Leisesturm

What else do you see? Or not see? I'm asking you because you clearly are in a position to shed some light on exactly how the differences in 'infrastructure' might influence safety outcomes. Ever since I've been on BF (July 2005) the issue of riding through 'sketch' areas has surfaced from time to time. In none of these 'discussions' has the issue of infrastructure ever been raised. It is always the presumption of being 'jacked', or in some other way harmed, by the gang types that populate sketch areas.

To the point of your comment, I will say that in the suburb of Portland (Forest Grove) that I lived in for eight years, I never saw another black person. Ever. I smelled plenty of weed though. But not wafting from car windows. I will paraphrase Hanlon: never ascribe to impairment (cellphone, substance) that which is adequately explained by poor judgement or inexperience. You give me the opportunity to make another observation. You refer to "riding through the part of town ...". Exactly. I am born and raised in the city with perhaps the largest urban blight problem in the country: NYC, and in my Borough of Brooklyn there was Bedford-Stuyvesant; East New York; Bushwick and part of Williamsburg that one might call 'poor'. Those areas combined comprised less than 25% of the city in area. In Manhattan there was of course Harlem. Pull in the Lower East Side and you are still talking about only 10% of the land area. In Queens, Jamaica. The South Bronx (not all of the Bronx). To account for a 4.5x disparity one needs, I think, to do much better than throw some 'poor areas' under the bus of speculation. Such areas are always a small part of the total land area of the larger metro.

In recent years, gentrification has all but obliterated the 'poor' aspect of any part of Portland. Poverty is now much more diffuse. NYC as well. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Crown Heights, and Williamsburg are almost fully gentrified. Only East New York still remains unchanged. From the graph, even as 'poor areas' all over the country are gentrified, the pedestrian and cyclist deaths continue to increase. Hmm.

retswerb

That's a lot of assumption you've got there. Evidence?

urbanknight

I was with you right up to there. The article is not limiting cyclists to the lycra clad enthusiasts. The rest of your descriptions can (and do) pertain to people of all colors.

mschwett 

right, because all (or most) black people or people living in lower income urban neighborhoods are drunk, or on drugs, and thieves.

i’m so glad i don’t know most of you in real life.

livedarklions

Do you ride wearing a pointy helmet?

Zara Sp00k

So there still hasn't been an identification of what infrastructure is lacking that is causing the death of black cyclists.
Perhaps they should spend money putting in new sewer pipes, that's infrastructure isn't it?

It seems to me that the OP, and apparently the author of the "study" are just arguing for more money, the same old tired tune, hoping to get the do-gooders to feel guilty and start screaming (because that's what they do) for their politicians to spend more money.

The thing is though, blacks have gotten smarter, instead of their vote being bought by the bread crumbs tossed to them by white liberal politicians, they are asking for cash, big cash $$$ (reparations) I suppose in hopes people will feel that giving them $50,000 or whatever is a bargain compered to the millions they are demanding (doesn't anybody ask anymore?)

Koyote

This suggests that you didn't actually read much, since the article provides links to many studies.

And this confirms it.


This is where we are as a country -- more than ever, people feel free to express their uninformed opinions. And they often believe that they know more about a subject than the people who actually study that subject for a living.

StanSeven

Closed for moderator review