The Councils Are Going Broke. Blame Cyclists.

"Americans can be trusted to do the right thing once all other possibilities have been exhausted."

That remark has been attributed to Winston Churchill, though experts on him can't find any tape, transcript or other record of him saying it.

Whoever said it, I wish that it were true of today's right-wing politicians.  Coaches, trainers, athletic directors and boosters sexually abuse athletes, yet the Fake Tan Fuhrer and his allies blame transgender athletes on girls' and womens' teams--which number something like ten in the whole United States--for endangering innocent young female gymnasts, skaters, basketball players, cyclists and other performers.  I have yet to hear of any anti-LGBTQ politician who went after the real perpetrators. Perhaps some day....

Or maybe they never will.  It seems that these days, a strategy of the far- and even center-right around the world is to scapegoat people, organizations and movements that are very small in number or limited in scope, much as Hitler targeted Jews (who, even where they were the largest presence, still represented a small fraction of the population), Romani and other minorities including, yes, LGBT people.  I still recall how the Reagan Administration targeted the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, ostensibly as defecit-reducing measures, even though they represented something like .005 percent of the Federal Budget and, as even the Wall Street Journal noted, contributed far more to the economy, not to mention the culture.

Now it seems that one of right wing's targets, in the UK as in the US, is bicycle infrastructure.  It's one thing to blame a bike lane for a loss of parking spaces or emergency vehicle access.  But it's simply ludicrous to attribute the sorry state of a local government's finances to the money it spent on a bike lane, mainly because it's almost invariably a tiny part of the budget but also because (at least in the US), those funds may have come from a state or the Federal government, usually as part of an allocation for transportation.

But that hasn't stopped politicians on either side of the Atlantic.  Among the most recent is Nigel Farage, the Reform Party leader and former member of the UK Independence Party--you know, the folks who campaigned for Brexit.  This morning he claimed that local councils are "on the verge of bankruptcy" because of "huge departments of people dealing with climate change" and the "tens of millions of pounds" those councils "wasted" on "cycle lanes nobody uses."

Image credit:  Simon MacMichael/Gage Skidmore via the BBC

Now, I can't argue against, or vouch for the last part of his assertion.  But a look at the charge that the councils are throwing money at bike infrastructure is, to say the least, exaggerated.  Some councils spend little or nothing on bicycle infrastructure or other "active travel."  But even for those that spent the most, like Kingston, spending for active transport (which includes walking and other non-motorized modes as well as cycling) is only around 4 to 5 percent of the total budget, with around a third of that coming from core funds and the rest from grants.  As a whole, the UK spends about two percent of its transportation budget on cycling infrastructure. 

All of this leads me to believe that if Nigel Farage were in Winston Churchill's place during the Blitz, he would have turned his ire toward Dame Myra Hess.

A Cateye View Of The Future?

Today we're going to take a trip on the Wayback Machine...to the  future! 

The second link in the previous sentence references one of the most popular movies of all time.   Around the time it came out, I acquired a piece of what was possibly the most advanced bicycle-related technology of the time.

I am referring to a Cateye Solar computer.  Like other Cateye products of that time, it was cleverly designed, easy (at least relatively, for a perpetually technologically-challenged person like me) to use and all but indestructible.   That could mean, of course, that it could have been made only in Japan, where anything that was good, electronic and not made for the military was manufactured.

The only problem with it was, well, that you had to keep it charged.  Otherwise, the solar battery would die altogether.  (That, I suspect, is how many units fell into disuse.)  And it was difficult to read in less-than-optimal light conditions.

I got to thinking about the Cateye Solar when I came across this:

According to a patent recently filed, Classified--the Belgian firm that brought us the Powershift hub--plans to harness the sun's energy to charge electronic bicycle components, including electronically powered brakes.  

I'll be the first to admit that I'm hardly part of the target market for such a system, as I have not taken to electronic shifting or other bike parts.  I respect, however, one intention behind the invention:  eliminating the need to plug in to charge an electronic system.  I have to wonder, however, how well the system would store energy and whether it would "die" if it's depleted.

Still, I admit that I cheer just about any time someone comes up with a way to run anything on solar--or any other sustainable--energy source.  Hmm...Does that put me on the Fake Tan Fuhrer's Enemies List?

Tariffs On Bicycles And Bike Parts--To Curb Illegal Immigration and Fentanyl Importation?

A Getty Image

 

One of the gusts in the storm of the opening days of Trump's second term is a round of tariffs on goods from Canada, China and Mexico.

Yesterday, the charges against Canada and Mexico were paused for 30 days,  but the ones aimed at China are still in effect.  Meanwhile, the United States Postal Service rescinded its announcement that it would cease accepting packages coming inbound from China and Hong Kong.

So what does all of this have to do with the cycling world?

Well, the effects on levies on Chinese goods--imposed on top of the duties and fees already charged--seem obvious at first glance.  About 87 percent of the bicycles sold in the United States are made in that country.  So are most accessories and helmets, and many items of footwear and clothing.  But those all of those items still account for only half of the money spent on bicycle-related goods in the US, mainly because most of the bikes are for kids or low-end models for adults.  While some carbon and other high-cost frames are made in China, the majority come from Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries.  "The specialty bike industry has moved out of China," one manufacturer's representative declared. "Any one that is still there has only themselves to blame."

Even so, many bikes and e-bikes that are "made in" Vietnam, Cambodia or even North America or Europe are built around frames that are made in China to be finished and assembled where they are "made."  And even if the frames are welded and painted in the US, there's still a good chance that some parts are made in China. So even if the manufacture of mass-market bikes returns to these shores (most of the bikes, or more exactly, frames built in the US are custom or limited- production), whether or not the tariffs will apply isn't clear.

As for our neighbors to the north and south, together they account for about a thirtieth of the sales volume of bikes and bike-related products from China sold in the US. Spinergy has been making wheels for bicycles (and wheelchairs) in Mexico for at least three decades; other companies, like Yakima, also made products there but have since shifted production elsewhere. But there hasn't been significant bicycle production in the country for decades; its best-known brand--Windsor--is now made in Asia and sold via eBay and direct-to-consumer outlets.  Most of Canada's sales in the US come from companies that operate on both sides of the border; thus, a bike coming crossing the northern border is likely to have come from elsewhere.

There are rumors that Trump will target the European Union next, but that--and retaliatory tariffs, if the EU decides to impose them--would be attached mainly to automotive and agricultural products, two categories in which the US is running a trade defecit.

Does all of this mean that you should run out and buy a new bike or helmet or stock up on parts you might need?  I don't know.  And what is the Fake Tan Fuhrer's rationale for the tariffs?  Fentanyl imports and illegal immigration.  How those things will be affected, I also don't know.  Nor do better minds than mine.