What bike lanes and gay marriage have in common?

Even more than in Portland, the debate over accommodating bicycles in New York City has been particularly heated. The city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Kahn, has made international headlines for installing bike lanes and European-style protected cycletracks on the city's crowded streets, writes Jeff Mapes in the Oregonian.

The naysayers have received a lot of publicity (as has often been the case in Portland), but a new poll by the respected survey unit at Quinnipiac University shows that 54 percent of New Yorkers support the bike lanes while 39 percent are opposed.

When you dive into the poll, you see that support for bike lanes climbs among younger voters, with 60 percent of those between 18 and 34 favoring bike lanes. Among voters 65 and older, support drops to 48 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed.

Clearly, for the cycling community (full disclosure: I'm an enthusiastic urban cyclist) time is on their side.

And where else do we also see this? On the issue of gay marriage, of course. For several years, pollsters have seen even sharper divisions among older and younger voters. In essence, gay marriage supporters know their support grows as the years tick by.

In fact, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 53 percent of American voters now support gay marriage, the first time that survey organization has found a majority in favor.

The gap between younger and older voters is even more stark than it is on bike lanes. Fully 68 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 support gay marriage, compare to just 33 percent of those aged 65 or older.