Americans learn bikes cut costs and improve fitness

From Reuters, 03.07.08:

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - At a time of soaring gasoline prices, expanding waistlines, and growing worry over climate change, more Americans are getting on their bikes.

American cities including Portland, Oregon, Louisville, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C. are aggressively promoting bicycling as a clean, efficient and healthy means of transport, and many of their citizens are taking to two wheels for short urban journeys.

"The public is getting the message and they want to do it" said Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists, the leading U.S. advocacy group for bikes as a means of transportation. "There is a palpable increase in the number of people cycling," he added in an interview at the National Bike Summit.

About 500 people including bike enthusiasts and industry and government officials attended the summit sponsored by the bicycling lobby. They attended workshops, training and meetings to promote policies to get more people riding bikes. Bicycle advocates say the bike should be used for the 40 percent of urban journeys that are less than two miles (3.2 km), especially since 90 percent of those journeys are done by car. (Read more.)

In the wake of the annual National Bike Summit, an interesting article on the traction bicycling is gaining, pointing to Portland and Washington DC as two transformative models of cities embracing bicycling.

Image: BikePortland.org.
Visit: Summit Breaks Attendance Record, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
Visit: All Eyes on Portland at Bike Summit, StreetsBlog
Visit: Congressional Bike Caucus rolls in Washington, DC, BikeRadar.com
Visit: Bike shop owner becomes first-time lobbyist
Visit: Hee, Hee, Bikers in Suits, Grist
Visit: "Ways to trim your gas bill", Everett (WA) Herald
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site