Bike Month and some questions

So, for those of you who are unaware, May is BIKE month. That's a whole fun month for those of us who derive spiritual bliss from those two wheeled human powered vehicles. Of course during May, and the other 11 months of year we still get to dodge traffic, put up with poorly maintained roads and the occasional moron who has confused his privilege of driving a car with a right to run everyone else off the road.

When oil prices where up to $140/barrel last year many of us in the cycling world (especially the cycle commuter set) were pretty sure that for some parts of the US northern European style cycling was just around the corner. But with the drop in oil removing the incentive for people to reconsider their driving habits (and the fact that buying a bike does not seem like a good move in a recession) one might wonder where exactly we are headed. But all of the upsides remain. More bikes=fewer cars. Fewer cars=less oil purchased from non-democratic regimes, fewer greenhouse gases and of course healthier people (which also saves a lot of money).

As many before me have noted, most of America is set up to make driving the easiest option. Big parking lots, freeways, suburbs, even office parks are all a byproduct of how people move from place to place. There have been a few stabs in the other direction. The newer bridges here in the Bay Area have bike lanes (including the new Bay bridge- whenever its finished), many cities have designated bike lanes and bike streets. All that is great, but it does not seem to be making a dent in the amount of traffic headed down I-80 each morning. So, short of uprooting 50+ years of infrastructure what can we do to effect this change? We could jack up taxes on cars or oil (a carbon tax?) but that might be a tough sell in the middle of a huge recession.

How about providing more tax incentives to cycle commuters? Perhaps a depreciation schedule for bicycles used for commuting. How about a tax incentive to live within 10 miles of your job? That alone might not only encourage smaller commutes (and more cyclists) but also help to stabilize communities in cities that are otherwise suffering from brain-drain and capital flight.

Imagine if on your tax form you had a chance to take a credit based on your distance from work? This would not be a tax on your commute, but a credit for not having one. I am sure there is someone out there who could do the math and tell me if this is practical.

Where I get quoted in a real newspaper

I was pulled up to the Costco gas pumps the other day, just filling up the tank on the family car and this woman strides up to me and says, "I see you're a biker, can I ask you some questions". Now, normally there is not a lot of chatting at Costco gas. You pull up, do your thing and move on- more like the men's room than a coffee house. But I had been stopped just the week before by a fellow who wanted to ask me about the bike rack I had (its a hitch rack) so I was less startled than I would be normally.

It turns out she had no interest in my bike rack, rather she is a reporter for the Contra Costa Time and she wanted to ask me for my thoughts on the current state of gas prices. I always feel torn in those moments, because I know that people are not looking for a full blown lecture on the impact of the recession on commodity prices, or why we should as a society be using this moment to retool in ways that make us less dependent on fossil fuels while the costs associated with that change are lower. So, I struggle to create some concise and meaningful comments that would fit into a small piece in the paper.

I must have succeeded because a quick Google News search a few day later kicked up this:

Bay Area gas prices edge down

The quote:

"If we're smart, we'll figure out ways to use less of it (gas) while the price is cheap so we're using less of it when the economy gets running again," said Gordon Gladstone of Berkeley, who said he has been getting around by bicycle more often. "The price of gas went down because people are driving less often, but at some point that will turn around and the piper will have to be paid."

Now, if I could get booked on a cable news show...