Ordinance against cyclists????

[redrhodie]

I know you don't agree with the way the local bike club is being run, so maybe you should join it. Change happens from inside. I would think you would have more influence as a member than as a non member. Or, start your own club, one where the members follow the laws. I can see the "share the road" jerseys being very cool.

When I told my BF about the people trying to ban cycling on your county roads, he said, "In Indiana? The birthplace of Breaking Away?". That didn't even occur to me. Cutters unite!

[Tuckervill]

Oh yeah! Breaking Away! I gotta rent that.

I think issues like these are usually about education. Most people speak about the issue without bothering to get informed. That makes them easy to sway, if you expose them to the facts.

I think Silver has already been doing that, no?

We've been homeschooling since the early-90s, and the homeschooling legalities have evolved over that time in all the states. Homeschooling is often under attack in legislatures. The most important thing we did as a community was mount an information campaign and provide sane arguments to the most common misconceptions. With the advent of the internet, this is easier than ever. We organized from the grassroots and didn't rely on experts. We picked the most harmful ideas and formed a counter attack around those. (We're talking about numerous fights on numerous issues in any and all states, so these are generalizations.)

I see many parallels to the share the road issue. The objections to homeschooling can be boiled down to 5 or 6, which are easily dispatched with a modicum of information and critical thinking. So, too, the objections to cycling. As soon as you boil them down to 5 or 6 objections, gather the information to rebut them. Be able to state the objections more clearly than your opponent, and try to state them first, so they can't obfuscate and confuse. Concentrate on one objection at a time. Beware the straw man.

This information campaign can be executed in city hall, in letters to the newspaper, in the halls outside the legislature, wherever the decision makers are. A public forum could be helpful, if properly moderated. An online forum, too. Many states have that one (or many) homeschool advocate that takes up the cause, creates the website to clear the information through, and basically becomes the subject-matter expert on her state's laws and idiosyncracies. You could be the cycling advocate. There probably is one in your state already, but they might not be taking up the cause. There is always room for more voices. It's been advantageous in my state for decision makers to learn that group think is not part of the homeschool landscape--that there are reasons one homeschooler wants it one way and one wants it another, and all the reasons are valid. So the laws must accommodate all points of view, within reason, of course.

I think in the case of cycling, the laws are already on the books in Indiana, and it's just a matter of enforcement. In this case, it may be the cyclists who need the most education.

Karen