Today’s Wash Post Article — Cycling’s road forward

@lordofthemark 44991 wrote:

eh. I was hoping a WaPo article on cycling’s road forward would be a grand synthesis of whats going on in the region (or the country) in terms of ridership, bike infrastructure, CaBi, biking law, safety and education, road sharing, etc, etc. Would have been a nice balance to the Examiner’s “war on cars” lead article today. I don’t think the identification of cycling with racing is actually helpful. Could anyone imagine an article called ” driving’s road forward” that focused on Nascar, Formula 1, etc???

Does EVERY article on cycling have to be about local MUPs, bike lanes and sharrows?? Bikes are good for more than just commuting. It’s a nice story about a localish kid who’s stepping up the ladder of the professional cycling ranks and has a bright future. Usually the only cycling articles I see not about the trials and tribulations of bike commuters vs drivers are about Lance, and lord knows we’re all tired of that stuff by now. I think it’s more interesting that this kid grew up near Warrenton, was just signed by team Skye and I’ve never heard of him before.

And unlike NASCAR and the ridiculousness of car racing, at any given time you could be riding with a pro cyclist. They train on the same roads you do.

I remember seeing him on the podium at the Pro Cycling Challenge and thinking “who is that lanky, funny looking kid?” But then I saw that he’s a local and started following him a bit more closely. He’s one of the few UCI pros on Strava, and since he trains in Nice I always look at his rides to get ideas for when my wife and I go out there this summer.

Also cool to see such a well done multimedia article by WaPo. And I have to respectfully disagree with LoTM above. For one, many articles focus on auto racing…it’s watched by billions around the world and there are lots of “road ahead” type articles that talk about women drivers, or developments in hybrid technology, or whatever, and tie developments in racing to developments on production cars.

Also, I love bike racing, so I’m always happy to see it get this kind of in-depth, really positive coverage by a newspaper. I mean, maybe it’s not helpful for cycling as transportation, but to me that seems like saying articles about Usain Bolt aren’t helpful for pedestrians. It’s okay for sports coverage to be just sports coverage.

@Greenbelt 45014 wrote:

I’m kind of OK with cycling as the term for “race, sport, recreation, touring, off-road, BMX, trials etc.” bicycle riding and “bike commuter” as the generic term for everyday riding for transport/cargo.

I like this idea, but don’t really like “bike commuting” as the generic term, because I think one of the biggest areas for growth is in the non-commuting transportation area. I know a lot of people who would never dream of commuting to work on a bike, but who have expressed interest on using bikes to do more local errands (grocery store, getting into the R-B corridor, local parks and libraries with kids). Any ideas?

I love Dombrowski. He started as a Cat 5 around here, just like (pretty much) everyone else. My husband raced against him in a cat 4 race only a few years ago (in so much as Dombrowski took a flyer at the beginning of the race and finished a couple of laps ahead of everyone else). Husband has been describing his development to me as “Remember that guy who smoked the Cat 4 field in [can’t remember the name of the race]? He just won [insert cool thing here].” Oh, and I want everyone to start calling him JoDo.

@DismalScientist 45005 wrote:

Perhaps the issue is only with the headline writer.

this. I have no problem with articles like this. It was more a bit of disappointment clicking on the link.

And no, while I’ve seen articles on bike lanes and so forth in the WaPo, I’ve never seen anything like what I would expect for “cycling the way forward’

As for cycling vs other terms – bike commuting won’t do, as there are lots of transportation cyclists who aren’t commuters, and there are lots of recreational riders who are not racers. And “biker” generally means motorcyclist. Bicycle rider would work, But its a bit long and awkward.

@lordofthemark 45035 wrote:

I like cycling for riding a bicycle in general, and bike racing for racing. Will that cause me to be misunderstood in the bike community?

I tend to think of “cyclists” as more sporty/racey and “bike riders” as more general or recreational.

But when it comes down to it, why can’t we all just be “people who ride bikes?” Michael Colville Andersen makes the argument that people with vacuums aren’t “vacuumists,” they are just people who have a tool for doing something that they need to do. No need to put a label on anyone!

@ShawnoftheDread 45039 wrote:

Are there a host of vacuuming magazines and online forums that I’m unaware of? Clearly our bikes are more to us than simple household tools.

I would suggest that many of the Danish and Dutch treat their bikes as simple household tools. That being said, I get where you’re coming from–that’s the beauty of the bicycle!

@Tim Kelley 45038 wrote:

Michael Colville Andersen makes the argument that people with vacuums aren’t “vacuumists,” they are just people who have a tool for doing something that they need to do. No need to put a label on anyone!

I am a Dysonist, thankyouverramush.