FACT OR FICTION: There is a bike vs. car war underway
Status: Fiction!
Story: Despite media outlets chronicling every bike/car
altercation with headlines like “Bike Rage Meltdown in Portland!”
during the great bikes vs. car war of 2008, Portland had its safest
biking year since the city started keeping records in 1925. While there
are thousands more cyclists on the road now than 20 years ago (Bike
trips in Portland have increased by 584 percent since 1991! Hot dog!)
exactly zero Portland cyclists were killed in action in 2008. Anything
but the wussiest war would involve blood on the streets, not a zero
fatality record. Sadly, 2009 has not been as peaceful: Two bikers have
already been struck and killed by drivers this year. But in 2008 there
were 20 fatal accidents in Portland involving cars! Aggh! Car vs. car
war!
FACT OR FICTION: Pregnant women can safely ride bikes.
Status: Fact!
Story: “I got the whole range of ‘How could you?!’ to the
gentle finger wag and admonishment, ‘You’d better be careful,'” says
Angela Koch, who finally stopped riding her Schwinn to work downtown
after week 37 of pregnancy. “For me, I just never felt uncomfortable
with it at all.”
Biking should not be automatically lumped with cigarettes and
alcohol for ladies with bulging bellies. In February, local OB/GYN (and
pregnant bike commuter) Dr. Alison Edelman advised women on Bikeportland.org to listen to their
bodies—according to her, after 12 weeks a fetus could be injured
if the woman crashes. Besides that, pregnant women should take breaks,
drink lots of water, and for chrissake get a padded seat.
For those womenfolk who want to pedal through pregnancy and
encourage the world’s first birth by bike, Koch is hosting a very
special Pedalpalooza ride this June: Celebrate Waterbreak!
FACT OR FICTION: Cyclists don’t pay taxes to keep up the roads.
Status: Fiction!
Story: It’s true that people who only own bikes do not pay
gas taxes and vehicle license fees that fund road projects in Oregon.
But, Portland Office of Transportation Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller
points out, most cyclists own cars, too. Plus, according to Geller,
bikers save the city and state money. Since 1991, traffic over the
Hawthorne Bridge has increased 21 percent, an increase seen around the
country. But unlike other cities, all of the increased traffic has been
bikes, not cars. While other places are digging up millions of dollars
to widen roads, Portland’s increased bike traffic is accommodated by
bike paths, which are millions of dollars cheaper to build and
maintain. So you basically owe a cyclist a drink, thank you very
much.
FACT OR FICTION: Renowned heartthrob Bicycle Transportation Alliance
Director Scott “Tight Spandex” Bricker once performed a striptease in
front of city officials.
Status: Fact! (thank God)
Story: Bricker stripped down to his skivvies during a bike
fashion brown bag lunch at the Portland Building in 2007. “He said,
‘You know, I like to feel as sporty underneath as I do outside’ and
starts pulling off his shirt,” recalls witness and city transportation
specialist Timo Forsberg. “He had on some sporty undershirt and silk
boy shorts.” According to Forsberg, the audience first gasped, then
cheered. “He had nice pecs, a rippling six pack. It was a very tight
undershirt,” Forsberg wistfully remembers.
FACT OR FICTION: Oregon spends tons of money on bike lanes
and bike paths! Those cyclists should quit whining!
Status: Fiction!
Story: For all its talk of being a bike-lovin’ state, the
government hasn’t put its money where its mouth is. A measly one
percent of the state’s transportation budget is spent on bike AND
pedestrian projects combined; the Portland Department of Transportation
has spent only .07 percent of its capital budget on bike improvements
since 2000. That’s partly because bikes are a cheap date. According to
city stats, for $60 million we could build the nation’s best bike
network with over 300 miles of bike paths. Or we could build one mile
of urban freeway. Sadly, Salem doesn’t get it. This May they approved a
transportation budget that includes $840 million for new road projects
and zero increase in bike funding.
FACT OR FICTION: Portland is the best bike city in the world!
Status: Fiction!
Story: Amsterdam kicks Portland’s Spandexed ass at everything
we think we’re good at. Pot? They’re the home of the brown café.
Strip clubs? They’ve got a red-light district that would make Mary’s
dancers blush. Bike commuting? Their city boasts 36 percent of
commuters biking to work—Portland tops out at 18. Sigh. Whatever.
We’ll keep our organic beer, our eco-districts, and that guy in the
white suit who plays the trumpet on the Hawthorne Bridge.
FACT OR FICTION: All those people who dress like bike messengers are
bike messengers
Status: Fiction!
Story: While downtown streets are crowded with kids whose
knickers are so tight they can barely fit a mini U-lock in the back
pocket, it turns out most of them probably just work at Montage (oh
snap). Calls to every bike courier business in town revealed the city
has just 21 full-time bike messengers and four part timers. That means
either a lot of courier services are not ‘fessing up to under-the-table
bike messengers or Montage has way more busboys than we thought.
Just a note – Amsterdam boasts not only 36 percent of people riding bikes to work, but 36 percent of *all trips* anywhere are by bicycle. Groningen, another city in the Netherlands, boasts 60% of *all trips* anywhere by bicycle.
Groningen totally rocks.
I was at the bike fashion panel, and I’m pretty sure Bricker would have been wearing a full set of lightweight wool shorts and a sleeveless undershirt. Available from Rivendell Bicycles. Never gets stinky!
Great article, although I would add to question 3 that numerous studies have found that auto users (and the gas taxes and registration fees they pay) also don’t pay enough to build and maintain the roads.
http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/publication_de…
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/09/20/delu…
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/hi…
http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf
Thank god for events like the Naked Bike Ride, or I’d have a tough time convincing people that bike commuting is for everyday folks, not just of left of Noam Chomsky whackjobs and Metal Scavengers.
P.S. Your money argument is weak.
How about:
Since 80% of the cost of food is transportation, if you eat food, you pay fuel taxes.
Since the 1950’s, the share of general revenue funding for federal highways has gone from roughly 20% to 70%. If you pay income taxes, you pay for the highways.
“…exactly zero Portland cyclists were killed in action in 2008… But in 2008 there were 20 fatal accidents in Portland involving cars!”
Something is not right there.
Thanks @Jessica Roberts for the great links. I’ve been arguing about this with my pa. 🙂
fahqueue – what does the naked bike ride have to do with commuting by bike?
Or, by your logic, all people who drive a car are murderers, simply because others in cars have murdered pedestrians?
“Portland tops out at 18. Sigh. Whatever. “
Brilliant commentary aside, where on earth did you get that statistic? Even the Auditor’s 2008 survey, by far the rosiest of them all, reports city-wide bike mode share at 8% (likely measured on a sunny day in July). Seriously, Sarah, what is the source of that 18% claim?
character string: because when people see me, they associate me with the freakin’ idiots who can’t even manage to figure out how to pay for the porta potties they needed to display their idiocy.
“Portland Office of Transportation Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller points out, most cyclists own cars, too.” – really, is this something that is documentable, or is it just hearsay? I know lots of people who use public transit or bicycle, and don’t own cars, and not that many who do, that own cars who also bicycle – also hearsay.
As a reporter perhaps you need to dig a little deeper and acutally put facts into your reporting, and not fiction.
If, as I car owner, I don’t drive my car, then while I do pay the registration, I don’t pay any gas tax, thus don’t contribute much beyond the licensing fees to upkeep of the infrastructure.
Since, as a bicycle rider, I pay no additional taxes, or fees, then I’m totally subsided. Here in Beaverton I can ride on the street, or the sidewalks, and expect them to be in good condition, ie kept up in maintenance (even if they’re not) without any input of financing that goal myself.
What a trip!
Sam_Roderick
Your logic on the “cyclists don’t pay road taxes” is specious. The fact that “most cyclists own cars” is irrelevant – they pay taxes as motorists, not as cyclists, which does not give them license to do whatever they want on the road. Bikes shouldn’t be allowed on the roads any more than pogo sticks, roller skates, or big wheels – I’m trying to get from Point A to Point B as fast as I can, and your toys are in the way. Don’t play in the street!