Reducing the Number of Cars with Bikes and Technology

 According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the number of bikers using the top six bike-share systems increased by 42% in the three-year periodNotable Bike Work Week National Spending Bicycles And Accessories Grew 620 March Data Spotlightbetween March 2020 and March 2023. With more people riding their bikes, it could mean a reduction in car use. 

Technology is the driving factor behind why bicycles are becoming more and more popular, thus reducing the number of cars on the road. While technology has definitely made it easier to find a bike due to bike sharing, it also helped in ways like making bikes easier to ride, improving bike lanes, and reducing carbon.

Benefits of Riding a Bike Instead of Driving

If you chose to bike instead of drive once a day, you'll reduce your carbon footprint by 67%Blog How Bike Riding Benefits Environment Transportation.ucla.edu. If you can easily bike to where you need to go, you won't see that painful bill every time you pull up to the pumpResources Auto Central How To Save Fuel Driversed.com. As battery technology improves in e-bikes, their carbon consumption will continue to drop as well.

Another great benefit of biking is the improvement you could see in your health. If you do it steadily enough, you'll potentially drop some pounds or see increased cardiovascular health. Finally, you're more likely to reduce stress by pedaling around instead of getting angry at other drivers.

How Bikes and Technology Can Help You Cut Down on Your Car Use

1. Try a Bike Share in Your City

Bike sharing comes in a couple of different forms: docked and dockless. Both of these are very common in the largest bike-safe cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. 

Docked bike sharing is when a company installs bike racks throughout a city. These racks are then filled with bikes you can ride from one dock to another. Typically, you pay a base rental fee of a couple of dollars and then a rate based on the time you have the bike out. 

Dockless sharing systems are much easier to incorporate. The company puts bikes at various popular pedestrian points throughout a city. Riders then use the associated app to "unlock" a bike and then "lock" it back up when they're done. You don't have to bike to specific points, like with docked setups. You can also use the app to find out where the closest available bike is to you.

2. Hop on an Electric Bike

An e-bike has a built-in battery that allows riders to cruise along at a legal max speed of 15.5 mph without having to pedal. They are perfect for those who are older or out of shape and can't handle a normal bike ride.

Over the last year, they've had a 240% increase in salesA39838840 Ebikes Are Outpacing Electric Car Sales In The Us News, showing that riders are choosing them more and more. They make deciding whether or not to take the car for a quick trip an easier decision to make. You won't have to struggle to find parking or sit in traffic anymoreTrending Dos And Donts Driving Traffic Driversed.com. 

3. Ride in a Bike Lane

New York City alone added 63 miles of bike lanes in 2020Dot Html Bicyclists Bikestats.shtml Html, with 28 of them being fully protected. As cities add in these safe places to bike, those who aren't used to braving city driversTrending Share The Road Why Bicyclists Deserve Drivers Respect Driversed.com are more comfortable choosing to ride a bike instead of driving. As the technology used for designing streets and traffic flow increases, the number of bike lanes Driving Information Sharing The Road With Others Bicycles Driversed.comwill only continue to grow.

Even if there are no bike lanes where you live, there may be road laws designed to protect you. California has a law that says drivers must keep three feet away from bikes sharing the road112385 Give California Cyclists 3 Feet Its Now The Law News, or the distance that’s safest for everyone on the road (including other cars when there isn’t enough room to give a biker three feet of space).

Keep an Eye Out for Bikers While Behind the Wheel

With more and more bikers sharing the road with drivers, you need to know how to react when you encounter them. To keep yourself up to date on ever-changing laws so you can avoid fines, take a driver's ed course at Drivers Ed Driversed.comDriversEd.com. You'll learn your state's laws on how to interact with bikers so everyone stays safe: bikers, drivers, and yourself.