This is a riff of The Myth of the Virtuous Cyclist a puff editorial piece that seems to think one rule breaking cyclist is proof we need to cancel biking and continue allowing drivers the deference as the sole users of our roads.
This Wednesday, at about 8pm, in the middle of Beacon St, I saw an SUV run a red turning left across traffic during the walk cycle. As the pedestrian walk light came on, he cut across the opposite traffic lane, across two cross walks to get to a parking lot entrance. There he parked presumably as a delivery driver who couldn’t wait 60 seconds for a light cycle. I couldn’t imagine why he thought it was okay or what was in his mind, but he seemed unconcerned about the risk he posed to others or that he might be reprimanded.
Everyone who walks or bikes around in Cambridge knows that flagrant “anything goes” behavior is the normal it has spread among delivery drivers, tractor trailers, work trucks, commuters, Uber drivers and the like.
This outbreak of norm-breaking by drivers may in part be due to advances in cellphone technology that make driving distracted easier and more enjoyable. It may in part be that continued lax enforcement in driving laws and infrastructure that has long stimulated a desire to push boundaries with wide open lanes to gun it. It may also be generational, a badge of boomer entitlement identity.
The norm-breaking driver is not alone. A belief that “anything goes” for an extra 10 seconds saved is widespread throughout society, and driving is all about that 10 seconds. Witness the City’s Bicycle Safety Ordinance amendment passed by the City Council in 2020. This remarkable piece of legislation was enacted via Zoom with little discussion by a public who were preoccupied with the pandemic as well as myriad disruptions to normal life and lulled by the proposal’s benign and highly misleading title.
The law in fact contains a detailed menu and timeline of mandates for the city to build separated bicycle lanes on less than 5% (?) of our of public ways. It briefly references the goal of bicycle safety but none of the other recognized means of improving safety, such as enforcement of traffic regulations, driver re-education or signs. It simply asserts that an elaborate and inflexible plan is necessary to reduce systemic risks to cyclists and makes no provision for evaluation of impacts, or reconsideration as progress is made, circumstances change or new information comes to light. Further, it explicitly privileges needs and lives of local residents over single occupancy car commuters on the public ways.
In approving this law, councillors showed that they are willing to choose people over cars, protecting lives and livelihoods, to “build the future you want,” the mantra of optimism, that developers are comfortable with a policy that may force settled residents to continue living there normal lives as on average non-drivers. Running reds, distracted driving, honking horns, dangerous passes this is the norm of drivers in Cambridge, I believe we need to break these habits that drivers insist on. It is surprising and encouraging that our local government leaders, our representatives, recognize we cannot just keep prioritizing cars in our spaces.
We need to support city councillors who are willing to reconsider the timeline and details of the 2020 ordinance speeding it up and expanding it’s scope. They cannot do this without upsetting the minority of entitled residents in our midst, drivers. We build these safe bike networks to remove and reduce the dangers for all citizens, giving walkers and bikers increased space to co-exist without fighting over the scraps left after feeding the space guzzling automobile.