Success Stories

A woman wearing a helmet and athletic clothing riding a bicycle on a city street sidewalk.

In 2017, Denver, another capital city, approved a transportation bond which, for the first time, had $18 million in funding dedicated to building out a citywide bike network for all ages and abilities. Denver unveiled their latest protected bike lane on Marion Street. Learn more about the project.

Person riding bicycle in a busy city street with parked vehicles, high-rise buildings, and pedestrians.

Why is bike infrastructure that is safe for all ages and abilities so important? It produces economic, mobility, and safety benefits. Several years ago, New York City piloted a parking protected bike lane (where parking is what protects cyclists from traffic) and they saw crashes go down by 48% and retail sales went up by almost 49%. Safe bike infrastructure benefits everyone! Protected bike lanes are more valuable than parking spaces!

Blue sky, trees, a green bike route sign with directions to Johnson & Wales, Irwin Creek Gwy, and Stadiums, a street with cars, buildings, traffic lights, and pedestrian signals.

In 2022, Charlotte, North Carolina opened their much anticipated protected bike line through the city center. It’s a beautiful project that will open the city center up to more commerce, increase safety, and reduce climate pollution. It was a missing link in a broader bike network designed for all ages and abilities.

A person riding a bicycle on a crosswalk that is painted bright green in an urban street with cars parked on both sides, tall buildings, and colorful murals in the background on a sunny day.

In Utah’s state capitol, on Salt Lake City's Broadway, replacing parking with protected bike lanes increased retail sales. A general street upgrade removed 30% of the auto parking from nine blocks of the major commercial street, but improved crosswalks, sidewalks and added protected bike lanes. In the first six months of the next year, retail sales were up 8.8% over the first six months of the prior year, compared to a 7% increase citywide. After the changes, 59% of business owners on the street said they supported them; only 18% opposed. Learn more about the economic benefits of protected bike lanes across the nation.

Map showing a city with green highlighted streets and roads.

In 2005, the Spanish city of Seville had just 7 miles of bike lanes. Over 2006 and 2007, the local government rapidly built a whole bike network throughout the city. “Our project was the network, not having pieces of unconnected bike lanes here and there,” said two leads of the plan. “This is very important, and the main lesson of Seville’s success: Make a whole, basic, and comprehensive network and build it fast.” Subsequent years, because of an increase in bike ridership, the city continued to build more bike facilities for people of all ages and abilities. In just three years, the ridership increased 425%–from 13,000 to a peak of 72,000. Seville now hosts a 112-mile network. The Guardian has called it the Cycling Capitol of Southern Europe. As American biking researcher John Pucher observed, “simply racking up total bikeway mileage by putting down stripes for unprotected bike lanes is obviously cheaper, but it does not attract nearly as much new cycling.”

Collage of multiple news websites displaying headlines and articles about Gregor Robertson winning re-election as Vancouver mayor, including timestamped images and a celebratory photo of Robertson.

Bike lanes are politically popular! There's a perception in North America that it's political suicide to build bike lanes — because all motorists loathe bike lanes and will vote en-masse against any politician who advocates for them, but that doesn’t appear to be true. The YouTube channel Shifter takes a look at three cities whose mayors went all in on safe cycling infrastructure and how their support of making biking safe for all ages and abilities was met with support, not scorn! Watch here: Bike lanes can win elections. Here's proof.

Street in Washington, D.C., with traffic, vehicles in motion, historic buildings, and the U.S. Capitol in the distance during dusk.

From 2020 to 2022, Washington D.C. constructed 24 miles of protected bike lanes throughout the city. YouTuber “Bike Shop Girl” examines how DC managed to build such high quality bike lanes so quickly. The bike infrastructure for cyclists of all ages and abilities has been so successful that the mayor’s budget includes funding for an additional 10 miles of protected bike lanes.

A small town street with a bike lane, green trees, parked cars, and buildings on either side, under a blue sky with white clouds.

Carmel, Indiana (population 97,000), a suburb of Indianapolis, the capitol of Indiana, has some of the best bike infrastructure of any small North American city. In this video, YouTuber “American Fietser” takes us for a ride in a part of Carmel which recently received high-quality bike infrastructure upgrades. On this particular street, Carmel right-sized the vehicular lanes (this is also known as a road diet) and installed beautiful planters with flowers as the protection. This is very similar to large portions of our proposal in which we would right-size lanes to be able to build out a network of bike infrastructure for all ages and abilities rather quickly and affordably. These kind of targeted investments make travel safer for everyone, cyclists as well as drivers.

A woman riding a pink bicycle and a young girl on a scooter smiling on a green bike lane during a rainy day in an urban park area with trees and a bridge in the background.

In 2022, Portland unveiled “Better Naito,” which was a 1.2 mile stretch of the riverfront street now fully protected for those that bike, use a mobility device, or who roll. While it rained during the event, the enthusiasm is clear from the coverage and photos.

A man with short brown hair and a beard, wearing a denim jacket, is sitting outdoors on a bench, looking at the camera while holding a large map. The setting is a city park with leafless trees, modern and historic buildings, and a clear blue sky.

Salem has a handful of “neighborhood greenways” as bike infrastructure. YouTube Channel Shifter takes a look at a neighborhood greenway in two Canadian cities: Calgary and Vancouver and grades them. As you watch the video, ask yourself if Salem’s current infrastructure is more like Calgary or Vancouver.

Street view showing a green directional sign with bicycle and city landmarks, a red brick building, traffic lights, and trees on a sunny day.

In 2020, Eugene unveiled their 13th Avenue Protected Bikeway. Built over the course of six months, it features a two-way protected bike lane on 13th Avenue from Alder Street to Lincoln Street (over ten blocks) linking the University of Oregon Campus to Downtown Eugene. A newly installed concrete barrier provides physical separation between the bikeway and the vehicle travel lanes. To facilitate two-way bike traffic, signalized intersections have new bike-only signal phases to prevent turning conflicts between people driving and people riding bikes.

People riding bikes and walking in a park with autumn trees, with a city skyline in the background on a clear day.

Since 2015, St. Paul, Minnesota’s state capitol, has seen 67 miles added to their safe bicycle network. They have seen such success because the City, the Parks District, the County, the state Department of Transportation, and state Department of Natural Resources all did pieces of it. Now, they are doubling down on their success and working towards implementing a “Capital City Bikeway” which focuses on the city’s downtown core. 

A city street with a bike lane, a cyclist riding, and traffic including cars and a delivery truck, with buildings, trees, and a bridge in the background.

In a YouTube video, The Guardian helpfully explains how bike lanes (alternative transportation lanes) do not make traffic worse. In fact, it allows for more people to travel in less space (and cost!). The video notes that there are lots of case studies around the world (some of which we have highlighted in past emails) corroborating this.

Three women riding bicycles on a city sidewalk, with a line of parked cars and a delivery truck behind them.

The Netherlands is regarded as one of the best and safest places to bike in the world. In this video from Propel, an American seeks to understand why Dutch cyclists rarely wear helmets while cycling. Hint: it has to do, in part, with the safe infrastructure.

An aerial view of an urban area shows a parking lot filled with cars, a sidewalk intersection with crosswalks, and a small landscaped area with trees and grass. There is a building with a garden and pathway around it, enclosed by a red circle measuring 11.94 meters in diameter.

In this video, Matt Pinder, a Canadian transportation engineer quickly shows viewers how to make large suburban intersections safe for people walking and cycling. Protected intersections, as shown by Matt, are a leading way to do it. These kind of intersections are all over the Netherlands, a country famous for robust bike ridership and they're starting to emerge in other cities across the globe. There are many intersections in Salem that are like this and redesigning them would make our city safer.

A man standing outdoors near a body of water with a historic government building with a dome in the background. There is a bicycle with a bag parked beside him, and some people are visible in the distance.

In this video, the YouTuber channel Shifter takes us to Victoria, the capitol city of British Columbia, and leads the viewer on a journey throughout the city while talking about the city’s investments (and lack thereof) in safe bike infrastructure. See why this top bike-commuting city has never quite reached its potential.

Collage of cyclists riding and preparing for bike rides, with a woman next to a cargo e-bike, a woman at a beach with a bucket, a man on a long bike with gear, and cyclists on a bridge.

WIRED magazine recently featured the role that cargo bikes can play after natural disasters. Not only is it a fun read, but it is great food for thought about how we think about bikes as part of our region’s emergency preparedness. When the Cascadia Earthquake hits you likely won’t be fueling your car so a bike will become your best friend. What can cities do to increase bike ownership to make their cities more resilient in the aftermath of a natural disaster?

City street scene with large potted plants along the sidewalk, people walking, and buildings with signs and billboards.

Jersey City, New Jersey, home to 283,000 residents (more than 100,000 more residents than Salem) had no traffic fatalities on their streets. For 2022, at least, Jersey City achieved “vision zero.” How’d they do it? Read this Bloomberg article to get the full story, but a lot of experimentation, tactical urbanism, protected bike lanes, and a whole lot of advocacy from concerned residents. We encourage you to share this story with the City Council, friends, and everyone else to showcase how preventing traffic fatalities is possible. To learn more about Jersey City's plan, visit the City's website.