Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
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️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
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"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"I actually heard CelloDad (tall white dude) say, as we're encountering this and that on our bikes, "This is like racism, only on the street." I could almost hear the switch flip in his head.
Vehicular discrimination is discrimination.
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@mekkaokereke Choosing a bicycle (when one has other options) takes the strength (love, hope, courage) to relinquish a form of power, and the cult of the individual, as embodied by the automobile. People are not good at giving things up!
@8r3n7 The way we talk about it helps a ton. Reframe it as getting exercise and saving money, as opposed to giving up power. As you said, people, even with good values, will live against them if they have power that is difficult to release.
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@gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof Doesn't surprise me. The cycle lane nearest my house has no real excuse, the road is wide enough to segregate the traffic, cars would then park between the cycle lane and the moving traffic adding more protection, etc. But it would cost money. It really comes off as "we need to look like we're doing something with the minimum effort/cost possible"
@chloeraccoon @gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof upban planner: “I’m a cyclist, I ride every day”
me: where do you like to ride?
UP: “I mostly ride indoors”
me: can you please meet with those of us who ride through town?
UP: “I’ve studied traffic planning…..”
me: but that’s a very dangerous intersection!
UP: “we can take a look at it”
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I actually heard CelloDad (tall white dude) say, as we're encountering this and that on our bikes, "This is like racism, only on the street." I could almost hear the switch flip in his head.
Vehicular discrimination is discrimination.
@mekkaokereke @CelloMomOnCars I completely agree, except that you can step down your bike and end bearing discrimination, whereas you cannot change your skin color or gender.
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@mekkaokereke Choosing a bicycle (when one has other options) takes the strength (love, hope, courage) to relinquish a form of power, and the cult of the individual, as embodied by the automobile. People are not good at giving things up!
@8r3n7 @mekkaokereke I guess but also there is no faster path to feeling good than to bike a few miles, seeing people and trees and feeling the wind on your cheek, unencumbered by laws or licenses, free to pedal faster or slower as your body and mind choose. Perhaps white privilege is training wheels for people that have given into fear, but also keeping them from life as it is meant to be lived.
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"@mekkaokereke few things radicalize a white American faster than the real-time realization that cops don't give a federal fuck about their stolen bike, and, in fact, the cop who showed up is visible annoyed about the proceeding paperwork.
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"@mekkaokereke Cycling is a great opportunity for people like me to ever experience lack of privilege.
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"About the only good thing Robert Moses ever did was drive Jane Jacobs out of New York: she came to Toronto, helped save us from some of our own car-centric follies
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"@mekkaokereke
So true, friend. And as a white dude, biking around town is one of the only times random people suddenly have opinions about what I'm wearing, which was a big eye-opener at first.When I was hit by a hit-and-run driver, almost everyone (cops, coworkers, etc.) asked what I was wearing in the first or second question. (I had worn florescent yellow with lights front and back, but the implicit message was that I would have "deserved it" if I was wearing dark colors.)
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@gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof @chloeraccoon
Yes, Recent and old research:
In an urban context, almost all accidents occur at intersections and almost all of those happen because car drivers don't look for/see bicycles. Protected lanes make bicycles less visible by forcing bikes to enter intersections where car drivers don't look. There are well designed intersections, but they aren't common.
See John Forester's (old) Bicycle Transportation.
@eric @gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof @chloeraccoon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPduRHBhHI
Here‘s a 90min deepdive why John Forester‘s ideas are dangerous to cyclists and ruined cycling in the US for a lot of people.
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"Fash have their pipelines, why can’t we have our own? (Such as bike lanes)
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@mekkaokereke Choosing a bicycle (when one has other options) takes the strength (love, hope, courage) to relinquish a form of power, and the cult of the individual, as embodied by the automobile. People are not good at giving things up!
@8r3n7 @mekkaokereke power maybe, but the trade for agility and the joy of an active form of transport is well worth it, but it's something to experience, in a safe enough environment, to realize.
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@mekkaokereke @CelloMomOnCars I completely agree, except that you can step down your bike and end bearing discrimination, whereas you cannot change your skin color or gender.
That's if you're privileged enough to have the car as an option as well as the bike or your feet.
But those among us who are too young to drive, to old to drive, too poor to drive, or don't have the required documentation, don't have the option to change transportation mode.
It's your feet, your bike, or someone else's car.
And don't start me on public transit.
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That's if you're privileged enough to have the car as an option as well as the bike or your feet.
But those among us who are too young to drive, to old to drive, too poor to drive, or don't have the required documentation, don't have the option to change transportation mode.
It's your feet, your bike, or someone else's car.
And don't start me on public transit.
To be clear, I'm also talking very explicitly about people on bikes and seeing hostile infrastructure, wondering things like "Why did they build it that way?!" And "Who could possibly oppose a protected bike lane connecting this suburb to this part of downtown? Why would anyone not want that?" And coming face to face with explicitly racist city planning decisions, both in the past, and present today.
In some cases the main reason it's not easy to bike from your home to your train station, is because some racist person knows that Black people have bikes too, and doesn't want it to be easy or safe to get from their house to your house without a car.
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LOW LIFE: Revisiting Robert Moses’s Exclusionary Design Scheme At Jones Beach
The Magazine for Architectural Entertainment
(archive.pinupmagazine.org)
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@eric @gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof @chloeraccoon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPduRHBhHI
Here‘s a 90min deepdive why John Forester‘s ideas are dangerous to cyclists and ruined cycling in the US for a lot of people.
@bollino313 @gbargoud @mekkaokereke @patterfloof @chloeraccoon
Someone already gave me this link in private mention. It changed my mind. How I've learn to bicycle commute is not how most people should.
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@mekkaokereke few things radicalize a white American faster than the real-time realization that cops don't give a federal fuck about their stolen bike, and, in fact, the cop who showed up is visible annoyed about the proceeding paperwork.
@fromjason @mekkaokereke
The Project 529 bike theft prevention project in Vancouver cut bike theft by almost half and returns stolen bikes by the thousands (rather than auctioning them off like most police departments)Bike theft is a huge economic issue, but police departments hate to put any effort into it, even though a tiny investment is proven to pay off
Not to absolve Vancouver’s Police Department, with one of the highest budgets in North America garnered on anti-homeless campaigns
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I've said on here before, that I love the transformative power bikes have on how people think about interacting with each other
️️Having a bike stolen resets a white US person's understanding of what cops do and do not do.
Commuting on a bike resets a white US person's understanding of racist infrastructure.
I love bikes, especially cargo bikes and attachments for kids, because it's only about a 5 year learning journey for white folk from
"I'm not political."To
️"Hey Mekka! I bought a cargo bike! It's so much fun!"To
️"🤬Man, Robert Moses was a %!#!#&@)+ for real! $#&* him and his momma!"@mekkaokereke Anyone who loves cargo bikes and kids should definitely watch
which was both inspiring and moving.
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To be clear, I'm also talking very explicitly about people on bikes and seeing hostile infrastructure, wondering things like "Why did they build it that way?!" And "Who could possibly oppose a protected bike lane connecting this suburb to this part of downtown? Why would anyone not want that?" And coming face to face with explicitly racist city planning decisions, both in the past, and present today.
In some cases the main reason it's not easy to bike from your home to your train station, is because some racist person knows that Black people have bikes too, and doesn't want it to be easy or safe to get from their house to your house without a car.
️
LOW LIFE: Revisiting Robert Moses’s Exclusionary Design Scheme At Jones Beach
The Magazine for Architectural Entertainment
(archive.pinupmagazine.org)
@mekkaokereke @CelloMomOnCars @le_bleu There are people who simply hate bikes and cyclists. If you ride, you have unfortunately met them. They consider cycling advocates elitists. I sort of see where they're coming from, in that I might hate cyclists too if I commuted to work 90 minutes each way and was slowed at the end by a bike-lane-inspired lane narrowing.
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To be clear, I'm also talking very explicitly about people on bikes and seeing hostile infrastructure, wondering things like "Why did they build it that way?!" And "Who could possibly oppose a protected bike lane connecting this suburb to this part of downtown? Why would anyone not want that?" And coming face to face with explicitly racist city planning decisions, both in the past, and present today.
In some cases the main reason it's not easy to bike from your home to your train station, is because some racist person knows that Black people have bikes too, and doesn't want it to be easy or safe to get from their house to your house without a car.
️
LOW LIFE: Revisiting Robert Moses’s Exclusionary Design Scheme At Jones Beach
The Magazine for Architectural Entertainment
(archive.pinupmagazine.org)
Charles Brown would have some things to say about the larger landscape of racism in which Black people move physically.
Arrested Mobility is his book; also he gives a great - if grim - talk.
Arrested Mobility Podcast
Arrested Mobility explores why Black Americans and people of color disproportionately victims of overly aggressive police enforcement.
Arrested Mobility (arrestedmobility.com)
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@mekkaokereke @CelloMomOnCars @le_bleu There are people who simply hate bikes and cyclists. If you ride, you have unfortunately met them. They consider cycling advocates elitists. I sort of see where they're coming from, in that I might hate cyclists too if I commuted to work 90 minutes each way and was slowed at the end by a bike-lane-inspired lane narrowing.
@alison @mekkaokereke @le_bleu
There are people who call themselves "avid cyclists". They have expensive bikes and wear biking clothes. They have the leisure and the money to enjoy biking as a recreation.
I don't know how this group gets melded with the people who must bike because they can't or choose not to, for one reason or another, drive a car, and use their bikes as transportation not for recreation. This group is significantly larger than the first group, but nobody wants to see them.
