Car-Free Bike Path is Suddenly Dangerous

Forget aggressive motorists on our city streets, the real threat is, paradoxically, along the Ballona Creek bike-path. Apparently gang members in Culver City attacked a cyclist then used his U-lock to attack others. Ummm... scary!

On Media Narratives of Bike-Car Aggression

In the last two months, the explosion of news stories about bike-car violence has been astounding. I follow all of this coverage among bike blogs with anxiety (and even re-post about it), but recently the academic in me is reading the phenomenon of bikes in the media with a more critical lens. Believe it or not, there is a narrative that many news outlets are willingly writing:

• Gas prices rise and driving a car is no longer a viable option for a number of people
• They start looking for alternatives, including public transportation, motorcycles, and bicycles
• Numbers of bicycles on the road increase
• Unaccustomed and/or inexperienced cyclists and motorists begin to express their frustrations on the road
• Tensions rise as Critical Mass rides become increasingly disruptive
• Chaos ensues

It's fine that the LA Times and NY Times are talking about bikes (coverage is a good thing if it leads to increased awareness), but my problem is the very foundation of the big bike switch-over: people are only crazy enough to ride bikes when cars are no longer affordable. That sort of determinist argument frustrates the hippie in me, and I think we in the bike community need to be more vocal about our diversity. We also need to complicate this explanation from a social and cultural theory perspective.

To borrow a page from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, people are different and that is an inconvenient narrative for the rise in bike riding.

I became a bike commuter long before gas prices rose above $2 a gallon. And I know that as a long-time bike commuter, I do not fall within this narrative. When I started riding my bicycle, just about everyone who was making the switch cited the reasons above as secondary. The big reason they were switching was because, get this, riding a bike is REALLY fun. It's a happy activity. I also feel much more free on my bicycle than I do in a car and I'm sure I am not alone. I remember a conversation I had with my sister right after I saved up some money to buy a cheap mountain bike. She said, "isn't it fun?" Eventually, the fun is what won out; it is what pushed me to ride my bike more often and eventually forsake my car. I've only heard the fun side of this rise in bicycles mentioned in reference to the fixed-gear frenzy that is taking over many urban spaces.

Second to fun, the efficiency of commuting on a bike around LA further urged me to continue to ride. Parking is rarely an issue and I always get to park my bike close to my final destination. My commute times are predictable and consistent, I waste less energy and arrive at my work or school in a good mood. Fun efficiency!

And I have a strong feeling that fun is huge reason why Critical Mass and other large group rides are so popular. Just spend a day watching people ride their bikes along the Santa Monica Beach Bike path, and the fun part of the revolution will be inescapable. Now I'm just waiting for the LA Times to catch up with that side of things.

Foul Play

I know it's a bit violent, but a deep part of my subconscious can't help but wonder: if only all foul play resulted in this sort of spectator vengeance...

LA Bike Commuters in the Wall Street Journal

Here's the article, which includes some rather prominent omissions in terms of LA bike activism (LA Bike Coalition anybody?). However, the overall tone is: Look ma! Bike commuters are normal people!

Bike Haters?

In the last two weeks I feel like there has been an outpouring of news about really horrible tension between bicyclists and the rest of the world, mostly motorists, police, and the news media. First there was news of a really terrible road-rage incident between cyclists and a motorist on Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood that resulted in some serious injuries. Then there was news about "formal discussions" between the cycling community and LA city governance to address the clearly growing tension between motorists and cyclists. I know I have been away for awhile, but I had no idea that tensions were getting that bad. And then, there was news of two really horrible incidents involving Critical Mass rides,* one in Seattle and the other in involving a rookie officer and cyclist in NYC (which, incidentally, became a sensation on YouTube). This hate has been so strong that I have been specifically avoiding talking about it and instead forward emails to all of my friends with the bad news. This is no way for me to behave, but I have been filled with so much anger about the situation (and the odd press bias against the cyclists involved) that all that was coming out was a bunch of rage-filled spew. Who wants to read that?!

I think that bike community is finally starting to deal with all of this tension. See Exhibit A, my new favorite explanation for all the anti-bike bias and hatred. We need more than that opinion circulating out there, but seriously people, what on earth is going on? In other venues I have been calling for more policy solutions. I don't know how ready we as a society are to accept the fact that our bike numbers are going up. But seriously, we are going to have to deal with it.

* For the record, I do not frequent Critical Mass events in the LA area, mostly because the anarchist spirit is a little much for my taste. I do, however, firmly believe in the right for cyclists to ride in groups. That is all.

More Reasons to go Car-Free

It's official. Aside from the many reasons to go car-free, here's another: it can actually help you save/make gobs of money. Last night Alina sent me this link to a book I should have read back when my car was beginning to show early signs of death: How To Live Well Without A Car. As anyone who has ditched their car can tell you: cars are way more expensive than the price of gasoline and your car payments. Think: insurance, maintenance, parking tickets, toll-roads, and parking. Hell, some apartment buildings go so far as to charge monthly fees for their own residents! The preview on page 8 breaks down all of the financial benefits for you (although in today's sad economy the investment aspect of things might not be quite so apparent). I am pretty sure my first bike purchase paid for itself within the first month of use, and that was when gas was at $2 a gallon! Anyway... I do not need to be given more reasons or guidelines on how to live my life without a car at this point, but it would have been nice if someone had presented the option to me around 2 years before I bought my first bike. And for the record, getting rid of my car did not allow me to save money or pay off my debt, it just stopped my debt from increasing exponentially.

And also, I can't wait to get back in the states just to ride my Surly again.

Planning a Carless Commute to Irvine

In the middle of August I will be attending a Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory about cultural policy and creative industry at UC Irvine. Getting there will be an adventure. I'll probably take an Amtrak down with my bike and ride to my final destination. It will take some planning, but I think I can make it work. Lucky for me I will be staying a mere 15 miles away for free. I shall thus use my daily commute to and from UCI as a training opportunity. Fun stuff, right? The irony of all of this is that I have been trying to work out the details of doing Orange County without a car for way too long. If you thought LA was addicted to cars, try the orange curtain, which never really had public transportation in mind during as part of its master-plan. Yeah, there are buses, but they aren't realistic for most people's needs.

I find it oddly ironic that this seminar which has such an emphasis on cultural policy is in a place that was thoroughly planned for a world which is no longer realistic. Growing up in a place like Laguna Beach, Irvine was often the target of much derision by my classmates and neighbors mostly because of its connections with the Irvine Company, Orange County's intensely powerful real estate firm. UCI only exists, for example, through a donation of the Irvine Company. Some would go so far as to say that all that is good about the OC only exists through the "generosity" of the Irvine Company. It's kind of hard to swallow.

For much of my youth, the wilderness-loving hippies of Laguna Beach hated everything that the Irvine Company stood for. This was mostly because they were responsible for turning most of Orange County's groves into an endless mass of controlled and pre-planned communities with look-alike homes. In 1989, many of Laguna's citizens (including myself) had to stage repeated protests just to persuade the Irvine Company not to build more tract homes in the Laguna canyon wilderness. (I could go on... but California's endless growth is finally coming to a close due to strains on water supplies.)

The ironies of dealing with the most unfortunate aspects of Orange County's development pattern will make my quest to go without a car quite... well... crazy. I'm pretty sure that my family thinks I'm nuts for insisting on not using a car for two weeks. However, I want to really experience life from my bike-saddle in a place that is really averse to making that work. And, to be honest, I also see my daily climb over Newport Coast drive as an excellent physical challenge...