Jefferson Prequel

I wrote this editorial about the Jefferson Bikeway in August 2009 for a paper based out of Highland Park, St. Paul called the Villager run by Maurice Mischke (not that Mischke... that Mischke's father).  They don't publish online for whatever reason, so until there's a way to link to a physical sheet of paper I never even saw, I can't link to it.

I can't remember if I ever titled it.



There have been many people opposition to the proposed bike lanes on Jefferson Avenue.
Some of the concerns raised in public meetings and media are just bizarre, such as the
fear that cyclists would camp in people’s lawns (we’ve got our own homes, thank you)
or that would-be burglars would send scouts on bicycles to survey houses (many burglars
own and operate vehicles of the motorized variety, a bike lane isn’t going to assist them).

What all concerns ignore is the fact that people are already cycling down Jefferson in
the regular traffic lanes. The main reasons for the bike lanes are safety for these already
existing cyclists, and a motivation for people to ride a bicycle who don’t already. In an
economy where car ownership is on the decline and in a dense population center prone to
motorized vehicular traffic jams, this is the logical and right investment.

Another pervasive argument against bike lanes is that cyclists are scofflaws. This is not
quite a full argument because it does not make a connection to bike lanes; that is, will
bike lanes increase the lawlessness of cyclists? Extremely doubtful. Were the assertion
that cyclists are particularly criminal in their operation of their vehicles true, there is no
connection to bike lane striping. You do not normally penalize an entire category of
commuters for lawless behavior. Could you imagine Interstate 94 being shut down due
to the pervasiveness of speeding?

A study by the US Department of Transportation finds that 75% of drivers report
speeding on all types of road. If one were to take into account all the kinds of lawless
driving (failing to signal, failing to yield, running red lights, rolling stop signs, distracted
driving) one would see that cyclists are no more lawless than any other kind of vehicle
operators – probably less so. If you want to test this idea, sit by any 4-way stop and
count how many cars actually come to a complete stop (the wheels make a full stop).
That’s simply one category of illegal driving.

I ask that the fear-mongering opponents of the Jefferson bike lane retract their opposition
as it is based on faulty reasoning and false assertions. If not, it shows the neighborhood
still clings to the infrastructure based off of 1950s attitudes towards health, safety, and
economics which made Americans fat, their roads unsafe, and their economy weak. That
version of America is dying and bankrupt, and if the residents of Jefferson wish to join
them, it is their loss.