From DC Streets Blog:
The media loves drama, of course. As your high school English teacher explained it, if Hamlet doesn’t get pissed about his dad’s murder or if Atticus Finch doesn’t step up to defend a black man falsely accused — that is, if somebody doesn’t say no, you’ve got no story. So the vociferous opposition of a handful of people to a handful of bike lane projects in New York City has been dramatized, through a series of news stories and op-eds, into a full-blown citizens’ backlash against the complete streets movement.
The narrative potential of controversy, though, cannot fully explain the glaring disconnect between polls showing that most residents support bike lanes and press portrayals of the backlash as widespread. Advocate Aaron Naparstek, who knows more about the city’s transportation politics than most anyone, has posited one theory: that Bloomberg’s DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, the woman behind many of the positive changes to New York City streets in recent years, has infuriated members of the political class — powerful New Yorkers who, unlike most, rely on cars as transportation.
But as always, it also makes sense to follow the money. In 2010 alone, the automotive sector spent $13 billion on advertising, more than any other industry including telecom, and accounting for one out of every ten dollars doled out by advertisers in the U.S. Local media outlets are especially dependent on auto manufacturers and dealers for advertising revenue. At the same time, traditional news media continue to lose audience, and even while other types of media benefit from a rebound in ad spending, newspapers suffer persistent drops in ad revenues, plunging last year to a quarter-century low.
It’s hard not to notice that as papers like the New York Times have shrunk, cutting costs by shedding sections, plump Automotive sections hang tight and become even more critical to newspaper survival. Now, of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Times, the New York Post, or other papers act unethically in how they cover transportation issues, including bike lane brouhahas.
But across the country, those on the automotive beat have cozy relationships with the automakers, driving their loaner cars to lunches with industry spokespeople, and stories occasionally surface, like a recent one in which editors at The Detroit News caved to dealer pressure to more favorably review the new Chrysler 200 sedan, that hint at broader behind-the-scenes activity.
Most auto journalists take great care to avoid being stained by industry sway, as difficult as that must be. Still, it is naive to think that the media’s dependence on the auto industry doesn’t influence what stories are covered, what opinion pieces are published, and what necessary “balance” might be taken. The tone adopted by local New York City news outlets has hardly been one of hard objectivity.
Now national media outlets have picked up the bike lane story, tucking it inside the parallel narrative of a trumped-up “war on cars”. In this weekend’s Wall Street Journal, humorist P.J. O’Rourke, who often waxes nostalgic about the masculinity of the lost muscle car culture, derides cyclists as antiquated relics relying on a dead technology, as silly children playing in the streets who somehow represent an existential threat to “innocent motorists” in two-ton vehicles, and, of course, as pawns in an Orwellian plot by the Department of Transportation to enslave us all. O’Rourke and Wall Street Journal prefer that most Americans are instead enslaved by auto lenders.
O’Rourke’s piece cannot be seen as a simple appeal to libertarian readers of the conservative paper of record; it must also be seen as desperate bid to retain the love of the automakers, who keep the wheels of the presses rolling, and who are appropriately frightened of the prospect of a transportation system that gives more people more choices in getting around.
The problem for the media is that bike manufacturers don’t spend a whole lot on advertising. Bikes just don’t cost that much, and buyers don’t tend to take out loans to finance their purchase — because they don’t have to. We can imagine, though, that if they did, there’d be a lot more stories extolling the manly glories of the bike and railing against the socialist agenda of free public parking.
Anne Lutz Fernandez, a former marketer and banker, and Catherine Lutz, an anthropologist at the Watson Institute at Brown University, are the authors of Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on our Lives (Palgrave Macmillan).
I own two cars (one a brand new American “muscle car” purchased last weekend) and two motorcycles. I also ride my bicycle to work every day, and to the grocery store and run errands and whatnot. (I also ride public transit frequently). I support, and appreciate bike infrastructure – and I am a “car guy”. Heck, I work for a company who is in the automotive industry (exclusively, not even an ounce of diversification).
Cars vs. Bikes is a false war.
I like my cars to drive to the coast or the mountains. I like to drive to *go places*. Not to sit in traffic on a mundane commute. For that my bicycle and two legs are a much more rewarding form of transportation.
I pay taxes, own cars, use fuel – and support bicycle infrastructure 100%. If someone wants to ride a bicycle they should be able to do so safely and enjoyably.
This is America, we are supposed to have freedom of choice. That freedom includes the freedom to choose Bicycles if we so desire.
hmm…you need to check out the backlash going on now in even NYC, where there is a new effort to create more freekin bike lanes, that really no one uses ! ha !
memphians aren’t going to go out and buy bikes to ride around with stupid drivers that will kill you, because they can’t freekin drive correctly
cars are symbols of a lot of things, bikes are not- in a city with a majority of black citizens, I would bet dollars to doughnuts you’re not going to see a bunch of black working women or men jumping on their bikes to go to work or anywhere else ! that’s the physical majority of the city (Memphis) – bike lanes are not going to serve the majority of the population of memphis, and that’s the hard truth
get real, it ain’t happenin in memphis tn people- it’s not worth the expense, no way ! it’s not that kind of city one bit
Anonymous: I thought you were a rabbi.
Rabbi, U.S. Marine, black person, what’s the difference if the lie allegedly advances one’s argument (or lack thereof).
“it’s not worth the expense”
And what is that expense? It is a line of paint.
But I think you missed the point of the article. There is not really a “backlash”. Media tries to paint one but actually – people support bicycling.
And as far as Memphis goes – 30 years ago Portland had no bicycle infrastructure. Now we have some of the best in the nation. We spend much less on our bike infrastructure than the number of people who use it. Even if our entire bike “plan” were to be built 100% (which plans never are built 100%) we would be spending about 5% of our transportation dollars on bicycles in the next decade. Bicycle mode-share ranges from about 8% to about 20% depending on neighborhood of the city. That is a damn good investment. Add in the fact that bikes don’t damage things like cars so bike infrastructure costs almost nothing to maintain – and you have a real good investment.
Repeating something will “never work” over and over is just part of the problem. How about trying it instead of poo-pooing it? How does a single car driver lose if they paint a few bike lanes or build a bike path? For every person on a bicycle, there is one less person in your way in traffic, and one more parking space for you to have.
30 years ago people in Portland scoffed at the idea of bicycles as transportation. It’s too hilly… It’s too rainy… yada yada. Now bicycles are a huge part of our economy and our society here in Portland. We actually have rush hour traffic jams on some of the more popular bike corridors. I have been lined up so far back from an intersection in a bike lane that it took two cycles of the light to get through. A nice “problem” to have indeed…
Port-
Thank you for the response to “it’s not worth the expense”. Sometimes there are those that display such a lack of knowledge on a topic it is frightening. It proves that some individuals are basing their opinions and viewpoints or foundations of ignorance.
“…where there is a new effort to create more freekin bike lanes, that really no one uses! ha!”
It is nothing new to have our local on-gain, off-again rabbi invent false information as a backbone of some point they are trying to make at SCM. As usual, there is a wide assortment of sites and resources that prove just the opposite of what was written:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08bike.html
http://transportationnation.org/2010/12/08/nyc-defends-controversial-ppw-bike-lane-with-data/
Meanwhile the NY DOT studies show that the number of cyclists in NYC increased by 66% between 2007 and 2009 and was directly correlated to the introduction of bike lanes. Those findings at least suggest that there are many even in congested Manhattan that would not have turned to their bikes as a regular transportation option had the facilities not been available.
I’ll save some the time of linking to http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/spokes-local-news-strikes-a-sour-note-on-cycling/?ref=nyregion
“Many New Yorkers have stories to tell about dangerous encounters with bike riders,” Mr. Aiello reports. Yet even as cycling numbers have skyrocketed, injuries from such run-ins are uncommon, and have decreased over the last 10 years, from a high of 130 in 2001 to last year’s low of 49, according to numbers from the Department of Transportation. At the same time, cycling has dramatically increased around the city.
The department’s large-scale study of pedestrian safety, released on Monday, highlights the safety benefit that new bike lanes provide to pedestrians. Not only were bike-pedestrian crashes much less likely to cause serious injury than those between a pedestrian or cyclist and a car, but streets with bike lanes also slow traffic, resulting in collisions between cars and pedestrians that were about “40 percent less deadly as crashes on other streets,” the report found.”
There is absolutely no reason to be anti-bicycle other than spite or anger. There is simply no downside to supporting bicycling.
Quoted in it’s entirety because too many people don’t click links:
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EcoVelo: “The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments” by
The League of American Bicyclists’ recent policy research report, The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments, contains some real gems. Here’s a sampling:
The bicycling industry contributes an $133 billion a year to the U.S. economy.
The bicycling industry supports 1.1 million jobs and generates $17.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
$46.9 billion is spent annually during bike trips and tours.
North Carolina’s Outer Banks spent $6.7 million on bicycle infrastructure and they’ve seen an annual nine-to-one return on that one-time investment.
In 2000, Quebec’s La Route Verte generated $95.4 million, corresponding to approximately 2,000 jobs and $15.1 million in tax revenue.
As a result of policies to encourage bicycling and maintain urban density, Portland residents travel 2.9 billion fewer miles and spend 100 million fewer hours, saving $2.6 billion a year.
A 2009 Portland study found that a disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards and concluded that the data support the need for well-connected neighborhood streets and a network of bicycle-specific infrastructure to encourage more bicycling among adults.
A 2006 Minneapolis study shows that 83 percent of the time cyclists will choose a longer route if it includes a bike lane, and respondents were willing to add 20 minutes onto their trip in order to use a bicycle trail instead of riding on roads with facilities next to parked cars.
An NHTSA study found that Urban households without a car, bicycle to work nearly three-and-a-half times more often than households with one car.
In urban areas bike lanes can accommodate 7 to 12 times as many people per meter of lane per hour than car lanes.
For the cost of repaving 3 miles of rough pavement on Interstate 710, CalTrans could sign and stripe 1,250 miles of California roads for bike lanes.
Along San Francisco’s Valencia Street, two-thirds of merchants surveyed four-and-a-half years after bike lanes were painted said that the lanes had a positive overall impact on their business.
A 2009 study of Bloor Street in Toronto found that people who biked and walked to the area spent more money than those who drove there.
A study of home values near the Monon Trail in Indianapolis, Ind. showed that homes within a half mile of the Trail gained an 11% increase in value.
Researcher Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute estimates that replacing a car trip with a bike trip saves individuals and society $2.73 per mile.
A 30 percent mode-share in the U.S. would lead to an estimated savings of $163.8 billion a month (nearly two trillion dollars a year).
According to the Texas Transportation Institute, gridlock costs the average peak period traveler almost 40 hours a year in travel delay, and costs the United States more than $78 billion each year.
The results of a study of 33 large U.S. cities showed that each additional mile of bicycle lane is associated with an approximate one-percent increase in the share of bike-to-work trips.
http://www.ecovelo.info/2009/08/18/the-economic-benefits-of-bicycle-infrastructure-investments/
Port-
You definitely hit on an important facet of this discussion. Bike lanes are as appropriate in places where congestion relief is an important issue as they should be in cities where poverty holds the spotlight. Bike lanes increase the mobility of those who can least afford the costs associated with automobile ownership and maintenance. Increasing these individuals range of travel via the much more affordable bike alternative opens the door for greater opportunities and access to resources.
get real, Portland is mostly white.
if you actually think the majority black population in MEMPHIS TN is going to take up biking as a meaningful alternative to their transportation around Memphis TN you are crazy as a loon…really
that’s a white man’s vision for himself, or he’s buzy trying to tell cities that HAVE or SHALL HAVE mahjority minority populations in the very near future, how they are supposed to behave, what to use for tranportation, and how to think about how to transport themselves
that seems to be a white man’s arrogance or downright stupidity about the facts about the majority of people who reside in Memphis, TN
using Portland as a measuring stick is stoooopid…
there is not going to be some substantive shift in bike use for the city’s majority population…..period…
I don’t know of one US city where you have a bunch of blacks and the ever growing huge segment of HISPANICS, where I have seen on bikes !
the ones I see in Memphis, TN are practically 99% WHITE males ( the overwhelming minority in Memphis )
Shekel, why do you hate America?
So, Mr. (Or Mrs.) Racist “I know what black people want and will do from now until the end of time” – what is wrong with white people riding bikes – even if they are in the minority?
Why are you playing the race card? I thought your argument was about economics. A black person living below the poverty line can buy a bike and some good bike gear for the price of one month’s car payment. If white males can ride bikes to work, then so can black ones.
If you think black or hispanic people won’t endorse bicycles – I suggest you research the Los Angeles area bicycle scene. Or Atlanta.
Sure, there are difference in race and bicycle usage – nothing wrong with that. However, your argument against a few bike lanes or paths makes no sense.
What exactly are you opposed to? What are you fighting against? What would make you happy?
The money to spend on putting in some bike lanes and a sign or two wouldn’t even pay for fixing potholes on one mile of street.
What is it about having a person on a bicycle with a small buffer zone from moving cars that so upsets you?
Oh know Port,
You have really opened Pandora’s box now. Anon will be back to “remind” readers that it’s their “opinion” and thus does not need to make sense.
Substitute “no” for “know”…it’s Friday.
why don’t some of you simply go ask “all the volumes of blacks you allegedly talk to and visit with” (LOL) whether they would indeed take up riding bikes, to work, or just about anywhere else..?? the ones that I know and have spoken with, have stated practically over 95% have said “hell no”, or “are you kidding me? in Memphis” ?? that’s my feedback after reading all about this urge to create even more traffic problems in Memphis, TN
it’s certainly not racist to state the obvious experience in Memphis..
I’ve asked several black women as well about this topic…ALL have stated they would never consider it at all in Memphis, but I guess some whites think that blacks share every idea and value with you, which is nuts. Memphis is mostly a black city, it’s not racist to suggest that bikes lanes are hardly a top priority to make Memphis join the 21st century…it’s practically near the bottom of present needs for the community at large
if you think people in LA are anything like the bozos in the midsouth, you’re also nuts..I’ve lived in So Cal..the blacks in SoCal are NOT like most blacks in the Memphis area…heck, the same thing could be said about the huge and growing number of upper middle class blacks in Atlanta GA !
Cultures are not monolithic for sure, whether whiteAnglo , hispanic or black…for instance, I found education more culturally valued while living in the midwest, and certainly so while living in New England
I don’t hear my black associates and friends clammering to get on the bandwagon for RIDING BIKES in MEMPHIS TN..that’s my own experience and observation..
One black associate of mine had the opinion that in the black community (read neighborhoods) blacks riding bikes around as assoicated with STREET THUGS who deal dope in the corner or up and down the alleys. That’s what HE said. Another stated that he sees too many idiot drivers in Memphis to even consider it. Frankly, I will agree with the latter, no doubt…lol…I see awful driving all the time in Memphis
So you hate white people in Memphis and black people in Memphis….btw, any luck finding that Marine Corps service record, shek?
Anon: What you do to address and reduce the obesity statistics here in Memphis?
Pardon my grammar. “What would you do…”
@Shafer
The problem with obesity is endemic to a lot of groups in minority America. It has also become systemic no doubt.
Particular groups have developed unhealthy diets for generations, and the cycle never gets broken….fatty foods,, poor preparation, lousy ingredients, and of course NO EDUCATION about making good choices, or being taught by families the “no-no’s” of cooking, food selection and preparation..
Eating massive amounts of swine will kill you. Eating massive amounts of fried chicken will kill you. Adding animal fat to your vegetables will kill you. No body teaches that at home, at school or even tat the church (heck they serves dinners like that to their own congregations..lol).
Food awareness and obesity also are tied together culturally and racially….even regionally.
No child simply ‘gets fat’ automatically in most cases. If parents are inactive so shall be the child. Leading by example is the key, and that my friend will take generations upon generations in places such as Memphis, TN, which needlessly ‘glorifies’ HORRIBLE FOOD !
BBQ ? (how many restos ??) cheap Mexican (good grief, just count them) ? Burgers and Fries (Hueys et al) ?
Memphis does not have a sophisticated palate by comparison to a host of other cities….heck, sushi was not really available in Memphis until relatively recently for example….fresh fish of many vsrieties is not available because of very low demand when looking at the large population (which is odd)…
Diet and lifestyle….mostly awareness is a part solution…education is always key, and availability of tasty choices !
Education in the schools is key…but education in the home is paramount….maybe community cooking classes…church events…school events…hospital events….restaurant classses….in a few cities, local chain supermarkets offer cooking skill classes….
Memphis’ problem is so systemic it will take 50 years to evolve out of the tradition of bad food for your health……..riding bikes alone will not make a dent in this sort of massive problem….some incentives might help, say reduction in premiums if employees enroll in a health/exercise regimen….church programs…required PE in school….
Being known for nasty swine and greasy burgers cooked in 100 year old grease does nothing for a city’s image…if it had, Memphis would have benefited from all of it by NOW..but it has not, so it’s time to stress something else.
Fat mothers generally have fat kids, just look around..black, white, brown, etc. Educate Moms not to feed their little girls McDonald’s french fries at age 2 or 3…or shoving sugary garbage drinks in their mouths for years.
Start suggesting to women, both black and white that there is nothing glamorous about calling yourself a BBW, or “thick”, and call them what they are : FAT WOMEN.
Memphis has a long long long way to go. Maybe it needs a “seafood festival” with nothing fried in addition to glorifying eating smoked greasy pig all the time….lol
The answer of course is nto exercise alone, and certainly not hopping on a bike, exercising and afterwards stopping by Hueys for a cheesburger and 3 beers.
If Memphis wanted to address this issue, it would have done it a long time ago…many other cities already have. Memphis is blind to a bunch of obvious problems, or they kick the can down the road. Fat people, black white, brown are everywhere it seems…and getting worse not better.
“Fat people, black white, brown are everywhere it seems…and getting worse not better”. Wow, somewhere a museum is realizing it is missing a relic.
lol.
I ride my bike to our local smoked greasy pig restaurant. That way I can eat more.
Memphis is doomed by lousy diet, and of course stupid people it seems—everywhere
It will take another 35 years to come around—maybe
Port-
Agreed! Amazing how trim one can stay when exercising despite indulgence in the pig.