Accelerating Mobility: Building Safe, Connected Bike Lanes That Transform Cities  

When Kyle Wagenschutz first took on the role of Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager for the City of Memphis, Tennessee, the “home of the blues” had just topped Bicycle Magazine’s list of America’s worst cycling cities for the second year in a row, a dubious honor that caught the attention of the incoming mayor, A .C. Wharton Jr. Two short years and 60+ miles of dedicated bike lanes later, Memphis made the list once again, this time receiving the magazine’s most improved award.

Since then, Wagenschutz has become America’s foremost expert on transforming cities through the rapid development of bicycle pathways, a growing field that promises to boost public health, strengthen local businesses, attract new and desirable jobs, ease traffic, and generally improve the lifestyle of any city’s residents. That’s a lot of benefits for a relatively small public sector investment.

For his efforts in Memphis, Kyle was invited to the White House as a “Champion of Change.” The “Champions of Change” program was initiated by the Obama administration to highlight the inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference. They are selected based on their accomplishments, their commitment to their communities, and their potential to inspire others.

Snapshot

Explaining his start on the Memphis cycling scene, Kyle says, “I had been working for a local bicycle cooperative called Revolutions Memphis, located in the basement of a church in Midtown. It had been in existence for about 10 years, helping people recycle bicycles, learn how to maintain them, providing free or reduced fare repairs for people who were reliant on their bicycles.”

Kyle continues, “People who empowered me to get things done, empowered me to understand how bureaucracy works, how to work with it, [and] how to work around it. There was a whole spirit of newness and freshness that is really a testament to Mayor Wharton allowing this spirit of innovation to flourish inside of City Hall.” It turns out that Kyle’s first role in city government would shape both the near-term future of his career and the mobility of five more U.S. cities, with even more to come.

Learning to navigate city government efficiently is a skill by itself, as essential to the success of a project as analyzing local traffic patterns, rallying signatures, or mixing concrete. It’s a theme that comes up regularly on Supercool. Because projects like bike lanes, even with the support of an overwhelming majority, wind up taking decades when they could be completed in months. Having a pro like Kyle on hand makes all the difference.

After nearly seven years in that position, Memphis and Kyle had added more than 200 miles of protected trailways.

Above: City of Memphis Interactive Bikeway Map

Since his time in Memphis, Kyle has worked with local teams in Austin, Denver, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Providence, where he and the Final Mile Project team catalyzed the construction of 335 miles of bike lanes in 24 months – 3x faster than the national average.

Listen to the Podcast with with Kyle Wagenschutz

How Do Bicycle Path Network Change a City?

Above: Source People for Bikes

Utilization data confirms that bicycle commuting is nearly universal across economic groups in the United States. While the top three quartiles by income are split almost evenly, the people who make up the poorest quartile commute by bicycle at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the population. That means a well-designed, city-wide system of bicycle paths promotes equity and helps everyone get where they need to go, shrinking food deserts and promoting a more active lifestyle for all.

Despite clear benefits, these projects often face opposition from local interests.

One common objection to the construction of bicycle lanes and pathways is an unfounded concern about adverse effects on local businesses. Local business owners tend to put too much emphasis on the availability of parking.

Watching customers pull up in front of a shop or restaurant, park their cars, and run inside is a comfort to any business owner paying for retail space. Still, just the opposite is true when it comes to building dedicated bicycle lanes that replace street parking. Recent examples include:

Queens, New York

When New York City proposed protected bike lanes on Skillman Avenue in Queens, the opposition arrived swiftly, but the project moved forward in the fall of 2018. According to the Department of Finance, “Sales in the stores, bars, and restaurants on Skillman’s main seven-block commercial stretch collectively rose by 12 percent.” Other benefits like safety were studied, and they found, “Crashes on the avenue fell by 24 percent — and injuries from crashes by 28 percent — in the two years after the bike lane went in compared to the two years prior.” (Streetsblog) 

Minneapolis, Minnesota

According to a study by Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center in Oregon, when bike lanes were installed on Central Avenue in Minneapolis — reducing the width of the travel lane and removing parking — retail employment increased by 12.6%, much higher than the 8.5% increase calculated in the control study just a few blocks away. Food sales in the same corridor also increased by 52.4%, more than doubling the 22.5% increase in the control area. (trec.pdx.edu)

Sevilla, Spain

According to the Guardian, Sevilla has been transformed by its 75 miles of bicycle lanes, “The average number of bikes used daily in the city rose from just over 6,000 to more than 70,000.” An 11x increase in daily cycling habits profoundly affects any city’s population and way of life. Unlike many cities, Sevilla’s bike lanes are defined by curbs and waist-high fences instead of painted lines. Too often, bike lanes fail to convey a sense of safety because they feel more superficial than structural. Safety is key to adoption, though the transformation in Spain was a direct reaction to hours of daily commuter traffic congestion. (The Guardian)

Kyle cites Mayor Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín in the mid-2000s as inspiration for his work, “They built their entire cycling network in just two years. They just laid it all out. They said, ‘We’re going to build it all. Construction is going to be terribly messy. People are going to be upset. We’re just going to push forward.’ They shifted that public conversation from questioning, should we be doing this to how can we make it better? And in some ways, that is really our pitch to cities.”

“The other thing that our research showed us is that what motivates people most about the transportation choice that they make is not their concern for the environment. It is not a concern about their community. It’s not even safety. The number one reason people make the transportation choices they make today is because they want to retain individual control over their schedule. They just want to walk out their door and get to the place where they’re going in the time that they think it should actually take to get there.”

Other economic benefits are associated with pedestrian infrastructure, and researchers found that properties near bike lanes in Berkeley, California, saw an average increase in value of 5%. The effect was even more pronounced in areas with high-density housing. (berkeleyca.gov)

It turns out that there are many misconceptions about retail businesses today. Many assume that e-commerce has hollowed out the retail market. However, digital transactions only account for less than 16% of revenue in the U.S. Post-pandemic, “leasing activity in U.S. shopping centers has accelerated to its fastest pace in two decades,” according to CoStart and CRE Daily. “Up to 80% of shopping center space leases within 6 months of availability, with almost half of the spaces landing tenants within 3 months. A record 98% of space is leased within 9 months of becoming available.”

In short, the retail ecosystem is flourishing; bicycle lanes bolster local businesses.

The Accelerated Mobility Playbook: From a Great Vision to an Everyday Reality

70% of Americans support building out complete, safe bicycle networks, according to national polling conducted in partnership with City Thread. But getting these pathways built is fraught with challenges, so it helps to have a proven playbook buttressed with data from comparable projects, ensuring that installations start and finish on time.

City Thread is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate projects that help people move safely, efficiently, and equitably throughout their communities. What makes Kyle Wagenschutz and his City Thread partners supercool is that they know how to move these projects forward, they’ve even gone as far as publishing the “Accelerated Mobility Playbook to help more cities accelerate mobility plans.

Here are 3 Key Insights:

1. 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀

Generating and sustaining support means everyone in the community, those who ride and those who don’t, need to be on board. “Our audience has to be people who choose to drive a car and are never going to make another choice because those are the majority of people living in American cities,” Kyle says. In other words, recreational cyclists are not the audience, and ensuring that a project appeals to a much broader audience is essential.

2. 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Once you have community support, act with speed to build bike infrastructure. Dragging out bike lane construction risks losing momentum. Kyle notes, “Orange traffic cones are free advertising that cities put up every single day. And they’re not usually a positive communication method for folks.” No taxpayer likes to see construction dragged out, bike lanes or otherwise. Projects that move quickly pick up support that can carry over to the following location.

3. 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲

Bigger is better. As Kyle says, “Acting at scale leads to this sustained change over time. If we’re just going to build one mile of trail, people are not going to show up for the next one.”

The practical benefits are clear, and what often happens in cities is that any new public space becomes an avenue for self-expression and style. Kyle says, “And that’s how we induce this behavior change. It’s not just by building the infrastructure and saying, if we build it, people will start using it.” For commuters especially, this is truly about autonomy. And there are a host of new vehicle types taking over the pathways,  “I even joke with people, there’s all these new technologies that are coming down. We’re probably going to see electric kayaks in these spaces at some point in the future.”

The Benefits for Cities That Cycle

Acclaimed author and urban planner Richard Florida posits that cities with the most bike lanes have fitter, wealthier, happier, and more diverse people. Florida has written extensively about the factors contributing to cities’ economic vitality and innovation. His work often emphasizes the crucial role of urban amenities and infrastructure in attracting talent and fostering innovation. That spirit of innovation moved Kyle Wagenschutz early in his career, serving Mayor A .C. Wharton Jr.’s administration in Memphis.

Florida’s research suggests that cities must invest in tangible infrastructure, like transportation and public spaces, and intangible amenities, like culture and diversity. Dedicated bicycle lanes have the potential to deliver on both fronts. Undergoing these efforts raises the urban quality of life, attracting what he describes as the “creative class” of knowledge workers and entrepreneurs. Florida defines quality of life through walkable urban environments, which can include bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly streets, and a variety of shops and restaurants.

Going deeper, “Cities compete not just for jobs, but for talent. And talent is attracted to places with a high quality of life, a vibrant culture, and a sense of place,” he claims. These factors contribute to a city’s overall innovation ecosystem and economic competitiveness.

Wagesnschutz and team are now preparing to work with 15 additional cities.

Interested cities can apply for an Accelerated Mobility Playbook (AMP) Grant. The application period is now open and runs until November 20, 204.

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