Dean of Academic Affairs for the Albertus Traditional Undergraduate Program, Dr. Ross Edwards, reflects on his cycling journey from New Haven, Connecticut to Southwick, Massachusetts. He draws connections between local and nationwide biking initiatives and Albertus’ mission and curriculum, shining a light on the community benefits of bike riding.
On June 25th, my wife and I took part in this year’s Ride the State, an annual event hosted by the East Coast Greenway. The ride started on the New Haven green and went north for 56 miles, to Southwick, Massachusetts, and, thanks to the participation and donations from the 150 participating riders was able to raise $10,000 for the Connecticut branch of the East Coast Greenway. This organization’s long-term goal is to help lead the development of a network of dedicated bike/multipurpose trails that would run from Maine to Florida (see the map here). In addition, however, the organization helps to fund local bike advocacy groups throughout the east coast. Working to build a vibrant, equitable, and safe biking culture and infrastructure throughout the United States, especially in urban areas like New Haven, is a task that local and state officials should be actively prioritizing.
While the number of people who actively bike in the United States continues to rise (52.73 million people in 2020), simple numbers do not do justice to the impact that biking has, and why it is so important for us to cultivate a bike-friendly culture. It is true that many people use bikes primarily for recreation — the number of people who use them mainly for utilitarian purposes (like getting to work or school) is significant and also rising. Bikes can be cheaper than cars, and often times more reliable and convenient than mass transit (like busses or trains).
Biking can cut down on pollution and urban congestion (bikes take up FAR less space than cars), and, honestly, biking can also just be FUN. However, for most of the 20th century, cities were built to accommodate cars and car culture, and very little thought was devoted to how we can promote active, regular, and safe biking. Cities got bigger, more congested, and more hostile to bikes, but many people, especially those who had no real alternative to biking, had to continue to brave those increasingly dangerous cities. It is also worth noting that, within urban areas, most of the people who need to rely on bikes are people from low-income households, which means they disproportionately bear the brunt of those dangerous conditions (it may also help explain why city planners throughout the 20th century didn’t pay too much attention to the needs of cyclists).
Recently, in the United States, activists and organizations like the East Coast Greenway have been trying to challenge that dynamic by bringing these issues to the public consciousness. As a result, we are starting to realize just how essential bikes are for many urban residents and we are seeing the beginnings of a change in how we talk about cycling, and cycling infrastructure within an urban setting. Increasingly, people see safe cycling as a means of improving our quality of life, making cities more accessible and livable, and providing greater access to a greater number of people. However, it is not enough to simply encourage or promote bike access. Urban planners have begun to look at how they can re-design cities to the benefit of bikes just like 50 years ago they were designing cities to the benefit of cars.
Using European cities like Copenhagen as a model, which have been leading the way in safe cycling infrastructures for decades, some US cities have started to address key features that would encourage more cycling, and make it safer and more reliable. From designing and building complete streets to greater and safer bike storage, to the promotion of city-wide ‘bike to work’ days, we are seeing more and more cities reimagine what an urban environment and culture could look like that took the needs of cyclists seriously. The results are encouraging: as people feel safer biking in cities,
the number of bike trips (including biking to work or other bike trips that replace car trips) increases significantly. As cities create more bike paths, we see greater bike participation by demographic groups that weren’t traditionally riding as frequently. Much more can still be done, and this is why organizations like the East Coast Greenway are so important. By continuing to advocate for these types of changes, we can further the important work of making our cities more accessible, equitable, and foster a greater quality of life for more of the inhabitants.
In addition to being a recreational cyclist, I am also a faculty member in the Urban Studies Program here at Albertus Magnus College. These questions of livability, justice, and access within urban environments animate much of what we teach and study in this program. In the Urban Studies program, students engage directly with the city of New Haven to help them learn to see cities as dynamic sites of politics, culture, and civic engagement. From touring the Common Ground School to meeting with city officials, Urban Studies students enjoy a hands-on active learning experience throughout the entire program in order to help them “practice moral and civic reflection on the social responsibilities cities have to their diverse inhabitants, visitors, and communities.” Students will be asked to respond to these pressing questions of urban life and tasked with coming up with solutions that can speak to the challenges and deliver the promises that are inherent in our 21st-century cities. If this sort of educational experience speaks to you, please feel free to reach out to any of our affiliated faculty to discuss the program. We’d love to hear from you and see how you might be able to add your own voice to the ongoing project of urban studies. If you don’t want to meet in my office, just grab a bike and helmet, and we can have a working meeting on the bike path.