From PasadenaCSC.org
There’s one argument about bikes that we keep having over and over. Here’s the truth about it.
There’s a Big Lie About Bikes (BLAB). But very often, it’s hard to spot, because it can come out in a number of different ways, and often isn’t said out loud at all.
The Big Lie is this: “Most people don’t want to ride bikes! If we built a safe bike network, no one will use it.” We know it’s a lie because there’s a mountain of evidence to the contrary: dozens of cities have built safe bike networks, and they are always popular once they are built.
But the BLAB persists, and it can be hard to confront. Very often, the BLAB isn’t even said out loud, but sneaks in through an unspoken implication. Listen to almost any city council meeting where a bike lane is being discussed, and sooner or later, someone’s going to say something like “Nobody rides bikes here!” or “I looked at a bike lane and nobody was riding in it!” or the inquisitive sounding BLAB: “We don’t have any data if anyone rides bikes here!” In all of these cases, the implication is clear: no one is riding bikes here now, so if we build safer routes, there will still be no one using them.
Image courtesy of pasadenacsc.org