infrastructure. A common criticism is that "nobody is biking, so they must not want it" but of course, they don't want to bike because it's not safe/easy to bike. Many, MANY cities have learned that if you build the infrastructure, many people really would rather be biking. See for example this book (https://islandpress.org/books/building-cycling-city) which details case studies from the Netherlands, Toronto, San Francisco, Denmark, Boston, and other places where city planners invested in biking infrastructure and saw amazing turnarounds in the livability of their communities as people chose to bike. The main reason why people don't bike in Provo is because you fear for your life in doing it as the Daily Herald reporters explained recently: https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/yes-we-rode-the-new-spin-scooters-to-see-how/collection_f5a6fa1c-9173-5d1e-b32d-71087d6900cd.html

Read particularly how much they enjoyed, in this case scootering, for several blocks until promptly they felt unsafe and freaked out. Now imagine instead of just striped lanes if they were protected lanes where not only would an adult feel safe, but where you can send your young kids biking by themselves and feel perfectly safe. Here would be the results:

- Less stress for mom and dad. In the Netherlands, parents don't drive their kids to school, sports, or music lessons. Kids just bike because it's safe
- Less traffic. My family bikes to school and work and takes probably a combined 5-6 car trips off the road with just our family. Multiply that by a few families and we'll have much less congestion!
- Less pollution. Supposedly a big deal for all of us, and this would make a big improvement!
- Less expense on road repairs because the roads would last longer
- Fewer deaths. Bike-centric communities are safer. Of course this is only true if biking is actually safer.
- lower health care costs. Dutch people bike several miles a day but it's not exercise ... it's just walking on wheels. They do it leisurely and enjoy it. Their obesity rate is half what we have in the United States despite double-fried french fries being the official national snack behind caramel waffles!
- it does not take longer ... at least for trips under 3 miles, which are most trips around town. In fact, it can be quicker than finding parking.

Provo would be ideal for biking and would explode because of:
- BYU and it's mandated 3 mile radius for students to live. Perfect for biking!
- Frontrunner and UVX connecting north/south
- Wide roads that could easily become safe for cycling
- Downtown Provo which would be an awesome cycling destination place and is close to pretty much everything.

Seriously, it'd make Provo such a great community if it were more bike friendly and drivers would like it too. When I had to drive in the Netherlands, there was so much less traffic than here, even though it's the most densely populated country in Europe. With so many biking, driving is awesome too.