Thu 26 Mar 2009
Advocacy Clusterfuck
Posted by Jimmy under Advocacy
I attended a meeting of sorts yesterday evening and I always heard if you don’t have anything nice to say then you shouldn’t say anything at all, but you can’t always believe what you hear right?
So yeah, there’s a seemingly well intentioned group of people, some more bike minded than others, now meeting on a regular basis with the idea of raising awareness for bicycle versus car interaction… from what I can tell. While I wish them all the best, I guess it’s just not my scene. More over, I was really hoping this was going to be a more direct action kind of “organization” as we’ll call them and not the sort of people discussing what is or is not allowed in terms of local government policies.
Overall the meeting brought about a lot of discussion on how a small group of people felt everyone should ride their bikes and how “we” could best promote “our” knowledge. For instance, riding in flip flops was a big concern. Really? As well, the big debut sounds like what will be a ride happening on Louisville’s biggest gridlock day known as Thunder Over Louisville. A giant fireworks and beer festival kicking off two weeks of buildup for the Kentucky Derby. For a group promoting the idea that bicycles should follow the same road rules as cars, a group ride (Considerate Mass as it was referred to) in miles of backed up traffic doesn’t sound too productive. Like I said, best of luck to them.
For more info check out bikesaretraffic.org
5 Responses to “ Advocacy Clusterfuck ”
Comments:
Leave a Reply
Trackbacks & Pingbacks:
-
Pingback from Wha Sappening?! | Fuck Gas
April 24th, 2009 at 6:53 am[...] at BikesAreTraffic.org, he is not to be associated with the other Bikes Are Traffic people that I was so critical of. Ricky is a good guy and seems to have his head on straight… unlike those other [...]



March 27th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I didn’t bother inviting you to the Wiki I just created, but I will if you’d like. Ha ha.
Thanks for coming, and I couldn’t agree more with your post.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:45 am
I’ll pass, but thanks for the offer.
March 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Hey Jimmy,
I have not attended these meetings and have no idea what was discussed nor who is driving it. I respect your commitment and effort very much. I am interested in what you mean by a “more direct action kind of organization”. What kind of things do you have in mind, or would you like to see? More direct and aggressive Civil Disobedience? More emphasis on getting between the outside and the inside of 264? Pamphleting and education types of campaigns to try and get drivers (and riders) to behave with more patience and understanding? Pushing bike lanes and organized bike-commuter routes on the main ways in and out of the city and suburbs? A decent non-lethal transit to and from S. Indiana?
I was really struck at something you said previously when people where bypassing your message because you linked to a page that used the word “fuck”. You said “it’s amazing to me that people are so offended by the word but when a rider
gets mowed over and killed it just seems to come with the territory”. That’s a good point and I think it points to the angle you can help promote.
I am curious to hear your thoughts.
Regards,
Dale
March 29th, 2009 at 1:42 am
I’m a big fan of civil disobedience and gorilla marketing so to speak. I’m ready to break out the paint and start throwing down sharrows everywhere. I don’t even know if this would help, but it seems to be the most visible form of awareness around. While I would love to see Clark Memorial turned into 2 lanes of traffic with 6ft bike and pedestrian lanes on each side, that’s asking the state to step in and take something away from motorists,,, no chance.
One thing you mentioned that is another concern of mine is getting from one side of 264 to the other and I’m really up in the air on a solution. Not that any of mine matter in the first place right? Regardless, we should sit down and brainstorm with Michael on maybe a few others willing to take some action… what do you think?