Opinon

Cycling and development

Andy Singer (who you may know from his “No Exit” cartoons) today posted on streets.mn about the possibility of re-purposing part of a railroad bridge across the Mississippi to extend the popular Midtown Greenway. For me, this resonated with my take-away from last week’s Mobility4All panel, of how bike infrastructure became associated with gentrification partly because the bike advocacy movement chose to pair infrastructure with economic development to gain political influence.

A day with Rich City: Self-Care Sunday and Mobility4All

I’d been looking forward to this day for six months, since Adonia Lugo had to cancel her talk at Rich City Rides in December. And in the meantime it had gotten even more interesting, because I’d gotten to know a bit more about Doria Robinson, and RB was joining to represent the Scraper Bike Team. I started by heading up for the weekly Self-Care Sundays ride out of Unity Park, where I got to have a number of interesting conversations with Naj, RB, and Phoenix, and then had the opportunity to meet and hear Dr. Lugo and the others at the great Mobility4All panel.

More on a bad idea

My post on Vision Zero’s threat amplification communications strategy got some interesting responses. One class of response as a sigh of relief, from advocates and city officials who don’t want to adopt such a confrontational style. Another was an interest in comparison data; what happened in non-Vision Zero cities over the same time frames? An entirely reasonable question, and easy for me to research.

Changing the conversation: A bad idea?

In streets advocacy, I think we have two core goals: Reducing auto trips, and increasing safety. When we consider our tactics, we should consider how they will advance that strategy. The advocacy response to the recent death of Tess Rothstein in San Francisco raised a concern that’s been troubling me for some time; our rhetoric around street safety has become increasingly hyperbolic and strident. What if “Interested but Concerned” cyclists might be scared away by repeated messages about life safety risks? What if changing the conversation is a bad idea?

Bike women

For a Twitter thread on International Women’s Day, I was reflecting on how many of the people who’ve inspired my work are women. I thought they deserved a more substantial post here, so, here are some shout outs.

BlackSpace Manifesto

Deep listening

Two somewhat related items came across my feed recently which got me thinking about our responsibilities as planners in listening to disadvantaged communities. One is a study about how urban cycling investments “focus on the needs of wealthy riders and neglect lower-income residents and people of color.” The other is the BlackSpace Manifesto, a statement of principles by a group of Black planners and activists.

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