I’m Convinced - Walk, Bike, Transit Advocacy Should Merge
Looking at all the new things the city is trying to do - with bike lanes, congestion pricing, etc. - I’m now convinced that a merged or new organization that advocates for walking, cycling, and transit is a necessity.
There are lots of reasons to support such a move, but two stick out for me:
- I like the idea of a bigger membership base. The SFBC currently has 9,500 members, give or take, and it’s mostly bike-focused, though I know they do a lot of looking out for walk issues, too. I’d like a membership base closer to 40,000. We can all be on-message, watching and waiting for legislation opportunities, etc. More of us is a good thing.
- I like the idea of much-reduced animosity between walkers and bikers. I don’t have any particular proof that this is hurting us on the advocacy front, but I think it’s absurd that it exists at all - it’s like having some dimwitted colonel dropping bombs on his own troops. I don’t have a tolerance for that kind of thing.
There are lots of other good reasons to support this, and almost all the reasons that could be seen as ‘bad’ - like ‘loss of bike-focus’ - are more imaginary than real, in my opinion. I’m not going to stop being a bike nut just because I’m now part of ‘San Francisco Transportation Alternatives’ or ‘San Francisco Awesomeness’ or whatever we decide to call the new organization. The priorities remain walk, bike, public transit, in that order. And ‘public transit’ can and should include our future ‘bike sharing’ program. Right now ‘public transit’ really means ‘motorized public transport,’ but that’s going to change.
If we don’t like it after five or ten years, we can scrap it - but it needs to happen.
Whether the SFBC merges with other organizations like Walk SF and/or Rescue Muni, or we manage to re-organize ourselves in some other way, say, a new organization entirely, it should happen - and it should happen soon.
One caveat - if any of these organizations decides to go this route, they should not treat their members like dirt.
Happy Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble!
[p.s. The Forums are open for participation.]
November 28th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Well stated. I agree. The premise should be urban transportation and the diversity this takes, with cars not being in the mix as it is the default model for transportation and that is from what I would like people to move.
There is a group in Portland, OR that has a similar philosophy, The Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Although they probably originated as a bike group and most of their membership is made up of bikers, they promote walking as another alternative to cars and that can be seen both in what they say and on their signs (which often show a walker and a biker).
http://www.bta4bikes.org/
Keep the great posts coming.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Peter,
I couldn’t agree with you more! I am a pupil of Nikos and a deep believer in better living through more sustainable development, which includes Transit, Biking, and Walking. A colleague and I have started an advocacy group in San Antonio to promote just that called SmartTransitSA. Our website should be up and running in a couple of weeks and for now we are a group on facebook under the same name. We are very excited to see other groups promoting the same type of thing across the country. I just happened to stumble across your blog and am very glad I did. I will keep checking up to see what great posts you have up.
On a side note…have you seen the lecture series Nikos gave on Algorithmic and Sustainable design?
http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/algorithmic.html
It is very insightful.