I’ve rented three cars in 2011 — to go to Florida for a winter vacation, to go to St. Louis on a class field trip (I’m working on a certificate in urban planning at MSU), and to go to this conference.

On the previous two rentals I noticed that the rental agents were amusingly nosy — asking personal questions about such things as where I’m going, who I’m going with, what I do for a living. But this week the agent, a young guy, was so ham-handed about it that it got me wondering — is this a homeland security thing?

This utterly tactless person asked me straight up (paraphrased):

1. Where are you going?
2. What’s the purpose of the trip?
3. How long will you be?
4. Who’s going with you?
5. What do you do for a living?
6. Is the trip business or pleasure?
7. Will I get time off from work for the extra time?
8. Where do you work?
9. What do you teach?

I gave him amusingly evasive answers Ain’t none of his business what I’m doing with that car as long as I bring it back in good shape and manage not to violate the contracted rules.

I say utterly tactless because he was trying to disguise his (corporate?) nosiness by being conversational. But that skill was beyond him — perhaps stunted by too many hours playing Halo.

So what gives? Is this SOP in the age of homeland security? Are car rental agents just bored silly? Do the rental companies need this information for some reason?

Technorati Tags: car culture

Imagine me doing the superior dance and chanting:

It’s working, it’s working, all this stuff we’re doing is working!

The second thing I saw was easy to catch:

Uh… WTH?

The young lady driving this thing apparently felt entitled to park on the corral to make her dash into the Mudhouse for coffee a bit more convenient. Never mind that a motorcyclist might have come by looking for a place to park (and they have been parking there!).

This sense of entitlement isn’t just a car-driven phenomenon. It’s pervasive in our culture. Makes one wish that the golden rule held more sway.

Technorati Tags: bicycle culture, car culture, crazy drivers, cycling

1. As I approached the 4-way stop at Walnut and South this morning, a cyclist passed me on the right and proceeded through the stop. I was positioned in the center of a narrow lane with parked cars along the road. The bicyclist is a guy I’ve seen before. From his style of dress and the kind of bicycle he rides, I have him pegged as a professor or some other (casual) professional.

2. Later in the day, again on Walnut, I was heading west and stopped to make a left onto Jefferson (two lanes, one-way south). Two roadies in full costume on expensive bicycles had passed me moments before. They were also going left. They stopped at the light just long enough for traffic to clear, then proceeded — which, as I understand it, is legally like a right turn on red. A little ways down Jefferson, however, these two pulled into Wilhoit Plaza and proceeded to ride along the walk in front of the shops — clearly illegal in Springfield.

3. On my way back home from the grocery this evening, riding with my daughter, we came to a stop sign at Cherry — a busy collector street — and were passed by a hipster on a fixie. I say “hipster” because he wore one of those cute little old-time cycling hats with the turned up brim. He made a left, passing us on the left — as a road salmon — and into oncoming traffic.

Why?

Allow me a modest proposal: Just as the automobile is a vehicle that seems to encourage a particular psychology in our culture, the bicycle is also a vehicle that encourages a particular psychology in our culture.

I’ve often cited the book Traffic (and added parenthetically that I think should be required reading for all humans). But I have rarely listed the full title, which continues: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us).

One could write a such a book about bicyclists in traffic. Maybe this post will be a start in that direction.

Be that as it may, it occurs to me that just as cars and bicycles are modes of transportation they are also media, i.e. when we ride upon the street in the mode of bicycle we also write upon the street a text that is in large part influenced by the bicycle, and understood through the bicycle, as a particular kind of medium in our culture. If you’re thinking “Hey, that sounds like Marshall McLuhan,” then you’re right with me

A part of my modest proposal is the assumption that the bicyclists in the three scenes I experienced today were writing upon the street, with a particular medium, a message influenced by the medium itself and their cultural understandings of that medium and the way it conveys a message.

In this sense, it is a bit obtuse to simply suggest that they were doing something wrong.

It would make more sense, purely from a descriptive assumption, that I’m the one who is refusing to write the way I’m told by the culture and the medium.

(Never mind about the grammar of the language, i.e. the rules of traffic. Every great writer has charted his or her own path and, eventually, influenced usage. Further, usage is not sacrosanct, much to the sputtering consternation of language (traffic) nannies everywhere. Every generation writes its own rules and gives birth to concepts that speak for it. Languages grow and change, as they should. Deep structure cannot be open to negotiation unless one is willing to spin off into nonsense. But so many “rules” that purport to be essential to a successful text are no more than the fancies of a particular age.)

I am in the minority as a bicycle driver (i.e. one who follows the traffic rules as currently written with as little variation as possible) in part because I refuse to change my usage or fight the grammar. I am, therefore, standing somewhere outside the popular culture.

I am certainly not making an argument for ignoring traffic laws. I am, instead, trying to understand why so many bicyclists do ignore them. We (i.e. my discourse community) know it is safer to drive a bicycle — there’s really no debate there at all (unless one simply enjoys being absurd). I do not wish to assume that so many people are simply scofflaws. That seems wrong to me.

I am left, then, with these two thoughts:

1. The bicycle is a medium in our culture that encourages one to ignore the grammatical traffic fancies of our age as one writes upon the street.
2. Only two things seem to me to be the answer to “encouraging” people to write particular kinds of texts: 1) Re-education in the classic understanding of the grammar of traffic (a re-invigoration of a higher cultural expression and a search for its timeless and essential forms), and 2) traffic tickets.

Technorati Tags: bicycle culture, car culture, cycling, traffic law

In case one needed proof that the car is king of the road — indeed, king of all transportation modes — one merely had to try to walk to work today. It wasn’t easy — even for the able-bodied. The blind? The infirm? The people on crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs? There was just no way this morning. Take a look at these photos I took on my longer route this morning.

[Show as slideshow]

And here is the route mapped. Normally, I go straight north on Fremont and hang a left on Grand, cross National and arrive at Craig Hall. Sidewalk all the way. Today I had take the other route — my snow route because I can walk on residential streets most of the way and avoid trudging through the snow and climbing over the snow piles — invariably located at the intersection of the road and the sidewalk — caused by the snow plows.

My walking snow route along residential streets.

OK, yeah, gotta plow the streets. There’s no choice in the matter. But, really, do the plows have to leave piles in front of the sidewalk ramps? Is that really necessary?

My guess is that it is “necessary” in the sense that the urgency is to clear the streets for cars first. Plus, Springfield has an ordinance that urges homeowners to clear sidewalks traversing their property. I don’t think such rules work very well. I’ve only shoveled once in seven years — just the other day. No one has ever said anything to me about it. Snow usually doesn’t stick around long enough to need much shoveling.

While Snowpocalypse ’11 created a legitimate emergency (because it was  a big event for us), it is typical for sidewalks, sidewalk intersections, and bus stops in my neighborhood and the surrounding MSU area to go uncleared even in fairly light snows. MSU does a good job of keeping sidewalks cleared — even along its borders on public streets. The school has no choice but to do so.

Question: How long will the sidewalks go uncleared?

Answer: As long as it takes for this snow to melt.

More snow showers are forecast through tonight and on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Temperatures are not expected to rise above the 30s until next weekend.

This neglect of our sidewalks and the people who walk on them has nothing to do with incompetence or uncaring. It has everything to do with our culture (which means it has the weight of common sense). In our culture the car/truck comes first. Ease of travel for car/truck drivers comes first. Nothing will change until that changes.

For more on this cultural phenomenon, re-visit my discussions of barrier streets.

UPDATE: On the walk home, I crossed National and Grand by my usual route. Here are the scenes from about 5:30 this afternoon.

I suppose he thinks I shouldn't be walking in the first place.

As I'm about to climb a wall of snow and leap into the road.

Technorati Tags: car culture, pedestrian safety, Springfield Missouri, walking, weather

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

This is what happens when you design roads for cars instead of people.

Also see the discussion at Commute Orlando.

Technorati Tags: car culture, pedestrian safety, walking