Spinning private interest
Anti-cycling populists appeal to frustrated commuters.*
Dateline: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
by Ish Theilheimer
A sign of how sensitive are these political times is the angry controversy that has erupted in cities across Canada about bike lanes. Toronto’s populist mayor Rob Ford got elected spouting vicious anti-bike rhetoric, claiming that he would put an end to the “war on cars,” and that “Cyclists are a pain in the ass to motorists.”
As congestion increases on roads and highways, it is easy for frustrated motorists to blame cyclists for their problems. It’s especially easy to point at the rather small group of cyclists who break the rules by riding on sidewalks, going the wrong way on one-way streets, and so on.
Nothing is more in the public interest than the encouragement of cycling.
Read the article at StraightGoods.ca
*with the permission of the author
