how your ride affects what you see and how you see it

A while back, I was on vacation in Oregon. My reading included Pedal Power: The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life, written by DePaul political science professor Harry Wray, who makes many astute observations about contemporary America. I highly recommend the book.

After getting home, I started thinking about my impressions of Portland, Oregon. I got around primarily on foot and by public transit, with some time on a bike. Before leaving Portland for points south, I got a rental car for going to destinations that were not easily accessible by public transit. Portland was a pleasure to navigate without a car. On my one stop in town after getting the car, parking was a hassle. I was happy once I got away from the car.

At home in Chicago, I try to drive as little as possible. In a densely populated area, the car can be more of a trap than a source of freedom. We've reached a point where congestion and road rage can have a very damaging effect on our physical and mental wellbeing. Endless hours are wasted in traffic jams, creating a greater sense of urgency about reaching one's destination and enough frustration to motivate risky behavior. The current price of gas, combined with congestion, is igniting rage even in otherwise reasonable drivers. As a culture, the pleasure of our journeys has been mostly replaced by grimly creeping in traffic towards the destination.

This morning, I was visiting a few neighborhood destinations by car due to the cold weather.  These are places I usually visit by bike, and the lack of parking I encountered today made me appreciate how much easier these trips are by bike.

Traveling in neighborhoods where I am a minority, I've sometimes been the target of hostility when I am driving. BTW, it's a 20-year-old Honda Civic, not some fancy car. I've been yelled at, spit at, cut off in traffic, and been on the receiving end of nasty racial slurs, all while driving reasonably, without hostility. If I ride my bike in those same areas, at the same times of day, the response is more friendly - a smile, a wave, a little kid riding alongside smiling and just being a kid. If I'm waiting for a bus, the response is usually neutral or friendly. I am not isolated by the car. We are on equal footing.

If one's mode of transportation affects how one is perceived, this can also affect how experiences a place. The bike is a means of transportation that is affordable to all income levels. It promotes interaction with the environmental and is not threatening. In contrast, a car is a bubble around its occupants, more likely to create social isolation, with potential to injure or kill others.

One's mode of transportation tends to affect one's feelings about and reactions to a place. A car junkie's perception is often all about how much time is spent sitting in traffic and how much hassle it is to find parking. There may be beautiful gardens, interesting shops, interesting architecture and other small-scale pleasures along the way. A pedestrian would probably see them and be able to stop and check them out. A cyclist would have a reasonable chance of doing the same. Either might have conversations with others while waiting at lights. A driver would probably miss them entirely, preoccupied with getting through the next light before it turns red, or angry at being cut off by another driver or simply traveling too fast to notice them.

The culture of a place also affects one's perspective. Portland is considered one of the most bike friendly American cities. Its bike infrastructure is a big factor. Chicago is in the next tier of bike friendly cities. Bike infrastructure has vastly improved its bike friendliness compared to 20 years ago. However, infrastructure only goes so far. Portland is a peaceful, mellow place. In my experiences there, road rage was rare. In Chicago, the opposite is true.

We will never be nearly as bike friendly as Portland until Chicago experiences a significant cultural shift away from rage and hostility on our streets. This may happen when enough people get out of their cars if bike and public transit infrastructure continue to improve and expand to meet the demands of increasing ridership. It will require increasing maturity and tolerance on the part of both cyclists and drivers. Too many Chicago cyclists fail to understand that rude and reckless behavior will hurt ALL of us, because it provokes similar behavior from drivers.

Sorry, folks. Sometimes the truth hurts. To get good karma, ya gotta give it - to cars, pedestrians, and other cyclists. Otherwise the bad stuff you dish out will come back to bite you in the a$$ sooner or later. Let's try for peace in our lifetimes on our streets. If enough of us get out of our cars, it can happen.

Now we've got a unique opportunity to get better bike facilities in our neighborhoods.  The city's Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan offers regular people a chance to ask for bike lanes and bike boulevards in locations that matter to them.  The next public meeting happens on Wed. 1/25 at Woodson Regional Library.  I hope you can be there to ask for bike facilities that matter to you.

vacation flashback #3

my Portland ride

I really enjoyed Portland, Oregon. I was curious to see if it lived up to its bike friendly reputation. It absolutely did. In walking around town, observing traffic from public transit, and riding a bike, I saw almost a lot of polite, civilized traffic interactions and almost no road rage. Many streets had bike lanes, and they were well used. Cyclists generally stopped at red lights and rode more reasonably than many Chicago cyclists (sorry, folks). Their light rail system accommodates bikes better than CTA trains. They have hooks near each doorway to hang bikes by their front wheels, so the footprint of each bike is smaller. They make allowance for more bikes on each car.

The hotel where I stayed had a bike available for guest use and I decided to try it out. It was a heavy European bike with generator lights and a sturdy rear rack, a cushy ride but more of a workout than my regular bike at home.



I went to check out Riverfront Park and crossed the bridge to the well-used path on the east side of the Willamette River.



Signage said that the bridge crossing had been added to this double-deck road/railroad bridge several years earlier.





As I crossed, a light rail train was passing on the upper level, and a freight train was crossing alongside me. I certainly don't experience that in Chicago. I had a very pleasant ride and wished that I'd been able to see more of Portland by bike and do some riding in Eugene, which looked equally bike friendly.

greetings from Portland

After a bit of weather-related drama on Thursday night, I finally got to Portland yesterday morning. I'll save my "sleepless in Seattle" story for later.

This place is so mellow. I was out and about all day yesterday and did not see one road rage incident, a refreshing change from Chicago. Bikes are everywhere, and drivers are a lot more considerate around them than some of the maniacs I see in Chicago. All day in and around downtown traffic, and not one honk. !!! No lie.

I'm staying at the Ace Hotel (check out the About page), interesting place, funky-cool blend of a spruced up but fairly spartan old building, a lounge area that feels like a college dorm lounge (in a good way), some nice modern touches (like this Mac laptop in the lounge), in the midst of a lively entertainment district. Been enjoying some excellent local seafood and wine and fine hospitality.

I'll be wandering a bit more today before I pick up a rental car to head south to Eugene and Medford. If I'm lucky, I'll get out one of the hotel's bikes for a while this a.m. Been taking lots of pictures and I know there will be plenty more before the end of the trip. More later as time and computer access allow.....