Can Cities Change the Face of Biking?

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Can local high school bike clubs and community-based bike shops change local commuting behaviors? Author J.B. Wogan, a staff writer for Governing wrote an article that demonstrates how these local bike clubs could possibly influence commuting behaviors.  Besides promoting bike commuting, they provide a youth educational tool and teach a job skill - bike mechanics.

Digital Harbor High School, located in Baltimore, has a bike club where students meet once a week to learn how to repair bikes.  The club relies on volunteers such as bike mechanics and high school teachers who serve as club advisors.  The success of this club also relies on the local police department who donates bikes and bike parts. Once the bikes have been rebuilt, the bikes are sold as part of a fundraiser. 

Instead of a high school bike club, in the city of Albuquerque, N. M., they have their own community-based bike shop.  They provide classes on basic tune-ups, brake systems, ball bearings and wheel truing.  Funding for this program is in the form of municipal grants and contributions.

In order to achieve large-scale change, these youth bike programs would need to involve demographic groups that typical do not ride bikes.  The article provides some interesting stats about the demographic percentages of commuters who ride bikes vs cars. 

On another note, these clubs and programs could be attractive to policymakers for another reason: they teach job skills.  Some of the students involved in a bike club now work as bike mechanics at a bike shop not far from their school. As biking becomes more popular across the United States, the demand for bike mechanics is likely to grow.

The complete article can be found at http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-can-cities-change-face-biking.html#continued