I’m not a cyclist. I know how to ride a bike, but the only cycling I do these days is in spin class. A big part of that is because of the places I’ve lived - like the not-so-bike-friendly cities of LA, Denver and Dallas. In my current hometown of Philly, the conversation around bike lanes and bike safety hit a fever pitch this summer after a 30-year-old doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was killed by a drunk driver while riding her bike.
In the wake of such a shocking death, community organizations and residents have rallied across Philly and delivered thousands of signatures to the mayor and city council demanding concrete-protected bike lanes throughout the city. But the fight for cyclist safety and more bicycle infrastructure often brings up an argument that bike lanes contribute to gentrification and displacement.
This week on Ask Code Switch, our caller, Stefan Zajic, happens to be one such Philly resident – an avid cyclist and local bike advocate himself – who wrestles with this question every time he gets on his bike.
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Hi Code Switch,
I’m writing to ask if you could give the Code Switch treatment to an issue near and dear to my heart: race and bike lanes.
Like most bike advocates, I am white. When I’m out on my bike in the great city of Philadelphia, I see Black and brown people on bikes all the time, but it feels like these cyclists are often invisible - to other advocates, to council members, even to other Black and brown people who oppose bike lanes and view them as tools of gentrification.
I think everyone deserves access to safe, healthy transportation that doesn’t destroy the earth – but it seems like the bike lane discussion always gets pulled into a race-aligned argument with a lot of unspoken assumptions.
My question for Ask Code Switch is, do bike lanes actually cause or accelerate gentrification? More broadly, how can we achieve transportation justice without threatening other kinds of social justice?
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Stefan’s question is based on the assumption that if a bike lane comes to your neighborhood, your rent is going up, more development is coming, and you and your family are at risk of eventually being priced out.
Just the proposal of a bike lane can create protests, because of the perceived threat it poses to the existing community, according to The Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU which tracks bike politics across the United States.
So, are bike lanes really elevating one community while evicting another? And if that’s the case — are bike advocates on the wrong side of progress?
Adonia Lugo, a researcher at UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, says these are the questions to be asking if you want to be part of the mobility justice movement, prioritizing safe transportation for everyone on two-wheels, four-wheels, and no wheels at all.
Listen to this episode of Ask Code Switch now in the Code Switch feed on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Do you have a question for Lori and the Code Switch team? Send your questions on Instagram @nprcodeswitch. Or, email us at codeswitch@npr.org – subject line, Ask Code Switch.
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