Liz,
It is a great mistake to ignore the voices of what I believe to be the majority of people in the Madison Area. Ignorance about bicycling issues is to be expected in our car-dominated culture. Generalizations cannot be avoided when you are talking about human beings. And hate? Actor-Observer bias is a well-documented tendency we all have to attribute perceived differences in behavior as the fault of the person’s inner nature, and ignore environmental factors, which often are the true source of our differences. Many of the attitudes opinions you heard on WIBA are widely held. Let me give you an example: After I attended the “Mayor’s Vision on Bicycling” event a couple weeks ago, I headed to band practice at my Church – Lake Edge UCC. Lake Edge prides itself on being inclusive, calling itself “open and affirming” of different viewpoints and lifestyles. As I was helping set up, I mentioned to one of the band members that I had just attended a city meeting on bicycling. The band member’s first reaction was to ask when bicyclists were going to obey all traffic controls. The band member then recited a number of anecdotes similar to what I have heard on WIBA. In addition to that, I have heard people complain about the wasted money on the Aberg overpass (which kicks ass by the way), and there has been some skepticism about the need for bike boxes. I have also been monitoring comments in the media on bike stories for a number of years, and general ignorant opposition to improving the bicycling experience is widespread. Maybe you already are connected to these voices somehow. I know Robbie used to get a steady stream of anti-bicycle e-mail when she was an alder, so I can understand that listening to WIBA would be redundant for some people. For what its worth: Mitch Henck has invited me to be on his show, and I even spent ½ hour one day talking about some of the bad information out there regarding the now-defunct RTA and the commuter rail proposal. I have contacted him numerous times about the content of his bicycling shows. His view seems to be that we should only build infrastructure for the majority, and that whining about bicyclists is “fun”. From: Liz Zelandais [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 6:35 PM To: Matt Logan; Bikies Subject: Re: [Bikies] WIBA carps on Ride The Drive: Those couple of "thoughtful callers" gave a tiny respite from the ignorance, generalizations, and hate. I hadn't really listened to WIBA before (although I once interviewed Henck for an Isthmus article), but now I join Robbie in not listening to it on purpose. Liz _____ From: Matt Logan <[email protected]> To: Bikies <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 3:03 PM Subject: [Bikies] WIBA carps on Ride The Drive: Mitch Henck trotted out the usual anti-bike talking points this morning – but a couple thoughtful callers managed to get in: http://bit.ly/pweA0t _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
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