How biking helps reduce emissions in cities (wcpo.com)
One of the biggest environmental issues out there is emissions. The U.S. has a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, but where are most of our current emissions coming from?
EPA data from a 2021 study shows that transportation is the biggest source of pollution in the U.S., and regular cars are responsible for nearly 60% of those transportation emissions. That's for a few different reasons: Many American cities are built for drivers, they have limited or unreliable public transportation and they often don’t have a lot of bike lanes.
When looking at the design of cities, about 75% of the residential land in most U.S. cities is zoned for only single-family homes, but because of this setup, there are a lot of suburbs where everything is spread out, making a car a necessity to get around.
According to the American Public Transportation Association, 45% of Americans have no access to public transportation, but public transportation helps reduce the country’s overall carbon emissions by about 63 million metric tons a year.
But even without public transportation, there is one way to cut back on emissions and get around on your own: biking. Now, not every city has the best bike network, but we've seen more improvements over the last decade.
A report from the League of American Bicyclists shows that among seven cities that expanded their bike lane mileage by 50% between 2007 and 2014, the number of bike riders doubled, and the risk of death and serious injury was cut in half.
