Posted on 07/23/2010 11:17:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There is something profoundly wrong with a nation where more adults ride bicycles than children.
America might now be such a nation.
While kids sit at home texting their friends and slaying computer-generated monsters, a growing number of their parents and grandparents are clogging the roads atop a contraption that was once considered a child’s toy.
We will have accurate data when the 2010 census is complete, but there are already strong indications of bicycling’s rise in popularity. Fortunately for red-state America, the phenomenon is more common in urbanized regions along the coasts. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia recently gushed that the “2009 American Community Survey found that the number of commuters [in Philadelphia] who rode a bicycle to work rose from 4,778 to 9,410 between 2005 and 2008: a 97 percent increase in 3 years.”
Two odious ideologies fuel the popularity of bicycling: anti-obesity extremism and eco-lunacy. Pedal power, we are told, will not only make you thinner, it will reduce your “carbon footprint.” (It’s a Nanny State twofer.)
Already slim, or pursuing other means to lose weight? Like your SUV, and don’t swallow the discredited theory that man is baking the planet? Then obviously you’re an idiot. In 2003, BusinessWeek asked Andy Clarke, director of state and local advocacy for the League of American Bicyclists, to respond to the fact that 500,000 Americans commute by bicycle. The figure was “pathetic,” he snorted, “for a nation that should be smarter and wiser.”
Feeling themselves superior to their countrymen in both health and environmental consciousness, many bicyclists flout road rules. Last year, The Boston Globe reported: “On any hour of any day … bicyclists routinely run red lights, ride the wrong way on one-way streets, zip along sidewalks, and cut off pedestrians crossing streets legally -- even though bike riders are supposed to obey the same traffic laws as motorists. Sometimes, a bicyclist will do all of these things in one two-wheeled swoop. The city seems unable to stop it.”
Writing in the Rocky Mountain News, Arvada, Colorado resident J.M. Schell admitted that there was “a very, very good reason so many view those of us who are cyclists as rude, arrogant jerks. Most of us are.”
Recklessness and lawbreaking notwithstanding, Big Bicycle has attained the status of a lobby that cannot be ignored. “Bikes Belong,” an agitprop shop “sponsored by the U.S. bicycle industry with the goal of putting more people on bicycles more often,” boasts of “12 professional staff, 18 volunteer directors, and a $2 million annual operating budget.”
“Maximizing Federal Support for Bicycling,” a page on the organization’s website, explains that it spent $1 million on lobbying between 2002 and 2005, which ultimately produced “$4.5 billion for bicycling and walking in SAFETEA-LU, the … transportation law passed in August 2005.” Where did that money come from? You guessed it: the federal gas tax. (Four out of every ten dollars raised by the levy are diverted to non-highway expenses.)
Where did the dough go? To state and local pols, who gleefully commit drivers’ forced contributions to dubious bike schemes. “There’s never been so much attention from cities collectively for cycling as a mode of transportation,” the executive editor of Bicycling magazine swooned to USA Today in 2007. “Bike to Work” days and weeks are commonplace. “Bicycle planning” is providing lucrative jobs for bureaucrats eager to wield the coercive power of government to change commuting habits.
Remarkably, Big Bicycle was able to get in on Wall Street’s bailout. The National Center for Bicycling and Walking notes that fedpols’ 2008 rescue of financial firms included a rather unrelated perk: “Starting January 1, 2009, employers who provide bike parking, bathing facilities, tune-ups, or other support for bicycle commuting, can deduct up to $20 a month per participating employee from their own taxable income.”
Is bicycle-commuting a credible traffic-fighting tool? No, says Cato Institute scholar -- and avid cyclist -- Randal O’Toole. “I don’t think encouraging cycling is going to reduce congestion or significantly change the transportation makeup of our cities,” he said. “There really is very little evidence that any of [these efforts] are reducing the amount of driving. They’re just making it more annoying to drivers.” (O’Toole observes that telecommuting is far more common, and growing faster, than getting to work on a bike.)
Bicycles are wonderful, of course. For children. Only misanthropes complain about stopping or yielding to safely accommodate a couple of twelve-year-olds pedaling their way to the fishin’ hole.
For adults, bicycling has become a finger-wagging, revenue-pilfering, and increasingly obnoxious crusade.
At least two bike riders are killed in my county every year. (many country roads) Be warned, there are many out there that do not SEE the bike trying to ride in their lane. Darwinism.........
Well then you can be sure the roads will be well paved.
That’s a nice old Buick!
I loved riding my bike to graduate school in Philadelphia,...**but**...I like being alive better. The truth is that if motorcycling in dangerous, then so is bicycling! ( Is a “duh” necessary?)
I still bike ( 30 years later) but it is on mountain trails that are specifically set aside for just that purpose.
I bike politely and as safely as is possible. Every mile that I ride leaves more fuel for those who need and want it. The joy of it is that so long as it is my option and I am considerate, what harm is it for the rest? The amount of money listed in this article is a pinprick on the ass of a 1.4+ TRILLION DOLLAR Deficit.
The idiots cited by my fellow FReepers should be pulled over by the police and tickets issued, just like the bozo who zoomed up on me and sprayed beer in my face and roared off on a traffic-less road. There are idiots on both sides but given the fact that this is a land of diminishing freedoms, please allow me mine!
Dittos. I am absolutely not in favor of requiring people to ride bikes. If they want to ride around on their Lardass 2000 scooters because they weigh 500 pounds, and their diabetic feet had to be cut off, and they can't leave the house without an oxygen bottle, then all the power to them. We should honor the valuable contribution they make by dying off at a young age and sparing the retirement system the burden of their presence.
“As long as I’m in confession mode; I really enjoyed cutting up tens of thousands of board feet of dead trees. I did. It was a kick.”
Those of us who choose to live in houses are grateful.
If they ride on the white line too many drivers will try to pass without moving to the left. I hate it when a car brushes by me a few inches away.
Pass ‘em like they were a farm tractor, ie move into the other lane.
I live in Alaska, bikes are not so easy to use up here, if anything a quad ATV is what everyone must have, many people commute to work on these, there are some wonderful paved off the shoulder of the highway bike trails around, they are kept clean, they have all the ramps and signs and such.
But very few people ride bikes on them, sure maybe for the couple of weeks of summer we get here, but on the other side of the highways with its muddy track full of dips and water holes is the route for the ATVs and in the winter the snowmachiners.
Of which neither group can legally use the $20 million bike path...
Democrats in action. They feel so good about a project but fail to consider the real wants and desires of the people.
Myself, I own two motorcycles and a 496 cubic inch gasoline powered dually.
Bike paths (not a bike lane on the street) are usually not good for cycling. We cyclists has the same problems with walkers two abreast or walking their dog on a 25 ft leash as you do in your car with cyclists in the road.
Not having a door to punish their offenses, I prefer to annoy motorists to taking my chances on the bike path.
Not really, I do ride a bike on the street, but I stay out of the way of autos as much as possible, riding to the right or on the shoulder, if available. I will pull over if I see several cars behind me and I can find a spot.
Oh, and I not an enviro-weenie or ride for any environmental reason, I just like to ride and stay in shape (as much as a 60+ can).
I pull to the left as much as I can(don't want to scrape one off my hood). The problem is many bike riders don't stay to the right as much as they can.
A bicycle is like a slow car. I learned the hard way to ride at least 2 feet from the curb or people try to squeeze by you. I had a flatbed truck going roughly 40 mph miss my handlebars by roughly 3 inches one time when I was doing about 27 mph and trying to give room. It was a four lane road. He could have easily pulled into the inside lane but decided to “teach me a lesson”. He did, but not the one he expected.
One time I was in a wide shoulder area (there was a curb and sidewalk) and passing roughly 3/4 mile of standing traffic. As I got close to the intersection causing the mess, a semi turned his wheel hard to the right and pulled his truck up to where the front tire was hard against the curb, strictly to stop me. I didn’t even slow down. I hopped the curb, went past him on the sidewalk, and hopped back down and then waved goodbye (I never flip people off, I always smile and wave, no matter what they do).
Regarding the area you live, I get that near my new farm in Kentucky. But we get that with farm equipment as well, and they are a lot harder to pass. The roads there are what Seattle area bike trails aspire to be, so I know why guys like to ride there - and many of them are from out of the area. I guess being a rider myself I appreciate why they are there. It is a slower paced life as well so I don’t care that much when they slow me down out there.
I ramble, but the bottom line is that good bicycle etiquette is that when there is not a bike lane you are to ride far enough from the shoulder that cars must leave the lane, at least partially, to keep from hitting you. It eliminates the risky “close calls”.
You are also co-conspirators in the murder of our needle-bearing neighbors. ;^) lol
I live in Chicago and commute by bike 52 weeks a year. I do that because it’s faster than driving or taking terrible public transit, not because I’m trying to be “green” or because I think anyone else should. Leaving home, biking 20 minutes to work, and taking a shower once I get there is faster, easier, and cheaper than driving or trying to fit onto a rush hour train or bus. When I’m biking, I stop at red lights and stay in a bike lane the whole way, so I’m not in the way of cars.
Shouldn’t we conservatives be more concerned with letting people have the freedom to do what they want, rather than saying that all bikers are evil because some of them don’t know how to ride? Most of the people on this thread sounds like they want the nanny state to prevent people from having the freedom to bike, rather than just cracking down on those who break the law.
My comment was:
“500,000 Americans commute by bicycle.”
“For a while, in nice weather.
Not 52 weeks a year!”
I never implied that all bikers are evil. I was questioning the stats, because I thought they were pretty high. I never said I don’t want people to have the freedom to commute how they like. I don’t know how you got those assumptions from my quick, pithy little post.
You sound like a very respectful and courteous biker, and you have no idea how much I appreciate cyclists such as yourself.
Sorry for calling them “bike paths”, but I’ve heard that term quite a bit when speaking of bike lanes.
I love bike lanes and sidewalks as they afford everyone the space they need. However, when I pass a cyclist on a country road with no bike lane, and he gives me the finger because I passed him...I want to open the passenger side door.
In my neck of the woods, cyclists believe they own the road. I say, “fine”...own your piece of the road by being licensed and paying taxes on your piece of the road.
If you were an environweenie, you wouldn’t be on FR. And, I congratulate you for staying in shape, and for being respectful while doing so.
For adults, bicycling has become a finger-wagging, revenue-pilfering, and increasingly obnoxious crusade.I never wag my finger while I'm riding; if I'm pilfering revenue, I'm not getting any money out of it; I'm certainly not on any sort of a crusade.
Thanks for the kind words, I try to be unobtrusive but sometimes fail. Some of the drivers in these parts make it tough. The occasional redneck will even take time out of his busy schedule running to the beer store for a roadside chat on traffic etiquette.
I’m sure I pay more taxes than 100% of the good old boys that flip me off and tell me to get the **** off their road and onto a bike path.
You know what? I was listening to a local talk radio show this morning during an interview with one of Portland’s city councilmen. Both of them called it bike PATHS!
Last night, I thought I was incorrect. As it turns out, we don’t have your bike paths out here. They are called hiking trails. ;o)
To the folks here...bike paths are pavement, baby! lol
In the Portland, OR metro area, they are ticked off that Minneapolis ranked # 1...beating out Portland for the first time...in bike paths. Now, even though we are going the way of CA, and are in the top 10 states expected to declare bankruptcy, we are spending 100s of millions of bucks to make new paths, and get the top spot back.
I see you are in TN. Even though you have to deal with some disrespectful people, you are very fortunate to be there, my FRiend.
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