The climate change crowd really wants us out of our cars—and seems to think you’ll somehow commute from Van Nuys to Downtown Los Angeles on a bicycle.
Now, everybody loves to ride a bike—for exercise, relaxation, or fun—but bicycles aren’t going to replace cars.
Even so, there seems to be a constant push to give bicycles many of the same rights as motor vehicles. Across California, neighborhoods have installed labyrinthine “road diets” that narrow streets and slow traffic—perhaps hoping drivers will become so frustrated they’ll simply stop driving. That’s unlikely.
The Davis Enterprise reports there’s a bill in Congress called the America Bikes Act, which would encourage more people to ride by incentivizing bicycle commuting, connecting bike routes to transit stations, and bringing bicycle manufacturing back to the United States.
On its face, that may sound reasonable. But as roads in many communities continue to shrink, bike lanes contribute to traffic congestion, and some cyclists ignore traffic laws, this proposed legislation may be worth watching.
The real question is what lawmakers mean by “incentivizing bike commuting.” As long as it doesn’t mean narrowing more roads—or carving out space for bicycles on freeways—it will likely face less resistance.
