Get ready for a long rant

This morning on the way to work, I happened to catch the Conservative slanted musings of Charles Adler, who makes a cameo every week on our classic rock radio station, Q107. Normally, I listen to his offerings with a smile and a knowing wink, because he is after all in the 'rant' business and most of what he spouts is harmless fodder. Today he gave virtual wedgies to everyone wearing a pair of bike shorts and it got me fuming.

There's a move afoot in Calgary to make some accommodation for cyclists who commute, by possibly handing over lanes on a few major thoroughfares in the city. Although the debate is far from over and nothing has been decided, Charles was particularly upset that the biking community dare ask for the re-allocation of precious lanes from motorized drivers. He used words like selfish and egotistical to describe the biking culture, suggesting that their only motive was to piss off motorized drivers so that they would abandon their cars and trucks and become cyclists as well. Charles even had the gall to compare the bike culture to separatist zealots in Quebec.

Are you freaking insane Charles? Listen to yourself! If anything, you're making just the opposite point. North Americans are so deeply entrenched in their vehicle culture that we have become biased against anything interfering with the use of our vehicles. I understand why motorists would be upset at the thought of losing a lane here and there to provide a safe option for cyclists, but you're pointing the finger in the wrong direction pal. It's decades of city planning biased to the motorized vehicle that caused this mess. When city planners design their new neighbourhoods, right of ways for transit, bicycles and anything other than vehicles were and some cases still are after-thoughts. So now that more people elect to use an alternate (and clean) form of transportation, they're the bad guys? He went on to suggest that the reason vehicle drivers shouldn't suffer at the hands of a few trendy cyclists is because they don't contribute billions in gas tax dollars to the government coffers used to build and maintain roads.

As another example of this preposterousness, he says "How would we like it if starting tomorrow, two lanes of the Deerfoot freeway were handed over to bikes?" Let's pretend for a moment that sidewalks are a rarity - and thank goodness they are not. How would we like it if starting tomorrow, a lane of every street was handed over to pedestrians (for a sidewalk)? Oh my God! Where do those pesky pedestrians get off? Why should they have a safe place to walk? They don't pay billions in gas tax dollars to the government coffers used to build and maintain roads. See where I'm going with this? How about people who can't afford a car? Are they the enemy too?

Before you jump to conclusions, I do have a problem with just randomly taking lanes of regular traffic away from motorists for the benefit of a much smaller population of cyclists. But I am also willing to find a compromise, like putting a proper bike freeway on a parallel street. The major point is not to dismiss the idea of more bike accessibility out of hand and especially not to label all cyclists as agenda pushing crackpots.

Based on what I see and hear every day, it's the vehicle drivers that suffer from selfishness and egotism. We have become a culture that believes driving is a right, cars are a necessity, the space inside and around your car is your own royal kingdom, and you should be allowed to do what you want. Think I'm exaggerating? Alberta will soon be introducing a law that will fine drivers around $175 for using a hand-held cell phone, texting, eating, personal grooming or reading while driving. What makes me laugh about this is the fact that we need a law prohibiting this kind of behaviour. It's common sense that any of those activities poses a real hazard, not just to yourself, but to those around you. You know what? There will be people up in arms over this new law.

I think it's time to take the car culture down a few pegs - and folks - I'm part of that culture. Oh yes I am. Pedestrians, cyclists, people who ride the bus and train have just as much of a right to get to their destination safely as us vehicle drivers do. I think a question we should be asking ourselves as a society is - should we wait until a critical mass of cyclists exists before we give them the resources they need to be safe, or do we give them the resources now to promote safe cycling? Fin. (That's French for ‘the end’)