The harrowing experience of the insolent and un-uniformed policeman in patrol car 818 is still fresh in my mind as I write this post. I was riding up a bridge over I95 hauling Laya in her trailer on a narrow road with no room to pass and a policeman commanded me to ride on the sidewalk. There was no room left for legitimate and gentlemanly talk regarding his decision. My innocent pleas about cyclist rights and safety were taken as argument.
Later that day, a motorist barreling down my neck honked at me in an abusive and threatening manner to which I politely gave the finger. The passenger later was in my face ready to pick a fight.
Today, I returned home from the grocery store after numerous honks and abuses by inconsiderate pricks of motorists. I am usually good at letting their rude and abusive behavior pass as immaturity and lack of general intelligence quotient but my patience may have plateaued. I do not want to encourage anyone to be subjected to this kind of behavior on the road.
I started this website to log my efforts of being more environmentally conscious. My one large decision was to take up bicycling. It has rewarded me immensely, health and financially. So huge were the improvements to my quality of living that I decided to use this website as a part time advocacy channel for bicycles. Not any more. This city cares a fuck about bicycles. One council man with one plan on one road is a good start but does not even begin to change the face of bicycling. Jacksonville Florida is in the bicycling Paleolithic age, complete with square wheels and no fire, when compared to only a few more cities in USA. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee has been disbanded and the citizens are in charge of three thousand pounds of steel and maybe have an equally plateauing patience for me slowing their arses down from getting to their cul de sac turd holes.
I hereby stop advocating for bicycles as transportation in any part of a city other than its urban core. I will be involved with the bike valet service with bikejax only because it successfully continues to encourage more people to ride their bikes to events that usually occur in neighborhoods of a higher polupation density. I will respond to questions as a moderator on Bikejax forums.
Disclaimer: the comments stated above reflect the voice of the writer and are in no way influenced by any other source. It does not reflect the intentions and interests of Bikejax.org.
Most of us bicycling advocates probably have it all wrong.
People who want to encourage others to ride their bike advocate cycling to work. Most cities advocate that too. We even celebrate a bike-to-work day where we take time off from work, drive our bike to a location, gather in large groups and ride to one central location with rolling police barricades, all without feeling silly about it.
I have been reading about Andrew Cline’s ‘One Mile Solution’ for a while now. His solution is to draw a one mile radius around your home, find businesses that you normally frequent in a car and try to get to them on a bicycle. Walkscore.com is a good website for finding businesses. The website finds all businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, medical facilities etc within a walking distance and rates your location on a scale of 1 to 100. My apartment gets a whopping 20 deeming it car dependent. My 5+ months of living car free puts the score to a test.
A car may be a necessity in my neighborhood but a bicycle can offset the dependency effectively. Here are some facts about me and my neighborhood:
1. I have been living car free for a little over 5 months and do everything on a bicycle.
2. I live in an area with no bicycle infrastructure (even no bike lanes). I do not live in a downtown area.
3. I am not an athlete and do not compete in mountain bike and road bike races.
4. I am not particularly well built and muscular; portly at best. I therefore have no significant muscles at my disposal to achieve 10 mile bike commutes.
5. Finally, I have chosen to live closer to work, in fact as close an apartment as possible given my 60 lbs dog.
I understand that for some people, it may not be feasible to live so close to work. Well, you don’t have to bike to work, no matter what day they tell you is tomorrow. Most people usually live close to a park, a grocery store, a restaurant, a bakery or a coffee shop. Starting small opens up a huge plethora of places and businesses one can commute on a bicycle. We do not have the luxury of living in transit oriented developments in a city with a master plan for urban development. Actually, the word ‘transit’ and the phrase ‘master plan’ does not exist in the City of Jacksonville’s vocabulary, but that is another battle to fight for another day.
I beg to promote a bike-to-grocery-store day or a bike-to-the-movie-theater day before promoting a bike-to-work day. Just like we learn to crawl before we learn to walk. In my future posts, I intend to prove how this can be achieved with ease and a minuscule capital investment.