Racing’s Not the Answer
The Tour of California blew through my hometown this weekend. The weather was awful for a stage race (windy, rainy), but the turnout was surprisingly good (one local paper even called the crowds “monstrous”). I couldn’t figure out why so many people turned out compared to years past, but then I remembered that Lance Armstrong is on the roster this year — there’s nothing like a bona-fide celebrity to bring out the throngs.
People talk about racing as a way to attract people to bicycling, with the assumption that an interest in racing will eventually lead to an interest in transportational bicycling. I don’t know, but this seems a little like crediting NASCAR for an increase in automobile use. I don’t mean to criticize bike racers, many of whom are dedicated bike commuters and staunch advocates for transportational bicycling, I’m just pointing out that watching a bicycle race is not likely to cause the average non-athlete to give up their car and start using their bicycle for daily transportation.
There’s also much talk about how to improve the bicycle to make it more appealing to the general public, with the idea that if we make the bicycle more appealing, it will attract non-riders into transportational bicycling. I don’t think the bicycle needs improving. Its design has been subtly refined for over a century and it remains one of the most efficient machines on Earth. With some good advice and a proper set-up, anyone can buy a well-designed, durable, and comfortable bicycle that’s perfectly suited to commuting distances, for under $500.
So if the answer isn’t racing or better bicycles, what is it? A number of studies have shown that the number one obstacle that keeps people from riding their bikes is the perception that it’s dangerous, and what makes them feel the most insecure is sharing the road with automobiles. No doubt, safety classes make for safer riders, and vehicular cycling is a sound concept given our current road conditions, but if we ever expect to see large numbers of transportational bicyclists in the U.S., we need facilities that provide a buffer between fast moving motor vehicles and bicyclists. There will be those who argue that riding out in the flow of traffic is actually safer than riding on separated bike lanes/paths because of the potential for collision at intersections. In the U.S., where our bicycle infrastructure is under-funded and haphazard at best, this is most certainly true, but this issue has been successfully dealt with in a number of European cities with extensive separated bicycle infrastructure, high numbers of bicyclists, and low per capita collision rates.
Bicycle racing is a wonderful sport with its rich traditions, vivid colors, athletic feats, and glamour. I have to admit, I’m glued to the television for three weeks every summer during the Tour De France. But I think we all know that it’s not going to be as easy as broadcasting a few stage races every year to get the ball rolling with transportational bicycling. Nothing short of a major, long-term investment in bicycling infrastructure, with the goal of making the riding experience less stressful for bicyclists of all ages and skill levels, will be enough.
23 Responses to “Racing’s Not the Answer”
Absolutely. In my household there’s me – no car, comfortable as a vehicular cyclist when need be (and yes, this is a very necessary skill, even in “best of the second tier” Portland, Oregon). And my partner, who sees the appeal; he loves living in a walkable neighborhood with access to light rail, and prides himself on using his car only for his 200 mile round trip commute to work (which, luckily, he only needs to do once a week). Weekend rides along MUPs show that he loves the feeling of riding the bike – the pace, the exercise, the wind in his hair. So it seems that all of the parts of a transportation cyclist are there. The only problem is that he is not at all comfortable with the thought of taking the lane and so will never ride here.
From everything I’ve read, the benefit of getting more cyclists on the road (or, in the case of best of the top tier Copenhagen and Amsterdam, cycle track) far outweighs potential dangers of segregated facilities. Increases in cycling in those cities has shown that as the numbers go up, injuries and fatalities stagnate or go down. The problems with segregated facilities seem to come when they’re poorly designed or when people don’t realize they’re there. So if we can look to the greats (as Portland transportation planners did on a recent trip to Northern Europe) for ideas of effective design and then let people come, both problems can be addressed.
I know that until separated facilities connect my partner fluidly from one end of his trip to another, cyclist will be a weekend activity, period.
Oh and neither of us has any interest in racing.
Your’e right. Racing is def not the answer. I ride for transportation as often as possible and I’m pretty sure I can’t name a single professional cyclist – and I have no interest in entering any races. I’m just an anecdote, of course.
I’m actually pretty convinced that encouraging cycling has very little to do with bikes. I think it has mostly to do with our land-use and car-parking policies. Don’t get me wrong.. some bike lanes will go a long way towards getting some folks out on bikes, but not nearly as much as upping the price of parking or reducing roadway supply.
Currently on our hols in Portugal, we came across a team out on the road today near Tavira about to go on a training run in this weeks Tour de Algarve. Their road manners were a bit poor tbh – exiting a roundabout, crossing over the reservation into the path of 2 cars before dawdling back onto the roundabout into the path of a van who like the 2 cars had right of way. Not exactly fostering any respect for other cyclists.
However, there is a cycle trail down here on the Algarve that runs from Portugals SW tip eastwards to the border with Spain, that has had a noticeable effect in the last 3 yrs we’ve been coming here. The ‘trail’ is simply a route using quiet lanes linked with the odd trailpath, along with a safe route through each town & resort along the coast. Cycle Hire has become fashionable again for tourists and many campers bring their own. Cycling amongst resisdents also appears to have increased, which may well have been encouraged by more bicycles being seen on the road giving a greater sense of safety.
No doubt the racing at the end of the week will also have a positive effect. We’re looking forward to seeing some of Saturdays stage having never seen a race live before – should be fun!
Back at home we live a stones throw from a couple of cycle trails. The Longdendale trail in particular saw a big increase in 2 wheeled traffic last summer after the Tour de France & our cycling success in the Olympics. Not traffic in the people on exotic racing bikes sense, but mainly mtbs or hybrids. Some of those might well have decided to use their bikes occasionally instead of the car…
…so in a very roundabout and probably not too efficient way you might say that racing is part of the answer, and it certainly does make good telly for a change.
I think the main problem with racing as a means to get more people on bikes is that racing (and racers) are so compartmentalized from the rest of the bicycling world. And racing has dominated the public image of bicycling (at least for adults) for so long, it’s hard to break through the public perception that bike riding is all spandex and carbon fiber and 10 oz. bikes. Those of us who advocate for transportational cycling sometimes forget how much of a hold this image has on the mainstream imagination of what bicycle riding is all about. The answer, of course, is getting out there and riding for transportation, leading by example, if you will, and showing people that riding a bicycle is a viable and non-threatening way to get around.
One of the newspaper folks who left the paper about the same time I did (along with 600 others) started her own newspaper. She just hired another of the PBNI 600 to write about riding a recently opened stretch of A1A that runs along the ocean.
http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/profiles/blogs/putting-the-pedal-to-the
It was a predictable “Oh, I’m so afraid I’m going to get run over,” piece illustrated with a picture of her hugging the fog line.
I’ll get around to writing a rebuttal piece, but this is the way most folks view road riding, particularly newspaper and TV reporters who want to knock out an easy first-person piece.
I’ve been following the Tour of CA, look forward to all the road racing that Versus shows and get ticked off at letters to the editor in my hometown MO paper complaining about how much the Tour of Missouri costs to put on.
But, do I have any personal interest in racing? You gotta be kidding.
You have to admit, though, that those crowds standing around for hours in cold rain have to demonstrate SOME kind of interest in cycling. That’s gotta be a good thing.
I think the biggest benefit that states get from the Tours is the hours of travelogue-type footage they get on TV.
I think you’ve summed up the cycleways vs. road cycling argument. Accidents at the entry and exit to cycleways show the cycleway was badly thought out and designed. A proper network is far safer.
Trouble is, the ‘Bikeways aren’t safe’ argument is easy for lazy politicians to jump on as a way to avoid making more bike infrastructure.
I tend to think that racing is something individuals are drawn to after the fact (e.g., I loved riding and then gradually found a very casual side interest in racing developing — as a spectator, not a participant — simply because it was yet another aspect of cycling to enjoy), or else manifests because someone is already athletically inclined, a sports enthusiast. Either way, I agree that it’s probably not the way to get more folks out of their cars and onto their bikes.
I would love nothing more than to see the sort of separated, protected, and highly developed bike lanes here in the States that one sees in Copenhagen and the like, but that just seems so far off and unimaginable when most towns are lucky to have decent, well-placed bike racks and a recreational bike path somewhere. In the interim, I’m inclined to agree most with Thom: the more of us who ride and the more often we do so, the more encouraged others will be to follow suit, especially if we do it on ordinary bikes, in ordinary clothes, and so on.
Racing and riding for transportation are two totally different forms of cycling. Just like automobile racing and automobile commuting a two different forms. Admittedly some people attempt to treat commuting by car like a race and usually with disastrous results.
We need viable, properly designed, properly built and properly MAINTAINED cycle facilities if we ever expect to get people out of their cars. I live in a formerly rural part of NC. The closest grocery store complex (small one at that) is only 1.5 miles away, however all of the roads in the area are built to a minimum standard. Two lanes 10′-6″ (3.2m) (on a good day, narrower in some locations) wide, no shoulders, traffic count is over 6,000 cars per day, posted speed limit is 55mph (80kmh) with most traffic traveling faster than that. There are currently over 5,000 people living within a 5 mile (8km) range of this store; yet only 3 of us regularly ride bicycles to it…I wonder why? My wife is not comfortable “playing” in traffic and I don’t blame her. Somehow, someway the USA is going to have to dethrone the car as king (more like overthrow the dictator IMHO) and get on with the alternatives.
Aaron
Alan, I Agree 100%. You’ve nailed it.
An alternative way to draw people to biking is through mass rides (as opposed to races) that are open to the public. Every year Montréal holds the Tour de l’Ile, a day-long trip around the island in which streets used by the tour are blocked off to traffic. The route changes every year to keep it interesting.
The number of participants is staggering, in some years estimated as high as 30,000 (yes, that’s thirty thousand, not a typo). The tour went by my house last year and we sat and watched as a solid mass of cyclists rode by over the course of four hours.
Using racing to promote transportational cycling is about the worst idea I can think of. IMHO, racing bikes are uncomfortable due to seating position and posture, not to mention clip-ons. I’ve been cycling daily for 35 years now, and I loathe to ride on a racing bike.
It has been amply proven that regular exercise is good for you. But I’ve got my doubts as to how healthy high-performance cycling is. The performance levels in professional cycle racing are almost unattainable even for a well-trained athlete (as witnessed by the widespread doping usage). And they are certainly not sustainable in the long run. I just don’t think this is a good example to set for people.
Besides, racing fosters a mentality that faster is better, which is totally baseless for transportational cycling. Getting groceries or cycling to work shouldn’t have to be a race. People should ride at the speed they feel comfortable with.
Racing and commuting are entirely different and interest in one does not translate into interest in another. To follow the NASCAR analogy, I have it on good authority that fans of the sport find the high speed crashes exciting. If people watch bicycle racing with the same idea, it’s no wonder that interest in races doesn’t translate into more commuters!
I’d also like to echo what was said above that Americans are still obsessed with the concept of time management and that “faster is more efficient.” So they’ll drive at 55 mph to the gym and ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes. BIke commuters know that biking is faster than they thought and very satisfying, but how do we make THAT into good television?
BlackBear – Well, it’s hardly as exciting as primetime television, but I heard one Portland transportation planner describe the design for our bicycle wayfinding signs as “propaganda” for cycling. Along with arrows and mileage to various destinations, they also include the time it would take to get there by bike, calculated at a very conservative 10 mph pace. I’ve walked by them with many non-cyclists, and many are surprised by how quickly one can get across town by bike.
I would normally agree with the “racing does not encourage transportation cycling” position. I think that racing equipment, clothing, and riding style carried out be most racers and “performance” riders would not typically encourage someone to take up transportation cycling. I did see one big connection this last week though. On Saturday I volunteered at the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA) valet bike parking at the Tour Prologue time trial. The race drew such large crowds that people knew better than to drive down town. Every means of public transportation was filled to capacity and the bike valet compound was filled to overflowing. This was just a small fraction of the bikes that were locked to trees and poles through out the area. The bikes were not just ultra light wannabe racers but also every shape and weight cycle imaginable. It was as if everyone dusted off their cycles and came down town. It gave me a glimpse of what it could be like with a larger percentage of the population riding for transportation and hopefully some of them will stick with it. I do not follow racing but I must say it was a very exciting day on all fronts.
Sacramento, California
i once read an article in bicycling magazine that stated something to the effect of, “the worst thing that ever happened to bicycling in america was greg lemond winning the tour de france.”
with his win, he catapulted bicycling into the recreational realm, far, far away from where transportational cycling could ever touch it. i think we still see this dynamic manifest in our bike shops today. bike shops carry racing related bikes and equipment 10:1 over other forms of cycling.
i agree, promoting racing is not a means of promoting transportational bicycling. many recreational cyclists drive long distances, just to start their ride.
as as been mentioned before, i believe that a greater investment in education and infrastructure – efforts that normalize bicycling – will have the greatest impact.
I’d like to admire bike racing. There’s always been something about athletic prowess and determination that I do admire. But there’s so much that’s messed up about bike racing today:
–Drug abuse;
–assorted conflicts of interest between sponsors, advertisers, race promoters and bike companies who are all quite willing to look the other way at riders who cheat;
–the utter hypocrisy of a sport that claims to promote environmental friendliness while staging races where hundreds of gas-powered support vehicles follow the peleton all day;
–the trickle-down effect wherein bike manufacturers have taken the American imagination hostage by hypnotizing so many people into thinking they can’t really ride a bike unless it’s carbon-fiber and they’re clad in the latest lycra skinsuit.
If bicycle racing could go back to being more about people and not so much about machines or sponsorships then perhaps I could take it more seriously. But it’s not going back, and I’m pretty much ignoring it these days. I’ve even gone as far as to avoid buying products by sponsors of the professional level of the activity. It’s just too ridiculous to be considered real sport anymore at any but the most amateur levels.
I was at the Santa Cruz finish today and the there were a ton of fans and curious people about. The thing that really struck me though was the museum exhibit that the city set up at the Arts and History Center. There were plenty of bikes on display with tremendous racing pedigree and history but there were a variety of transportation oriented bikes about as well. Namely, that silver “hybrid” bike that Specialized designed (the name of which escapes me but, Alan, you did a blurb on it a month or two ago). That attracted a lot of attention and I focused in on it for about 20 minutes and saw it turn on a number of people that didn’t really seem like your average cyclists. Thrice I heard something along the lines of, “I’d ride that.”
Trek also did a swell job of making their non-racing bike extremely accessible in the vendor area.
I agree that watching a bunch of exquisitely conditioned athletes race inaccessible bicycles along impossible routes probably isn’t the key to getting more people to integrate transportational cycling into their lives (far from it, obviously) but that atmosphere can be infectious.
The optimist in me says that if it gets just a few people on bikes then there’s always the possibility that they could actually use those bikes to get around instead of their cars. The pessimist says, “yeah, but drove to the race in the first place.”
Hey riders,
After 10+ years on our community’s Bike/Ped Advisory Committee, here’s what I learned. It takes a 4 pronged program to get more cyclists on the road.
Engineering -bike lanes, bike friendly intersections, paved shoulders, etc.
Encouragement – bike friendly events like Ride Around Downtown or Ride the Canopy Road, that get folks out riding their bikes in safety and in large numbers, etc.
Enforcement – getting police to take cyclists seriously and cite offending motorists when they pass too closely (we have a 3 ft law in Florida), fail to yield the right of way to cyclists, or when they find cyclists riding at night without lights, etc.
Education – bike rodeos where basic bike handling skills are taught to younger kids, bike ed programs in schools, bill boards proclaiming new laws like that 3 ft minimum when passing law, pamphlets and such.
Did I mention adequate funding, which we have never been able tosecure. The city spent $300k on a Bike/Ped Master Plan and immediately shelved it because it called for FUNDING and action.
The pre-condition to all this is an organized & vocal bicycling community that DEMANDS a reasonable place at the transportation table.
Kinda chicken & egg issue.
edde
@david P:
Thanks for making that point about racing being counterproductive to utility cycling in the US. I actually agree with the idea. I was an avid racer (road and MTB) in my twenties, and now commute daily.
Many of drivers I talk to have this mentality that cycling is purely a recreational pursuit, and that therefore we’re infringing on “their” space by using the road. Many shops are indeed “racing oriented” so that only makes things worse; good choice in commuting bikes in the US is a pretty recent thing, and in fact many shops will happily sell the customer (who buys the racing-oriented marketing whole hog) something entirely unsuitable for commuting. Jim DeMint’s recent comments about funding for MUPs being “pork barrel spending” (lumping cycling with golf courses) are very indicative of this mindset. The more one can create an image of cycling in normal clothes on practical bikes, the better.
Bravo to shops like Clever Cycles who present a different image. Hopefully twenty years from now, when one talks about cycling in the US, lycra won’t be the first thing people think of.
Amen. Well said.
as a unicyclist, (i’ve not been riding lately) i am able to get away with sidewalk riding. in madison, wi that is illegal for cyclists. i’m too hooked on cycling to ever give up riding, but
i definitely prefer being out in the country, where traffic is light. on the other hand, to use a hiking analogy, the appalachian trail is easier than the pacific crest trail, in the sense that there’s more hikers on the AT than on the PCT, as well as “trail angels” on the AT (trail angels are volunteers who go looking for hikers to help with trail necessities like food, camaraderie, gear, etc) so in the same sense, city cycling is easier since there’s more cyclists out there than in the countryside, as well as the angelic feeling of riding, like a city angel you carry hope and other necessary packages on the wings of your bike. now i’m in portland, and i intend to stay for awhile!
As a longtime transportation and recreational cyclist, I share Alan’s view of racing. However, many racing technologies have found their way into the automotive world that have made cars safer, such as disc brakes, safety belts, and crush zones. One could make the argument that bicycles can and have benefited technologically at times from bicycling racing. But it is true also that bicycle racing is mostly spectacle. On the other hand (I’m a frustrated professor at heart), anything that reminds drivers that bicycles even EXIST is probably not a bad thing.
In the end, it is proper facilities that are going to grow transportation cycling the most. Education, encouragement, and enforcement are critical, but until driving becomes too expensive to waste as we do now, the average bicyclist won’t ride to work unless they feel safe.
I really need to find a way to measure latent demand for bicycle facilities. Any ideas?
I totally agree that bike racing is not the way to promote using bikes as transportation. There’s no way I can make the connection between myself and a person in the Tour of California. I’m simply not that type of athlete. However, I did ride 17 miles to work today. So I can be a bike commuter!
However, I do think that anything that gets people on bikes is a good thing. The more people ride, the more likely they’ll think about using the bike for transportation.