Hello group,

 

I posted this the other day on SD-TJ Design-Plant-Harvest blog, but the link wasn’t working then. It’s working now, so I thought I’d re-post here, (which will be my first post to this group – looking forward to a good discussion):

 

I found this link to a Bicycle Advocacy lecture from the Xtracycle Yahoo group (who are pretty militantly carfree folks from all over the country who ride Xtracycles, longtail bikes with serious cargo capacity).

It features "Carfree John" Pucher, professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers, speaking to a group in Vancouver B.C. He is an entertaining speaker, and he covers the things that Europe does right to encourage cycling. (Interesting point: Europeans haven't always been into cycling. From 1950 to 1970 they went heavily toward the car, then realized their mistake, and many countries have gone heavily toward the bike since 1970. They had to create a bike culture -- it didn't just always exist.)

http://www.sfu.ca/city/city_pgm_video020.htm

 

I found the talk very inspirational. Since viewing it, I’ve been looking around at the different bike advocacy groups online, and it seems like there’s some amount of infighting over exactly how to promote bicycling in America (mainly between those who want separate bike facilities vs. those who believe  that cyclists should have equal access to roads and separate bikeways are a waste). In Europe, especially the Netherlands, they seem to do plenty of both, and give priority to bikes in many places. We have an incredibly long way to go in this country, but maybe gas prices will change that.

 

Any thoughts on how to make San Diego a more bike-friendly place?

 

Is anyone on this list involved with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition? I’ve been thinking about joining them for a while now. They seem to avoid the in-fighting I mentioned earlier.

 

About me: I work mostly at home, but still find myself driving quite a bit to get to meetings, get kids where they need to go (mainly soccer practice – they walk to school) and to go grocery shopping etc. Trying to figure out how to do more of that on my bike (or maybe a different bike with more hauling capacity and less tire-puncturability).

 

Larry Hogue

Environmental Communications Consulting

Author, All the Wild and Lonely Places:

Journeys in a Desert Landscape

858-452-6654