Shared Bike Scheme
From:
Matty Lang
Date:
2007 Jul 16 19:46 UTC
Short link
I’m very flattered to be engaged with such literary skill, but I must point out
that Mr. Fox fails to attribute his quote to its source, Christian Gerondeau,
the president of the French federation of auto clubs. Gerondeau repeats the
misnomer that most automobile trips are for long trips and that bicycle
advocates aim to replace all car trips with bicycle trips. What else could one
reasonably expect from the president of the French federation of auto clubs?
Here’s a link to a Washington Post story that does not reply on the automobile
lobby for its quotes and tells the Paris story in a much more complete fashion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/15/AR2007071501461.html
If anyone cares about how the private automobile is used in Minneapolis I
suggest you browse the 2003 Share the Road report put together by Transit for
Livable Communities:
http://www.tlcminnesota.org/Resources/Reports/SharingtheRoad/Sharing_the_Road.pdf
(2.0 MB PDF file)
From page six of the report:
“We could easily walk or bike more: Forty percent of the trips we make are less
than two miles, and 28 percent are less than one mile; yet 75 percent of trips
of less than one mile are made by car.”
The Parisian program is called Velib, a combination of the words vélo (bike)
and liberté (liberty). I would hope that Mr. Fox and Mr. Gerondeau could
appreciate the liberating experience that is the bicycle, but it’s becoming
evident that the life of a Cager leads to extreme defensiveness and
self-legitimization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cager
“Cager is also used by motorcyclists and bicyclists to describe a person who
drives a car. Similarly, cars themselves are described as "cages". The term is
derived from the common feeling among motorcyclists that driving or riding in a
car feels like being trapped in a cage, as well as alluding to the safety cages
in modern cars, and to a certain extent the locked-in mindset of "cagers" who
refuse to acknowledge the practicality of other modes of transport.”
Matty Lang,
Cage-free and feeling practically liberated by the bicycle in Midtown Phillips
.