PfB was a sham as soon as Trek launched it as Bikes Belong. It's true orientation was laid bare by it's very name, never Bicyclists Belong, but Bikes. I simple address it as People for Inanimate Objects.
And last year California's one and only greatest Badvocate, Dave Synder, brought his incomparable fear mongering voice to the chorus of pleaders at the Federal well. Denouncing his one actual contribution to safe cycling, Sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane policies, he revealed his character
2.)... revealed his character with an immediate denouncement of Sharrows upon his hiring. Now he's all Segregated Bike Lanes or Nothing!.
But here's the real irony: They're not People for Bikes at all. They are now-- without admitting it-- Scammers for Electric Two Wheeled Devices.
You see, despite 40 years of "advocacy" at all levels from local to DC, "bicycle advocacy" has totally, completely, utterly FAILED. Ridership of pedal bicycles has declined steadily as the America's population has increased; the percentage of Americans willing to ride bicycles has gone down for the reason that I and other earnest by naive advocates only now acknowledge.
Americans do not want to pedal bicycles, not in any significant numbers. Oh, there always was and will continue to be a single digit percentage of Americans who do ride, for all the good reasons we're familiar with. But that number has decreased as a percentage of the population.
But take away that nasty Exercise component, and Americans LOVE their E-machines. Especially the ones People for Bikes calls Out Of Category Electric Vehicles, OCEVs. Because generally bike shops sell bikes of the Class 1, 2, and 3 ilk, restricted to 20 and 28MPH. But as soon as those took off about 6 years ago, the Chinese made high powered, essentially un-pedalable, mini-motorcycles available to any ya-hoo with a check book. And those fine upstanding entrepreneurs will sell them online, out of garages, delivered in a van, however they can-- basically out hustling bike shops whose members sit on PFB's board. And they're joined by the execs and owners of approved, compliant Ebike brands.
The demise of traditional pedal cycling is sad enough, but will now be hastened by a flood of ignorant, out of control 'Muricans on heavy, 30+mph machines on all manner of bicycle "facility." But even that's not enough for today's Badvocates who push California's proposal to mandate bikes-- including e-machines-- on Sidewalks! Not content to ruin bicycling, the Badvocates want to ruin walking, too.
Great article -- it's amazing how you can really piece together trends in the ideologies and the people attached to them. Those you've pointed to in this article seem to fit the typical Manifest Destroyers (what I'm now calling those part of Manifest Destiny) that I'm typically writing about. The grift is real and goes hand in hand with some of these disconnected, narcissistic identities ...
PfB was a sham as soon as Trek launched it as Bikes Belong. It's true orientation was laid bare by it's very name, never Bicyclists Belong, but Bikes. I simple address it as People for Inanimate Objects.
And last year California's one and only greatest Badvocate, Dave Synder, brought his incomparable fear mongering voice to the chorus of pleaders at the Federal well. Denouncing his one actual contribution to safe cycling, Sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane policies, he revealed his character
Thank you for your investigative journalism, Green Leap Forward. Sadly, no surprises.
Please see below.
2.)... revealed his character with an immediate denouncement of Sharrows upon his hiring. Now he's all Segregated Bike Lanes or Nothing!.
But here's the real irony: They're not People for Bikes at all. They are now-- without admitting it-- Scammers for Electric Two Wheeled Devices.
You see, despite 40 years of "advocacy" at all levels from local to DC, "bicycle advocacy" has totally, completely, utterly FAILED. Ridership of pedal bicycles has declined steadily as the America's population has increased; the percentage of Americans willing to ride bicycles has gone down for the reason that I and other earnest by naive advocates only now acknowledge.
Americans do not want to pedal bicycles, not in any significant numbers. Oh, there always was and will continue to be a single digit percentage of Americans who do ride, for all the good reasons we're familiar with. But that number has decreased as a percentage of the population.
But take away that nasty Exercise component, and Americans LOVE their E-machines. Especially the ones People for Bikes calls Out Of Category Electric Vehicles, OCEVs. Because generally bike shops sell bikes of the Class 1, 2, and 3 ilk, restricted to 20 and 28MPH. But as soon as those took off about 6 years ago, the Chinese made high powered, essentially un-pedalable, mini-motorcycles available to any ya-hoo with a check book. And those fine upstanding entrepreneurs will sell them online, out of garages, delivered in a van, however they can-- basically out hustling bike shops whose members sit on PFB's board. And they're joined by the execs and owners of approved, compliant Ebike brands.
The demise of traditional pedal cycling is sad enough, but will now be hastened by a flood of ignorant, out of control 'Muricans on heavy, 30+mph machines on all manner of bicycle "facility." But even that's not enough for today's Badvocates who push California's proposal to mandate bikes-- including e-machines-- on Sidewalks! Not content to ruin bicycling, the Badvocates want to ruin walking, too.
Great article -- it's amazing how you can really piece together trends in the ideologies and the people attached to them. Those you've pointed to in this article seem to fit the typical Manifest Destroyers (what I'm now calling those part of Manifest Destiny) that I'm typically writing about. The grift is real and goes hand in hand with some of these disconnected, narcissistic identities ...