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Ask Code Switch: Do bike lanes cause gentrification?

Luke Medina

I'm not a cyclist. I know how to ride a bike, but the only cycling I do these days is in spin class. A big part of that is because of the places I've lived - like the not-so-bike-friendly cities of LA, Denver and Dallas. In my current hometown of Philly, the conversation around bike lanes and bike safety hit a fever pitch this summer after a 30-year-old doctor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was killed by a drunk driver while riding her bike.

In the wake of such a shocking death, community organizations and residents have rallied across Philly and delivered thousands of signatures to the mayor and city council demanding concrete-protected bike lanes throughout the city. But the fight for cyclist safety and more bicycle infrastructure often brings up an argument that bike lanes contribute to gentrification and displacement.

This week on Ask Code Switch, our caller, Stefan Zajic, happens to be one such Philly resident – an avid cyclist and local bike advocate himself – who wrestles with this question every time he gets on his bike.

...

Hi Code Switch,

I'm writing to ask if you could give the Code Switch treatment to an issue near and dear to my heart: race and bike lanes.

Like most bike advocates, I am white. When I'm out on my bike in the great city of Philadelphia, I see Black and brown people on bikes all the time, but it feels like these cyclists are often invisible - to other advocates, to council members, even to other Black and brown people who oppose bike lanes and view them as tools of gentrification.

I think everyone deserves access to safe, healthy transportation that doesn't destroy the earth – but it seems like the bike lane discussion always gets pulled into a race-aligned argument with a lot of unspoken assumptions.

My question for Ask Code Switch is, do bike lanes actually cause or accelerate gentrification? More broadly, how can we achieve transportation justice without threatening other kinds of social justice?

...

Stefan's question is based on the assumption that if a bike lane comes to your neighborhood, your rent is going up, more development is coming, and you and your family are at risk of eventually being priced out.

Just the proposal of a bike lane can create protests, because of the perceived threat it poses to the existing community, according to The Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU which tracks bike politics across the United States.

So, are bike lanes really elevating one community while evicting another? And if that's the case — are bike advocates on the wrong side of progress?

Adonia Lugo, a researcher at UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies, says these are the questions to be asking if you want to be part of the mobility justice movement, prioritizing safe transportation for everyone on two-wheels, four-wheels, and no wheels at all.

Listen to this episode of Ask Code Switch now in the Code Switch feed on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Do you have a question for Lori and the Code Switch team? Send your questions on Instagram @nprcodeswitch. Or, email us at codeswitch@npr.org – subject line, Ask Code Switch.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Lori Lizarraga
Award-winning journalist Lori Lizarraga is a co-host of NPR's Code Switch, the preeminent podcast about race and identity in America. Before joining NPR, she reported across the country in Texas, California, Colorado and internationally in Ecuador. She has a reputation for breaking news and a passion and energy for covering under-reported communities, civil rights and issues surrounding immigration and Latinos in the U.S.
Schuyler Swenson
Schuyler Swenson is an audio producer, editor and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to NPR Schuyler worked at Vox Media, making podcasts for New York Magazine's The Cut, Vox.com, and Recode. She got her start in radio at WNYC for Studio 360 and later made podcasts for The New York Public Library. Swenson's taught audio journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and the Transom Story Workshop. Prior to working in audio, she taught histories of immigration at the Tenement Museum. She enjoys horn sections, profanity and regional accents. [Copyright 2024 NPR]
Courtney Stein
Courtney Stein comes to NPR from the New York Times, where she helped to create the weekly podcast First Person. Prior to that, she spent over a decade at WNYC's Peabody Award-winning Radio Rookies, teaching young people to report radio documentaries about issues important to them. While at WNYC, Courtney also helped to pilot the podcast Nancy and was on the team that created the dupont-Columbia award-winning podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which began as a radio workshop she started in a juvenile detention center in Queens.
Lauren González
Lauren González is the Senior Manager of the Content Development Team, where she manages new pitches for podcasts and other content, and works closely with the programming leadership team to develop them.