One of the dilemmas (dilemmae?) of going on a ride with a random group of people is that, more than likely, their experience and abilities vary, sometimes greatly. If there isn’t an agreement about the distance, pace and rest stops, such a ride can tax the endurance of one rider and the patience of another.
Could this be a solution?
One of my passions—obsessions, perhaps—is learning the history, especially African-American and colonial, I wasn’t taught in school.
I got to thinking about that when I realized that next month is African American history month—and the sixtieth anniversary of at least two important parts of that history are coming up.
One of them is the marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The other is the assassination of Malcolm X.
About Malcolm: He was completely misrepresented, if he was mentioned at all. I first realized as much when I read his autobiography. (That, I believe, motivated me to learn as much as I can about the history I wasn’t taught.) It seems that educators—and the culture generally—has misunderstood and misused “by any means necessary” to paint Malcolm as a maniac with homicide in his heart. He was changing even as he told his story to Alex Haley, his collaborator on his autobiography and, I believe, would have repudiated some of the things he said then—let alone in his earlier speeches—had he lived longer. But even the portrait that emerged from his autobiography and his speeches made him heroic to me because one of his underlying messages was that people have to free themselves from whatever enslaves them, whether it’s an exploitative system, an addictive substance or William Blake’s “mind forg’d manacles.”
Speaking of enslavement: The March from Selma to Montgomery occurred just a few weeks before the 100th anniversary of the American Civil War’s end. (Anyone who tells you that the war wasn’t about slavery is ignorant or dishonest.) But a century later, Blacks—and poor Whites—weren’t free of their shackles. Moreover, they were paying a tax, if you will, on those restraints they bore. But they we’re fighting—and often paying with blood and flesh—to fight them, and their imposers, off. That is about as far from the picture of the Civil Rights movement textbooks and the media painted for us: a sunny diorama of Martin intoning “I have a dream” and well-intentioned people chanting “We shall overcome,” all of it sepia-tinged to make White liberals of the time look heroic and those of today feel good about themselves for admiring them.
All right, I’ll get off my soapbox. (Standing on it while wearing cleats is precarious!) There will be a number of commemorations, including a marches. And, the other day, a bike ride followed the route.
During the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I and nearly everyone I knew had a relative, friend, co-worker, neighbor or other acquaintance who died from the illness. Something similar happened during the AIDS crisis, before effective treatments came along: Between Memorial Day and Christmas of 1991, five people—including two good friends—were claimed by AIDS-related illnesses.
Lately, when I type “bicycle news” into a browser, I feel as if I’m getting a view of two other “pandemics,” if you will. The first one I’ll describe is, in its own way, as dire as—and, arguably, more preventable than—the COVID and AIDS epidemics. The other isn’t nearly so tragic, though it brings sadness and inconvenience to many.
Every day, it seems, there are more reports of cyclists killed or seriously injured when they are struck by— or more infrequently, strike—motor vehicles. Such incidents, which are often misnamed as “accidents,” are as often as not a result of poor road or bike infrastructure: For example, an intersection is configured, signals are timed (and dangerous laws enforced) so that cyclists cross directly into the path of turning vehicles.
(What I know about public health is on par with what I know about sub-atomic physics. So take what I am about to say for what it’s worth: If the Centers for Disease Control could declare—rightly, as they did—that gun violence in the US a public health crisis, the needless deaths of cyclists and pedestrians should also be so designated.)
The other, less catastrophic “epidemic” is part of the COVID pandemic’s fallout. As I and others noted, there was a “boom,” however brief, during the epidemic’s early days: Many people took up, or returned to, cycling while already-active cyclists like me rode even more than we’d already been riding.
Ironically, some shops (most notably Harris Cyclery, Sheldon Brown’s old home base) closed their doors because they ran out of bikes, parts, helmets and other related items just as nothing was coming through the supply chains. But even more shops—and manufacturers and suppliers of bicycles and related goods—fell victim during the past two years or so. In some cases, those companies ordered merchandise once supply chains opened up, but the ‘boom” went “bust.”
There were also other challenges. People who might have bought traditional bicycles in the recent past are now buying electric bikes. And among buyers of non-assisted bikes, tastes—and the ways people buy bikes and related goods—change.
But another iconic company faced another challenge: where they make their products. I suspect that had something to do with Mercian’s near-death experience last year: Their frames are built and finished by hand in high-wage, high-cost UK. (A group of local cycling enthusiasts purchased the company a few weeks after it ceased trading and re-hired the frame builders who’d been working there.) And location, location, location was cited in CEO Daniel Emerson’s announcement that Light & Motion, a California manufacturer of lights for cycling (and diving and photography) is ceasing operations.
One passage from his open letter, in particular, could have been a jab at President Joe Biden or President-elect Donald Trump, both of whom have talked about bringing manufacturing back to the US, albeit by different means: “[T]he political winds, regardless of the talk, have been against US manufacturing, which continues its decline.”
I’m no economist, but my guess, however uneducated, is that his announcement should be heeded as a warning: It will take more than rhetoric, an “inflation reduction act” or punitive tariffs to bring manufacturing, of bicycle lights or anything else, “back” to the US. For one thing, once companies like Light & Motion shutter, their resources and expertise move elsewhere—or are simply lost. Factories become condos and cannot be re-opened as manufacturing facilities. Also, even if the product—whether it’s a bike light or an iPhone—were to be made in some low-wage, low-tax, non-union state, they probably will need components made in China or other countries. (If you bought, say, a US-made Cannondale or Trek, almost everything hung on the frame—and, perhaps the material for the frame itself —came from somewhere else.)
So, I would say that the two “epidemics” I’ve mentioned—bicycle fatalities and the demise of bicycle-related businesses—and the ways in which the COVID and AIDS epidemics unnecessarily claimed lives, are both due, at least in part, to wrongheadedness or mendacity on the part of politicians and policy-makers.
Last week I wrote about the passage of Bill 212 in Ontario, Canada. Among other things, it authorizes that province’s government the authority to order Toronto—its largest city and capital—to remove bike lanes and to block the metropolis from installing a new bike lane if it results in the loss of a traffic or parking lane.
Interestingly, Philadelphia has gone in an almost-opposite direction. Yesterday Mayor Cherelle Parker signed a bill that prohibits drivers from stopping, standing or parking in bike lanes—and increases fines for those who break the law.
Reactions to both events has been predictable and echoes the ways in which cyclists (and pedestrians) have been pitted against drivers. The debate, fueled at least in part by misconceptions, can also be seen on the editorial pages of the Washington Post. The first salvo of the latest fight came from Mark Fisher’s article, “The truth about bike lanes: They’re not about the bikes.” Yesterday the newspaper published reactions from anti-bike lane (and, in some cases, anti-cyclist) motorists. It has announced its intention to devote a page to pro-bike lane arguments.
Among the misconceptions expressed in the editorials, perhaps the most egregious is this: We are getting our lanes for free.
Some years ago, I found myself arguing about that with a driver whom I cursed out after he cut me off. I became his emotional punching bag because, at that moment, I was the embodiment of all cyclists, just as any given Black person can become a proxy for an entire race.
I didn’t raise my voice or lose my temper. Instead, when he shouted the “free ride” canard, I pointed out that I paid for that street and its parking spaces just as he had: Here in New York, as in most places, street and road construction and maintenance is paid from the general pool of taxes. He was not, as he believed, paying for something I wasn’t. In fact, I said, the only tax he pays that I don’t is on gasoline.
He actually calmed down. I probably could’ve mentioned other ways his and other ways his and other motorists’ driving is subsidized—including our foreign policy—but I left him while we were at least civil toward each other.
Some would call it a “win.” In today’s political climate, it would be a step forward. On the other hand, to amend Mr. Fisher’s thesis, the debate about bike lanes isn’t really about the lanes. I believe it is, rather, a proxy for the culture wars, which in turn are about economics: Will they serve the interests of those who have brought the planet (whether through their financial, political, cultural or ostensibly-religious activities) to its current crisis—and their often-unwitting pawns? Or will we leave those coming after us a world in which they can live, let alone thrive?
Drivers need us.
That’s the point Nick Maxwell makes in an Edmonds (Washington State) News editorial.
Maxwell isn’t some granola-eater who “looks like an environmentalist.” Rather, he is a certified climate action planner for Climate Protection NW. In other words, he has training, experience and expertise that I appeared to have, according to one of my neighbors.
He also seems very observant. In his article, he mentions drivers’ annoyance when they can’t find a parking space while electric vehicle charging stations stand idle in the same parking lot.
He discusses some of the reasons why there aren’t more electric vehicles on the road and points out that it’s not the only reason why drivers can’t park after they’ve made their way through traffic jams.
He notes that in the lot he mentions—and at rail and bus stations—bicycles and eBikes are locked up. But they’re not, contrary to some drivers’ accusations, “taking” “their” parking spaces. Maxwell—and I—have yet to see a bicycle parked in a space designated for a car or truck.
Thus, he says, if more people cycled on to school, work, shop or go to concerts or ballgames, there would be fewer vehicles to jam the roads and fewer drivers competing for parking spaces.
He also says that more cycling, walking or use of mass transit would keep gasoline prices down or, at least, moderate their increases, especially during the summer, when people drive the most.
That last point got me thinking back to an exchange I had with a motorist some years ago. He castigated me—and all cyclists—essentially for inconveniencing him. Then he accused us of “acting like you own the road when we (meaning drivers) pay for it.
I explained that I was paying for that road just as much as he was. Like many other people, he believed that he was paying some sort of tax that I wasn’t. In fact, funds to build and maintain streets, highways and other infrastructure comes from the general pool of taxes everyone pays. The only tax I don’t pay that he pays is on gasoline.
Moreover, non-drivers subsidize drivers in other ways. As an example, if you live or work in a building that offers “free” parking, how do you think the property owners are paying for it. I am sure that the rents or prices they charge are adjusted upward, however slightly, to include what drivers get for “free.”
Oh, and I won’t even get into the fact that we, cyclists, don’t pollute or otherwise spoil the fresh green (or blue or terra cotta or whatever color) outdoor spaces people like to drive to for picnics and the like.
So, I would say that automobile drivers need us—cyclists, walkers and users of mass transportation—even more than Nick Maxwell shows his readers.
This morning I pedaled out to City Island on Tosca, my Mercian fixie. Although humid, the air pleasantly balanced early summer with early morning: just enough warmth with just enough briskness.
We had our Pride festivities, and the end of Pride Month, on Sunday. Still, I was surprised, as I have been during my most recent rides to the Island, at how many rainbow flags I saw draped from window sills and door frames, fluttering ever so lightly in the sea breeze.
Riding back along the Pelham Parkway path, I had a terrifying thought: This might be the last Fourth of July I see those flags—or that the Stars and Stripes has any meaning, if it still does.
When people wished me “Happy Fourth,” I felt almost sick—and not because it’s my birthday and I’m another year older. Rather, I am scared because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday. It says that the President cannot be held criminally accountable for “official” acts while in office.
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| Photo by Craig Hudson for the Washington Post |
So what constitutes an “official” act? Is it anything the President says it is?
Some—including Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent—have pointed out that Trump, if elected, could actually carry out his boast/threat to send Navy Seal Team 6 to assassinate his political rivals. He could, therefore, foment violence that would make January 6, 2021 look like a summer fair.
I have two very personal reasons to fear Trump becoming, in essence, Louis XIV. During his reign, haters of all kinds were emboldened to carry out their hatred on anyone they see as a “threat,” including transgender people. The violence has continued and probably intensify as Trump and his allies repeal laws and policies that aim to bring about equality—and pass new legislation to make life more difficult, even impossible, for us.
Oh, and don’t forget that he hates bicycles and cyclists. Would he target us directly or use fossil fuel companies by giving them tax breaks and allowing “eminent domain” so they could tear up bike lanes and other infrastructure to, say, build more pipelines?
I hope that I won’t have to feel so anxious next Fourth. In other words, I am hoping this country is still the country I was taught to believe it is—if indeed it still is, or ever was, that country.
Eighty years ago today, uniformed fighters from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and, of course, the United Kingdom and the United States, staged the largest seaborne invasion in history. Today we know it as D-Day.
I reckon that not many of those soldiers, sailors and other fighters who opened the door to liberating Europe from the Nazis are alive today. It seems not so long ago that there were many more survivors—you saw them at Memorial and Veterans’ Day parades and other events—and they weren’t much older than I am now!
Anyway, I am observing this day precisely because I am a (mostly) pacifist: While I understand that Hitler may have been, as Kurt Vonnegut described him, “pure evil” and had to be stopped, I also understand that war is not only about the fighting itself or the ostensible causes; it’s also about the social and economic factors—including tax laws that reward a few people for making war on the planet, if you will. I shudder to think about the lives that have been wasted and ruined—including those of many veterans—as a result.
In other words, ensuring that no veteran wants is one of the things we must do in order to work for peace.
Now that I’ve delivered my message, such as it is, for this day, I am leaving you with images of soldiers who landed on the Normandy beaches with bicycles strapped to their backs. Of course they weren’t going for a pleasant tour in the countryside. They brought those bikes, which folded in the middle, because they could reach places, swiftly and silently, that couldn’t be accessed with motorized vehicles.
Once, a driver’s tirade against me included the rant, “I pay road taxes!”
As calmly as I could, I responded, “Well, I do too.” I then pointed out that the only tax he pays, and I don’t, is on gasoline.
Had I been a different sort of person, this might’ve been my response:
One of the local dealers I patronized (until it wasn’t so local for me anymore) said he couldn’t blame people for buying parts from Performance or Bike Nashbar. “Their prices are better than what I can get from my distributor,” he lamented.
Performance and Nashbar are in the tire tracks of history. Now,’it seems, two more recent giants the online bike business may join them.
In 2016, Chain Reaction Cycles, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Wiggle, in Portsmouth in England’s south coast, merged. At the time, to join two companies that were already offering good deals on in-demand bikes, parts and related items into one that would have even greater buying power and would therefore offer even better deals to customers.
But another event that same year would contribute to the company’s current situation: the vote to secede from the European Union, a.k.a. Brexit. (Scotland voted to stay.) The “divorce” was finalized, if you will, at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020.
One effect has been higher tariffs, not only on imports to, but also exports from, the UK. The latter included, in the years before the “breakup,” many orders from outside the country. They included customers from EU countries—and, on a few occasions, yours truly. American customers didn’t have to pay the Value Added Tax. So, when the exchange rate was favorable to the dollar, I purchases not only Brooks saddles, but also French Mavic rims and Velox rim taped, Swiss DT spokes, German Continental tires and even Japanese Shimano cassettes for considerably less than I could have bought them Stateside.
The UK-EU split came early in the COVID pandemic. So, some of the losses Wiggle-CRC incurred from prices increasing for European customers were offset by the COVID bike boom. That “boom,” however, seems to be going bust. At least, people aren’t buying as many bikes and parts as they were three years ago.
According to industry insiders, Wiggle/CRC’s parents company, Sigma Sports United is “re-structuring” —which includes, among other things, ending its relationships with “underperforming assets” like Wiggle/CRC—and therefore de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange. Those same insiders are saying that Wiggle-CRC has stopped paying its suppliers and intends to file for insolvency.
From what I’ve been reading and hearing, they’re not the only ones who have “buyer’s remorse” over Brexit.
Earl Blumenauer has done, possibly, more than any other politician to encourage cycling in the United States. Representing a district around Portland, Oregon (where else?) since 1996, he is responsible for, among other things, the bike lane on Pennsylvania Avenue—the location of the White House.
His wins include gaining tax benefits for bicycles commuters. On the other hand, a bill that would have provided subsidies for eBikes was yanked from the Inflation Reduction Act at the last minute.
In his interview with David Zipper, Blumenauer revealed that the loss (which he regards as temporary)of the eBike subsidies was a result of lobbyists.
What we in the cycling community often forget is that the largest companies in the bicycle industry are minnows next to the whales and sharks of other industries. Some of those corporations, particularly in the energy, automotive and tech industries, provide financial and other support to alternative-energy sources and electric cars. Of course those corporations are acting in self-interest or, more precisely, their stockholders’ demands.
Perhaps they see the current boom in bikes and eBikes in the same way as the ‘70’s Bike Boom. But, as Blumenauer points out that “Boom” was really just a fad that petered out in part because no meaningful policies came from it.
Perhaps one day soon investors in alternative energy and electric cars will see that those enterprises are related to bicycles and eBikes—and Representative Blumenauer will once again be vindicated.
I, personally and cyclists, collectively have been accused of "taking too much space" on the road--by drivers of SUVs and gaudily painted pickup trucks that have never been besmudged by a tool box in the cargo area or a dirty hand on its steering wheel.
So I wouldn't have been surprised, though I would have been no less upset than Scottish cyclist Alan Gordon was to find this:
Lovely evening in Colinton at the volunteer start up session for the new SW tool library and a wee blether in the Spylaw afterwards. pic.twitter.com/ZxMhtLeP6T
— Alan Gordon (@agordonsalive) May 22, 2023
He locked his bike to a curbside railing in Colinton, an Edinburgh suburb, to attend a volunteer start-up session for the area's new free tool library. I would assume that the library would benefit residents of the complex as well as people in the surrounding community.
Anyway, in the Twitter thread that followed, someone showed a motorcycle and a two garbage bin in another parking spot, taking up more space than two bikes like Alan's would have. No one left a "polite notice" about them.
(As someone else noted, starting the note with "Polite Notice" was a tip-off that what followed would be the exact opposite, just as people who say "I'm not a racist" usually follow it with some stereotype or another. Or the person who, a couple of days ago said, "I'm not a transphobe, but..." to me.)
Oh, and someone made a comment about paying road tax. I don't know about the laws over there, but I've gotten into that exact argument with drivers here. And I have very politely pointed out that I do, in fact, pay road tax. The only tax I don't pay that motorists have to pay is for gasoline.
This may seem strange (of course it won't when I explain it), but recounting Alan's tale reminded me of another part of the conversation I had with the "I'm not a transphobe" dude and other people with similar mindsets. Any time a law is passed to give Blacks, immigrants, women, LBGBTQ+ people or anyone else who is in a "minority" the same rights as white, cisgender, heterosexual Christian men, such people whine that things have "gone too far" or that we're getting "special privileges." Complaints like the one Alan received in the "Polite Notice" have the same feel to them.
As I have pointed out to such folks--including a few relatives of mine--if you have always enjoyed a right or a privilege, you don't notice it until someone else gets it--or you lose it. The latter has happened to me in my affirmation of my female self: I lost some of the assumption of competence, innocence and other things I once could take for granted. Likewise, most drivers, especially if they're not regular cyclists, would never know how much of the landscape and economy are shaped by their driving--which, I grant, is a need for some. Contrary to what some think, though, I am not trying to take anything away from them--or cisgender people. I only want the same rights and protections they take for granted.
When I go for a ride, people--usually non-cyclists--implore me to "be careful." Sometimes I think they've been inculcated, if unwittingly, with the notion that the car reigns supreme and if a driver harms a cyclist, the cyclist was careless.
That said, there are indeed dangers in cycling, as there are in almost any other activity. But there is one that almost no one ever thinks of.
An Italian fellow was riding his bike away from house on the Costa del Sol, the Spanish region that's become Europe's Florida: a warm-weather magnet for vacationers and pensioners.
But he didn't retire from the Carbineri. In fact, the Carbineri and their counterparts in a few other countries were looking for him.
Turns out, he was part of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia gang and had been on the run from his country's authorities for seven years. In addition to committing the common grifter offenses of money laundering, forging documents and tax evasion, according to said authorities, he was a point man for shipping cocaine from Colombia to Europe.
Someone should have told him to "be careful" when he went out for his ride.
On Sunday, the US Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Perhaps not surprisingly, the vote split along party lines, with the 50 Democrats voting for it and 50 Republicans rejecting it. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, broke the tie.
As I understand it, the Inflation Reduction Act is a shrink-wrapped, rebranded version of what Biden and other Democrats actually wanted. The fact that some things that were included in the Build Back Better Act, which passed in the House of Representatives, were omitted from the IRA is no more an oversight than calling it the "Inflation Reduction Act" was not an attempt to make the energy- and environmentally-related aspects of it more palatable to the Senate's two most right-leaning Democrats, Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
One key omission were tax breaks and other subsidies for bicycles and other two-wheeled vehicles that are powered wholly or in part by human energy. The original Build Back Better proposal included a $900 tax credit for the purchase of an electric bicycle and a pre-tax benefit to help commuters with the costs of bicycling to work.
That tax credit was available to cyclists before 2017, when Republicans repealed it as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Build Back Better Act would have essentially restored it but I think Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, who worked with Manchin on the IRA, realized that he had to take out some of its "greener" parts to get Manchin and Sinema to agree to it.
I say that it's unfortunate, not only because I am a cyclist. As Harvard Kennedy Center visiting fellow David Zipper told Alex Dougherty of POLITICO, "We need not just to shift people from gasoline to electric cars. We need people to shift from cars, period." But, as he points out, there's nothing in IRA that "makes that process easier or faster or more likely to happen."
Any piece of legislation that ostensibly has anything to do with the environment or energy but omits bicycles is a bit like a bouillabaisse without fish or a caponata without eggplant.
Yesterday, my brother told me he'd spent over $100 to fill his gas tank.
On one hand, I sympathise with him. For one thing, he is my brother. (This is what age does: I didn't say, "in spite of the fact that he's my brother." LOL) For another, he lives in an area that's more car-centric than my hometown of New York. Even if that weren't the case, he'd rely on his car because medical conditions constrain his physical activity, at least somewhat.
On the other hand, I remind myself that petrol prices are only now surpassing levels I saw when I first set foot (actually, bike tires) in Europe, back in 1980. I could get into a rant about how playing nice with Saudi Arabia and giving tax breaks to oil companies wouldn't have continued to keep down the price at the pump forever, but it would be just that--a rant. Others with far more expertise in national and global politics and energy markets can explain it better, or at least in more depth, than I ever could, even if I were to hijack the focus of this blog (really, it exists).
But what my brother told me is nonetheless relevant and can perhaps be best illustrated by something I've just come across. In Electrek, Micah Toll points out that at the current average cost of gasoline in the US--around 5 dollars a gallon (around a euro a liter)--it would take only five fills of an F-150 truck's tank to buy an entry-level electric bike. Or, it would take someone fueling an evil SUV six times, while a sober, sedate sedan would need to be topped off seven to eight times to buy a basic e-bike like Ancheers being sold on Amazon--and driven by many delivery workers here in New York.
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| Photo from Electrek |
The old adage "your mileage may vary" applies in more ways than one. If you live here in New York or in California, where gasoline averages more than $6 a gallon, it would take even fewer fills to equal the cost of an ebike.
Of course, a regular bicycle, especially a used one, can be had for less, even as we enter a third year of COVID pandemic-induced shortages. I don't know whether the gas-bike equation I've described will persuade many people would persuade to give up driving, even for short local trips. But it's certainly food, or fuel, for thought. So is this: Once gas is burned, it's gone. A bike, however, can last for years, or even decades.
As the majority of Americans support equality for LGBTQ people, women, members of racial and ethnic "minorities," the disabled and others who have been marginalized, those on the other side--who see rights they've always enjoyed as "special privileges" when extended to members of the groups of people I've mentioned--become more virulent, vicious and even violent in expressing anger at having to share their privilege.
Among the empowered are motorists who think the roads are theirs, and theirs alone. They accuse us--cyclists, pedestrians and users of mass transportation--as being subsidized by tax dollars (which, too often, the privileged don't even pay). Some among them think they have a "right" to express their umbrage in whatever way they choose--even if it endangers or kills the objects of their rage.
While I still interact, thankfully, with many courteous drivers--especially those who drive trucks--I have also had more charged interactions with aggressive drivers than I can recall in some time. On the return leg of a ride to Connecticut, just as I was crossing the state line at Glenville and King Streets, some guy who looked like his wife hadn't given him any since Obama's first term pulled up alongside me, in his pickup truck, just so he could shout "Fuck you!"
While the temperature has risen, so to speak, since Trump first ran for President, I can't put all of the blame on him (as tempting as that may be). Rather, I've noticed that some celebrities--mostly male, all of them privileged by their wealth and fame-- expressing veiled and not-so-veiled hostility toward those who aren't "the cool kids" in their eyes. A while back, Whoopi Goldberg whined, on The View, about the chauffered drive to her gated community being slowed down by, oh, 7 seconds or so, by a cyclist. Now it seems that "comedian" Paul Costabile, who seems to sneer with the smugness of a bully who knows that nobody will fight him, took a video of himself taunting a cyclist who was riding as far to the right as he could.
The worst part, though, is that Costabile is taking the video while driving. Now, unless he's employing some trick of which I'm not aware, he's leaning as he's driving with one hand. So, he's endangering the cyclist even more than he would have had he simply shouted slurs and curses out his window.
In the meantime, Costablile whined about having to watch that rider "work his glutes." Sounds to me like he's insecure: He looks like he can use some time with his feet on two pedals rather one foot on one pedal.
That, of course, is what causes the privileged to pick on those who've just won the same rights they've always enjoyed: It's scary for those who've enjoyed power and privilege to realize that other people could actually challenge their place in the social, political and economic heirarchy. We, as cyclists, do that by our presence: It shows motorists that the roads don't "belong" only to them.
Note: The video in this post was deleted from Instagram. However, I was able to post it thanks to a screengrab by @_deeno.
I waited nearly a year for Dee-Lilah, my custom Mercian Vincitore Special. At least I expected as much: When I ordered her, the folks at Mercian were advising customers to anticipate such a lag between the time they placed their deposits and received their frames or bike.
If I recall correctly, I waited about the same amount of time for my first Arielle, my dear, departed first Mercian. For ten or twelve months to pass from the time someone puts down a deposit and takes delivery of has never been unusual when ordering a bespoke frame or builder. But, until the pandemic, the longest I can recall myself or anyone waiting for an off-the-shelf bike was three months, in the heyday of the 1970s North American Bike Boom. That's how long it took for me to get my Schwinn Continental in 1972. To be fair, though, I wanted a color that, I'd heard, Schwinn was offering in limited numbers.
But I don't recall a situation like the one that's developed during the COVID-19 pandemic: People have had to wait a year for a bike. And I'm not talking about a Mercian or a custom frame from someone like Richard Sachs. Rather, folks are standing in line for Murrays and Huffys from big-box stores. That has to do with the supply-chain disruptions you've heard about: Factories closed during lockdowns and ship and dock workers, and truck drivers, either couldn't go to work or quit their jobs.
So it's particularly galling to see this:
To be fair, many other companies have similar policies. They also, like Target, try not to sell merchandise at significant discounts: If Target sells Schwinn or H&M sells a sweater, for example, at 50 percent off, the regular price seems much higher. As for donations, some companies cite the tax and other legal implications of this practice. Call me a cynic, but while I am willing to grant that companies find that it's too difficult or costly to give their stuff to Goodwill or a community bike center, I can't help but to think that tossing brand-new stuff comes down to the only two words I remember from the only economics class I took: supply and demand. Retailers want to keep the former low and the latter high to prop up prices.
I wonder whether the dumpster-diving mom who took the video had been waiting for one of those bikes for herself or her kids.
A few years ago, I taught a "capstone" course, required of graduating students, about the Bronx. It seemed to make sense, as the college is located in the borough--in the heart of the poorest U.S. Congressional District, in the South Bronx--and most students live there. As much as I tried to make it interesting and relevant, students were less than unenthusiastic: They saw the course as one more thing standing between them and graduation.
If they've forgotten me, the projects they did (or didn't do), the class itself and the college, I hope they remember one lesson that, I believe, the course reinforced: Everything they lived with, good and bad, in the Bronx was the result of decisions made by human beings. Sometimes their motives were nefarious, but at other times they were simply misguided.
Fahrad Manjoo makes that point today in a New York Times editorial, "Bike Riding In America Should Not Be This Dangerous." In his essay, he briefly recounts how urban and transportation has prioritized the "speedy movement of vehicles over the safety of everyone else on our streets. He doesn't get much into specifics--whole books have been written about that--but that governing principle took hold well before the high priest of auto-centricity, Robert Moses, started his work.
Manjoo's editorial was motivated by the death of 13-year-old Andre Retana at a Mountain View, California intersection that is an "asphalt-and-concrete love letter to cars." On two corners stand gas stations; America's Tire occupies a third and the fourth is taken up with a BMW dealership. "To keep traffic humming along," he writes, "motorists on all of its corners are allowed to turn right on red lights."
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| The intersectio of El Camino Real and Grant Road, Montain View, CA. The "ghost" bike commemorates Andre Retana, who died here. Photo by Mark Da |
As I have pointed out in other posts, such an arrangement endangers cyclists--when they follow the traffic signals as motorists are required to do. A cyclist at the corner of an intersection is vulnerable to a right-turning vehicle, especially a truck--or an SUV (which I call "trucks for people who don't know how to drive them")--makes a turn.
To be fair, most truck drivers, especially the long-distance variety, courteous and conscientious. On the other hand, their vehicles are particurly hazardous for two reasons. One is that because their vehicles are so large, they sometimes veer into pedestrian and cyclists' paths, or even onto sidewalks, especially on narrow streets in dense urban areas. The other is sight lines, or lack thereof: Drivers sit so far away from everything else on the street that they simply can't see someone crossing a street.
Those factors, and the right to turn right on red, contributed to Andre Retana's death. The truck driver came to a complete stop at the instruction. Andre pulled up alongside him. In an unfortunate twist, he fell off his bike in the crosswalk near the front of the truck--at the very moment the driver, who didn't see him, decided it was safe turn.
The driver didn't realize he'd struck the boy until bystanders flagged him down. Andre suffered severe injuries and died a short time later in the hospital.
Manjoo points out that the intersection, not surprisingly, doesn't have a "box" or safe area where cyclists and pedestrians can wait, and neither of the streets leading to it--El Camino Real and Grant Road--has a protected bike lanes. But, as much as I respect him for pointing out the dangers-by-design, he seems to share the same misguided thinking behind too many schemes to make cycling safer: That more bike lanes and other "infrastructure" will do the job and that planning future roads with built-in bike lanes will help.
As I've pointed out in other posts, too many bike lanes are poorly conceived, planned and constructed: They go from nowhere to nowhere and actually put cyclists in more danger. Staggered signals, which Manjoo also recommends, could also help. Moreover, he says that while transitioning from gasoline- to renewable energy-powered vehicles will help for health and environmental reasons, we really need to find ways to get people out of SUVs and into smaller cars. And, while he doesn't say as much, it could also help to re-design trucks with better sight lines.
But, as I've pointed out in other posts, other changes, like legalizing some form of the "Idaho Stop," are also needed. Most of all, though, I believe--as Manjoo seems to--that the way transportation is conceived has to change. Not only are new street and vehicle designs and regulations needed, things like the tax structure, have to change. Most people don't realize just how much driving is subsidized--yes, in the US to the point that the worst car choices and driving habits are rewarded.
None of the needed changes will bring back Andre Retana. But they might prevent future tragedies like his--and make cities and societies more livable. Such changes can only come about by choice--just as all of the mistakes that led to a 13-year-old boy's death were.
You've heard the expression that something is "like herding cats."
Well, have you ever tried to teach a cat to ride a bike?
You'd think that with all of my experience as a cyclist, teacher and professor, I could teach anyone anything when it comes to cycling. Well, some things tax even my wealth of experience!
I'm going to try visualization. Maybe if she sees enough images like this one, she'll accompany me on a ride:
There's still time!
When I ended up back on Boston Post Road in Mamaroneck, I stopped to eat the bagel and small wedge of cheese I packed in the bag of Zebbie, my Mercian King of Mercia with the striped seat tube.
Honestly, I rode her for one reason: She looks autumnal. So did the scene at Mamaroneck harbor, at least somewhat.
If you look closely or enlarge the image, you can see budding Fall foliage on the right. Actually, it looks (to me, anyway) like someone lightly brushed red and orange across a cluster of leaves.
Mind you, that was when few bikes had four-figure price tags, let alone the five-figure tags attached to some of today’s machines.
I would try to explain that small local shops didn’t make much profit—and, as often as not, none at all on bikes themselves, especially high-end bikes. For one thing, it’s expensive to run a shop: To do it, you need a lot of space, which is pricey in any good location for a shop. Then, a shop needs fixtures specifically for displaying and working on bikes, as well as tools and machines. And a shop owner has to pay to keep the lights on—and keep the tax authorities happy.*
On top of all of that, the shop has to have inventory, as some shop owners learned the hard way during the pandemic. In pre-pandemic times, some bikes could sit in display racks for months, or even years. That wasn’t as much of a problem back when, say, one year’s Peugeot or Raleigh wasn’t so different from the previous or following year’s models, and component manufacturers stuck with the same designs for decades. But the bicycle industry now follows the planned-obsolescence business model that prevails in other industries, like the automotive. That means a bike that doesn’t sell at full retail price by the end of the season has to be significantly marked down if it is to sell at all. Because of the planned-obsolescence model, some manufacturers don’t allow retailers to return bikes, and penalize dealers for not meeting sales quotas.
The business model I’ve described gives bike companies a lot of power over shops, especially small ones. Among other things, it gives companies like Specialized and Giant the ability to mandate the amount of merchandise shops must purchase, and at what price. It also gives those companies the ability to control retail prices. That is why you won’t find much price variation from shop to shop among models from the major brands—except, perhaps, during end-of-season sales, which usually involve the extreme sizes and colors that weren’t popular.
What all of this means is that when dealers have to pay high prices and are told they can sell at a price that yields a relatively small margin—from which they have to pay the costs of running a shop—they have to keep those costs down wherever they can. As often as not, that means low wages for shop employees.
In times past, shops made most of their money from repairs or accessories, helmets, clothing, shoes and gloves and, to a lesser degree, from parts. Now, though, most of those items are available at significantly lower prices from online retailers. One shop owner lamented that people came to his shop to try on shoes and helmets they later bought online.
According to Ray Keener, who’s been in the bike industry for about as long as I’ve been alive, one bike manufacturer had much to do with making the current situation.
To people under 40, Schwinn is just another bike brand sold in Target and Wal-Mart. But, for three decades or so after World War II, it was the only American bike marque with even a pretense of quality. This gave it the power—upheld in several court cases—to control, not only prices, but what shops could and couldn’t sell. This, he argues, also effectively gave Schwinn the ability to depress bike shop wages.
And that is why the Bicycle Industry Employers Association’s guarantee of a $32K annual income to mechanics who complete their training can be touted as progress, even if it’s not a living wage in most American cities!
*—Sometimes, there are also “unofficial” taxes—like the one by a waste-hauler who told the owner of a shop I patronized, “You will use our services.”
