What Happened?
Cities throughout Iowa are responding to rising demand for amenities to support bicycle commuting with increased access to bikes and safe passageways. The push for more bike-friendly policies aligns with the state’s efforts to improve the quality of life for residents while cutting down on carbon emissions.
The Goal
Iowa has several initiatives in progress to support economic development, improve quality of life for residents and increase efficiency in public services and resources. These statewide efforts, such as Blue Zone, aim to increase access to healthy lifestyle choices such as bicycling to work. Thus, it has been easy to fit bicycle amenities into existing programs across the state.
In Cedar Rapids, for example, city officials have added 21 miles of bike lanes, shared road arrows and wider shoulder roads to support a growing population of bicyclists on the roadways. By the end of 2014, Cedar Rapids expects to add an additional 10 miles, as well as bike racks on city transit buses.
Moving forward, Cedar Rapids officials are developing a complete streets initiative requiring road projects to be designed with bicyclists and pedestrians in mind in terms of access, mobility and safety.
The Iowa Bicycle Coalition has teamed up with the Iowa Department of Economic Development to draw up a complete streets strategies outline communities can reference when adding or revamping roads in the community.
Private organizations are also collaborating with public officials to support bicycle plans. Many employers in Iowa are offering workers incentives to participate in bike programs as a healthy commuting alternative.
Nation of Bikers
Biking to work is a national trend, as the U.S. Census Bureau reported bike commuting jumped 61 percent in the last 10 years, with roughly 786,000 more people opting for cycling rather than driving.
The Census Bureau’s Modes Less Traveled found the Northeast has the highest rate of walking to work at 4.7 percent, while the West reported the highest rate of bicycle commuters at 1.1 percent. The South showed the lost rate of biking and walking to work. Workers who walked to work spent an average of 11.5 minutes commuting, compared to an average of 19.3 minutes for bicycle commuters. The average of all other commuters was 25.9 minutes to get to work.
According to the data, Davis, California, is the leader of small cities in the United States with a strong bike commuter population accounting for 19 percent of workers. Boulder, Colorado, takes the top spot for medium-sized cities due to its extensive bike infrastructure that 11 percent of its workforce takes advantage of. Portland, Oregon, has the most bicycle commuters of larger cities at 6 percent of its workforce population.
Among the concerns expressed by commuters interested in biking to work was fear of sharing the road with motorists. The cities with the largest percentage of workers using bikes for commuting have equipped roadways with bike lanes and signage to prevent accidents and alert drivers to the presence of bicyclists.
More Efficient Paths
Gov1 has followed several projects making bike paths more accessible to residents, as well as efforts to cut down on bicycle thefts.