Minneapolis and beyond) on a report submitted to City Council by the
Bicycle Coalition that recommends we do away with the Minneapolis ordinance
that prohibits riding a bike on sidewalks in commercial areas.
The rationale? That more bikers of color are cited for breaking this rule
than whites are. Must be systemic racism at fault.
The implications? Damn the pedestrian, and damn the business community's
wish to safeguard ALL their customers or clients who walk through their
doors (not many people ride through them) or even try to draw near their
businesses, on foot.
The reason bike riders are prohibited from riding bike on sidewalks in
commercial areas is to protect people coming out of a business, or trying
to get TO a business, on foot--that's what most people do. People using
businesses from their wheelchairs (or children in parents' strollers) are
also at risk from bike riders on business sidewalks.
One important feature of the report that Steve's article didn't explain:
How much mining into the data did the pro-bike community do, before issuing
its ostensibly anti-racist recommendation?
Here are some questions: Precisely where are blacks on bikes being ticketed
for violation of the no-bikes-on-sidewalks ordinance? Are they riding in
areas with a high minority population (i.e., do they live in the
neighborhood, perhaps, and frequently ride around it)? Are blacks on bikes
in commercial areas of (very white population) Linden Hills being cited?
How about large numbers of black bike riders cited in Dinkytown--evidently
a place of lots of violations of the ordinance? Are Dinkytown riders mostly
black or mostly white, and do the citations for violations reflect those
demographics?
Aside from the racial demographics in geography that might matter in this
discussion, which I think is more important than the apparent broad-brush
numbers-of-minorities-versus-numbers-of-whites calculations it looks like
the Bicycle Coalition used, there's a possible cultural issue involved:
that young black bike riders like to challenge the white-dominated society,
and any authority, by engaging in risky and otherwise unlawful riding
habits.
I speak of something I have noticed in recent years and that has terrified
me as a driver: young teenage black males riding bikes in small groups of
three or four who deliberately ride against red lights on high-traffic
roads and streets, deliberately risking their lives. The thrill seems to be
all--the thrill of breaking the law and getting away with a potential
scrape with death. No matter that a car or truck driver may hit them and
suffer the guilt for life!
The last time I saw that behavior was up on Central Avenue, in
Hilltop/Fridley environs. The light was red for them before the kids
started across Central, which at that point is a fairly high-speed
four-lane road going both directions on a long green light.
Maybe I don't drive enough in enough areas of Minneapolis to have seen
small groups of white kids similarly risking their lives for a thrill like
that. Is it all teenage boys, and I'm just not seeing the white kids do it?
But, if more black teens do this than white teens, should we change the
traffic laws to permit the behavior?
There's the ilogic of the Bicycle Coalition's recommendation on commercial
area bike riding on sidewalks.
Connie Sullivan
Como, in Southeast Minneapolis