1. I'm not riding!!!
2. No one in Birmingham rides!!!
It seemed like everywhere I looked there were people on bikes, including lots fixed gears, and bikes chained up on everything, so many that they practically stacked on top of each other. I want that for Birmingham too, but how are we going to get there? Birmingham is extremely obese, has a public transportation system that is of little use, and just doesn't give a shit. We as a city need a priority overhaul, which certainly isn't happening with our current administration (see here, here, and can't forget this classic).
BUT! There is hope! We can get together and try to make things happen. The metro area recently set up the Alabama Green Initiative, which is a step in the right direction (thank you Obama!!!). Of course, LaLa - that's our mayor's pet name - is just in it for the money, but at least it's something.
Part of the BiCi's mission is to advocate for bicycling in the city, and I personally hope that as the country progresses toward improving public works and community programs, we can also be a part of that change. We can help Birmingham can step out of the stone age and ride into the 21st century.
SPEAKING OF BICI!! Our race/party benefit is right around the corner and we're still looking for volunteers. If you're interested you can email me at anna@bicicoop.org. It's going to be a great party with Andy's Tea Party (which I happen to be a member of) and DJ Nastique.
OK enough rambling, I have mountains of school work to do.
Love to you all!
All the best for a change! I think the best thing so see whether bicycling works in a town is if children cycle (on their own of course). Actually I haven't seen many cities where this is the case, but it seems to be more common in the countryside although there are generally not so many bike lanes or paths. But it's a long long way to make a town safe enough (and parents believe that it's safe enough) for children to ride around on their own. Imho that should be the final goal though.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Birmingham, but the cultural wasteland where I grew up (Fayetteville, NC) would be almost impossible to make "bike friendly." I would be way more scared to ride there than downtown Chicago during rush hour. No roads have shoulders, speed limits are way too high, all streets that actually go anywhere are high-traffic, and no one is used to seeing cyclists on the actual road. Yikes. I have no idea how that could ever change. I'm sure the situation is better in Birmingham, but the South in general seems to have the longest way to go. You're awesome for working to make it better!
ReplyDelete-Dottie