After I began this weblog again in 2007, change as afoot–or awheel–right here in New York Metropolis. Our mayor was this man Michael Bloomberg:
And he’d simply appointed somebody named Janette Sadik-Khan as commissioner of the Division of Transportation:
Who instantly set aside doing bizarre Euro stuff like carving out little plazas and constructing bicycle lanes, together with town’s first “protected” one:
We’d had a bizarre blip again in like 1980 when then-mayor Ed Koch put in a motorbike lane on sixth Avenue for 5 minutes:
And we’d additionally had a bizarre bicycle-riding mayor earlier than that:
And we’ve at all times had a lot of bike paths because of–look forward to it–that Robert Moses man:
However this was actually the primary time within the metropolis’s historical past it had made a sustained try to include bicycles into the road grid. The bike paths of the Moses period have been to serve those that “derive pleasure from this type of train” in gentle of the truth that “use of Metropolis streets and boulevards for bicycling is harmful to the bicyclist.” Whereas Bloomberg’s bike-centric planning was additionally within the curiosity of public well being (this was the man who tried to ban giant sodas), it finally endeavored to rework these streets and boulevards in order that they have been not “harmful to the bicyclist,” and to undermine the primacy of the auto. This additionally marked the purpose at which the bicycle advocates and the Division of Transportation started to brazenly cooperate:
Collectively they harnessed the facility of the cultural elite:
Really we have been witnessing some kind of a Golden Age of Smugness, and a few say 2007’s “David Byrne Presents: How New Yorkers Trip Bikes” was its Woodstock.
Even Lance Armstrong acquired into the act:
These have been heady days certainly–particularly in the event you have been a semi-professional bike blogger:
And between all of the celebrities, and the media protection, and the daring public coverage, and excesses of hipsterism and gentrification as embodied by all these totally ridiculous fixies, it appeared like the great instances would by no means finish:
However finish they did. Lance Armstrong confessed to doping and have become a podcaster. David Byrne acquired bored with getting made enjoyable of and moved on to different issues. Blogs grew to become more and more irrelevant as they have been supplanted by Twitter, and Instagram, and TikTok. Any city hipster fixie riders who didn’t stop bikes altogether moved to the desert, purchased classic Tacomas, and reinvented themselves as gravelistas. And whereas town stored putting in bike lanes, they finally grew to become bike lanes in title solely, and at the moment are principally simply filled with fast-moving automobiles with motors (each gasoline-powered and electrical) which have little in frequent apart from the truth that they’re not vehicles:
And it’s not simply occurring in New York. Even when I visited Amsterdam in 2011, individuals have been already grumbling concerning the rising presence of motor scooters within the bike paths. Now, in accordance with David Hembrow’s weblog (and because of the commenter who linked to this within the feedback just lately) bicycle gross sales are in decline as e-bikes take over:
Furthermore, they’re changing into a “menace” (although, to be honest, that is the Guardian, so it’s in all probability extra like an irritation):
And there’s a name to decrease e-bike speeds to 12 American Freedom Miles Per Hour:
I imply who thought you’d ever learn a headline like this?
In the event you’re even passingly aware of urbanism and transportation infrastructure and all that different dorky stuff you’ve heard of the idea of “induced demand.” I suppose it comes from economics, however in urbanist communicate it implies that, virtually talking, once you widen a freeway to scale back site visitors you simply get extra assholes in vehicles, and due to this fact extra site visitors:
Every time anybody needs to widen a street, advocates wield the “induced demand” argument like a Zefal body pump. Nevertheless, now New York Metropolis is widening the bike lanes to make extra room for faster-moving e-vehicles. Advocates are all in favor of this, and whereas I agree it’s nearly actually each obligatory and inevitable, no person needs to think about that induced demand would possibly simply imply extra and sooner automobiles making the “bike” lanes much less and fewer hospitable to the customers for whom they have been ostensibly construct:
Is a motorbike lane filled with “Citi e-bikers, deliveristas and scooters” actually a motorbike lane in any respect?
And regardless of who’s utilizing them, ought to rising velocity actually be the objective?
As I’ve talked about earlier than, it actually doesn’t matter how an previous curmudgeon like me issues individuals ought to get round, and if individuals desire simpler and sooner automobiles then that’s the way in which it’s gonna be regardless of how I really feel about it–and in no level in human historical past have nearly all of individuals opted for the slower and harder mode of transportation as soon as know-how introduced them with a sooner various that required much less effort. It’s unhappy that the bicycle mania that characterised the Roaring Aughts is over, however on reflection it was inevitable, as a result of finally what’s going to maintain the old school bike (particularly as e-bikes proceed to take over) isn’t bike lanes or coverage choices or superstar endorsements or the rest. No, the one factor that’s going to maintain them is individuals who love bikes.
We had our temporary flirtation with the mainstream, however we’ll at all times be weirdos, and in the long run we’re on our personal.