"Build it and they will come." That line from the movie Field of Dreams is accepted wisdom now, used in discussion of projects such as the arena in downtown Louisville. The counterpoint to that, "Don't build it and they won't come," is hard to argue with.
While parked on the Clark Memorial bridge yesterday I was moved to wonder what is the motivation to not "build" bike lanes in New Albany.This would seem to be the easiest construction project imaginable-paint applied to an existing roadway.
The difficulty in construction lies not with road-building equipment but within the recesses of some cranial cavities.
While looking at tire tracks burned onto the bike lane emblem on the bridge surface (recently pictured on the cover of LEO), I thought of the fear which must have motivated the anonymous dolt who laid that editorial statement for all to see. It seems a kind of motorized version of the spraying that un-neutered male cats practice. Cats are driven instinctually to spray turf
they wish to claim. How sad to think that humans of such limited powers of reason have command of a 3,000 pound machine. How much more harrowing to think that machine may meet up with a cyclist who has crossed a territorial line.
We can paint the lanes to demarcate our turf as cyclists, but no such simple fix exists to alter the psyche of those who fear something about "those who aren't me". Unfortunately, the only thing to possibly change minds is continuous repitition of the sight, of people moving without cars, which must set off something twisted in certain eyes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
People are against bike lanes?
HA!
With all of the DUI's, poor, etc in New Albany, people are against bike lanes?
WOW!
I love biking.
It's simple, cheap (yes, I laugh at folks when they complain about gas if its their ONLY option), and accessible - you can find a decent bike at a bike shop, crappy one at Wal-Mart, or used at most any yard sale.
As much as I love biking, we should be allowed to, as motorists, run over those without reflectors, helmets, or go the wrong way down a street.
These dips give bikers a bad name.
Dear anonymous:
"As much as I love biking, we should be allowed to, as motorists, run over those without reflectors, helmets, or go the wrong way down a street."
Better watch you say, they'll be calling you a ditto-head, a neo-con, a fanatical atavist. (with a nod to Supertramp)
If you have trouble believing that certain people are, in fact, against bike lanes, please traverse the Clark Memorial Bridge toward Louisville and see what other interpretation you could lend to the latex exclamation point.
Post a Comment