Whew! This thread needs separated tracks to keep all the topics in line!
I'm not sure if this is back on topic but spare_wheel makes an interesting point about "gentrification" and bike lanes that is perhaps a very American dilemma.
Originally Posted by
spare_wheel
There has been a very tight correlation between gentrification and cycling infrastructure in PDX and other cities. There has also been targeting of newer and fancier cycling infrastructure to wealthy or gentrifying areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This is completely unacceptable, in my opinion.
The issues I've seen regarding bike lanes/gentrification has less to do with economically challenged areas being denied newer or fancier infrastructure but that those communities feel they have greater needs that need to be addressed and often see the imposition of bike infrastructure in their neighborhoods as a precursor or as a result of gentrification and as a failure to address the more pressing issues that have existed in their community for some time. These are legitimate complaints and it is sometimes patronizing to feel these communities need to be "educated" as to how economically beneficial it may be for members of the community to consider biking as a means of transportation.
I'm theorizing here but it may have to do with the American predeliction to see cycling as a sport or a means of conveyance of a certain professional class as a hobby as opposed to a necessity. In poorer communities car ownership is often seen as a status symbol and biking is equated with poverty, DWI's and low status.
While I find articles like this one encouraging to some extent it can be alienating and help foster cycling only as a past time of the elite-
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prosp...ess-networking
In countries where cycling is incorporated into the transportation landscape regardless of economic status and all kind of bikes and riders are accepted, whether in their work jeans and boots on a Walmart special or a custom made ride to work bike this resistance to infrastructure and bikes is less pronounced.
Organizations like
Recycle a Bicycle in NYC,
Bikes not Bombs in Boston and
World Bicycle Relief- world wide, promote cycling as a means of combating poverty and an economically beneficial way for people to get around.
For me, personally, I've been cycling since I was riding both for pleasure and because it was the cheapest way for me to get around. It still saves me money but I could now afford to drive and own a car if I so desired as well as own a much fancier commuting bike than I currently use but I resist both and am frequently perceived as someone who rides purely out of economic necessity.