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Articles : CorporationsChallenging the Auto-Dependent Lifestyle
Here’s a sentence you don’t expect to read on the CNN website: “As gas prices climb to record highs, more Americans seem to be abandoning their cars and biking to work to save money at the pump.” Thus, in the same way Mad Cow fears spurred new interest in vegetarianism, the current gas crisis may inadvertently deliver something else the planet really needs: less cars, more bikes. But bikers beware: this is an uphill battle.
Ken Coughlin, a board member of Transportation Alternatives (TA), a 5500-member NYC-area non-profit citizens group working for “better bicycling, walking and public transit, and fewer cars,” says: “New York’s streets and most streets elsewhere in the country are ruled by the automobile, and bikes are at best an afterthought. Everyone knows this-drivers, cyclists, pedestrians.”
Indeed, the automobile and the lifestyle it inspires have risen to prominence through the power of relentless suggestion. There’s nothing delicate about car commercials and car toys and the hundreds of songs and movies that venerate the irrefutable gratification of owning an internal combustion engine of your very own. It doesn’t even register when a movie character hops into a car and screeches away from the curb. We no longer consciously acknowledge the presence of cars on the street, the highway, and in driveways from coast-to-coast…not to mention the de-funded public transportation and the carchitecture: the myriad structures that exist exclusively to nourish the car culture, e.g. the highway, on-ramp, off-ramp, gas station, strip mall, car wash, auto repair shop, car rental establishment, bridges, tunnels, and, of course, the suburbs.
Coughlin and TA are part of a growing movement that is challenging the auto-dependant lifestyle. One example is their high profile effort to create a “car-free Central Park,” which has mobilized a broad coalition in the Big Apple. Coughlin calls that campaign, “the most perfect symbol of our society’s totally skewed transportation policies.”
Recently, I asked Ken a few questions via e-mail. (His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Transportation Alternatives.)
“Mickey Z:* In light of rising gas costs, one might imagine motorists reconsidering their driving habits. Do you see any indication that the price of oil could result in more people riding bikes?
Ken Coughlin: The New York Times had a front-page article the other day about lower-income people in Florida suddenly unable to afford to drive. Some had switched to mass transit, such as it is down there, and at least one is now riding a bike. It’ll be the young and the poor switching first, but glimmerings of a shift toward biking in the overall zeitgeist can be detected all over. This week’s New Yorker includes a “Goings on About Town” item on Bike Month NYC that declares that “[w]ith gas prices hitting eye-popping highs, [the numbers of cyclists]might rise even more . . . “ But here in NYC, you won’t be able to say that bicycling has been officially embraced as an alternative until the city stops arresting or ticketing people for the “crime” of riding a bike, which is happening now.
MZ: It’s illegal to ride a bike in NYC? Says who?
KC: The NYPD. They will arrest or ticket you if you happen to be caught riding in a group on one particular Friday evening each month, and on any other day they often hand out nuisance tickets to cyclists for small things like not having a bell or a headlight. Or they will wait for a cyclist to run a series of lights and then write separate tickets for each light, with the total adding up to $500 or more. The cops will claim they are doing this for the cyclist’s own good, but this happened recently to a cyclist who went through reds on Riverside Drive, which has no crossing traffic. It has the result of discouraging cycling as an alternative form of transportation. On the other hand, when was the last time you saw a cop pulling a cyclist over for doing something truly dangerous like speeding down a sidewalk or riding against traffic on a one-way street? My impression is that commuting cyclists are bearing the brunt of the public’s anger against delivery people.
MZ: What steps have activists and groups like TA taken to fight such unfair treatment?
KC: TA repeatedly calls on the NYPD and the administration to stop nuisance ticketing and to focus on real threats to safety like motorists speeding, running red-lights, and other dangerous, law-breaking behavior. At the same time, we can’t defend the actions of cyclists who flagrantly violate laws and intimidate pedestrians; they harm the cycling movement as much as anyone.
MZ: Such important efforts may sound Quixotic to some, but I understand there’s a victory brewing on the “Car-Free Central Park” front. Can you tell us more?
KC: City Council members Gale Brewer and John Liu have introduced a bill, Intro. 276, mandating a car-free summer in Central Park from June 24 to September 24, 2006, as well as car-free afternoons in Prospect Park during the same period. On May 8, the day before the Council Transportation Committee’s scheduled hearing on the bill, Mayor Bloomberg announced a six-month pilot plan to ban traffic from portions of Central Park’s loop road that are already little used by cars. As of Monday June 5, 2006, vehicles will no longer be allowed on Central Park’s East Drive north of 72nd Street in the morning or anywhere (apparently) on the West Drive in the afternoon. (In addition, Prospect Park’s West Drive will be closed to traffic in the mornings.)
MZ: Why do you think would Bloomberg propose this now?
KC: It was clearly an effort to drain support from the Council bill by giving car-free supporters something while maintaining the loop road as a traffic artery. Whether this strategy will succeed remains to be seen. While any reduction in car usage is welcome, most of the loop road will continue to be flooded with cars during prime recreational hours. Worse, recreational users who may believe they are exercising in a totally car-free park will suddenly encounter traffic, perhaps with disastrous consequences. The administration is now boasting that the loop road is free of traffic “75 percent of the time.” We don’t know how they arrived at this figure. Between prime recreational hours of 7 am and 7 pm, the loop road is entirely free of traffic exactly 0 percent of the time. Considering that the park is officially closed from 1 am until 6 am, even under the new rules the loop will be entirely free of traffic for only seven hours — from 7 pm to 1 am and from 6 am to 7 am (assuming the entrances are opened and closed on time).
MZ: How did Bloomberg’s strategy impact the Council?
KC: The Council hearing went forward as planned the following day. The Transportation Committee, chaired by Liu, first heard from Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall. Although Weinshall had stood alongside the mayor the day before and said that “people come to New York City’s parks to get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life,” at the hearing she declared that Central Park’s loop road was an “essential traffic artery” and that its closing would cause “significant” disruption. Pressed by Council member Daniel Garodnick for a definition of “significant,” Weinshall and First Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia offered only more vague portents of traffic tie-ups.
MZ: On the surface, it seems safe to assume that closing the park off to cars would increase traffic elsewhere. How was this assumption challenged?
KC: Weinshall and Primeggia were followed by a panel of three independent traffic experts who believe that closing the Central Park loop road to traffic will lead to an overall reduction in traffic on city streets. Under questioning from Garodnick, consultant Bruce Schaller said that “shrinkage”-the percentage of cars now using the park that would effectively disappear from the street grid if Central Park were closed-could reach 100 percent. Schaller said that the Department of Transportation’s assumption of 15 percent shrinkage was too pessimistic. Other witnesses speaking in favor of the bill included Columbia University professor Patrick L. Kinney, an expert on the human health effects of air pollution. Noting that fine particles from car exhaust can lodge deep in the lungs and cause lung cancer, heart disease and asthma, Kinney said, “moving traffic off of the park loop roads will significantly reduce health risks for people using the park, especially those exercising along the loop roads.”
MZ: I appreciate the health benefits but I still don’t understand how the “shrinkage” works.
KC: People make the mistake of viewing traffic as some unvarying physical force that, like water, must find somewhere to go. To the contrary, it is the product of thousands of individual decisions by thousands of drivers and passengers. Studies of road closings around the world have shown that much of the traffic that formerly used the closed road miraculously disappears, and that a higher percentage of traffic vanishes when alternative transportation options are plentiful. How can traffic “disappear”? It’s simple: drivers elect to use an alternative mode of transportation, to drive at a different time or on a significantly different route, or to share a vehicle with someone else.
The reality that traffic is elastic gives us hope that something can be done about our currently nightmarish traffic. Otherwise, there is no hope. Given their current mindset that meaningful shrinkage is impossible, all that the traffic engineers at the New York City Department of Transportation can offer us is more of the same. Until they embrace the idea that people can be coaxed from their cars, and that it’s good public policy to do this, very little real change will take place on our streets. Cars will dominate, some 150 to 200 pedestrians and cyclists will die each year, thousands of New Yorkers will succumb to premature deaths because of pollution, and our overall quality of life will continue to be degraded in subtle but profound ways.
MZ: So what was the outcome of the hearing?
KC: The committee’s stance on the bill was hard to read. We know that Liu and Brewer are 100 percent behind Intro. 276. At a press conference prior to the hearing, both spoke strongly in favor of it, as did Brooklyn Council member Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, whose latest newsletter to Manhattan residents twice mentions his support of a car-free Central Park. We believe Intro. 276 also has the support of East Side Council members Garodnick, Jessica Lappin and Melissa Mark Viverito. The big question mark is Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who may hold the key to not only the bill’s passage but its passing with enough votes to overcome an almost certain mayoral veto. Quinn has not yet made her position known. It is likely that the Transportation Committee will vote on Intro. 276 in late May, and, assuming it passes, a full Council vote will come shortly thereafter.
MZ: To wrap up, I have to ask this: What’s your response to those who say things will never change because the automobile is too entrenched in our society? How do you reach someone who believes we can’t live without our cars?
KC: A society so reliant on cars is already being revealed as destructive to the planet, and it will soon become completely unsustainable. Our auto-centric lifestyle of the past century has been fueled by cheap and reliable sources of oil. When those sources start to dry up, many are going to have to figure out other ways to live, and the dislocations could be profound and painful. And even if by some miracle the equivalent of another Saudi oil field is suddenly discovered, we’ll still have to dramatically cut back on car use to halt the progression of global warming. So history is moving in our direction.
To contact Ken Coughlin: kencoughlin (at) hotmail.com
Transportation Alternatives’ Car-Free Central Park Campaign
Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most recently 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed to Know (Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at www.mickeyz.net.
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Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
. The cops will claim they are doing this for the cyclist’s own good, but this happened recently to a cyclist who went through reds on Riverside Drive, which has no crossing traffic.
Dude, cops are such douchebags when it comes to riding a bike.
I live about 10-12 miles from work, but if I felt there was a sufficient or safe network of sidewalks and or bike paths to get there I would probably do it in warm weather but the autoconomy has denied us these networks. They are actually beginning to put these things in more and more, but it needs to be a higher priority as peak oil draws near.
I live about 25 miles from my work and public transport is so unreliable I take the car (there’s no way I could cycle it). But also travelling with me is my fiancee for getting her to her work. We’ve also decided we’re going to trade our car in for a less harmful(!) one. Can’t decide whether that should be a 1.4 or a 1.9 diesel.
i have a bike, but never ride it here in NYC
it’s too dangerous – at some point someone is going to open a car door and you’re going to go over your handlebars
i have a friend who had his jugular vein cut by a car door and only lived because a trained emt happened to be walking by
the other problem is, in nyc during the summer it’s just too hot to ride a bike to a business meeting, you arrive a sweaty mess
ummmmmmmm
Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
dependent (adj., n.), dependant (n.)
The adjective is always spelled dependent and means “hanging from, contingent on, relying on or supported by, or addicted to”: The necklace has a large diamond with several smaller ones dependent from its setting. I am wholly dependent on my father’s monthly check. He is said to be drug-dependent. In American English the noun is nearly always spelled dependent too, as in He declared three dependents on his tax form, although occasionally you will see the noun spelled the British way, dependant.
“the other problem is, in nyc during the summer it’s just too hot to ride a bike to a business meeting, you arrive a sweaty mess”
that’s the main problem that I have with it.
If I rode my bike to work everyday, it’s only a few miles, but I’d need to actually change clothes (and take a shower) when I get there.
I don’t know how people have the cojones to bike in NYC. I am not a cojones bike rider. I’ve switched my hours to avoid rush hour traffic and mapped out routes down back streets – I also cut through parks (although I never ride on sidewalks (unless it’s to cross one — or cut a corner (but I will go across lawns)) – it’s good to know that cyclists in NYC go through lights. I’ve always felt a little funny about doing that – especially when I see SUVs trying to follow suit…. even when there’s oncoming traffic or pedestrians in the crosswalk.
I’ve never had a problem with cops. NYC may be the ultimate extreme case. It doesn’t seem to me that the growing body of cyclists in my town are coming from carchitecture. It seems to me that they would be walking or taking public transportation but have decided to create a presence on the road as a political gesture – which is essentially why I decided to do it.
I’d have to say that if I had to change my clothes when I got to work I would be a lot less motivated.
I ditched my car in 2001 and bike around everywhere now.
I live in S.F., but used to live in L.A. and can’t imagine how biking would help me there.
Here in the Bay Area we have decent public transport. (if the bike doesn’t cut it)
I think it’s promising even to approach the subject.
Also, showing up to work a sweaty mess, soaked from rain or looking like you just got out of the gym is a downer so I understand those peoples complaints.
I guess it’s like this, If we try to alternate other less oil dependant forms of transportation, the transition will be less disconcerting. Mix it up.
heh.. why’s that? I used to do that all the time – the one office I’ve worked at actually had showers and a locker room installed to encourage people to bike/walk/run/skate/ski to work.
we have had some nuisance ticketting issues in Portland recently. it is a nasty issue cause in most cases the cyclists want to be as respected as cars, but when they break the rules, they cite the obvious silliness of the laws and what they mean. After all, there are times, even in a car when i run a red light cause i have made the decision as a liscensed driver that it is 2am and noone is lurking with their lights off ready to attack my illegal maneuver. I have also been ticketted for such activity. Cops are power hungry, it is the courts which must decide in aggregate, as cops will always be assholes.
The issue of some concern amongst us bikers here in portland is almost a non-issue, but it has been gaining some political ground. It is the issue of insurance. There are many drivers who feel that bikes should be made to be insured just like cars. They are dangerous to people around them, and to cars. Although laughable in the US of today, if bikes catch on even close to what they are, say in Vietnam, then this idea will definately be one which can potentially generate LOTS of money… so keep an eye out for that.
The clothes issue is one that you simply have to deal with. I have definately left early so that i might change in the office bathroom, and i dont ride “balls out” so that i am not a ball of sweat when i arrive at work, you dont have to ride like the wind all the time, sometimes just a cruise only loses 4 minutes from the “balls out” cycle-a-thon that you get to have on the way home. Biking also is a sport that gets easier as you do it more and more, so while you might be a sweaty mess for a month, you will acheive a point at which you sail into work’s parking lot with a smile, still smell good, and are beating your previous times when you did show up a complete out of breath mess.
Trust me, biking is a great thing. Good for body and soul, as well as making a powerful statement without having to say a thing. You will get more respect and influence people (not necessariy into bed, but it doesnt hurt, =) in ways that driving a car simply can’t. 12 miles is a stretch, my neighbor does it, but he always wants a ride too, and he is a hardcore biker, we zoobomb together, and build our own bikes… So dont feel bad about driving 12 miles to work. That is a daunting experience, and long ride. Carpooling is just as effective at that distance.
still biking is awesome, and it is something that you forgot you do well. I cant tell you how many people i have helped build a bike for, and they tell me, “man i havent ridden a bike since i was kid” at which time they swear they rode em every day forever. I remember making 7 mile trecks on my Kuahara when i was a kid, how i dont know, but i did it. Let the journey change your life as much as the destination.
often more.
i’m lucky enough to live in a town where i can bike or walk or skateboard everywhere i go. you could walk the length of this town in an hour, i bet, at least the main part of it. my pittbull-ridgeback cross has a harness & pulls my ass across town on my skateboard at high speeds. i’m usually passing cars, but they usually slow down to gawk. my dog lives for that shit. she loves it. runs like a maniac, pulling 175 lbs or so on a skateboard behind her.
on edit: though i’ve driven extensively across the continent, i’ve never owned a car, had a drivers license, or even a permit. i’m 24.
As flat as Florida is you would think it the perfect place to travel by bike. It’s only 7 miles to work, but the 4 lane highway I’d have to travel on with no bike lane is about to become a 6 lane highway. They are widening the highway because for 4 months out of the year traffic is a little heavy (this is a quiet little community) . So if traffic isn’t heavy why don’t I ride my bike to work…half the people here shouldn’t be driving cars, they’re too old. I can say that because at 58 I can imagine being 80…and will have stopped driving a long time before that. I ride before and after work for exercise, how I would love to get that riding in and actually go someplace I want to be. The bus comes once every hour and I’d have to change buses twice, taking one and a half hours to go 7 miles. I’ve gone to meetings to encourage bike lanes, discourage more highways, increase the number of buses…the best I can do is drive my soon to be a collector’s item Insight, and hope things change before I’m old, well older anyways.
I’m really liking the town I live in right now; the bike path system is about as excellent as you can imagine. All major roads and most medium-size ones – the ones with any traffic at all on them, in other words – have big, wide bikepaths and lots of “do not pass bikes thru circle” and “Bikes have Right of Way” signs. There’s also 4 or 5 major multiuse paths that are a pleasure to use and are actually fairly convenient for travel. On the way to work, I ride about mile on a road bike lane before I hop on a multiuse path and finish the last 3/4 of a mile, or I can take the long way entirely on multiuse paths. As long as it’s not actually snowing at that very moment, or raining, or icy, I ride to work every day on my bike; it takes no more time than driving and is far more convenient, as I can lock up right outside my office.
My point? For bikes to really make sense as an alternative to cars, at least in cities and towns, you’ve got to make concessions to them and plan around them. Give them comfortable bike lanes; riding in traffic sucks. Make sure there’s plenty of bike racks in town. Educate drivers to be conscientious and careful around bikes. Put in multiuse paths that connect places where people want to go.
Oh, and as for the logistics: I usually dress extremely casually at work, because nobody cares. So I usually just throw on a wicking quick-dry shirt for teh ride if the weather’s warm, so I don’t sweat out a presentable shirt. Below about 70 degrees, you don’t sweat much if you’re in good shape; I find that in that temperature range I can maintain 20mph without breaking a sweat. If you have to look good at work, carry your clothes in a backpack or courier bag, and wear bike clothes; it takes about 10 minutes, tops, to change and get your hair out of the helmet trihawk.
The benefits? Your legs get ripped, you get a nice burst of excersize and fresh air before a day in the office, and you use no fuel besides the sugar in your coffee.
When I lived downtown, I biked the 11 miles to work. I have since moved, and am now twice as far away (and behind some brutal canyons) which just isn’t practical. I do miss the morning ride to the office though.
So does your fat beer gut, porkrinder.
LOL
Chicago is better, we have designated bike lanes and ocasionally, a dickhead that wants to scare you off the road. Downtown area has a new bike parking station with showers, however that’s only if you want to get to the Millenium Park. I used to ride to work 15 miles one way, and believe me, if you are trained, you don’t sweat, or at least not as much as when you’re starting in not the greatest physical shape. That fat blubber under the skin probably won’t help either. But then you don’t have to break any speed records.
Philly is also scary on the bike-riding tip. Every serious Philly biker that I know has been hit by a car (some cases being way more serious). Cops are real dickheads about riding on the sidewalk – even when the sidewalk is really wide and there is no bike lane availible. Most streets are bike-lane free. Many of the major streets have bike lanes – but you’re sharing those lanes with the buses. Couple this with some of the worst streets (pot-hole, perpetually under-construction) in the nation and you have a recipe for pain.
I work far out in the burbs, so biking has never been an option for me. I took public transportation for 3 years and finally got a car. I couldn’t deal with the additional 40 minutes of commute per trip. Between a full time job, one full time band, and trying to participate in a relationship, 2+ hours of commute/day was killing me. And you might be thinking, “couldn’t you be productive or read on public transportation?”
No. Try riding the buses and trollies of Philly. I’m amazed that I haven’t killed one of the nextel-walkie-talkie phone users yet.
However, the car I have is no serious commitment. It’s 30MPG Hyundai that I purchased for 300 bucks. If paying for gas becomes that intolerable, well I have already gotten my 300 bucks worth (I have been driving since february).
One thing is for sure, I would love to see the downfall of the auto-insurance industry. Those fuckers need to pay.
A few years back, I got a car as soon as I could. But I sold it last year when I got a place on my local bus route. There’s really good public transportation in my town, and they have bike racks on the front of the bus as well, so you can pretty much get everywhere. The only reason I would buy a car again would be so that I can visit people that don’t live nearby… of course, we all know how much car insurance sucks.
Selling my car did force me to change my lifestyle. For instance, I used to do a landscaping/painting/maintainence job in the summers, I would definately avoid that job now that I don’t have my own car. Overall, this lifestyle change has been 100% for the better. I don’t have to buy gas, I don’t pay car insurance, I don’t pay speeding tickets, I don’t pay for parking (heck, I don’t even have to park before I can go the where I’m going!), I don’t get stressed out in traffic jams, and I don’t have to deal with assholes on the road (unless I’m biking on the road, which I avoid). This may just happen to work out for me since I’m primarily a student at this point in time, but I’m definately going to try to find a way to continue down this path.
Also, wtf, I don’t think cars should be allowed to drive through the centers of towns, it makes no sence, WHATSOEVER!!
Chicago is better, we have designated bike lanes and ocasionally, a dickhead that wants to scare you off the road.
That’s why you carry a couple of bolts in your pocket; if anybody gets all aggro for no reason and endangers you, you can sling one at their rear window and give ‘em something to remember you by.
It’s not the urban folk that are killing us in the auto-dependence department.
We rural folk are gobbling more than our fair share of the oil, here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan our local “economy” is dependent on tourism and the waste that entails. It seems a bit Orwellian to even call such waste “an economy”.
A one hundred or a one hundred and fifty mile drive is a common occurrence and many folks I know commute 50 to 70 miles one way to work each day. Its 45 miles from my home town to the nearest movie theatre and Wal-Mart and many folks make at least a trip or two every week.
It is absolutely amazing to think about the oil war in Iraq as all summer long motor home after motor home, most with an SUV or powerboat in tow run to and fro on the highways and all winter the motels are packed with snowmobiliers who drive big SUV’s towing multi-sled trailers full of gas guzzling high powered snowmobiles.
The sad part is that towing on up here at 10 mpg or so is the most efficient part of the expedition. Many if not most are not even from downstate Michigan, but hail from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
When driving up here, they’re usually at least four to a vehicle, many times 5 or 6.
When they unload they each ride their own sleds, most get between 12 and 15 miles to the gallon, so the group is now getting about 2 to 3 miles to the gallon and the machines are powered by 2 cycle engines with no catalytic converters and oil injection systems to provide the necessary additional lubrication.
In the spring many times you can see a blue tint in the snow along the groomed trails that provide the racetrack they run across the north woods on.
After witnessing this carnage for the winter months, the motor homes, huge powerboats and dually trailers pulling jet skis don’t seem so bad.
Spring is when things are the slowest and sanest. Many are out walking and biking to shed the winter excess. Spring hopes eternal.
The winter and summer are by far the busiest and once the color season is over the last of the fall waste is watching the hunting season progress when the gas stations are heaped with pallets trucked in with surplus farm goods for deer feed and every idiot with a pickup and a four-wheeler in the back is loading up on gas and feed to haul to the woods in the hunt for that ever elusive big buck.
We’ve a duty here to keep that whitetail population in check you know, they cause carnage on the highways.
Good luck with finding sensible ways to save the planet and conserving the oil that remains; but don’t delude yourself into believing that your sacrifice will be noticed or appreciated by the masses.
They all did their parts when they put one of those magnetic ribbons, be it yellow or red, white and blue on their fenders.
Peace,
“It seems a bit Orwellian to even call such waste “an economy”.”
Waste is economy.
Economy is destruction.
And destruction makes people rich.
“Good luck with finding sensible ways to save the planet and conserving the oil that remains; but don’t delude yourself into believing that your sacrifice will be noticed or appreciated by the masses.”
I have no such delusions.
The Alt Fuels Distraction: The current energy debate is skewed toward solutions that favor big business.
speaking of waste, what do you all think of ‘cradle-to-cradle’ or zero-emissions? it just means that every waste product and byproduct is used elsewhere. try to make a closed loop.
Last month, kids got hit with $400 tickets in Denver for critical mass… they can’t pay those tickets, it was so unneccesary…
I actually find ‘Critical Mass’ rides to be self-conscious, silly, and rather pointless; as big a pusher of biking as I am, I can’t really bring myself to think much of CM. Blocking traffic and pissing people off isn’t a great way to preach the word.