I’m asking people to look around and see how they’re being asked to live their daily lives, what they’re being asked to do financially and with their time - which is sinking a lot of money and time into cars - and to see that as not necessarily a natural, or even economically sustainable thing. What I’m trying to do is provide a window into a new normal. And so arguments that shore that knowledge up make sense, and arguments that don’t support that kind of common-sense knowledge are seen as being not as valid. A lot of it, though, comes from the fact that over the past 70 years, and especially over the past 30 or 40 years, we’ve been investing – personally and as a society – so heavily in this system where you have to drive a car, that it makes sense to people that you have to drive a car. Part of what’s driving those misconceptions is that they’re reported as fact, in newspapers, by conservative think thanks and by public leaders. What do you think is driving those misconceptions?
And you make the case that a lot of those excuses aren’t so legitimate when you look at them more closely. You talk about things like safety, the convenience of having a car, and biking in inclement weather. Your book takes on a lot of misconceptions held by people who don’t bike. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
As for the people who insist, in the face of such evidence, that bike commuters are a scourge on humanity? Blue maintains they're just bitter from spending so much time stuck in traffic.īlue spoke with Salon about the bike movement's recent rise to prominence and the way in which old stereotypes no longer pass muster. Blue's new book, " Bikenomics," draws on a growing body of academic work, along with her own involvement with the country's bicycle movement, to make the economic case for bicycles. And the research is backing up their experiences.
Instead, she says, growing numbers of people are beginning to recognize the tangible benefits - to themselves and to their cities - of trading in cars for self-powered transportation. Increasingly, people are talking about bikes as a replacement for cars ( and even trucks), debating the best ways to design bike lanes and bike-friendly intersections, dreaming up futuristic bike paths and, above all else, taking to the streets on two wheels.īut bicycling's recent rise to the spotlight isn't just a passing fad, argues writer and bike activist Elly Blue. Last year saw New York City, Chicago, Salt Lake City and Columbus all get bike-share systems of their very own - joining Boston, London, Paris, Dublin, Moscow, Hangzhou, Montreal and many, many other cities throughout the world. It's hard to deny that bicycles are having a moment.
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