Citywide, 2% of workers (or 20,000 people) ride their bikes to their place of business every day!?! The city’s focus should not be “citywide,” but central core…where the numbers are actually a lot higher.
Austin has not grown-up modeled after European cities (for example): more compact and urban. The urban area of Austin stretches approximately 50-55 miles N-S and 20-25 miles E-W. And the sooner COA officials realize and accept this, the better. Our city is too spread out and it is lunacy to think otherwise.
With regard to employees biking to work, Austin elected officials need to comprehend the “city” is not a dense urban environment situated in the northwestern U.S. A major example not to overlook is the fact that our summer temperatures are nowhere near as tolerable as they are in the NW (a territory in which Austin officials wish to model)!
Furthermore, they need to focus on the fact that we are a “region;” and thus, must intimately work with the other members of the “region” in an effort to make life here (the entire Austin Metropolitan Area) more “livable, mobile, competitive, attractive, etc.”
**PERSONAL NOTE: I am a cyclist and hit the roads every day (~20-30 miles) for exercise and training. However, I would never consider riding my bike 20 miles into town for work.
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AUSTIN (City): 993,588 +3.30% - '20-'24 | AUSTIN MSA (5 counties): 2,550,637 +11.70% - '20-'24
SAN ANTONIO (City): 1,526,656 +6.41% - '20-'24 | SAN ANTONIO MSA (8 counties): 2,763,006 +8.01% - '20-'24
AUS-SAT REGION (MSAs/13 counties): 5,313,643 +9.75% - '20-'24 | *SRC: US Census*
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