[Vision2020] Critical Mass, A Public Menace! Inconvenient Truth -- What WE gonna do

[Ted Moffett]

Megan, Sunil et. al.

Megan, thanks for the info on Critical Mass.  I did not witness this
particular ride when someone was ticketed or arrested.  The police were not
as aggressive on the rides I did with Critical Mass, though police cars were
following along our route, some positioned to take pictures, as you reported
occurred on the rides you participated with.  It did seem rather incredible,
but, hey, maybe they got a call from Homeland Security that terrorists were
trying to pose as bicycle activists in Moscow Idaho, so they needed those
photos to run through their face recognition data bank.

Sunil, I think it is legal for a bicyclist to be in the middle of a lane of
traffic (correct me if I am wrong).  The issue is not to just "make a point"
in the abstract when riding in the middle of the lane.  The issue is to
increase drivers respect for the fact that bicyclists have a right to use
the streets of Moscow as well as cars and trucks, that they can ride
together out in the street legally, which in some ways is safer than being
on the side of a street with passing traffic, and should not be regarded as
a nusance, which I assure you is the attitude of many harried rushing
drivers, whether the bicyclist is on the side of the street or the middle.

Angry drivers?  You make my point for me.  Drivers should not be angry at
bicyclists using the streets of Moscow, even if it does slow them down.  All
the talk on Vision2020 about how we should encourage more bicycling, if
followed large scale, would result in a high density of bicyclists on the
streets of Moscow, with, yes, bicyclists sometimes more out in the street,
and car and truck traffic would have to adjust.  Angry at a bicyclist,
helping to solve one of the major crisis facing our planet?  Are you are
implying a bicyclist is not to be angry at those who waste a non-renewable
resource and pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases?

Let's rewrite your statement to read "Angry bicyclists don't appreciate the
point the drivers want to make, they just want to beat their heads in."

I agree that bicyclists on sidewalks are a hazard, and that separate bike
paths off road are best.   However, at this point in time, if we are to
encourage dramatic increases in bike use in Moscow, many of the streets with
no bike lanes will be used for bicycling, which would necessitate more
tolerance on the part of drivers to respect the presence of large number of
bicyclists on the streets, even if it does slow their trip to Wal-Mart or
the U of I by a couple of minutes.

It is amazing to witness the psychology of drivers who will speed to a red
light in a hurry to save a few seconds, then wait at the red light they
would have reached at a slower speed anyway before it turned green.  I see
people on the Troy Hwy. every day who speed at 65-70 MPH, saving, lets
assume they are going to Bovill from Moscow, about 5-10 minutes as they risk
the lives of themselves and other drivers.

The dominance of the use of private motorized vehicles in our culture felt
to be a "right," an aspect of our economy and lifestyle that is so
integrated into our psychology that it approaches religious significance,
results in abuses of this form or technology that appear to be taken for
granted as "inevitable."

As far as the expansion of the Moscow/Pullman Hwy. and Hwy. 95, are you
figuring the inevitable economic growth these developments will allow,
increasing the absolute amount of traffic and fossil fuel use in our area.
Wanna bet?

Let's deconstruct the position of your narrative on critical mass and
bicycling in the context of the power structure of economic and status
driven identity legitimizing or delegitimizing various ideological
authority constructs regarding the position of bicycling vis a vis motorized
traffic on the streets of Moscow as a valued means of transportation to be
encouraged or not.

Ted Moffett



On 8/24/06, Megan Prusynski <megan at meganpru.com> wrote:
>
> Ted, I rode with Critical Mass several times when it was going on
> (and I miss it, maybe we should bring it back!). I was on the ride
> where a girl was arrested. She was 17. Her offense? The front tire of
> her bike went about 4 inches over the bike lane line. We were on 6th
> St. and the cops had forced us to ride in the bike lanes in one long
> line.
>
> I have never seen cops act so fascist over a group of people doing
> something as harmless as riding bikes and demonstrating their use of
> alternative transportation. They stalked the group with cameras and
> tried to take pictures, undoubtedly to track "troublemakers" or
> something. I had my camera so I started whipping it out and pointing
> it at them when they tried to do the same to me. Hehe. They don't
> like it when you use their tactics against them. I was amazed at the
> cop presence at Critical Mass and wondered why they thought that they
> had nothing better to do than follow us around acting as if we were
> terrorists. I could understand having an officer or two on bikes to
> follow the group simply to keep everyone safe, but cop cars
> blockading us, stopping ahead along the route to take pictures as we
> passed, following and passing dangerously, and cops generally
> harassing people was totally unnecessary, and a waste of their time.
>
> And as for the larger question at hand, I think change is going to
> have to come from the bottom up and the top down simultaneously. Any
> change at this point is a good thing, and as I said earlier the
> government is extremely slow moving on these types of things, and
> people don't like to change their lifestyles, therin lies the
> problem. I'm going to keep trying biking to run errands & get around
> town, using bio-fuels, eating less wasteful and more local foods, and
> just living simply in general... and of course continuing to educate
> others and pressuring the government to do something as well. :)
>
> peace!
> ~megan
>
>
> > From: "Ted Moffett" <starbliss at gmail.com>
> > To: "Nils Peterson" <nils_peterson at wsu.edu>
> > CC: "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > Subject: [Vision2020] Critical Mass,A Public Menace! Inconvenient
> > Truth --
> > What WE gonna do
> > Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:19:34 -0700
> >
> > Nils wrote:
> >
> > What else can we, in whatever collective groups, begin doing?
> >
> >
> >
> > I biked a couple of times with "Critical Mass" a few years ago, a
> > small
> > group that would bike around Moscow as a group, taking up a lane of
> > traffic,
> > not just biking on the side of the road, to make a statement on
> > bicycle
> > transportation as a force and option in Moscow.  Our pace was slower
> > usually
> > than the traffic, so cars and trucks were slowed down, but
> > otherwise we
> > attempted to follow traffic law.
> >
> > Actually, I think it is legal for a bike to take a lane of traffic
> > in the
> > middle of the lane, is it not?  Anyway, what did we get for our
> > efforts to
> > make Moscow a more bike friendly city?  The Moscow Police Dept.
> > ticketed
> > some of the bicyclists on one ride, following along looking for
> > violations,
> > violations that happen often with bicyclists, but the police do not
> > often
> > aggressively look for them.  I did not witness this event, but I
> > was told
> > this happened from reliable sources.  One time when I road with the
> > group,
> > a
> > Moscow Police officer tagged along on a bicycle, while police cars
> > followed
> > us on our route through Moscow.  I expected a ticket for the slightest
> > violation.
> >
> > Yes, a group on bicycles is a major threat to public safety!
> >
> > Solutions?  How about letting a group on bicycles bike around town
> > down the
> > middle of a lane of traffic without the police in tow?
> >
> > Read on for more bottom line reasoning, if you will...
> >
> > You mentioned PCEI using biofuels...And given that the U of I has
> > engineering efforts under way on alternative energy powered
> > vehicles, it
> > seems that both the U of I and the City of Moscow could consult on
> > using
> > biofuel or alternative powered vehicles for their operations?  Or
> > do they
> > already?
> >
> > The U of I and the City of Moscow could make a significant
> > investment in
> > solar power?  Or have they?
> >
> > All new buildings the U of I, the city or county build could be
> > built to
> > high energy efficiency standards, and include solar power or other
> > alternative energy in their construction.
> >
> > Roof top gardens in downtown Moscow?  Small scale CO2 sequestration.
> >
> > Do you mean goals that are realistic given the massive inertia to
> > really
> > address the problems, ignoring solutions that may mean some economic
> > sacrifice or major alteration in lifestyle?Like saying, lets encourage
> > alternative transportation, a mantra of city planning for decades,
> > while
> > most everyone wants their own car and truck to drive in, and thinks
> > biking
> > for general transportation is a joke, and won't use alternative
> > transportation anyway?
> >
> > Alternative transportation won't be used substantially when the
> > system is
> > set up to encourage and make massive profits off most everyone driving
> > their
> > own private vehicle.  Is the new five lane Moscow/Pullman Hwy. or the
> > upgrading of Hwy. 95 to four lanes, going to increase or decrease
> > fossil
> > fuel use?  Large cities that do have a lot of use of alternative
> > transportation come to this in part because using a private vehicle
> > became
> > difficult with traffic jams and lack of parking.  Take away the
> > parking
> > lots, and create traffic jams, that might force change, but then
> > wait till
> > the next election, and those politicians who decided to block
> > expansive
> > parking lots to encourage biking or the bus might be out of work.
> >
> > Though Donovan' suggestion of a massive increase in gas taxes will not
> > happen, and though he may have been just pulling our leg again, I
> > agree
> > that
> > drastic action is needed to reduce fossil fuel use.  Ten dollar a
> > gallon
> > gas
> > would have an impact on unnecessary or frivolous driving.
> >
> > It seems the planning for Moscow's transportation future, from the
> > Federal
> > level down (and some federal dollars do in the large picture impact
> > Moscow's
> > traffic), is making car and truck use the highest priority, not
> > attempting
> > to encourage people to use other means by limiting the
> > infrastructure that
> > supports an increase in vehicular traffic, though the Chipman and
> > Latah
> > Trails are a fantastic development that no doubt is making a small
> > impact
> > on
> > reducing fossil fuel use.
> >
> > Biking is something that just about everyone could do to get around
> > Moscow,
> > if they just made a bit more time in their day, even carrying
> > reasonably
> > heavy loads with a bike trailer, as Megan mentioned she uses.
> > Biking makes
> > a more friendly community, a human scaled environment, and is a lot
> > of fun
> > besides the dreadful fact it is good exercise (don't mention this to a
> > coach
> > potato, just tell them biking is a hell of a lot of fun).  If the
> > bit of
> > extra effort this would require is beyond the available time or
> > motivation
> > of people, then, how can you motivate them?  Oh, right, take away the
> > parking.
> >
> > The business community and the U of I, I assure you, for the most
> > part,
> > wants to encourage driving and parking, for their bottom line.  The
> > businesses who do the most business have the most parking adjacent
> > to their
> > location.  Do you think the U of I wants to start a program to keep
> > freshmen
> > from bringing cars to school?  This might negatively impact
> > recruitment of
> > students.  But how many fossil fueled vehicles would this remove from
> > Moscow
> > Streets?
> >
> > Paradise Creek bicycles is an exception!
> >
> > Having dedicated bike lanes attached to streets, separated with even a
> > humble "barrier" of some sort, would make biking more attractive,
> > safer,
> > more "legitimate."  This would be a hard sell in Moscow, I suspect,
> > and
> > would require rebuilding many streets.  Given the incredible
> > psychological
> > connection many have with their personal self esteem invested in
> > their car
> > or truck, getting people to start treating bicycling with the same
> > emotional
> > appeal as driving a car or truck, might be difficult.
> >
> > Roger Hayes, who posts occasionally to Vision2020, commutes on his
> > bike
> > year
> > round from Moscow to Pullman.  This is well known, so I trust Roger
> > does
> > not
> > mind my mentioning this fact.  If he can do this, year after year,
> > many
> > more
> > could also, or even just commute within Moscow or Pullman on a bike
> > more
> > often.
> >
> > Let's just skip the police targeting an alternative transportation
> > bicycling
> > activist group as though they are criminals?
> >
> > There are so many ways that Moscow can address the problem of
> > fossil fuel
> > use there is no problem finding ways.
> >
> > Other cities are addressing the CO2 emission/global warming problem
> > with
> > concrete action.
> >
> > How about hiring someone as described in the article below?
> >
> > http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/news/2006/story08-02-06.php
> >
> > Chicago's efforts:
> >
> > http://www.consciouschoice.com/2002/cc1504/aboltinterview1504.html
> >
> > ------
> >
> > Ted Moffett
> >
>
>
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