Carbon Trace

Eric at Commute Orlando found a real doozie (be sure to read the comments on Eric’s post).

Wow. That’s awful.

Now, it certainly does reflect reality. Lots of people in Springfield ride the way the young woman in the PSA is riding. That she’s wearing a helmet is rathering meaningless compared to the danger she’s in riding the wrong way on a sidewalk.

What this PSA does is teach novice utility bicyclists that the sidewalk is where they belong.

It would just be so much better for all concerned if this young woman were riding in traffic as traffic. Or, if we can ever get there, she would be so much better off riding on dedicated and superior bicycling infrastructure that gives bicyclists direct routes to popular destinations and priority at intersections.

(One big problem with bicycling infrastructure in the U.S. — a problem that I worry about as Springfield begins to think about how to spend stimulus money on infrastructure — is that the same kind of people who made this PSA might be designing the infrastructure. In this case, I’m talking lanes and sharrows. We may getting more paint on the road soon. We better make sure it’s done right. My choice: Sharrows over lanes and the problem lanes we have need to be corrected. I’d like to see sharrows painted on every inch of the Springfield Bicycle Route system. I want them placed in the middle of the lanes.)

Since the day we get superior infrastructure is not coming anytime soon in the U.S., the folks who make PSAs need to make sure what’s being portrayed is proper bicycling on the road.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling