Propel Bikes

In the US in the 1960s people became obsessed with the idea that cars were the future. So, we bulldozed neighborhoods for highways, built suburbs without sidewalks, and designed entire communities with the assumption that everyone would want to drive everywhere.

Decades later, many places are realizing what we lost. It’s time to turn it back a little bit.

Did you know that only 45% of New Yorker households own cars? In manhattan this is only 20-25% of households.

With so many people relying on other ways to get around, it only makes sense to invest in and improve alternative forms of transportation.

The more you learn about urban planning in the US, the more it makes sense how we came to be where we are now. Certain things we thought were better at the time, actually cause more harm in the long term. It’s our job now to change those things back.

For example, wide lanes might feel safer, but they often do the opposite. Drivers naturally speed up. Higher speeds mean more severe crashes for everyone: drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Street design shapes behavior.

The goal isn’t to take away everybody’s car, but to enable more places that you aren’t dependent on a car to get to. What do you think?

Living in a place that’s designed to be accessible for everybody is a game changer. It means that everybody has more freedom in their day to day lives.

In the absence of presenting a menu of choices, you can’t actually tell what people’s preferences are.

…. Maybe not yet.

So many people talk about biking like it’s some identity you’re born into or not. As if you have to be a certain type of person or already love it before you start.

So many people who bike now once thought the same thing. Whether that means they were afraid traffic would be scary or they would look weird or feel out of place or couldn’t do it, those fears are so common.

But sometimes the only way to know if something fits your life is to experience it at least once and see how it feels. You might hate it, and that’s fine, but you may also discover so much more.

Don’t knock it till you try it. 😉

Your surroundings directly shape how you feel.

In so much of the US, the infrastructure feels empty, isolating, and built for machines instead of people. Designs like wide roads for long distances, nowhere to walk or sit, and nothing inviting you to stay, feels isolating. You move through these spaces, but you don’t feel connected to them.

The first time you go somewhere else where the streets are designed for humans, it fully hits you. You realize how much more enjoyable it is to exist in spaces designed for people to thrive, and not just for you to pass through on your way to somewhere else.

What’s your first experience realizing this?