Who\'s Trash Talking Bikes?


[From the League of American Bicyclists]
Every now and then, someone takes a potshot at bicyclists and bicycling. Sometimes it’s a politician; other times a shock jock. Whoever it is, and whatever their motivation, we don’t like it! So we keep track of who says what, and give you the chance to talk back. For responses to common trash talk, click on the menu to the right (Driving Costs, Pay Your Way, etc.)

Oct. 2, 2008: Professor John Cochran, University of Chicago
Sep. 8, 2008: Senator Jim DeMint, South Carolina
July 29, 2008: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters
July 18, 2008: David Brooks, New York Times
Dec. 6, 2007: Representative John Boehner, Ohio
Sep. 11, 2007: Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma
Aug. 4, 2007: Representative Patrick McHenry, North Carolina

Talking Back points:
* Driving Costs
* Pay Your Way
* Get Off the Road
* Behave! http://www.bikeleague.org/action/trashtalk/
The True Costs of Driving
(some of them, at least)
$160 billion is spent annually by all levels of government on highway construction, maintenance and operations. Approximately 60% is covered by user fees. (2004 data; 2006 data)

Traffic crashes cost the nation between $164 billion (in urban areas, AAA, 2008) and $230 billion (NHTSA, 2000) annually. 43,000 people are killed in crashes; 2.6 million are injured.

Congestion in metropolitan areas costs $78 billion annually.

Between 40,000 and 70,000 premature deaths due to poor air quality at a cost of up to $64 billion annually

$75 billion in direct medical costs due to physical inactivity (CDC, 2003 figures)

Cost of free parking to the national economy: $300 billion. Cost of one surface parking space is $10,000; parking garage spaces between $20,000 and $40,000.

Good summaries of the external costs of driving are provided by Delucchi and Litman.

Another interesting number for comparison:

Car advertising topped $18 billion in 2007 – the hard-hit automotive industry was knocked into second place for the largest U.S. ad-spending category, after the retail sector.
Bicyclists Don't Pay Their Way

Possible answers include:

1. Nor do motorists.

See “true costs of driving” facts and figures.

$200 billion was spent in 2006 on transportation at all levels of government; only just over half of that generated by fuel and vehicle taxes and tolls. The remaining amount comes from property taxes, general fund allocations, bond issues, and fare boxes of transit systems.

The Federal share of all transportation spending is approximately 20% (18% for transit, 22% for highways). So the 18.4 cents per gallon in Federal gas tax is a small percentage of overall spending on highways.

2. Actually, bicyclists do contribute.

There are 57 million adult bicyclists; the overwhelming majority are motorists also.

Bicycling generates $133 billion in economic activity annually; twice the impact of fishing. A significant portion of that is driving to and from events, rides, and other cycling activities.

3. Streets and highways are part of the public realm, not the private domain of motorists.

There are approximately 100 million Americans who don’t drive – they are too old, too young, have a disability, choose not to drive, or have been prohibited from driving – and almost 10 million households have no access to a motor vehicle.

4. Bicyclists are very low impact. .

Bicyclists don’t take up a lot of space (either moving or parked), don’t cause a lot of wear and tear on the highway, don’t generate a lot of pollution, rarely hurt others in a collision, and are efficient and economical in almost every regard. The cost of accommodating bicyclists is minimal compared to those same costs for motor vehicles.

5. Using the same logic, cigarette taxes should only be used to improve the comfort and convenience of smokers.
Bicyclists Should Get on the Sidewalk

Bicyclists have a right to the road: bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as motorists and/or bicycles are considered a vehicle in all 50 states.

In many jurisdictions, bicyclists are not legally allowed to ride on the sidewalk.

There may be no sidewalk! Even in pedestrian and bicyclist friendly Seattle, 40 percent of streets lack sidewalks on both sides. If a sidewalk exists, narrow width, poor surface quality, obstructions, other users may render it useless and unsafe for a cyclist to use.

Motorists are actually more likely to hit a bicyclist on the sidewalk than one they are passing in the street. Wrong-way riding and riding on the sidewalk are two of the biggest contributors to car/bike collisions.
Bicyclists Don't Follow the Rules

Unfortunately, a lot of cyclists fail to follow the rules of the road. Running red lights and stop signs is irritating to motorists (not to mention pedestrians and other bicyclists) and a significant contributor to car/bike collisions. Riding without lights at night is also a significant problem.

Bicyclist organizations promote a wide variety of educational workshops, training classes, and riding information that always stress the need for cyclists to follow the rules of the road. The League of American Bicyclists has certified more than 1,300 instructors to teach curriculum that are based on that simple premise.

Unfortunately, a lot of motorists fail to follow the rules of the road as well. Speeding, failing to signal, running lights and stop signs, driving while distracted, and driving under the influence are also pervasive behaviors – and major causes of the 43,000 deaths and 2.6 million injuries caused by traffic crashes every year in the United States. In survey after survey, between 60% and 70% of drivers self-report routinely speeding, often more than 10 miles per hour above the speed limit.

Almost 14 percent of drivers involved in fatal car crashes are unlicensed – driving on a suspended or revoked license. Nationwide, estimates are that 14 percent of all motorists are driving with no insurance.

The system doesn’t always work for cyclists. A lot of traffic signals are not set to detect bicyclists and will not change for them – this can be a particular problem with left and right turn arrows. The green phase of a light may sometimes not be long enough for a cyclist to clear the intersection, especially if the intersection is large and the cyclist is slow or arrives in the intersection just as the light changes.

Motorists may not always know or understand the law and assume that a cyclist is doing something wrong. For example, cyclists may “take the lane” in situations where the travel lane is too narrow to share with a motor vehicle or where there are obstructions to safe travel on a shoulder, in a bike lane, or at the right edge of the roadway.

Enforcement and education are lacking – for both motorists and cyclists. There is no common standard of learning or proficiency expected of cyclists at any age, and the quality of driving instruction and testing is low compared to other nations. Bad habits and poor behavior are perpetuated by a lack of enforcement, and also by engineering solutions that don’t encourage good behavior (e.g. a proliferation of stop signs that breed contempt and frustration, especially for cyclists who value momentum even more than motorists!).

There’s a good discussion of this topic at TheWashCycle

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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