Interesting Article re: Bike Salmon - Those Who Ride Against the Flow

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on July 26, 2009 at 12:08pm

That's a really great site and Crain is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, Times Book Review etc. who doesn't just blog about the contrived political issue of the day, so I'd imagine the reader IQ is a bit above the mean. The post right before this one on why the same person will feel road rage in a car and not on a bike is pretty interesting as well.

While I hate bike salmoning and ninja cycling to the point where I'd make t-shirts denouncing them if I knew how, by the way, I have to admit that he makes a pretty interesting point about critical masses of dangerous irregular cyclists forcing drivers to pay attention, thus making the roads safer. I won't be joining them, but it's a nice insight into road ecology.

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Permalink Reply by Joe TV on July 26, 2009 at 1:08pm

Pedaling -

I'm reading that book right now and I recommend it. For folks who frequent this page, it will surely be a lot of familiar information, but also a lot of affirmation.

You could boil it down to a few core concepts: How we got here - the political history of bike advocacy in this country; What is working - bike cultures in Europe, Portland, OR., Davis, CA, New York; and the last three chapters (I'm not there yet) are titled: Overcoming Safety Barriers, Health and the Bicycle, Bringing Kids Back to Bikes.

One fact I wasn't aware of: there has historically been a split among bike advocates politically speaking. One faction holds that bike lanes of almost any sort are a good thing, and more people on bikes is the goal. The other maintains that seperating bikes and cars (off road paths, for example) ghetto-izes cyclists, and that cyclists should learn the skills necessary to share the same space with cars. The first group seems to have wrestled influence from the second over the past 30 years or so.

Also, the message that seems to be driven home most is that there is safety in numbers. The more cyclists out on the road, the more aware other users of the road are of cyclists, and the safer everyone is.

It's a well written book, with a lot of focus on the European bike hubs like Copenhagen and the like where bikes are a much more integrated part of transportation. It's readable and not very dense, more like a series of magazine articles perhaps than a dry wonky tract.

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Permalink Reply by Stewski on July 26, 2009 at 5:16pm

Joe - Thanks for the summary. I'm definitely going to pick this up.

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