Michael Andersen
Michael Andersen writes about housing and transportation for the Sightline Institute. He previously covered bike infrastructure for PeopleForBikes, a national bicycling advocacy organization.
Recent Posts
Avoid Bikelash By Building More Bike Lanes
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Here’s one reason the modern biking boom is great for everyone: more bicycle trips mean fewer car trips, which can mean less congestion for people in cars and buses. But there’s a […]
10 Tips for Cities Ready to Replace Car Parking With Safe Space for Biking
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. A curbside parking spot is just 182 square feet of urban space. But for advocates of better American bike infrastructure, few obstacles loom larger. Right now in San Diego, a long-brewing plan […]
The First National Survey of People ‘Interested But Concerned’ About Biking
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. For 10 years, urban policymakers have been talking more and more about the so-called “interested but concerned” — people who would like to bike more but who are, for some reason, held […]
12 Illuminating Facts About Race, Ethnicity, Income, and Bicycling
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. As hard as we try to avoid doing so, humans tend to base racial assumptions around our personal experiences. This can sometimes lead us to odd conclusions. As Homer Simpson once put […]
“Race, Ethnicity & Protected Bike Lanes” Report Explores Equitable Streets
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Almost as soon as PeopleForBikes selected its first six Green Lane Project focus cities, we started hearing from their staffers that they wanted to better understand how the values of diversity and […]
Protected Lanes Preview: Boston, Detroit, Indy, Minneapolis, Denver & More
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Spring is three weeks away, and that means it’s time for one of American cities’ newest rituals: announcing the year’s protected bike lane construction plans. Every few days over the last month, […]
Outer London’s Huge Bike Plan Could Break the Cycle of Bad Suburban Transit
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. You may have heard that London has just approved a spectacular crosstown protected bike lane. But another part of its plan has, ironically, gotten little press in the United States. As London’s […]
A Protected Bike Lane Network Springs Fully Formed from Advocates’ Brains
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. For supporters of cycling both inside and outside government, the playbook has become familiar. Lobby city planners to make a bike network plan. Get it funded. Make it as forward-thinking and ambitious […]
How Smart Language Helped End Seattle’s Paralyzing Bikelash
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Instead of “cyclists,” people biking. Instead of “accident,” collision. Instead of “cycle track,” protected bike lane. It can come off as trivial word policing. But if you want proof that language shapes […]
Are You an Incrementalist or a Completionist?
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. A lot of arguments in the world of progressive street design these days aren’t between good and bad. They’re between better and much better. For example, better: And much better:
Pieces in Place for AASHTO to Endorse Protected Bike Lanes… by 2020
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. The bible of U.S. bikeway engineering, last revised just before the modern American protected bike lane explosion, will almost certainly include protected lanes in its next update. That’s the implication of a […]
Four Nice Touches in U.S. DOT’s New “Mayors’ Challenge” for Bike Safety
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Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. There’s a difference between bike-safety warnings that focus on blaming victims and warnings that recommend actual systemic improvements. The launch of a Mayors’ Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets by U.S. Secretary […]