Wednesday, October 12, 2011

GM's Ad: Correcting The Real Offense

UPDATE: Giant Bicycles post an ad that responds to the GM ad. Details on Grist. The ad is displayed below the GM ad here.

While monitoring the "sound and fury" surrounding the recent General Motor's cyclist-bashing ad posted by, it was heartening to see the downpour of support for cycling and to see it actually affect GM's plans.

Nevertheless, this ad is just the tip of the iceberg. There's been a media blitz of bicycle-bashing for years (this article talks all about it). Bicycles and cyclists are frequent symbols of emasculation and failure in media. Just in the last 5 years, there's Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading, Steve Carell in 40 Year Old Virgin, Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go and Ben Stiller in Greenberg. Is it GM we're mad at or Madison Avenue and Hollywood?

Furthermore, it seems silly to be shocked that car ads would use sex to promote cars and disparage other modes of transport. Doubly so, given that we just bailed out this particular company from financial ruin and told them to go and compete as best they can. These are the guys who took private  jets to D.C. to tell us they were broke. We gave them money anyway. Now we are shocked that these guys don't "get it"?

The real offense is that we somehow elected government representatives that chose to keep this company alive instead of promoting multi-modal transportation. Had we not done that, we would be reaping the benefits of job-creating infrastructure projects and economy-stimulating traffic from pedestrians and cyclists. Instead we're spending our time shouting down tasteless ads for which we paid and ultimately voted while dodging more cars.

Given this industry's track record (GM's in particular), it is doubtful GM learned anything from this. While they are issuing an apology to us, it would not be surprising if they try to get a return on their ad investment by simply retrofitting this ad campaign for some place else in the world where folks don't squawk so much. Ultimately, GM has been and will continue to be an obsolete organization ruthlessly preserving itself and perpetuating an outdated, unsustainable, vision of transportation.

Like Steve Jobs once said, "death is nature's change agent". This ad is a perfect example of what we get when we don't let nature take its course.

Successfully shouting down this stupidity is definitely a sign of progress but it won't really change anything. Only starving the old oil and car lobbies of money will do that. Ironically, that will be tough in the next election given that our next president will either be the guy that saved this miserable company and wants to import oil from Canadian tar sands or a guy from Michigan. Regardless, we can still vote with our feet, our pedals, and our media choices.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

2011 Cyclists Fatalities Already Alarming. What Can Be Done?

Fatality Spikes
The last few weeks have felt like an epidemic to many cyclists in Los Angeles. BikingInLA reported 52 cyclist fatalities as of September 24 and there have been more since then.

Likewise, Seattle reported 10 fatalities so far this year. Three of those have occurred since July, according to StreetsBlog.

Spikes Not Pervasive
The spike hasn't been seen everywhere. In the San Francisco Bay Area, various news agencies have reported less than 10 for the year. But that's down from 15 in 2009, according to this Bike Accident Tracker. In New York City, reported the city's 10th fatality on September 4. But that's down from 12 fatalities in NYC in 2009, according to stats cited in the Village Voice. Obviously, the year is not over yet but these numbers are relatively flat given the growth in cycling's popularity and compared to Seattle and LA.

Among improved instrastructure, law enforcement, and training, only law enforcement is quick to implement.
So, as many are asking, "what is going on?" And how do we prevent this? Despite an incredible, perhaps cynical, lack of data collected by our governments on cycling fatalities, we know from experience where solutions lie: improved infrastructure, law enforcement, and training. More detail can surely be revealed about the cause of the spikes this year but simply reviewing some of the cases shows these 3 components would help a lot.

In Seattle, Seattlebikeblog and others have already identified incomplete and/or poorly designed bicycle infrastructure as a cause. In LA, a common cause is hit and runs by drivers. In New York, one cause was a cyclist going the wrong way down a street. Studies to precisely identify the root causes of all these incidents take time. What can be done to prevent more people from dying right now?

Short Term Solutions: Few
Among improved instrastructure, law enforcement, and training, only law enforcement is quick to implement. New bike lanes or training programs won't save the cyclist who dies tomorrow but better law enforcement might.

Law Enforcement
However, better law enforcement requires the right laws to be in place and resources, a.k.a. dollars, to take action. As of this writing, Governor of California, Jerry Brown, just vetoed cycling advocate's third attempt to pass a "3 feet rule": SB910. Even more challenging, he did so at the urging of the CHP.

Operation Safe Passage
Even so, law enforcement does act on similar issues. Right now, a collaboration of police agencies and the CHP are implementing "Operation Safe Passage", a program to enforce "zero tolerance" of hazardous driving around schools. This operation was planned in advanced but it was able to start just a day after a 6 year old pedestrian was killed.

Since cyclists are not concentrated in one area like a school, such a program is tougher to scope to address cycling risks. Nevertheless, something similar could be designed and implemented quickly if the political will exists.

Sources of Political Will
So where to get political will? The three classic sources are money, publicity, and pooling support with other groups. All are already at work for cycling in various degrees. With immediacy being the current goal, only one stands out.

Money Can't Buy Us Love
In the current system, money could very possibly buy us love but can we afford it and do we want to perpetuate this perverted system? Regardless, using money to lobby for cycling has obvious drawbacks for the cycling community. Bicycles alone do not represent the dollars that cars and other industries do.

Bicycle Revenue Connection Still Fuzzy
Many studies show bike-friendly communities do generate lots of revenue but the association with all those dollars is not as direct. Any bicycle lobby will find it tough to compete until it consolidates financial support from all the ancillary businesses that benefit from bike-friendly streets. And that won't happen until more bike-friendly communities are created which, ironically, requires more lobbying.

So if money can't buy cyclists love (at least for now), what about publicity? These tragedies have produced that. Seattle's mayor plans to hold a bicycle safety summit in response to all the recent cycling fatalities. However, summits don't necessarily lead to a solution as Los Angeles knows all too well. Their mayor held a bike summit last year. Despite a lot of great cycling developments in LA since then, the deaths keep coming.

Even Alan Dershowitz Can't Get Justice
In order for such events to be effective, they need the focus of the greater majority and not just the cyclist community. As Alan Dershowitz's experience shows, as he tries to identify all those involved in his sister-in-law's death, going it alone to get justice is tough. If one of the foremost attorney's in the country can't get justice, it is clear other forces need to be employed.

With a high enough profile, Mr. Dershowitz would get a cooperative DA and Los Angeles could immediately find/raise money for officers to clamp down on texters, speeders, and drunks causing the hit and runs. Without that larger audience, no summit or anything else will generate enough political will to do much more than is already being done.

Publicity Possibilities
AIDS Awareness
Nevertheless, getting that focus is not impossible. Good lessons for how to do this lie in how AIDS awareness was expanded beyond the minorities that first experienced the disease. Again, the problem is time: expanding AIDS awareness took decades.

Occupy Wall Street
So what can be done in the short term? The group Occupy Wall Street is showing one way right now: a protest. However, this is having limited success because their message is not clear and they are not appealing to the majority's self interest. This lack of focus may be intentional but it still leaves the mainstream confused and apathetic.

Overcoming Distraction
If you want a distracted person's attention, you can't waste time telling them what you are against, you've got to tell them what you are for, what you want and why they should care, and do this instantly. That's more rally or vigil than protest.

Celebrity Association
One way to instantly get people to care is to simply get familiar faces associated with your event. The Occupy Wall Street protest really took off when Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon showed up: shallow but true. The other way to engage is to illustrate the magnitude of the loss, again instantly, e.g. the AIDS quilt.

Rally For A Common Cause
This is what cyclists can do in the short term. Hold a vigil or rally for those we've lost with something visual and large of which distracted passers by or TV viewers will take note, and with a clear way for empathetic people to respond. With a high enough profile to the event, it is possible to obtain substantial new resources quickly.

Pooling Support
Pooling support with groups sharing common interests is yet another way to build support. In this case, the obvious group is pedestrians. Many groups already combine cyclists and pedestrians for this reason. This group is as financially challenged as the cyclist group, so joint efforts may not have a huge impact in lobbying any legislature. Nevertheless, it could potentially have a huge impact on any rally. Like the cycling community, pedestrians suffer greatly from cars. Many people do not cycle but almost everyone is, or has been, a pedestrian at some point. Holding a combined rally would appeal to the majority's self interest.

Long Term Solutions
A lot of the long term work is already being done. The goal is obviously to do it more effectively and swiftly. One well-known key to that is to fill the data gap. Enact legislation that forces officers and other officials to collect detailed data on bicycle traffic volume and accidents.

Data gives the few intrepid politicians out there the foothold they need to take unpopular or unprecedented action. Unfortunately, many industries like the oil, tobacco, and auto industries know this so they sometimes lobby against collecting the data.  Nevertheless, from good data can come good infrastructure, training, as well as the good laws and enforcement.

After supporting any rally in support of better law enforcement, my focus is going to be on legislature that improves data collection on all cycling activity including these accidents. At best, we need to know as much detail as possible about the cause of these tragedies. At least, we need to concretely document for the powers that be how many more of us are now out there.

None of this will bring those victims back but for those of us that feel we must do something, these are constructive and tenable.

Sunday, June 12, 2011



Update: BART's Bicycle Survey

Beautiful Partnership When Allowed

BART Not Onboard For Bikes

Other Offenders

Separate, Don't Eliminate

Beat The Flexibility Benchmark


Neighbor Metros Refute BART Excuses 



Good Enough for LA and NY Metro But Not For BART?


Fewer Excuses, More Efficiency

Shorter Intervals


Longer Trains That Reposition For Bike Car

Boosting Capacity Is Inevitable, Start Now

Stop digging this hole


Low Hanging Fruit

Fix The Stairs




Fix The Ticket Gates


  1. park their bike
  2. pass through a regular ticket gate
  3. move back through an emergency gate
  5. bring the bike back through the emergency gate. 


Learn From The Bad Lessons

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Bicycle Safety Within: Watchout For Spokes

External Safety Risks
There is is a lot of information and debate about bicycle safety these days. Most of it, except for the helmet debate, is focused on protecting bicycles from external risks: cars. All good stuff to talk about. I've profiled my friend Johan's ordeal after he put his knee through a car that pulled in front of him.

Internal Safety Risks
Nevertheless, the recent experience of another friend of mine reminded me to stay focused on the internal risks as well. Her experience, in particular, may become more common as all of us start using our bikes for more than sport.

She did something a lot of us have done at one time or another. It looks harmless enough when you see it but it is a potentially harmful way to travel on a bike.

Broken Elbow
First, let's highlight the risk. On this page, is an x-ray of her broken elbow from the accident: a displaced fracture. It shows the metal plate and screws holding her arm together.

Mind-bending Pain
When she first did this, she said the pain was so bad it took over her entire consciousness for several minutes. She lay in shock right outside her office next to her bike. No one was around to help. When numbness finally kicked in, she was able to get up and then some co-workers finally found her and helped.

Just Steps From Work
She had just left her office and had only been riding for a few seconds. No other vehicles or people were involved. The thing that caused all this was her purse. She had hung it on her handlebars for a second. It somehow got caught between the front wheel and the fork and locked up the wheel. That threw her over the handlebars and plunged her elbow squarely into the pavement.

It's been 8 weeks since the accident.  The surgery went well. The cast is off. She still has a metal band threaded under her skin that must be taken out in a few weeks. But, otherwise, she is fine.

Back in the Saddle
To her credit, she hasn't been the least bit shell-shocked by the incident. She is already riding again. Insanely, she started riding within a week of the accident. This is so not recommended since another crash could damage the repaired elbow. However, it demonstrates this stuff doesn't have to deter you from bicycle commuting.

The one change she has made to her cycling is the installation of a rack and basket on the *back* of her bike. I've been urging her to install an enclosed pack on the back because things can fall through the wired basket and catch on the wheel. Until then, even if that happens, on the back wheel it should not launch her so badly.

Increasingly Common Site
Today, I saw a guy pedaling home from the grocery store with 3 bags swinging from his handlebars. He also had a U-Lock dangling over his back wheel. I tried to warn him about the danger but he didn't believe me. That inspired this post. Hopefully, this will help some folks avoid a lot of pain and hassle.

Mundane Matters
We hear about dramatic bike crashes and fatalities all the time but the mundane stuff is no less dangerous so it seems like a good cautionary tale to feature. Since I'm the one who introduced her to cycling I feel responsible that I didn't warn her about this so I'm venting that guilt by way of this caution to others.

While pushing for greater safety in our bicycle infrastructure, we've got to stay focused on the safety within. Sometimes, it's the little stuff that gets you.

I've heard similar stories about headphone wires falling out and snagging. If it swings or dangles it can snag. Watch out.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Does the Cycling Epiphany Hold Water?

Cycling Epiphany
Posts like this one claim that a simple bicycle ride through an urban landscape will do more to educate about urban ills/joys, and sell the joy of cycling better, than any other kind of communication. It contends the bicycle is "an instrument of experiential understanding" through which complex civic and environmental issues are graphically conveyed.

There is no question that the experience of cycling as serious transport is powerful stuff (see #1,3,4,5,6, and 8 of Why I Ride). It is also true that, like many things, actually trying something may be the best way to understand it's value and that cycling revolutionizes ones view of ones surroundings.

Back to Reality
However, it is still a massive challenge to get enough people in the saddle long enough to have that revelation.

Acquired Taste
I've been actively recruiting new cyclists for years but I can still count the converts from my personal life on one hand.

Even when you get new butts in the saddles, the first thing those butts do is complain that they are sore. It can take more than a couple rides for the epiphany to kick in.

Then, there's hair. For those who care, if the helmets don't ruin it, the wind does. That knocks out a surprising number of recruits.

And, heaven forbid it rains. Even avid cyclists complain about rain and/or don't ride in it. The cycling epiphany is quite definitely waterproof but this is not apparent even to many of the initiated (those folks need to see these photos of European cyclists in winter).

A prerequisite to the cycling epiphany seems to be a reintroduction to one's own body and  the physical world. That can happen at the same time but that is too much for some.

Feeling Threatened
Amongst all the recent hype about cycling are sobering articles like this: Expansion of Bike Lanes in City Brings Backlash. This article, and many like it, show that a formidable number of Americans are still far away from having a cycling epiphany even when the opportunity is right in front of them.

Gratification Guarantee
Like a lot of great experiences out there, most folks are skipping "experiential understanding" in favor of driving home to eat something tasty and watch TV. After a hard days work, most folks want guaranteed satisfaction not a mere chance at satisfaction through something new.

Perception Issues Persist
What's more, many Americans still assume most cyclists are simply people who can't drive, e.g. the poor, the drunk or the under age. At best, they see them as over-educated nerds naively trying to save the planet.

The entertainment media embellishes this. explains this in: "Dude, Where's Your Car?" Most movies still portray bicycles as emasculating. The "40 Year Old Virgin" is a classic example. This leaves many thinking cycling is not sexy at all. Car advertisements take it from there.

Perceptions are changing on their own in certain pockets of the U.S. And some celebrities like Katy Perry make cycling sexy by wearing their bicycles well. However, that's not putting enough butts in the saddles either.
Proven Motivators
Ironically, what compels many to start cycling are the nuts and bolts justifications downplayed by some. The FRONTLINE story "Poisoned Waters" describes this well. Although it is about the relationship between urban centers and water quality, it includes details about what swayed voters on green urban design and "livable streets". It wasn't new positive experiences or visions, it was known pain points like health, safety, and taxes.

This jibes with my personal experience. One recruited cyclist I know is a hardcore republican. The environmentalist arguments fell flat with her but after much of my nagging she tried cycling to work and found that, combined with CalTrain, the bike got her to work 20 minutes faster than the jam packed 101 freeway. After that, she was sold. She has since had the Cycling Epiphany alluded to earlier. This has led her to initiate trash cleanups of things she sees on her ride, etc.

All this makes it pretty clear, to me at least, that cycling cannot sell itself. And no single aspect of cycling is more compelling than any other. The experience of cycling is indeed profound but most people are surprisingly far from ready to appreciate it. Consequently, every catalyst must be leveraged. In fact, we need to find more of them if cycling is to become a serious mode of transport in North America.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Why I ride

I ride because:
  9. I never worry about parking

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Heaven on Earth: Bike Transport in Switzerland and Austria


High Expectations


Are Small Cities Any Less Committed?


Exceeded Expections


Serious Bike Parking






Serious Bike Infrastructure

Serious Bike Services

Serious Bike Usage






Serious Challenge

Sunday, March 13, 2011


Confession: This Cyclist Drives

Public Transport: Limited Progress


Optimizing Suboptimal Transport

Casual Carpool

Distance and Time Gaps

Enter PlanBike for Motorists




PlanBike for Motorists Benefits
  • instantly boosts cars efficiency dramatically and cheaply
  • instantly boosts bicycles range dramatically and cheaply
  • reduces adversarial relations between motorists and cyclists


