Washington Post is on an Anti-Bike Roll

[cvcalhoun]

Because few people cycle. If, for example, Milloy himself engages in speeding so persistently that he gets his license revoked (yes, he really did), motorists still don’t have an image problem. People often sympathize, because they’ve violated speed limits themselves sometimes. Even if they don’t, they consider Milloy’s speeding a reflection on Milloy, not on all motorists.

By contrast, suppose a bicyclist goes through a red light (after coming to a full stop and looking both ways, and motivated by the fact that the cyclist will be safer if s/he goes through the light before motor vehicles). In general, a) people have no sympathy, because they don’t cycle themselves and thus don’t understand that going through a red light may be safer under the circumstances than waiting for the green, and b) people blame “cyclists,” not just the particular cyclist.

@StopMeansStop 90110 wrote:

Not to side with Milloy, but why is it that cyclists seem to have an image problem in the first place?

[PotomacCyclist]

Coverage of the polite bike protest at The Post, from Greater Greater Washington:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23553/bicyclists-politely-explain-that-theyre-not-terrorists-and-neither-are-their-small-children/

Good video, with interviews from some of the regular and mature people at the protest, including an African-American man, a Caucasian mother and her child and others.

[video=vimeo;100464301]https://vimeo.com/100464301[/video]

The article also includes a short audio interview between WTOP reporter/cyclist Kate Ryan and Veronica Davis of Black Women Bike DC. Another calm and reasoned discussion of Mr. Milloy’s rant and also of the issues he raised.

https://soundcloud.com/kryanwtop/dc-road-rights-rules-reaction-veronica-o-davis-of-black-women-bike-dc-weighs-in-on-wapo-columnmp3

I know all this won’t affect extremists like you find on The Daily Caller and elsewhere. But middle-of-the-road people in D.C. and the region will find the video, interview, article and polite bike protest enlightening.

---

Veronica Davis also posted that she has arranged to go for a bike ride with Mr. Milloy, on the condition that she ride in a car on D.C. streets with him.

[PotomacCyclist]

@lordofthemark 90001 wrote:

I love my Civic (I was gonna say you will pry it away from my cold dead hands, but Japanese engineering isn’t THAT good, and if we were ever to manage a nice condo in a particularly convenient location in DC, we MIGHT go car free) I drive it regularly. Very useful in many ways.

But if I had had the time, I would have gone to the protest. I don’t think militant bike advocacy really is connected to car hatred – as I said I love my car. I just hate the way our society makes it hard for me to walk and bike where I want to, because so many people have lives built around going relatively long distances quickly by car.

Correction: So many people have lives built around going relatively SHORT distances by car.

According to this post (with links to original sources), 40 percent of all trips in the U.S. are two miles or less. Most people can easily ride two miles on a bike with little training. Many can even walk that distance (although I recognize that a shockingly large percentage of adults would probably struggle with that, because of their sedentary lifestyles and junk food diets).

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2013/40-percent-under-two-miles/

Moreover, an investigative news organization tried to undercut the claim of 40% of trips being two miles or less in San Diego. While that organization asserts that “only” 37 percent of all trips in San Diego were two miles or less, they actually discovered that when looking at only car usage on a national level, 69.1 percent of all car trips in the U.S. were two miles or less.

http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/03/20/driving-when-you-could-bike-fact-check/

[dkel]

@PotomacCyclist 90115 wrote:

Coverage of the polite bike protest at The Post, from Greater Greater Washington:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/23553/bicyclists-politely-explain-that-theyre-not-terrorists-and-neither-are-their-small-children/

From the comments section of the Greater Greater Washington article: “Amazing how Courtland Milloy can take anecdotes and then apply them generally to a whole class of people. Isn’t that the exact same thing he abhors in the many articles he’s written on racism in society?” I’ve been wondering about that myself. If Milloy is concerned about social justice and equality, why wouldn’t he realize that he’s guilty of the same discriminatory attitude as racists, just about a different segment of the population?

[mstone]

@dkel 90119 wrote:

From the comments section of the Greater Greater Washington article: “Amazing how Courtland Milloy can take anecdotes and then apply them generally to a whole class of people. Isn’t that the exact same thing he abhors in the many articles he’s written on racism in society?” I’ve been wondering about that myself. If Milloy is concerned about social justice and equality, why wouldn’t he realize that he’s guilty of the same discriminatory attitude as racists, just about a different segment of the population?

because it’s completely different because it’s about people he doesn’t like instead of about him

[PotomacCyclist]

Just proves that Milloy is only operating on prejudice, bias, and extreme emotion here, not reason or maturity.

His attempt to turn this into a racial issue and play to a certain segment of the D.C. population and readership is not just the same discriminatory attitude as racists. It’s the exact same thing.

He still hasn’t said anything about the 3-yr-old and the 13-yr-old killed last weekend by car drivers. Why isn’t that terrorism?

[Steve O]

@PotomacCyclist 90116 wrote:

Correction: So many people have lives built around going relatively SHORT distances by car.
69.1 percent of all car trips in the U.S. were two miles or less.
/[/url]

My neighbor once drove over and returned our house key after his daughter cared for our cat while we were away. According to my Garmin he lives about 750 feet away.

[Steve O]

BikeArlington just posted this picture album of bicycle commuters. Perhaps we could forward to Mr. Milloy. I, personally, struggled to identify the terrorists.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.657261997675653.1073741862.205971902804667&type=1

[bobco85]

Both the article and the bike community’s response to the article seem to have garnered a lot of attention. While on my bike ride today, I noticed a few pedestrians look at me and mention something about “that article” while I was in earshot.

Come to think of it, when I encountered them in Courthouse I signaled my turn at an intersection before turning as they were in the crosswalk, giving them a wide berth, but I was wearing a kit with a skull on it (my Dia de Los Muertos kit) so I guess I did partially resemble a member of an LA bike gang :p

[PotomacCyclist]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6180[/ATTACH]

Bike terrorist, Tyler Clippard.

Well, actually, he is a well-known relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, and a cyclist. But he did used to greet visitors at his apartment with a water gun. (He used to share an apartment with Nats teammate Drew Storen.)

I’d post the article about why Clippard likes riding his bike to Nats Park, but it’s a Washington Post story. I don’t want to reward them with additional page views for stirring up the pot this week.

Bike terrorist, LeBron James

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6181[/ATTACH]

Well, actually, he is better known as a multiple NBA MVP, two-time champion, and returning prodigal son with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He sponsors an annual bike event for kids in Northeast Ohio. During his stint in Miami, he turned into a bike commuter, riding his bike to the arena more often than driving one of his expensive cars. Too bad he had to terrorize so many people along the way, just because he wanted to help the environment, have fun in the outdoors, and crank up his aerobic endurance (which seems to have benefited him in his day job quite a bit).

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/lebron-james-says-bikes-most-heat-home-games-002634804–nba.html

[The caption of the photo in the Yahoo article is strange. It says that LeBron is competing in a stage of the Tour de France in that photo. ??? ]

Bike terrorist, Derrick Rose

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6182[/ATTACH]

Actually, he is also a prominent basketball player, for the Chicago Bulls. During a playoff series against the Wizards, Rose was spotted riding a Capital Bikeshare bike in our fair city/district. Looks like he’s terrorizing that woman. (OK, he seems to be asking for directions and enjoying the spring weather in DC and being a nice guy. But he did root for the Bulls to beat the Wizards. That’s kind of mean, isn’t it?)

[lordofthemark]

@PotomacCyclist 90116 wrote:

Correction: So many people have lives built around going relatively SHORT distances by car.

According to this post (with links to original sources), 40 percent of all trips in the U.S. are two miles or less

Nope, I specifically meant long. Short trips may be more convertible to cycle trips, but they are also amenable to slow, polite driving. The issue I was referencing was not mode share, but why so many people feel impelled to place their speed and convenience while driving, above all other considerations (both in how they drive, what policies they insist on, etc) And that has a lot to do with people building their lives around LONG auto trips, which make twenty far from plenty, etc.

I am all for mode shift, but my comment was about that aspect life on the road that personally bothers me.

[baiskeli]

@dkel 90119 wrote:

From the comments section of the Greater Greater Washington article: “Amazing how Courtland Milloy can take anecdotes and then apply them generally to a whole class of people. Isn’t that the exact same thing he abhors in the many articles he’s written on racism in society?” I’ve been wondering about that myself. If Milloy is concerned about social justice and equality, why wouldn’t he realize that he’s guilty of the same discriminatory attitude as racists, just about a different segment of the population?

That’s Milloy’s deeper problem – he is often as bigoted as he complains about others being.

[baiskeli]

@cvcalhoun 90112 wrote:

Because few people cycle. If, for example, Milloy himself engages in speeding so persistently that he gets his license revoked (yes, he really did), motorists still don’t have an image problem. People often sympathize, because they’ve violated speed limits themselves sometimes. Even if they don’t, they consider Milloy’s speeding a reflection on Milloy, not on all motorists.

By contrast, suppose a bicyclist goes through a red light (after coming to a full stop and looking both ways, and motivated by the fact that the cyclist will be safer if s/he goes through the light before motor vehicles). In general, a) people have no sympathy, because they don’t cycle themselves and thus don’t understand that going through a red light may be safer under the circumstances than waiting for the green, and b) people blame “cyclists,” not just the particular cyclist.

I would add to this excellent answer that the sins of the “bad” cyclists are much more visible. The rare daredevil who weaves through traffic to run a red scares the bejeesus out of everyone in a way a car or pedestrian doesn’t as often.

[jonathankrall]

@StopMeansStop 90110 wrote:

Not to side with Milloy, but why is it that cyclists seem to have an image problem in the first place?

Because people like to believe that normal = safe = good and we live in a built environment that barely accommodates bicycles at all. Worse yet, humans have evolved to equate obedience to social norms with survival and bicycles are basically funny-looking cars that break social rules right, left and sideways.

The social rule for speeding, for example, is that the speed limit is a lower limit. Drive below the speed limit on the beltway and you will receive honking and rude gestures. Cyclists riding legally in the road elicit road rage simply for “slowing down” the cars. Legally, a vehicle proceeding on the road at its usual and customary speed is not “impeding traffic.” A very nice article in Law and Order magazine clarified that about two years ago. Casting about for a rationalization for this road rage, many seize on scofflaw behavior, which is universal, and pretend that cyclists are unusual scofflaws. The fact is that no credible study supports this stereotype.

[Greenbelt]

Courtland Milloy = Rush Limbaugh. Same analytic techniques and style of argument.

[Author]

Posts