a midway bikelog

Another epic ride with the Hiawatha crew this weekend. Two big pastry stops and a blistering 11 mph pace. Well worth the time-trialing it took to get there and catch up to them, having left the house 10 minutes late.

Saw this posted today on the Streetsblog via the BOB list:

Has it come to this? Insurance companies humiliating people into not biking to work?

Advertisements are powerful at pushing public opinion. This sort of ad relegates cyclists to second-class citizens, reinforcing an already too-prevalent attitude that cyclists don’t belong on the road and that bikes are for kids. I saw another similar ad the other day showing a man riding to work, but on a kid’s bike, looking ridiculous. I have policies through State Farm and plan to write them a letter about this.

It’s a lot easier to demean the uncomfortable than to join in, even when it’s inevitable. We’re going to have a generational split soon, with kids who don’t understand why their parents have such a stigma against cycling around as part of daily life, and parents who think their kids are just refusing to “grow up”. The older generation (whether actually old or not) will continue to drive as a matter of personal dignity and pride and comfort, no matter the cost. The younger generation will embrace cycling, create the infrastructure for it and wonder how we all got so soft.