the new issue of the new yorker showed up in my mailbox last night.  it has a very interesting article about the disparate groups that are advocating for a change in the relationship between bikes and streets and cars and people.  the article talks a bit about critical mass and, somewhat predictably, about the bohemian characters that are associated with it.  the article is unusual in portraying an activist who is working against cyclists as a total fruitcake.

the thing that most interested me about the article was the incredible variation in the types of groups that were working for change.  from the article:

Their nominal constituency, the hundred and twenty thousand New Yorkers who ride bicycles every day, comprises three distinct types—commuters (book editors, say, wearing cargo pants), exercisers (lawyers in spandex), and messengers (streetwise minorities without health care)—whose agendas overlap only loosely. And, as with any growing movement, success has brought about factionalization. Roughly speaking, the bikers range, in their political leanings, from Hugo Chávez to Ned Lamont, and in methodology from anarchist street theatre to wonkish position papers.

sound a bit familiar?  i had a hilarious encounter the other day.  mike rp and i were communiting home, towards key bridge on m street in georgetown.  we were crossing the bridge over rock creek which separates foggy bottom from georgeotwn.  a bike courier who was riding the same direction as us, but into busy oncoming traffic on the far side of the road yelled at me, and this was very clear, "rookie!".  i have no idea what that was about but both mike and i agreed that i was sort of being called out.  for riding my bike, i guess, in his vicinity.  i'm frankly not sure.  anyway, back to the article...

“I think a lot of people realize that this issue is really central to a lot of the dilemmas facing, you know, humanity right now,” Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said recently. “How are we going to deal with less oil? How are we going to make cities more sustainable, more livable?”

so there you go.  there are issues which effect all of us.  i'm not trying to get on a soapbox.  i'm just stating a matter of fact.  all of us are affected by traffic congestion and the reliance on vehicles to get around.  what the article talks about that's relevant to all this is the lack of cohesion among those who would benefit most from working together to solve problems.

we see a bit of that here.  racers seem to have this passive-aggressive loathing for recreational riders.  they call them freds, and i can't even mention (on this family-oriented blog) the things i have heard supposedly civilized and respected cyclists say about groups like PPTC.  normally composed individuals will seethe and bristle at the mention of it, and i have always wondered why.  rec riders are not off the hook either.  the friends i have who are recreational riders can't understand commuters.  "why would you choose to breathe all that exhaust" and "you're crazy to be riding in traffic like that" and "you have a family, don't you care about them??!!".  that last one is my personal favorite.  i've learned to receive it with a beatific grin.

one group locally that seems to be bucking this trend is waba, which has a number of groups under it's umbrella.  though many of the local groups often seek to do their own thing, i believe that efforts at coordination are having some degree of impact.  a favorite organization of mine is fabb, which works very hard to improve conditions, safety and accessibility for cyclists.  they, contrary to the generalized approach of many other groups which i am asserting in this post, seek to align their efforts with that of the umbrella group.  this won't always work, but if you've really read the new yorker article mentioned at the top of this post, you likely can't help but feel that the uncoordinated goals, methods and approaches play a huge part of the lack of success we have seen in making bicycles a safer way to travel and a more enticing alternative.

i'll try to post some more thoughts i have on this shortly.  there's a ton of stuff to discuss in that article.  if you have static, bring it in the comments.

- - - posted by scott