Since the temperatures stayed well below freezing over the weekend, the right hand side of the streets aren't bike friendly and the bike path is still a solid block of ice. So, I'm taking the van for a few days and hoping that warmer temperatures later this week and plenty of sunshine will melt things off.
There was an interesting article in the KC Star last week that discussed how people commute in the Kansas City area. They included a couple sentences about a bike commuter. Still the 2000 U.S. Census data shows that less than one percent of people here commute by bike. In fact, more people walk to work than bicycle.
The article goes on to say that we are "the sixth-least-congested metropolitan area with a population greater than 1 million." Also, we are "spreading out and driving more. With the population shift to the suburbs, our work commutes are not only longer, but we’re also grabbing the car keys more often for trips to the grocery store and restaurants, and we “outsource” more home chores, such as lawn care, meaning more service trucks on the road."
Mell Henderson, transportation director at the Mid-America Regional Council, puts it: “Our traffic is growing at three times the rate of our population.”
And -- "Chances are rising that you will run into a traffic snarl. The percent of congested travel during “peak vehicle miles traveled” (rush hour) increased from 5 percent in 1982 to 32 percent in 2002. Those levels, however, are low compared with other metropolitan areas of similar size."
I would love to see more people, at least those of us who work in Corporate Woods and live near by with a great bike trail system in place, hopping on their bikes...
6 comments:
Interesting stuff.
"Chances are rising that you will run into a traffic snarl. The percent of congested travel during “peak vehicle miles traveled” (rush hour) increased from 5 percent in 1982 to 32 percent in 2002. Those levels, however, are low compared with other metropolitan areas of similar size."
Well...sure. Kansas City also has the nation's highest transportation costs.
http://blogkc.com/archives/2006/10/kc-has-nations-highest-transportation-costs/
Jeff, GREAT link. Thanks. How do we get more people to consider bike commuting?
"How do we get more people to consider bike commuting?"
Whoops, I hadn't checked back here in awhile!
I started to reply and got waaay to wordy for a comment box. Here's my answer.
http://greasedmelon.com/2007/01/25/how-do-we-get-more-people-to-consider-bike-commuting/
I put my thought on greasedmelon also.
Through bike journals.com I linked to a blog that linked me to a blog etc. Now I'm beginning to feel like I live in KC.
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