From Felix Salmon a graph made from data from the NYC Commuting Cycling Indicator showing the rise in bike commuting in NYC. Felix makes a point that the big rise in bike commuting corresponds with the arrival of Janette Sadik-Khan, the controversial transportation commissioner for NYC who is a big biking advocate.
I blogged about the relation between bike infrastructure and bike riding before, suggesting that the correlation is suggestive of it having a big impact on riding. Here is more suggestive evidence. Not that this is terribly surprising: you lower the cost of an activity and people tent to choose more of it.
Now a good research question is whether expenditures on bike infrastructure are a good investment. I suspect that they are one of the best in terms of cost savings down the road in health care, environment, and so on, but I'd like to see some good research that connects the dots convincingly. If you know of some, do let me know.
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