Easy Rider: A Solution to the Commuter Crisis
Reid, Thomas R. III
EASY RIDER: A Solution to the Commuter Crisis Thomas R. Reid III I can get to work in the morning faster than you can. I can get to work cheaper than you can. I can park much closer to my...
...The plan emphasizes marking and identification of routes in order to bridge the visibility gap between bicycles and motorists...
...Along particularly busy roadways, the proposal suggests that special bike paths-paved areas, about six feet wide, running parallel to the road-be constructed...
...and bridges mean special hazards for bicycle commuters...
...The French historian Jules Roy argues in The Battle of Dienbienphu that the bicycle was instrumental in the outcome of that battle...
...Wherever possible, the proposed routes run along side streets rather than major trunk lines...
...Probably the most dramatic example of the importance of bicycle transport can be Seen in Vietnam...
...It wasn’t just the exasperation, though, that led me to stop driving...
...Bicycles are so common in Florida that the Coconut Grove National Bank has set up pedal-in teller windows at its branches...
...Is this some kind of put-on...
...The bike rider participates in the sights and sounds of the street in a way that no other commuter can...
...The city now has 36 regularly traveled bike routes...
...it aids the nerves by improving sleep and maintaining equanimity and sanity...
...Everybody knows that ferry boats were pronounced dead by the city planners eons ago...
...But as soon as spring appears, he can get out his bike and start arriving at work on time again...
...To date, nobody has taken the suggestion seriously...
...Following the 1965 municipal elections, the New York Post commented that Bill Buckley’s proposal for an elevated bikeway along Third Avenue may have been the most reasonable suggestion advanced in the entire cam-, paign...
...The secret to my success is a twowheeled, three-geared vehicle that I bought last year-complete with a galaxy of optional extSas-for $35...
...of mind and purity of air, has more bicycles than automobiles...
...One disadvantage is winter, which keeps coming back every year...
...One of the most ambitious and most successful bikeways runs through downtown Chicago...
...It is a good feeling to know that you can get somewhere under your own steam...
...Lyndon Johnson waxed almost poetic in a message to Congress: “I see an America where our air is sweet to breathe and our rivers are clean to swim in...
...Maybe some drivers and bus riders think it funny when they see me pedal to work, but when I consider the advantages my vehicle has over theirs, there isn’t much question about who is really laughing at whom...
...Old Duck-which was recently taken out of service and docked at a backwater in the Washington Navy Yard...
...The cities will not solve this problem until they reduce the number of cars coming downtown every day...
...Compare that to my annual commuting budget...
...Bicycles are not a panacea for the traffic problems, but, given the chance, they can help...
...The “track” ran from a residential neighborhood in Northwest Washington to the Mayor’s office in the heart of the central bus& ness district...
...In countries that are willing to take it seriously, the bicycle is making a significant contribution to transportation...
...The bicycle rider in American cities today has an identity crisis - nobody knows he’s there...
...Adding depreciation to annual operating expenses (one broken spoke, one flat tire, two headlight batteries, and one can of oil), the total cost for a commuter who bicycles 10 miles a day all year is around $5.50- about 1/100 of the cost of driving...
...The authors of the Smithsonian Plan have recommended that the District of Columbia put the OJd Duck back in service as a bicycle ferry...
...Not only do I get to work faster, easier, and happier than you do, I’m a better citizen about it, too...
...It is designed to serve shoppers, tourists, and schoolchildren, as well as thousands of commuters...
...And what a wonderful trip it could be...
...in this era of convenience the river ferry is as obsolete as-well, as the bicycle...
...It is clearly in the cities’ best interests to encourage bicycling...
...It aids the circulation and thereby the heart...
...The Same is true in much of Africa and Asia...
...On it, I am able to travel the four miles from home to my job downtownin the quickest, cheapest, easiest, and healthiest possible way...
...This problem is being alleviated in some large cities through large-scale publicity campaigns designed to sensitize drivers to the fact that there are bikes on the streets...
...I eliminated the engine...
...I can park much closer to my office than you can...
...In addition, the bike makes a direct assault on four problems that plague modern cities: 1) traffic, 2) noise, 3) parking space, and 4) air pollution...
...The most carefully planned and most instructive program for bicycle commuter routes is a proposal prepared earlier this year by three young staff members in the Division of American Studies of the Smithsonian Institution...
...The automobile companies have been somewhat successful in their own attempts to control pollution...
...It wasn’t even close...
...And I have more fun commuting than you do...
...The Smithsonian Plan was designed specifically for Washington, D .C . , but its approach and general strategy make it a good model for cities everywhere...
...The bike commuter may have to stay cooped up in his office all day just like everyone else, but he knows that morning and evening he can be outside for a while in the bright of spring or the crisp of autumn...
...the third man was waiting at a bus stop some three miles away...
...As is the case in most other cities, Chicago started its bikeway project strictly for recreation purposes, and then expanded it as shoppers and commuters began to use the routes, too...
...it probably aids our longevity...
...At the moment I arrived to win the race, the car was barely visible behind a long line of stopandgo traffic...
...Dr...
...Ferries were a victim of progress...
...The Smithsonian Plan calls for a radial system of routes bringing commuters from various sections and suburbs to a common axis-in this case, the Mall-running through the central business district of the city...
...That may seem incredible, but I have proved it...
...The irony here, of course, is that the onward thrust of “progress” has brought us to the point where the Old Duck is a quicker and more convenient form of transport than any of its vaunted successors...
...White cites the following specific benefits of bicycling: “In the first place, it is an aid to good muscle tone, much needed by the American people today...
...You can commute from Cambridge to downtown Boston on a bicycle path that runs along the Charles...
...These first routes can be expanded logically in definite steps into an extensive system serving all major residential areas...
...But by present automotive standards I was making good time...
...There is still nothing like a national plan for commuter bike routes...
...Switzerland, for example, which traditionally places a high value on peace Thomas R. Reid III is a free-lance writer with a particular interest in cities...
...The possibilities- for the city and commuter-are endless...
...No doubt the planners can prove conclusively on paper that the idea would never work...
...Nonetheless, cars and busses are the major cause of air pollution in urban areas...
...So I started taking a bus to work...
...When my parking-lot man told me one morning that he was raising his rate to $3.00 per day, I decided that there must be a better way...
...Hundreds of thousands more commute by bicycle in other European cities...
...EASY RIDER: A Solution to the Commuter Crisis Thomas R. Reid III I can get to work in the morning faster than you can...
...My bike never blocks traffic, and I don’t need vast acreages of space to park it...
...Bicycling is as good for the psyche as it is for the pocketbook...
...But it didn’t take me long to realize that public transit was not much better than fighting through the streets in my car...
...the notion that someone would seriously rely on a bike for transportation is considered rather silly...
...Instead of a honk, roar, and crash, the only sound I make is the gentle swish of pedals...
...But ask a commuterthe Old Duck would make sense to somebody who actually makes the trip twice a day...
...This summer I entered a commuter race in Washington, D.C...
...Besides, I have an assured seat...
...My expenses on the bike are harder to determine, but a reasonable estimate would place my total cost for the threeanda-half mile race somewhere between one and two cents...
...Then, one day about a year ago, I stopped thinking conventionally...
...The expanded system also includes bike routes leading downtown from pocket areas in the inner city, where few residents own cars and where bus and taxi service is practically nonexistent...
...it aids the lungs...
...Of course, bicycle commuting has its disadvantages, too...
...Paul Dudley White, advisor to Presidents and a leading heart specialist, says that “bicycles are the answer for both brain and body...
...Americans still see the bicycle as a toy...
...This ferry proposal represents all the best features of bicycle commuting in general-it is simple, inexpensive, and rather quaint, perhaps, but at the same time obviously feasible and emminently reasonable...
...With a little imagination, the city could make some money in the process...
...This is a public problem, and it will be up to governments to solve it...
...The Smithsonian planners have sidestepped this problem in a delightful way...
...The Smithsonian Plan takes extensive precautions for the bicyclists’ safety...
...I was still paying too much for a ride that took too long, even on those redletter days when the bus ran on schedule...
...An extensive system of bike routes leads through several city parks and along th ; lake shore...
...Although year-round riding is feasible in the deep South, it is just too cold for at least one or two months in most American cities...
...John Lindsay remains a strong advocate of bike routes in New York City...
...They have even found a ferry boat-the S.S...
...The Smithsonian Plan is modular...
...But as space to move and to park the automobile in downtown areas runs out, as clean air begins to have a price tag, with no readily available alternative in sight, the demands for recognition of “Pedal Power” become less and less funny...
...Thus, even without its time, money, and health benefits, bicycle commuting could still be the best thing that ever happened to the Metrecal-forlunch bunch...
...Harrison Salisbury reported in The New York Times that the North Vietnamese are using bicycle battalions to carry tons of supplies over routes that have become impassable for trucks...
...The economic advantage of commuting by bike can be seen even more clearly when calculated on an annual basis...
...It may be some solace for automotive buffs to know that the driver did finish first in one aspect of the race: he managed to spend more money than anybody else...
...The forgotten Americans of today are those who like to walk, hike, or ride bicycles...
...bicycle commuting, after all, holds just as many advantages for the community as a whole as it does for the individual commuter...
...The Smithsonian Plan combines three different types of bicycle paths into one integrated system...
...With bicycles, as with everything else, talk has been more plentiful than action...
...Standing on the bus each morning, looking out at the chaos on the streets, I concluded that none of the conventional forms of transportation could cope with the traffic problem...
...Where traffic is heavy and sidewalks are wide enough, bicyclists will travel on the sidewalk...
...This means that a commuter who has an easy half-hour ride to the office and back will use 1200 calories per day just getting to and from work...
...It would be easy to serve a continental breakfast on the trip across the river, and in the afternoon the ferry could become the club car of the cycling set...
...Politicians, mindful of the social advantages of bicycle commuting (and sensing that there must be a few voters among the country’s 57 million bicyclists and tricyclists) have been enthusiastic backers of the bike...
...By the time he had parked his car for the day, his total expenses were over $3.00 for the trip to work...
...They deserve to be explored not only in Washington but in every city that still puts a premium on such an outmoded commodity as pure pleasure...
...There are indirect benefits for the city in the decreased economic burden and improved health that result from commuting by bicycle...
...it aids our weight control...
...The initial “pilot” phase of the project, which is under consideration among city officials now, would provide routes from three residential areas- Capitol Hill, Georgetown, and Arlington, Virginiato the Mall...
...It may sound like a joke to motor-minded America, but in the rest of the world nobody is laughing...
...The bike rider also enjoys the particular satisfaction of being self-propelled, a rarity in this age of powerlessness...
...To ride a bike to the river bank, chug across the river on the faithful old ferry, pedal down the gangplank and on to the office-it’s the kind of thing you’d pay $2.50 to do at Disneyland, and you could do it every day, twice a day, in the heart of the city...
...I didn’t always have it so good...
...It doesn’t bother me, though...
...Consequently, motorists will pull out of a driveway, switch lanes, swing U-turns, and back up without even noticing that a bicycle is in the way...
...They propose that a special ferry service be established to bring bicyclists across the Potomac to and from the Virginia suburbs...
...Where bikes must share the road with heavy automobile traffic, the streets will be clearly identified and motorists will be reminded to watch out for cyclists...
...Nonetheless, the United States has displayed a curious isolationism toward the bicycle: we have refused to learn from the example of other countries...
...In Amsterdama national capital with roughly the Same population and climatic conditions as Washington, D.C.--150,000 people ride bikes to work every day...
...It is time for commuters and communities to give bikes a chance...
...I see an America where [there are] bicycle paths running through the hearts of our great cities...
...A word on weight control: even a leisurely bike rider burns up 100 to 120 calories per mile...
...Doctors agree that commuting by bicycle is good for the body as well as the soul...
...While this may be more of a reflection on New York City than it is on the bicycle, it is indicative of the fawning attention that candidates tend to pay to bicyclists...
...Internal Revenue Service formulas for depreciation and operating expensesassuming a fee for hard-to-find parking of only $1.00 per day-suggest that a commuter who drives five miles to work and back each day spends over $500 in a year of commuting...
...On the local level, however, much has been done, and there are in fact ”bikeways”specially designated, clearly marked routes-running through the hearts of many of “our great cities...
...The most serious problem facing the bicycle commuter is the hazard of venturing into traffic on a bike...
...From a residence within five miles of the city center, bicycling is the fastest way to get downtown in rush hour...
...In short, the Old Duck would be an opportunity to put some fun into the workaday grind...
...It can be started on a relatively modest scale and augmented in phases...
...I go to work on a bicycle...
...If more of us rode them, we would have a sharp reduction in the use of tranquilizers and sleeping pills...
...By extrapolation from the same Internal Revenue Service figures, the depreciation rate for a bicycle comes to $.0016 per mile...
...Depending on whose estimate is used, harmful emissions have been reduced 50 to 80 per cent in the past few years...
...Most important, my bike does not pollute the air...
...For years I used to go out every morning, charge up my 350-horsepower, four-onthefloor Detroit dynamo, and crawl through traffic to my office at 15 miles per hour...
...Consider the time it takes to get to work...
...On the national level, Stewart Udal1 has been a strong supporter of bicycling as the only way to offset “the tyranny of the automobile...
...The only real problem, of course, is that the commuter has to arrange an alternate way to get to work during the winter months...
...And Chicago isn’t all...
...While the automobile industry works to eliminate defects in the internal combustion engine, I’ve gone one step further...
...I raced against one commuter who drove his car, and another who rode the bus...
...In the light of our collective motormania, the idea of giving the bicycle serious thought may be hard to accept...
...Cities all over Florida have responded to the possibilities of bike commuting...
...I found that pace exasperating...
...Miami is the hub of an extensive system of bicycle routes connecting the central city with outlying suburbs...
...Milwaukee has 64 miles of marked bikeways...
...In fact, bicycles have traditionally been one of the few points of agreement among New York mayoral candidates...
...I started commuting by bicycle...
...Washington is a city on a river: the river means bridges...
...it aids our digestion and it may even protect against peptic ulcers...
...City planners who are racking their brains to find simple, feasible, and reasonable solutions to their traffic problems might do well to study the Smithsonian Plan and to consider the bicycle...
...Commuting by bicycle...
...The bus rider spent $.30 each way for his trip...
...As cities take steps to improve the lot of the bicyclist, experience indicates that the number of bicyclists will increase...
...In other places, the bicycle will share the street with automobile traffic...
...In a recent study of central Manhattan, rush-hour traffic was clocked at an average speed of three miles per hour...
...For them we must have trails as well as highways...
Vol. 1 • November 1969 • No. 10
