etc. usually comparing the policies of one country to another.



The story begins by following Dr. Pucher's bike commute and then profiles a Summit family that gets around by bicycle. The final segment focuses the popularity of bicycling and the poor road conditions in urban New Brunswick. Overall a good snapshot of bicycling in New Jersey. Now all we need is to convince our elected officials to muster up the political will to make bicycling a real transportation option.

Rutgers' John Pucher Strikes Again!

For those of you who don't know, Prof. John Pucher is probably the most well known and widely published scholars on bicycle and pedestrian issues in the English language. His specialty is comparative analysis between nations of the beneficial economic impacts of walking and biking (often along with transit). When he is involved in the publishing of a paper on the topic, the entire bike/ped world stops and listens.

And he lives right here! In Jersey no less!

His latest is no exception. Working with four other colleges the last paper is titled, "Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia" has recently been published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health.

The results in a nutshell: "Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates." In fact the paper shows that "Active transportation is inversely related to obesity in these countries."

So essentially the more a people walk, bike and take transit to work the less likely they are to be fat. Seems like a simple enough concept but this report is pretty strong evidence that this is indeed the truth.

It's been getting some pretty good nation press too.

Oh and he goes by "Car Free John." It is a name which he really lives up to since he doesn't own a car and walks, bikes and takes transit for nearly all his trips. However, he has been know to mooch a ride off of friends once in a while. Hey! No one's perfect!