Taking it to the streets

A Milwaukee-area Fox News photographer and avid road cyclist apparently experienced one car-swipe too many and decided to start filming the SOBs. I say good on him.

I'm a strong advocate for bike rights and safety, and firmly believe that everyone needs to be better educated about the rules regarding how to share the road. I also believe that we need stricter punishment for those, both drivers and cyclists, who break the rules. It puts people's lives in danger, and that should simply be unacceptable.

H/T EcoVelo.

Peds v. cars v. cyclists

What is it about the subject of vehicle-cyclist-pedestrian interactions that engenders so much anger in people? A recent Capital Times article dealing with the issue sparked a whole slew of comments, most pointing fingers at either inconsiderate drivers, bikers, or pedestrians. The resentment on all sides was palpable. And this certainly isn't unique to that article. I've come across it countless times whenever the subject comes up.

Because, y'know, it's never your fault. It's always the pedestrian who doesn't look before they cross the street, or the biker who runs a red light, or the driver who tries to run you down.

The fact of the matter is, I think, that all of us have the capacity to be the asshole--and all of us likely have been, at one time or another. And simply claiming that one or the other party is completely at fault for all the trouble on the road is wrong, and completely misses the bigger picture.

Bikers are, by law, supposed to act and be treated as fellow vehicles on the road. You ride with traffic, stop at stop lights and signs, signal your turns, and kit yourself out in the appropriate safety gear (helmet, lights, etc.). Not all bikers do this, however, and they're the ones who typically inspire the most hatred in drivers. Thing is, plenty of law-abiding bikers are still finding themselves at the receiving end of motorist's bile, simply for daring to share the streets with them. And even those drivers with nothing against bikers are sometimes prone to not paying enough attention. Heck, I'm an avid cyclist and I'm still sometimes times guilty of this when I'm in my car.

And pedestrians--especially, for whatever reasons, the students downtown--can be prone to wandering out into the street without so much as glancing up from their ipods. I don't know what these folks were taught as children, but apparently they missed the "look both ways" lecture.

I understand the frustration felt by all parties, as I've been all parties at one time or another. I think most of us have. But somehow, we seem prone to forgetting what it's like to be the cyclist when we're driving, or the driver when we're walking, etc. We're quick to anger at the slightest inconvenience, we zone out and don't pay enough attention to our surroundings, we let a sense of entitlement creep into our heads--and the results are often dangerous and tragic.

Simply put: we all need to suck it up and take responsibility for ourselves and the people with whom we share the city. Bikers need to strap on a helmet and obey the traffic laws. Pedestrians need to actually pay attention to their surroundings. Drivers need to remember that they're not the only ones on the road, calm down, and pay attention.

Because it's not just one party or the others responsibility to make our streets safer--it's all of ours. So put down the cell phone. We'll all be better off for it.

Expanding interstates in the age of declining driving

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation wants to expand I-39/90 from Madison to the Illinois border to a whopping six lanes. Frankly, this makes about as much sense to me as does the Pabst Farms interchange project in Milwaukee: none at all.

Though they've come down from their recent extreme highs, I really doubt that gas prices are going to come down so much that we as a nation return to our big gas guzzling cars and frivolous drives to get our mail at the end of the driveway any time soon (if ever). Studies point to a major decrease in the amount of miles Americans are driving, politicians are finally getting the memo about properly funding things like public transportation and walkable/bikeable neighborhoods, and the general trend, though at times frustratingly slow to take hold, is toward a better mix of transportation modes.

Why, then, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an interstate expansion? The project also includes plans to upgrade old bridges, which I'm all for, but the part where they intend to make it six lanes is, I believe, ridiculous. That money could be better spent on more crucial infrastructure improvements--like the bridges, preexisting roads that are in sorry shape, bike lanes, sewer upgrades, etc.

To say nothing of aesthetics. Big, sprawling interstates are ugly, and the construction of them tends to tear up farm land and countryside, and cause more polluting runoff.

And anyway, should we really be encouraging more vehicles to be on the road? WisDOT is holding public meetings in two locations where anyone can come see and hear about the plan, and offer their input. I'm hopeful that there will be enough reasonable questioning of the lane expansion that it gets scrapped, but then the cynical part of me has been watching what's going on in Milwaukee and isn't so sure that reason plays as big a role as it should when it comes to decisions like this.