The Wall Street Journal today has a story about Rob Anderson, a guy, who, to judge from his little WSJ illustration, appears to favor old-school spectacles. He lives on a government stipend in an apartment in an old Victorian in San Francisco. And he has brought the city’s bike-friendliness initiative to its knees.
Anderson took the city to court a couple years ago arguing that cars will always vastly outnumber bikes in the city, and that pledging space to bikes space necessarily reduces space for cars, causing traffic jams and thereby raising emissions. He won; the state forced the city to write up an environmental impact report, and the initiative is still stalled.
Meanwhile, cyclists protest, and Anderson blogs about how cyclists are like Islamist terrorists. Mike Judge take note.
Image: flickr/MoBikeFed
August 20th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Don’t know what’s more depressing, this guy or the people that give him credit. The whole issue focuses on pollution. How much of our GNP is spent on health care and how much of that stems from the population being overweight? Doesn’t this make sense simply for the sake of improving the health of a municipality and thus it’s productivity? Oh what’s the use - breaking a sweat in modern day American is viewed more as a vice than a virtue. Exercise only has it’s place in quarantined environments such as a gym.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
It’s a shame that one man is able to restrict further forms of transport. We may be limited in the future due to this man’s limited thinking. Look at Los Angeles as an extreme example…
We’re working on a very small electric vehicle that’s considered an electric bicycle - I wonder if there will be objections to this in San Francisco. It seems like we’re having a hard time get a good answer from officials, so we’re going on a 700 mile ride on public roads, bike paths, and trails, to see what the reaction really is.
http://www.zuumcraft.com/quest
August 31st, 2008 at 4:59 am
Stacie,
I think that is great. I support you 100%. Until enough people take action, people like this will control the masses. We all have as much right to use the streets as a car does. All that was being asked was a part of the sreet. Would they rather have a bike ride down the middle of the road and hold up traffic, or put them on the sidewalks to run over people.
Mot
October 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am
san francisco condos
Interestingly, this was on CNN last week.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
electric bikes
I had the same problem!
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 am
mini bikes
I had the same problem!
October 24th, 2008 at 7:35 am
greatings
nice
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:05 am
Cnn.com Saving Gas
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.