Millions of dollars go into bike plans and separated cycletracks
each year around the world. These investments are intended to
make city streets safer for cyclists in the hope that more of
them will exchange their car keys for a helmet and a U-lock.
Unfortunately, relatively little is known about where cyclists
ride and how land developments and infrastructure investment
affects this emerging mode of transportation. Bicyclists are one
of the most illusive users of urban street grids for
transportation planners. We know that the droves of two-wheeled
commuters taking to the streets these days use the path of least
resistance: weaving in and out of traffic and avoiding congested
and hazardous car routes. Planners depend on human and
electronic counters at major intersections, but that data says
little about how cyclists really move through cities, where they
are going and where they came from. The San Francisco County
Transportation Authority (SFCTA) might have a solution. It
recently launched CycleTracks: a sm