Opinon

Bike to Work Day began in Oakland 25 years ago. I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about it, partly because I feel like bike advocacy in the U.S. tends to frame cycling as a distinct activity, and I think it would be more productive to frame it as a common activity that everyone should be able to do all the time. This year, my wife was volunteering at the pancake breakfast at Oakland City Hall, so I decided to join the pedal pool led by Mayor Libby Schaaf and Council member Abel Guillen.

The recent autonomous vehicle fatality in Arizona highlights some of the philosophical issues which our societies will need to grapple with as we transition to the post-driving world. Technical developments will allow autonomous vehicles to outperform human drivers, but the surrounding moral issues still remain to be addressed.