New local leaders and biking

There are many tidbits about the newly installed governments in the area and how they will support cycling.

Prince William County "supports additional state and regional transportation funding for highways, transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvements." Loudoun County similarly "is also appealing for additional state and regional transportation funding for highway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvements." Hardly ringing endorsements but it's better than being left out. And while I've lost the links, Arlington reaffirmed it's desire to encourage cycling and expand CaBi.

But the real story is in DC, where bike lane-loving Adrian Fenty lost to dog park-hating Vince Gray (or so we've been told). Fenty was commended by the Post for adding 25 miles of bike lane, among other things, but now it is Gray's turn and figuring out what will happen on his watch is going to be hard to discern. 

On the one hand he made a point in his inauguration speech to mention biking.

Whether we get around by car, bus, train, foot or bike...This is one city -- our city.

But on the other, Marc Fisher wrote

The idea that bike lanes and streetcars could be a racial issue would seem farfetched in most cities, but in Washington, that's exactly what has happened, and Gray, when I was with him during the campaign, straight out told people that the Fenty folks had gone way too far with dog parks, bike lanes and streetcars--which have become symbols of the growing white presence in the city to some black residents.

for those who believe that a city should be frozen in amber, those initiatives can seem like symbols of an alien invasion--especially, and here is where the Fenty administration failed most grandly, when bike lanes, dog parks and the like are added even as services to the needy are cut or frozen.

And the whole hullabaloo (are bike lanes and dog parks to be forever tied together in the public consciousness the way that shock and awe are?) led the Post to somewhat incorrectly write

The city's fiscal challenges and changing demographics regularly pit issues such as adding bike lanes and dog parks against providing day care, homeless shelters and job training for the needy.

I say somewhat because bike lane funding gets a lot of money from federal transportation sources and can't be spent on those other things (even though that is how it's perceived). This solicited a response from John Glad

This is a false opposition: Bike lanes involve a relatively small expense. We cyclists are waiting eagerly to see whether Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) will provide safe, dedicated bike lanes, and we firmly intend to vote accordingly.

The key word here is “dedicated”; painted strips on the pavement are pitiful, even dangerous, tokenism. To be effective, bike lanes have to be placed between the curb and parked cars, not between the parked cars and traffic, and they have to be physically staked off to prevent them from being ignored by drivers and regarded even by the city’s small army of parking enforcers as short-term parking.

Protected bike lanes are taken for granted in such European cities as Amsterdam and Munich. The dedicated bike lanes on 15th Street are the right approach, but what good are just a few blocks? Former mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), a cyclist himself, talked a good game, but he never attempted to deliver what drivers take for granted — an all-encompassing network.

As for the suburban commuters who in their road rage deafen us with their horns and shrieking brakes, clog our streets, pollute our air and regularly kill us, they vote elsewhere.

We cyclists represent a significant, activist constituency, so ignore us at your own peril.

I disagree with Mr. Glad on the utility of regular bike lanes; that Fenty's riding in triathlons is at all relevant (he also walks and drives); and that suburban commuters are all so awful or need to be ignored. But, I agree that Gray should continue the policies for increased bike mobility that Fenty and Williams have followed over the last 12 years.

At the District council level there is a lot of good news. Tommy Wells, one of the region's biggest supporters of cycling - and a bike commuter himself - was awarded oversight over the Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Graham was good for cyclists, but Wells might be even better. Equally good is that he hired Jonathon Kass to serve as the staff director for the committee. Mr. Kass is one of the few non-DDOT District employees who regularly attends the Bicycle Advisory Committee meetings, and he's played a key role in several laws and initiatives (such as the recently passed Bicycle Parking Amendment Act) over the last few years. He previously served as the Deputy Legislative Director for the committee. And Phil Mendelson will be holding a hearing on bike and pedestrian safey soon.

At the ANC level, the news is not as good.

"We expect to see some improvement east of the river," said Mary Cuthbert, a Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commission member from Congress Heights. "We want to see it be the same like everywhere else they built up.

"And we don't need no bicycle lanes," Cuthbert said.

Tell that to David Williams.

Here's hoping they all (even Mary Cuthbert) live up to Roger K. Lewis' resolution: "All city and suburban streets should safely work for cyclists, pedestrians, motorists and, in places, streetcars."

Comments

[washcycle]

I love it when I'm first to comment on my own post. Since writing this I've been kind of annoyed that the MSM has not dug a little into this meme. Never have I seen anyone try to quantify how much money was spent on bike lanes and dog parks. Never have they discussed where the money comes from. No polling on the popularity of these items has ever been done. They just keep repeating that Fenty lost because of bike lanes and dog parts. Sigh.

[oboe]

This whole "Fenty love Bike Lanes and White Folks; Gray Hates Bike Lanes and White Folks" meme is starting to look more and more ridiculous.

Was there a certain element of race-baiting and class warfare in Gray's *campaign*? Of course. That's how he (at least his proxies) distinguished himself from Fenty.

But the reason Fenty and Williams pursued these policies is that they're the right policies--and the one's that should lead to reelection.

Fenty didn't lose the 2010 primary because he promoted bike lanes--he lost because he blew off the election year "retail politics" that make this town run.

It's pretty obvious the city is going to pursue largely the same policies that we have in the past, because those are really the only viable policies to pursue. There may be a minor backlash from east of the river, but the city is a majority middle-class city now, and growing more so every day.

The backlash Gray would see from backsliding would make Fenty's loss look like a landslide victory.

[oboe]

They just keep repeating that Fenty lost because of bike lanes and dog parts. Sigh.

Why should the Metro desk escape the studied cluelessness that informs the rest of the Post's reporting? Can't wait for the stories that run in the coming few years focusing on how Gray shocked expectations by governing in the same vein as Fenty/Williams.

Of course, his legion of informed middle-class supporters from around the city could have told you that was going to happen. I'm sure the Post's suburban subscribers will be amazed and astounded, though.

[oboe]

And by "around the city" of course I mean "in the suburbs."

[TurbineBlade]

I'd argue that Fenty lost because of his perceived arrogance and complete lack of social skills with everyday people - not his policies or accomplishments.

It's a strange thing when someone gets elected by simply running as "not the other guy".

[washcycle]

I'll say it again. Running for office is an inherently arrogant act. If you remain humble while simultaneously claiming you're the most qualified person in the city to make the big decisions, there is probably some hypocrisy there. Fenty got busted for being too honest. "I should make these decisions and you should not" doesn't sell well, even if it is what running for office means.

[JeffB]

I thought I did see a reference (maybe GGW?) referring to an article that found that the Fenty Administration had spent just about equally across all the wards in the city.

True - some got bike lanes. But other wards got other things.

[JeffB]

Here it is: This was posted in the comments section of a recent GGW post. It's a bit of dialog from Marc Fisher's blog referring to a Post study on how equitably Fenty distributed largess.

===== SNIP ==============
While we're on random subjects, I came across this Marc Fisher Q&A in Metro this morning:
BIKE LNES, ETC.
Like you, I hope Mayor Gray can serve to bring together different parts of the city. However, as a bike rider who frequents some of the new, upscale restaurants Mayor Fenty was responsible for bringing to D.C., I would like to point out that our tax money is essential for paying for much of what Mayor Gray hopes to accomplish. Run us out of the city and its problems will increase, not diminish.

– January 03, 2011 10:58 AM Permalink
A.
MARC FISHER :
Well, sure, that relatively tiny bunch of D.C. residents who pay the vast majority of the taxes in the city may feel that they deserve some extra attention from the District government, but the people at the low end of the income scale feel that they have been spurned and neglected over the past 12 years and that they should be given a larger share of city resources.

The Post's Nikita Stewart did a fascinating and revealing piece last fall looking at the perception in virtually every neighborhood in the city that their Ward and their community was getting the short end of the stick. She did the numbers and found that the Fenty admin was pumping out spending to every ward in remarkably equal numbers. But the Fenty team did a miserable job of getting that message across, and so, most of the city continues to believe that it was shorted during his term. That's where the marketing aspect of any mayoralty becomes essential--you have to not only deliver the goods but hammer home to people that you've done so.

(http://live.washingtonpost.com/outlook:-.html)

[Mark Plotz]

Suburban car commuters are awful and they do need to be ignored. The contest between livability and drive-ability is a zero sum game. And by 'livability' I am referring to my desire to cross 16th Street NW, at an uncontrolled intersection, and living to tell the tale.

WashCycle: I agree with you that the desire to enter politics can always be traced back to a congenital defect in a person.

[guez]

With respect, this is about a lot more than DC.

I'm all for bike lanes, but the price of making DC a shining city on a hill has been a process of gentrification that has driven long-term residents out of the city. Bike lanes are not at fault, per se, but we can't put on transportation wonk blinders and not realize what has happened. Surely bike lanes and good transit for the people who have left DC and gone to places like PG County are as important as the political wrangling between Gray and his young, urban professional constituents in NW.

[SJE]

Guez: The city is changing for all sorts of ways, and people move as a result.

I question the assumption that the highest public good is achieved by keeping people where they are. The lack of geographic mobility is not only a result of poverty,but a cause of poverty, as it inhibits people from moving to where their skills would be better employed.

[Jim Titus]

But I can't argue with Guez when he says

Surely bike lanes and good transit for the people who have left DC and gone to places like PG County are as important as the political wrangling between Gray and his young, urban professional constituents in NW.

WABA and others are trying to awake that slumbering giant. Hopefully there will be some tangible sign soon.

[satan]

you dont kjnow what a meme is. read *the Electric meme.*

marc fisher is an ass:

"The idea that bike lanes and streetcars could be a racial issue would seem farfetched..."

hisarrogance is on spectacular display...let me guess: he thinks bicycles are just transporation instrucments, not instrucments of social justice...and that language just represents the world as an empty medium of communication.
marc fisher is definitely an arrogant, banal ass.

[washcycle]

"A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena."