If the point of the bike lanes is safety (it is, isn't it? Bike lanes make it safer for cyclists?), it seems to me that a naked bike ride, in the dark, in the cold, in the snow, is not the best way to make the point that cyclists value safety.
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If the point of the bike lanes is safety (it is, isn't it? Bike lanes make it safer for cyclists?), it seems to me that a naked bike ride, in the dark, in the cold, in the snow, is not the best way to make the point that cyclists value safety.
I agree. I also think it does not help to drive home the point that cyclists are a serious, sane, reasonable group of people who have valid points to make.Quote:
Originally Posted by owlice
Yuck. If I had a bunch of naked people riding in front of MY house I would lobby to have the bike lane closed too. Besides the fact that, once again, it is ILLEGAL to ride naked (well, it is illegal to expose one's genitals to the point of offense).
It's not the bike lane bringing the naked folks out. The bike lane is just a bike lane. That's the weird part -- the idea that bike lanes somehow cause the distractions. Do the Hasidim have the right to keep people from riding on the public streets? Do they have the right to have the facilities changed on those grounds? Closing bike lanes doesn't keep *all* cyclists away...
We just had a public hearing to discuss taking parking away and putting in bike lanes. The city folks listened to the citizens' reasoning both ways. Fundamentally, the arguments that "bicyclists are bad things to have in our nei9ghborhood" were sagely nodded at... but not considered as valid.Basically bicycles are now included in transportation planning. If that's true in some parts of NY, it should be true in the selective neighborhoods, too.
Since the Hasidim are going beyond logic it kinda makes sense to me that the cyclists are, too. If they really don't want the distractions, then they can ask for the bike lanes to be put back, and then the people will stop distracting. That's logical. If the distractions are truly their priority they'll go for it.
Yeah, this argument of "going beyond logic makes others do the same" doesn't make sense...if the removed the bike lanes, you have to go through legal channels to replace them...two wrongs don't make a right. Petition, protest, picket, whatever (as long as you don't interfere with others rights to move about freely) but repainting bike lanes illegally and a naked bike ride is not the way to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geonz
Police cannot enforce cyclists right to a bike lane if the lane is painted illegally anyhow. It may as well not exist.
The legal channels have obviously broken down; the lanes were originally the law and the change was because of a fundamental corruption of the law. They're putting *back* what was illegally removed.
I would have to agree that the clown ride is a more intelligent and inviting protest, since it stays well within the law and isn't even "scantily clad." As a strategy, though, the nekkidity might bring more press coverage and therefore expose the corruption for what it is.
And I also have to agree that people *will* lump cyclists into the fringe, making it just harder to convey cycling as normal behavior that others might consider trying.
And it certainly doesn't help cyclists to come in off the fringe in people's minds when they ride naked in the dark and snow -- which is not particularly safe -- to try to make the point that they value safety.Quote:
And I also have to agree that people *will* lump cyclists into the fringe, making it just harder to convey cycling as normal behavior that others might consider trying.
The main thing the cyclists had going for them was the safety issue. It is easy to petition on the side of safety; it's harder to petition successfully when standing naked on an illegal soapbox.
The legal channels are still there, waiting to be used. If people don't want to be considered on the fringe, they shouldn't act like people on the fringe.
I see the naked bike ride as just an attention-getter -- not very important at all. I posted the link because I thought it was funny.
I don't think there is the remotest possibility that all cyclists will be regarded as loons because a couple of people rode naked (or threatened to do so).
In any case, the weather changed the cyclists' plans.
Pam
Divine intervention? :D