What's Going On

Had I been anywhere near Washington, DC yesterday, I would have taken a ride on the Marvin Gaye Trail.

Would there have been a better way to celebrate his album, "What's Going On" on the 50th anniversary of its release?

The title song, and other tracks, were time capsules of the mood of the time--and among its most innovative works.  

Those songs were written from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran.   It's hard not to think that he could have written it, almost verbatim, from the consciousness of someone returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.  

So much was going on then, as now.  The Summer of Love and Woodstock expressed hope that the world could change for the better; Marvin Gaye's song--as well as others released the same year (Think, of John Lennon's "Imagine," for example) said that things must change.  They remind me, in a way, of W.H. Auden's September 1, 1939, in particular its penultimate stanza:

    All I have is a voice 

    To undo the folded lie, 

    The romantic lie in the brain    

    Of the sensual man-in-the street

    And the lie of Authority

    Whose buildings grope the sky:

    There is no such thing as the State 

    And no one exists alone;

   Hunger allows no choice 

   To the citizen or the police; 

   We must love one another or die.

Interestingly, Marvin Gaye's album saw the light of day just as the North American Bike Boom was gathering steam.  Although many people purchased bikes they rode once or twice, more than a few were motivated to buy and ride by the knowledge that an economy and society in which people drive cars everywhere and burn fossil fuels to do everything else was not sustainable: The inevitable results would be environmental degradation (Now we know environmental destruction is an all-too-real possiblity!), inequality and all manner of other injustices--and war.  

What's going on now?  What would Marvin Gaye make of it?  Would he take a ride on the trail named for him?

I always suspected that Marvin was one of us!

Bill To Ban Bicycle Licenses In New Jersey

Perth Amboy, New Jersey is a largely working-class and non-White city over the Outerbridge Crossing from Staten Island, New York.  Last month, Perth Amboy cops stopped a group of boys on bikes who were popping wheelies and weaving in and out of traffic.  The cops could have used that stop to talk to the boys about bicycle safety. One of the officers did that, but the situation devolved into the cops confiscating the kids' bikes and handcuffing one of them.

The charge?  The kid they took into custody was riding without a bicycle license.

While the city has had a bike license ordinance on its books for decades, that incident marked the first time, to anyone's knowledge, that it was actually invoked.  That it was used to bring in a boy--who, guess what?, is Black--was, to be  polite, specious. 

The incident garnered national attention, which raised the question of what, exactly, are the reasons for, and purposes of, bicycle licensing regulations.  Most were enacted decades ago (That Perth Amboy's license costs 50 cents should give you an idea of how old that policy is!), ostensibly for purposes that are no longer, if they ever were, applicable.  Or increasingly-militarized police forces use them as yet another way to bully, intimidate and harass people less powerful than themselves. (The Perth Amboy cops could just as well have said they were arresting that kid for Riding While Black.)

Yvonne Lopez lives in Perth Amboy.  She also represents Middlesex County, of which the city is part, in the New Jersey State Assembly. On Monday, she introduced a bill (A5729) that, according to its synopsis, "prohibits municipal ordinances from from requiring license tag to use bicycles within municipality."  Currently, a few other New Jersey municipalities require tags or plates on bicycles, but specifics of those regulations vary.

In order to become law, the bill would have to pass in both chambers (Assembly and Senate) of the state Legislature.  I haven't heard any prognostication about the bill's chances of passing, but I suspect they're good, if for no other reason that the State probably would prefer uniformity from one jurisdiction to the next but doesn't want to be tasked with creating a state bicycle license system. 

Gwen Inglis, R.I.P.

 The other day, before I mounted my bike, I slathered my arms, legs and face with sunscreen. But I didn't replenish it during my ride, so I ended up with tomato-tinted limbs and cheeks.

So, I rode without enough of one kind of protection.  But I wore my helmet and gloves, so at least I shielded myself in other ways.  

There are some things, though, that won't protect you.  They include your current or former status as a champion (if you have such a thing) and, sometimes, riding in a bike lane.

They certainly didn't protect poor Gwen Inglis.   She was the reigning national road race champion for her age group (45-49).  On Sunday morning, she took a training ride in a Lakewood, Colorado bike lane near her home, something she'd done many times. 

Around 10am local time, Lakewood police responded to a call about a crash involving a driver and cyclist.  Inglis was rushed to a local hospital, but couldn't be saved. 

Ryan Scott Montoya, a 29-year-old Denver resident, has been taken into custody.  He is suspected of being under the influence of drugs when he struck Inglis with the compact sedan he was driving.

Gwen Inglis suffered a horrible fate and that if Montoya was indeed intoxicated or simply careless or indifferent, he doesn't get off with a "slap on the wrist," as happens in too many cases of drivers killing or maiming cyclists.  

One thing I wonder, though, is whether that bike lane was simply lines painted on pavement or a real lane separated by barriers of some sort.  When the "lane" is simply paint, it's all too easy for a motorist to veer into it--or use it to pass other cars.  But even when barriers sometimes aren't enough to stop a driver who's high, drunk or bent on destruction.

 

Burn

Yesterday was the warmest day of the year.  And the sun shone brightly.  I took an afternoon ride down to the Rockaways, by the sea.

It's a ride I've taken many times before.   I was feeling really good until I pedaled into Howard Beach--about 45 minutes' ride from my apartment.  Then, suddenly, I felt as tired as I might feel after a ride to Connecticut or Bear Mountain in which I've spent a good part of the time pedaling into the wind.

When I got home, I realized why:  My arms and face were red!  

Every year, around this time of year, I have a ride like the one I had yesterday, on a day like yesterday:  a premature summer day in the middle of spring.  The temperature reaches 30C or so, as it did yesterday, and I ride with less clothing than I'd been wearing through the previous few months.  So, more of my skin, which hasn't yet grown accustomed to the sun, is exposed.  Moreover, the sea (or any body of water) seems to magnify the solar refulgence.

I used sunscreen but, apparently, not enough.  At least, I didn't apply it as often as I, with my melanin deficiency, should have.  When my skin absorbs more sun than it's used to, I get tired.  

At least I can get away--I think--with not blaming yesterday's fatigue on aging.  I am still in midlife, after all!

If More Women Ride...

There are things I never would have understood were I not a lifelong cyclist.

And there things I never would have understood were I not a transgender woman who, in middle age, decided to live her life by her true gender identity.

Sometimes they intersect.

To wit:  Contrary to what some believe, laws and policies against discrimination and harassment--or that allow people to marry whomever they please--don't give "special privileges" to women, members of racial and ethnic "minorities," disabled people and those who aren't heterosexual or don't idenitfy with the gender binary.  Rather, those laws and policies are made so that the people I've mentioned have the same rights, protections and guarantees that men, cisgender people, heterosexuals and members of the "majority" race, culture and religion (white Christians in the US) take for granted.

When I was living as a male who was presumed to be cisgender and heteorsexual, I never had to think about such rights and guarantees.  In fact, I didn't even know that I didn't have to think about them.  There probably are still privileges I have and never think about because well, I'm still White.

Likewise, while they complain about the price of gas or highway tolls, most American motorists have no idea of how much their driving is subsidized, and how much of the landscape has been re-formed for them.  Many also don't realize how much of a sense of entitlement they've developed about "their" roads and public spaces.  That is why they are upset when a lane is "taken" from them and "given" to cyclists and pedestrians.

And, while I laud any attempt to promote cycling and decrease dependence on anything that burns fossil fuels, I have come to realize that, too often, planners have their own unquestioned assumptions about who rides, and how and why.

Is it coincidence that as I have been thinking about such issues and how to articulate them, I should chance upon an article that discusses them?  That article--which appeared first in Streetsblog and was reprinted in Greater Greater Washington--cites a study, published in Transport Reviews, that indicates the best way to cast the bicycle as a viable mode of transportation, and not merely as a toy for kids or the trust-fund crowd--and simply to get more people on bicycles--is to get more women to cycle.

Photo by Joe Flood, licensed under Creative Commons

And how do we get more female-identified* folk on two wheels?  Understand how and why we ride--which, of course, will lead to a greater understanding of why some won't ride.

Perhaps it will come as no surprise that countries where cycling is really a part of people's everyday lives--in other words, where it's seen as much a part of the transportation system as driving or taking buses, trains or planes--are also the countries with the largest proportions of female cyclists.  As you might have guessed, those countries include the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland--and Japan.

The reason I call particular attention to Japan is that, unlike the other countries, it has few segregated bike lanes and relatively little cycling-specific infrastructure, at least in comparison to Northern European countries.  But there is a culture of cycling--and, more important, a recognition of how and why women ride, and how it's different from men's riding.

The study shows that women who cycle are doing so for transportation at roughly the same rate as men.  But in most places, "transportation" for men means, mainly, going to and from the job.  On the other hand, women are more likely to combine errands on a bike trip--say, to drop off their kids at daycare and go to the store.  This is particularly true in Japan, where women are still likely to leave the paid workforce after giving birth.  

So how does that affect bike infrastructure planning?  Well, I think that if a useful bike lane were to be built, it should connect residential areas, not only with office buildings, schools or factories, but also with shopping areas, whether they're "Main Streets," malls or farmer's markets.  And, bike lanes should run, not only to or through parks, but also to museums and other venues.

Another finding of the study is something that doesn't surprise me:  Women are less willing to ride in traffic or in non-protected bike lanes.  I don't think we have a greater fear of traffic. (Perhaps we're just smarter ;-)) Rather, women--and children-- are less vulnerable to harassment and intimidation in a protected bike lane.  

While we're on the subject of infrastructure:  One thing that, I believe, would make cycling safer and more convenient for women is more safe and clean public toilets and washrooms.  I used to joke that rest stops on bike rides are the only occasions when the lines to use the men's room are longer than those for the women's room.  Then again, I have discovered--as a result of my gender-affirmation process--that there are also fewer women's or gender-neutral bathrooms.

Anyway, I found it interesting that the study in question shows how the world of cycling can be a mirror for society:  If more women cycle, more people cycle.  What equality means is that everyone wins, or at least no one loses.

*--The study stuck to traditional definitions of men and women.  I think it would be interesting, and useful, to look at the reasons why non-binary people ride, or don't, ride bicycles--and whether their patterns of riding align with those of their chosen or given gender identity.