Staying on the topic of cycling for the egalitarians vs. the elite, the September issue of Bicycling Magazine has an article by Susi Wunsch discussing cycling clothing that doesn't look like cycling clothing. She says on pg. 49 "...With so many options, everybody wins in the race for personal self-expression....". Well, everybody in that economic one percent, to be sure.
The stuff is really beautiful and quite sexy and I am sure that with Susi analyzing it, is sure to be highly functional technical clothing as well. The punch line is that the average price of the 11 examples of cycling-urban-chic in the article is about $803, ranging from $485 to $1393. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average monthly rent for an apartment in the U.S. is $1048. So while these outfits may fit into the budgets of your average junior hedge fund manager riding on protected cycletrack to the office in Manhattan, it ain't nothin' but a poke in the eye to the vast majority of Americans left behind by the economics of globalization and the flight of middle class jobs abroad. Fortunately for everyone else, jeans and a t-shirt or a trip through the Bike Nashbar catalog is still an option, rather than starving the kids or taking out a payday loan. I hope Everyone Else gets their urban cycling infrastructure too, not just Mr. and Ms. Urban Elite.
One less car? Someone needs to tell these folks... Yep, those cars all really do "live there" |
Cycletracks? %$#@!
Me arguing for cycletracks or any cycle-specific facility? Well, safe ones, as I mentioned in my comments on Bremen, and only where it makes sense as a dedicated people-mover rather than a feel-good exercise. Big cities should be less auto-centric. We can't keep doing things like we did in 1965. Even Los Alamos looks totally absurd with its low density sprawl and most of its commercial/residential center devoted to parking lot asphalt (including the absurd new city hall and the planned new Krogerville Mall).View of Townsite. Acknowledgements to Michael Ronkin Dark areas are free parking, paid for by local commerce. |
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