Bicycles can be the fastest and most efficient way to navigate crowded cities.
However, bikes mix poorly with fast-moving cars and trucks. Few reasonable citizens wish to bike under those conditions, and certainly not on a daily basis. Some European cities have banned cars from their centers, and American cities would do well to emulate them. Even a partial ban on personal internal combustion vehicles could present cities with opportunities to invest in a bike infrastructure, with the resulting benefits of cleaner air, less noise, less need for parking, increased vitality for downtown businesses, and a higher overall quality of life. In the simplest version of this program, the city makes a fleet of modest bicycles available to anyone in the downtown.