| Bicycle Advocacy |
By Dom Nozzi Bicycle Advocacy: Time for a New Emphasis? As a lifelong bike commuter, I am generally supportive of much of what is being promoted by bicycle advocates. Yet despite my city paying a lot of lip service to fighting sprawl or increasing the number of bike commuters or reviving our downtown, much bike advocacy has been detrimental to such objectives. The problem, as I see it, is that bike advocates tend to be mostly recreational bicyclists, have little understanding of the needs of a bike commuter, and have even less of an awareness of quality urban design. The result is that they tend to sub-optimize on the needs of recreational bicycling. That is, they overemphasize such needs to the detriment of other crucial community needs. Bike advocates will often fight against on-street parking, because it is argued that on-street parking is dangerous to the bicyclist (mostly due to the fear of the "opening car door"). In my opinion, such a fight is terribly counterproductive to not only quality of life, but the interests of bicyclists. In my years as a city planner, the most important lesson I've learned is that the pedestrian is the design imperative for cities. Not bicyclists. Not transit users. Not motorists. Not Bambi. Not even seniors or the disabled. Getting it right for the pedestrian is the most effective, efficient way to create and promote a community quality of life. And one of the most important ways to design for the pedestrian is to have on-street parking. A healthy downtown (not to mention healthy transit, healthy Bambi, and a healthy place for seniors/kids/disabled) depends on a healthy pedestrian environment, as even the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recognizes. And a healthy downtown is an important way to protect or promote a compact city (an unhealthy downtown accelerates the abandonment of downtown and dispersal of important community destinations to destinations that are too remote to get to by bike, by bus, or by wheelchair). This is an important reason why bike advocates should be advocates for pedestrian design—particularly for features such as on-street parking. A quality pedestrian design promotes the continuation of a compact city. A compact city reduces travel distances. Modest travel distances are, of course, crucial in making bike commuting viable, not to mention improving conditions for Bambi, the disabled, children, and transit users. |
|
|