In 2024, after underestimating the distance of the SF crosstown trail, I ended up overusing my knees quite badly leading to runners knee.

Due to my reduced strength, I experienced various other physical issues like lower back pain and reduced mobility through 2024 and 2025. I found it difficult to sit for long periods of time and to walk up and down stairs. Slow walking in the cross walk became the norm for me while everyone around me ran across and thanked cars for stopping (and following the law.)

During this time I was observing: I was extra-thankful for the curb cuts and level sidewalks. I appreciated a well designed ramp. I surprised myself with my ability to bike without pain. I enjoyed the simple accessibility of the bus. I was glad for the railing on the stairs. I was also diligently observing the people around me.

Adapting the commute

The injury made walking up and (particularly) down the stairs very difficult. And since the incident happened before the Caltrain electrified, my train commute required walking up and down flights of stairs. Walking was also more difficult and a 20 minute walk to the station seemed too long for me.

Caption: Left: Caltrain before electrification used trains with 4 steps and a big gap. Right: Caltrain after electrification is a single step, much smaller gap and very easy to get on.

The obvious choice for most people would've been to just drive, however, at this point I did not actually own a car. I thus adapted my commute, exchanging a 20 minute walk to the Caltrain station for a 5 minute walk to the bus stop around the corner. Though the bus took longer and involved a transfer, there was less walking. I'd continue doing this until I recovered more mobility.

During this time I got to see who was on the bus with me and who was not on the bus with me. The Caltrain is full of different types of people but the majority of them are white-collar or tech workers. The whole system is designed around them: the shuttle transfers, the express train schedule and even the price (it's high!) However, the bus had a different demographic. Most of them were kids, teenagers, seniors and service workers. There were just fewer people my age trying to get to work, the coffee shop or the community center. At that time I was still trying to put a name to this "observation", but one thing was clear, I was not imagining it. In those few weeks, I mentioned to two people in Palo Alto that I took the bus and they told me that I was either the first person or the only person they had met who took the bus in this town.

I don't know if this is a chicken and egg problem: is the bus not good enough (it's not) so people drive? But the observation I made was that ridership between the modes was divided by class and income. And with class and income, it affords you the ability to own a car and avoid the bus. The car is a status symbol and there is a particular pride in not needing to ride the bus again. So perhaps the reason the bus is bad, is because within a neighbourhood people are unlikely to use a bus unless it provides a significantly better experience? It's a spiraling death loop for the bus.

Finally, I also noticed people who had reduced mobility rode the bus more than I expected. Being at street level and (some) busses being able "kneel", makes it much easier to hop in and out. I started catching the VTA 21 bus with an older lady and her bike. She had trouble walking, and took 2 whole minutes to take her bike off the front rack. However, once she got on her bike she was flying!

Bikes as a mobility device and bike lanes as mobility lanes?

A common argument against bike lanes is the fact that bikes are inaccessible to people with disabilities. It justifies unprotected bike lanes so cars can park as close as possible to their destination or block a bike lane. It encourages bike lanes to be narrower than they should be. It justifies reserving the closest space to the important places for car parking rather than the bus stops.

However, you could counter-argue that bikes give mobility options for people who can't drive. They play double-duty as a mobility device for people with reduced mobility. Bike lanes can help folks get around on their own terms without needing to rely on transit or someone else. For example, a student could get to school if their neighbourhood had a safe bike-bus without needing parental supervision. Or someone who has had their driving license suspended in a remote location.

In fact, I was shocked by my ability to bike despite having trouble on foot. I was still able to go to the grocery store and lug a big and heavy bag of groceries home on my bike even though I could no longer walk to the store in a reasonable amount of time. For me, biking was explicitly easier in these cases!

Caption: All the ways to carry things on your bike. Top left: Brompton folding bicycle in Shopping Cart Mode at the Grocery store. Top right: Someone I saw in Montreal carrying a TON of stuff on their bike. Bottom left: When I need more capacity, I take my full sized bike. The basket and rear rack allow me to carry much more than If I could only by hand. Bottom right: My basket easily holds books and drawing materials for a chill time at the grocery store.

Even today, now that I am towards the end of my recovery journey, I am sometimes tempted about taking out a Baywheels just to lug my package in the front basket instead of carrying it by hand even if I didn't want to bike.

But there's more: When bike lanes are high quality you often find people who are not on a bike using it. Sidewalks can be too narrow and crowded or slow, making the bike lane a nicer alternative for non-cyclists. This video captures the beauty of the non-cyclists benefiting from cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands.

Even for those of us who who live in places that are about 30 years behind in high quality infrastructure, places where it exists we see folks in wheelchairs and all sorts of mobility devices using it:

During this time I met a man in San Francisco who taught kids with Polio how to ride a bike, I don't remember his name or his organization but I learned that cycling-with-polio was more common than I thought. Of course, bikes are not a substitute for fully equitable access. They only really work for everyone when it's an "All Ages and Ability" standard (See Page 3 of the NACTO standard for definition). And they definitely leave some people out. But they are absolutely part of the tool kit of mobility that all humans should have access to.

The future I hope we get to

There’s a common “gotcha” that bike lanes are ableist and ageist and that transit cannot support those who have reduced mobility. The sentiment makes sense if you live where I do, almost every building I go to in California has a (premium) prominent blue car parking spot reserved for those with medical and mobility issues. Why wouldn’t the car be the easiest way for folks with mobility issues to get there? There is literally a parking spot right in front!

Caption: An example of a building with Blue Placard parking right in front.

I had the bias too: that the car was the best way for those with reduced mobility to get around. I grew up in places where we drove our elderly around, but looking back now I remember that they could also easily walk themselves to nearby shops and services, and maybe that experience could've been made better if we made sure the sidewalks and crosswalks were better quality (excellent video here about the unwalkability of Indian (by extension South Asian Streets)).

More than a third of Americans cannot drive or depend on a car per an NRDC analysis due to various reasons like age, ability, cost. And even this number is an underestimate that doesn't take into account temporary disabilities like the one I experienced. Disability advocacy is intertwined with active mobility and it's worth reading more about this topic (probably a good place to start would be When Driving is not an Option by @nondriver.bsky.social ) and bringing these worlds closer together. WalkSF published a report called "Getting to the Curb" highlighting the challenges of building protected bike lanes that take into account pedestrian and wheelchair access.

In the future, I hope I minimize the number of times I experience this kind of reduced mobility. But it is somewhat of an inevitability for many of us as we age. In that future, I hope that we've all done enough collective advocacy such that the sidewalks are smooth, the bike lanes are wide, the busses are frequent, accessible bike parking is close to important places, the train has level boarding and the car is just the last option to fill in the few gaps that remain.