Yellow Jersey to the Politician Who Takes the Lead

Summary

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This is what we know about the $4 billion Congress last June approved for bike lanes and related programs: Given a beautiful, late-summer day, a three-mile commute to work, gasoline at $3.10 a gallon and endless government studies describing how fat we are, 99 out of 100 of us will get in our cars and make that commute in the comfort of the driver's seat. Our bicycles, if we still have them, remain at home, their tires slowly deflating.

Millions of Americans ride bikes - you can tell that simply by the number of cars with bicycle carriers. It's healthy recreation even if some of the riders do look as if they're going for the title of best-dressed at the Tour de Fashion. But the point of the $286.5 billion highway bill, despite its countless constituent favors, isn't the celebration of the free ride; it is to move people and goods safely and efficiently. That's something bicycles could do quite well on short trips but hardly ever do. To inspire a significant number of people to use bikes for this - and the highway bill includes a provision that bike lanes "be principally for transportation, rather than recreation, purposes" - requires a re- imagining of the way nearly everyone lives, which itself requires a nearly unimaginable amount of leadership.

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Yellow Jersey to the Politician Who Takes the Lead

Whenever someone suggests bike lanes, I think of Ed Koch, the New York mayor who, after a transit strike in 1980, set aside part of Sixth Avenue for bikes, much to the surprise of bicyclists, who had made ...

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