Generously Fund Cycleways, Experts Say As Covid-19’s Spread Boosts Bicycle Use

New York City, Mex­i­co City, and Bogotá are rolling out “emer­gency” cycle­ways to boost bicy­cle use dur­ing the Coro­n­avirus epi­dem­ic. The “Big Apple” has wit­nessed a surge in peo­ple cycling as they avoid crowd­ed trains, and Bogotá intro­duced 100 kilo­me­ters of “tem­po­rary” cycle­ways to enable essen­tial jour­neys. Mex­i­co City is con­sid­er­ing a four-fold increase to its exist­ing cycle­ways net­work.

Brook­lyn-based TV pro­duc­er Doug Gor­don—one of the three hosts of The War on Cars pod­cast—said he hopes New York City is “ready for what will hap­pen when things slow­ly return to nor­mal.” He believes the city will wit­ness the “biggest surge in cycling ever.” He adds that “tem­po­rary” bike lanes “must be made per­ma­nent” and “there will have to be seri­ous efforts to make sure all the cars don’t come flood­ing back.”

Writ­ing in the British Med­ical Jour­nal (BMJ) on March 14, U.S. pub­lic health aca­d­e­m­ic Anne Lusk urged that gov­ern­ments around the world should

“sup­port new [cycling] infra­struc­ture that tack­les some of the world’s biggest issues,” includ­ing “pub­lic safe­ty, health, eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, equi­ty, and cli­mate change.”

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