Saw this story in the Wall Street Journal today. The WSJ is subscription only online (yes, I have a subscription), so here are some excerpts:
May 10, 2006 10:34 p.m. EDT
Q&A: Growing U.S. Bicycle Habit
Charlie McCorkell (CM), who has owned Bicycle Habitat in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan for 29 years, talked with WSJ.com's Matt Phillips (MP) about what has pushed commuters onto their bikes in the past, the impact of the current high gas prices, and more. Mr. McCorkell, 56 years old, is also a former executive director of Transportation Alternatives.
MP: How has bike participation changed over the last 20 years or so?
CM: I started commuting in New York City in 1969. At that point, when you went over the Brooklyn Bridge there were six flights of stairs you had to deal with. If you saw two or three other cyclists on your commute, you thought you saw a lot. I'd get spit at at least once a week by drivers … who didn't feel I had any right to the road. The situation in the last 35 years has obviously changed dramatically … The change is, you know, it's like something from the sublime to the ridiculous almost, there are so many cyclists.
MP: What accounts for the growth?
CM: You have so many forces in society that help it along. We have people who ride because they don't like the war in Iraq and they think it's an oil war. We don't see too many people who come in because oil prices have gone up, gas prices have gone up, but they do exist. Every time somebody gets [delayed or has a bad experience] on the subway, you know, they think, "Maybe, I should ride my bike." And there are so many cyclists out there that they see people riding. It's no longer an occasional thing, you know, you're no longer, like, the odd man out … I like to think, to borrow from [Malcolm] Gladwell's book [The Tipping Point], we've reached a "tipping point" in New York City for bicycle riding. The more people who ride, the more people who will ride, and the more awareness there is of it. I mean you can't walk down a street any more without seeing bikes [locked] onto poles. You can't stand in the street for more than two minutes in even the most deserted areas of New York without seeing a bike rider.
MP: So you don't see a big upsurge from people turning to bicycles for relief from gas prices?
CM: I haven't seen that yet … The problem is people who are going to drive in New York City and Manhattan, they're going to pay $40 to park their car for a day, or they're going to risk a ticket or something else. [For them,] the gas price is such a minuscule part of the transportation cost for a car. What I am hearing … is that people are not jumping in their car to drive five blocks, to pick up a quart of milk. They'll jump on the bike. I've heard a couple stories along that line. And this is especially people who live in Brooklyn, where I live, who tell me … that's not worth it for them to get in the car anymore. And so we've seen some minor changes there and that could lead to longer-term changes, where they find out that biking is actually a reality and you can do it. And usually the biggest surprise to people when they hop on a bike is when they're going seven, eight miles in New York City that it's so much quicker by bike than by car or subway or anything else.
MP: Do you have any sense of how changes in New York City would compare with the rest of the country?
CM: New York City I think is a real trendsetter at this point. You know we have the oldest bike lane in the country, in Brooklyn, the Ocean Parkway bike lane. You have the busiest bike lane in the country on West Street [in Manhattan], by far … and it's what? Five years old? Six years old? The increase [in] bicycling is just phenomenal … and as I said the more people who ride, the more people who ride. I know people who commute in San Francisco and I just don't know how they get them down the hills -- but they tell me they go around them for the most part. A lot of bike riders there. Portland, Ore.? Off the scale. Really good bike community. And on the smaller side Davis, Calif. -- everybody bikes. Boston is a very popular bike town at this point. So I think we're seeing them in cities where there's the transit option. I think there's a trickle down, that people stop driving, they get on the subways, then they get on their bikes. I think what you'll see is when gas prices go up people might abandon their car and go to the subway. That might be their first choice and their second choice might be memories of the personal transport thing and they might try a bike.
MP: Was there any kind of seminal event, or great fad that spurred bike usage on? Something along the lines of the jogging boom of the 1980s?
CM: I think the biggest touch point would always be the [New York City] transit strike back in 1980. [It] was just a huge awakening for people. … I think it was April 1 or something, but it was fair weather, so hordes of people came out and never went back, you know, just hordes. And that was probably the biggest percentage increase I ever saw of everyday cyclists. And it was courtesy of the transit authority. People saw it's a lot better than the subway.
MP: Have you ever seen impact from high gas prices, going back to the 1970s?
CM: There was a much more of an impact when you couldn't buy gas every day … Because that became, not a money issue, it became a time issue … People were investing huge amounts of time in gas rather than huge amounts of money. Now we're investing money. And people who can afford to drive … the gas is not a significant part of the process in New York City, especially if you have to deal with parking. So the gas price is kind of small. But when it was a time issue for these people, they were much more likely to seek out an alternative. So if they had long gas lines or rationing of some sort, all of the sudden you'd probably see a lot more people switching over … If you were going to spend an hour in line getting gas, you would think about what your alternatives were.
MP: How did you first get into cycling?
CM: I was living at my parents' apartment in Brooklyn … and I was going to school in Manhattan, in the village, and I was riding the subway one day, and it was the middle of January. I don't remember why, but something must have happened on the train that day, I don't remember what it was, but I got off the train and said, "I'm never riding the train again." … I went over to Stuyvesant Bikes, which is now out of business, and bought a bike … My parents almost died when I brought it home because they thought it was the most juvenile thing in the world. I was 19 and had never owned a bike before, so it was a real radical departure for me… and the first time I rode it home, my hands were freezing off, but I remember I made it home like 15 minutes quicker than I would have. And there was no frustration with the train. At that point, I think the subway was 15 cents. I was saving 30 cents a day. I was a student. It was great; it fit all my needs.
URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114712193852146969.html
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Thursday, May 11, 2006
From the Wall Street Journal: Growing U.S. Bicycle Habit
Saw this story in the Wall Street Journal today. The WSJ is subscription only online (yes, I have a subscription), so here are some excerpts:
May 10, 2006 10:34 p.m. EDT
Q&A: Growing U.S. Bicycle Habit
Charlie McCorkell (CM), who has owned Bicycle Habitat in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan for 29 years, talked with WSJ.com's Matt Phillips (MP) about what has pushed commuters onto their bikes in the past, the impact of the current high gas prices, and more. Mr. McCorkell, 56 years old, is also a former executive director of Transportation Alternatives.
MP: How has bike participation changed over the last 20 years or so?
CM: I started commuting in New York City in 1969. At that point, when you went over the Brooklyn Bridge there were six flights of stairs you had to deal with. If you saw two or three other cyclists on your commute, you thought you saw a lot. I'd get spit at at least once a week by drivers … who didn't feel I had any right to the road. The situation in the last 35 years has obviously changed dramatically … The change is, you know, it's like something from the sublime to the ridiculous almost, there are so many cyclists.
MP: What accounts for the growth?
CM: You have so many forces in society that help it along. We have people who ride because they don't like the war in Iraq and they think it's an oil war. We don't see too many people who come in because oil prices have gone up, gas prices have gone up, but they do exist. Every time somebody gets [delayed or has a bad experience] on the subway, you know, they think, "Maybe, I should ride my bike." And there are so many cyclists out there that they see people riding. It's no longer an occasional thing, you know, you're no longer, like, the odd man out … I like to think, to borrow from [Malcolm] Gladwell's book [The Tipping Point], we've reached a "tipping point" in New York City for bicycle riding. The more people who ride, the more people who will ride, and the more awareness there is of it. I mean you can't walk down a street any more without seeing bikes [locked] onto poles. You can't stand in the street for more than two minutes in even the most deserted areas of New York without seeing a bike rider.
MP: So you don't see a big upsurge from people turning to bicycles for relief from gas prices?
CM: I haven't seen that yet … The problem is people who are going to drive in New York City and Manhattan, they're going to pay $40 to park their car for a day, or they're going to risk a ticket or something else. [For them,] the gas price is such a minuscule part of the transportation cost for a car. What I am hearing … is that people are not jumping in their car to drive five blocks, to pick up a quart of milk. They'll jump on the bike. I've heard a couple stories along that line. And this is especially people who live in Brooklyn, where I live, who tell me … that's not worth it for them to get in the car anymore. And so we've seen some minor changes there and that could lead to longer-term changes, where they find out that biking is actually a reality and you can do it. And usually the biggest surprise to people when they hop on a bike is when they're going seven, eight miles in New York City that it's so much quicker by bike than by car or subway or anything else.
MP: Do you have any sense of how changes in New York City would compare with the rest of the country?
CM: New York City I think is a real trendsetter at this point. You know we have the oldest bike lane in the country, in Brooklyn, the Ocean Parkway bike lane. You have the busiest bike lane in the country on West Street [in Manhattan], by far … and it's what? Five years old? Six years old? The increase [in] bicycling is just phenomenal … and as I said the more people who ride, the more people who ride. I know people who commute in San Francisco and I just don't know how they get them down the hills -- but they tell me they go around them for the most part. A lot of bike riders there. Portland, Ore.? Off the scale. Really good bike community. And on the smaller side Davis, Calif. -- everybody bikes. Boston is a very popular bike town at this point. So I think we're seeing them in cities where there's the transit option. I think there's a trickle down, that people stop driving, they get on the subways, then they get on their bikes. I think what you'll see is when gas prices go up people might abandon their car and go to the subway. That might be their first choice and their second choice might be memories of the personal transport thing and they might try a bike.
MP: Was there any kind of seminal event, or great fad that spurred bike usage on? Something along the lines of the jogging boom of the 1980s?
CM: I think the biggest touch point would always be the [New York City] transit strike back in 1980. [It] was just a huge awakening for people. … I think it was April 1 or something, but it was fair weather, so hordes of people came out and never went back, you know, just hordes. And that was probably the biggest percentage increase I ever saw of everyday cyclists. And it was courtesy of the transit authority. People saw it's a lot better than the subway.
MP: Have you ever seen impact from high gas prices, going back to the 1970s?
CM: There was a much more of an impact when you couldn't buy gas every day … Because that became, not a money issue, it became a time issue … People were investing huge amounts of time in gas rather than huge amounts of money. Now we're investing money. And people who can afford to drive … the gas is not a significant part of the process in New York City, especially if you have to deal with parking. So the gas price is kind of small. But when it was a time issue for these people, they were much more likely to seek out an alternative. So if they had long gas lines or rationing of some sort, all of the sudden you'd probably see a lot more people switching over … If you were going to spend an hour in line getting gas, you would think about what your alternatives were.
MP: How did you first get into cycling?
CM: I was living at my parents' apartment in Brooklyn … and I was going to school in Manhattan, in the village, and I was riding the subway one day, and it was the middle of January. I don't remember why, but something must have happened on the train that day, I don't remember what it was, but I got off the train and said, "I'm never riding the train again." … I went over to Stuyvesant Bikes, which is now out of business, and bought a bike … My parents almost died when I brought it home because they thought it was the most juvenile thing in the world. I was 19 and had never owned a bike before, so it was a real radical departure for me… and the first time I rode it home, my hands were freezing off, but I remember I made it home like 15 minutes quicker than I would have. And there was no frustration with the train. At that point, I think the subway was 15 cents. I was saving 30 cents a day. I was a student. It was great; it fit all my needs.
URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114712193852146969.html
May 10, 2006 10:34 p.m. EDT
Q&A: Growing U.S. Bicycle Habit
Charlie McCorkell (CM), who has owned Bicycle Habitat in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan for 29 years, talked with WSJ.com's Matt Phillips (MP) about what has pushed commuters onto their bikes in the past, the impact of the current high gas prices, and more. Mr. McCorkell, 56 years old, is also a former executive director of Transportation Alternatives.
MP: How has bike participation changed over the last 20 years or so?
CM: I started commuting in New York City in 1969. At that point, when you went over the Brooklyn Bridge there were six flights of stairs you had to deal with. If you saw two or three other cyclists on your commute, you thought you saw a lot. I'd get spit at at least once a week by drivers … who didn't feel I had any right to the road. The situation in the last 35 years has obviously changed dramatically … The change is, you know, it's like something from the sublime to the ridiculous almost, there are so many cyclists.
MP: What accounts for the growth?
CM: You have so many forces in society that help it along. We have people who ride because they don't like the war in Iraq and they think it's an oil war. We don't see too many people who come in because oil prices have gone up, gas prices have gone up, but they do exist. Every time somebody gets [delayed or has a bad experience] on the subway, you know, they think, "Maybe, I should ride my bike." And there are so many cyclists out there that they see people riding. It's no longer an occasional thing, you know, you're no longer, like, the odd man out … I like to think, to borrow from [Malcolm] Gladwell's book [The Tipping Point], we've reached a "tipping point" in New York City for bicycle riding. The more people who ride, the more people who will ride, and the more awareness there is of it. I mean you can't walk down a street any more without seeing bikes [locked] onto poles. You can't stand in the street for more than two minutes in even the most deserted areas of New York without seeing a bike rider.
MP: So you don't see a big upsurge from people turning to bicycles for relief from gas prices?
CM: I haven't seen that yet … The problem is people who are going to drive in New York City and Manhattan, they're going to pay $40 to park their car for a day, or they're going to risk a ticket or something else. [For them,] the gas price is such a minuscule part of the transportation cost for a car. What I am hearing … is that people are not jumping in their car to drive five blocks, to pick up a quart of milk. They'll jump on the bike. I've heard a couple stories along that line. And this is especially people who live in Brooklyn, where I live, who tell me … that's not worth it for them to get in the car anymore. And so we've seen some minor changes there and that could lead to longer-term changes, where they find out that biking is actually a reality and you can do it. And usually the biggest surprise to people when they hop on a bike is when they're going seven, eight miles in New York City that it's so much quicker by bike than by car or subway or anything else.
MP: Do you have any sense of how changes in New York City would compare with the rest of the country?
CM: New York City I think is a real trendsetter at this point. You know we have the oldest bike lane in the country, in Brooklyn, the Ocean Parkway bike lane. You have the busiest bike lane in the country on West Street [in Manhattan], by far … and it's what? Five years old? Six years old? The increase [in] bicycling is just phenomenal … and as I said the more people who ride, the more people who ride. I know people who commute in San Francisco and I just don't know how they get them down the hills -- but they tell me they go around them for the most part. A lot of bike riders there. Portland, Ore.? Off the scale. Really good bike community. And on the smaller side Davis, Calif. -- everybody bikes. Boston is a very popular bike town at this point. So I think we're seeing them in cities where there's the transit option. I think there's a trickle down, that people stop driving, they get on the subways, then they get on their bikes. I think what you'll see is when gas prices go up people might abandon their car and go to the subway. That might be their first choice and their second choice might be memories of the personal transport thing and they might try a bike.
MP: Was there any kind of seminal event, or great fad that spurred bike usage on? Something along the lines of the jogging boom of the 1980s?
CM: I think the biggest touch point would always be the [New York City] transit strike back in 1980. [It] was just a huge awakening for people. … I think it was April 1 or something, but it was fair weather, so hordes of people came out and never went back, you know, just hordes. And that was probably the biggest percentage increase I ever saw of everyday cyclists. And it was courtesy of the transit authority. People saw it's a lot better than the subway.
MP: Have you ever seen impact from high gas prices, going back to the 1970s?
CM: There was a much more of an impact when you couldn't buy gas every day … Because that became, not a money issue, it became a time issue … People were investing huge amounts of time in gas rather than huge amounts of money. Now we're investing money. And people who can afford to drive … the gas is not a significant part of the process in New York City, especially if you have to deal with parking. So the gas price is kind of small. But when it was a time issue for these people, they were much more likely to seek out an alternative. So if they had long gas lines or rationing of some sort, all of the sudden you'd probably see a lot more people switching over … If you were going to spend an hour in line getting gas, you would think about what your alternatives were.
MP: How did you first get into cycling?
CM: I was living at my parents' apartment in Brooklyn … and I was going to school in Manhattan, in the village, and I was riding the subway one day, and it was the middle of January. I don't remember why, but something must have happened on the train that day, I don't remember what it was, but I got off the train and said, "I'm never riding the train again." … I went over to Stuyvesant Bikes, which is now out of business, and bought a bike … My parents almost died when I brought it home because they thought it was the most juvenile thing in the world. I was 19 and had never owned a bike before, so it was a real radical departure for me… and the first time I rode it home, my hands were freezing off, but I remember I made it home like 15 minutes quicker than I would have. And there was no frustration with the train. At that point, I think the subway was 15 cents. I was saving 30 cents a day. I was a student. It was great; it fit all my needs.
URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114712193852146969.html
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