Pasadena’s Missing Bikes: Challenging the Myth That Nobody Rides

GUEST EDITORIAL

(File Photo – Michael Siegel)

At a previous Pasadena City Council meeting, a concerned resident stood up and told the room that I don’t exist.

By Jonah Kanner

“We don’t have the statistical information that tells us that bike lanes are being utilized for things other than recreational purposes,” she said to the City Council. Since the discussion was about adding traffic-calming measures to a few neighborhood streets shared by bikes and cars, the implication was clear: Nobody rides bikes in Pasadena, so if we build more bike routes, nobody will use them.

It’s easy to understand why some people think this way. In Pasadena today, I estimate that only about 2% of trips are made by bike. That’s certainly a small minority, and I can see how these trips might be overlooked by some. But pretending they don’t exist at all is a big problem. Myself, my son, many of my friends, and hundreds of colleagues at Caltech all use bikes for transportation every day. That adds up to around 2,000 people biking to get around Pasadena. That means less traffic on the roads and more empty parking spots available for people who need them.

Treating a couple thousand people as if we don’t exist is hurtful and wrong. But there’s an even bigger issue hiding in the claim that “nobody” rides bikes in Pasadena. When the city plans new bike routes and considers who might use them, it’s important to remember the people who want to ride bikes, e-bikes, or scooters but are scared away by traffic. According to repeated surveys, a whopping 65% of Americans say they would like to bike for some trips, but the danger from cars is the main obstacle keeping them off bikes. Data from other cities make the point even clearer: when cities build safe bike networks, more people choose bikes over cars. This “mode shift” leads to more parking, less traffic, cleaner air, and safer streets for everyone.

When biking opponents say “Nobody rides bikes,” they’re ignoring the fact that the majority of people would ride bikes if we created a safe network for them to do so.

Pasadena has a lot of opportunities to improve transportation options by supporting safe biking, walking, and transit. I hope future discussions will recognize the wealth of data showing that the majority of people like using active transportation and will challenge the false idea that we don’t exist.

Jonah Kanner rides an e-bike daily to his job as a scientist at Caltech and for most trips around Pasadena. A longer version of this article was originally published at pasadenacsc.org.