ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
Londoners can commute faster by bicycle than car. But even without London-style gridlock, cycling can pay off.
YOU HAVE to drive your car, minivan or sports utility vehicle everywhere, you say, because you just don't have the time to waste on low-tech modes of transportation?
That excuse may work in the Roanoke Valley and the surrounding region. But it has grown lame in the high-density traffic of London, England.
Londoners who bike to work actually get there faster than motoring commuters, according to the Department of Transport for that city of 9 million (give or take a few hundred thousand).
Cycling to work is cheaper, healthier and, as it turns out, quicker, especially in Central London where the average bike trip takes 19 minutes - against 28 minutes for the average trip by car. People are noticing: The number of cyclists during the morning rush hour has tripled since the 1970s, the transport office reports.
Herein lies hope for those bike-trail advocates who would like to see bike lanes and greenways throughout the Roanoke Valley. Given the right incentives, people can and will use bicycles not just for sport, but to get where they need to go.
Western Virginia,whose entire population amounts to the rounding off of London's figure, of course doesn't face the same traffic tie-ups that have driven Brits to their bikes. Rush "hour" in Roanoke is more like "make haste slowly for 15 minutes or so."
But maintaining this feature of valley life is one incentive for creating bike trails here. By planning transportation differently as the region grows, big-city traffic nightmares can be stopped before they happen.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB