What would it take to change that?

By Sarah Goodyear, The Atlantic Cities

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What would it take to change that?

Clearly marked and fully separated bicycle infrastructure might help to do the trick. When survey subjects were shown images of brightly painted protected bike lanes, they had an overwhelmingly positive response. One picture of people riding bikes in a green-painted lane separated from cars by reflective poles got a favorable reaction from 90 percent of the people who saw it, all of whom were registered voters who own bikes but don’t regularly ride.

In contrast, a picture of a lane marked only by white stripes of paint, with cars encroaching from both sides, got an 87 percent negative reaction.

 
Guess which of these people prefer? Images courtesy of People for Bikes.

But the survey reveals the complexity of our emotional response to bicycling. When asked to evaluate a series of messages about reasons to ride bikes, 60 percent responded favorably to the idea that biking makes you feel happier, has significant health benefits, and saves money. The message that biking "is a safe option for everyone" and that safety increases with more riders and better bike lanes, got a favorable rating from only 47 percent of respondents.

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That seems sort of obvious to Doug Gordon, who blogs at Brooklyn Spoke. "Look at the automobile industry," he said in the report. "If they really wanted to appeal to people’s safety, they would show crash statistics, survival rates.... You don’t see that any more. You see the car parked in the driveway and the family playing catch."