posted October 2, 2008
Chattanooga, please say it’s not true. Please tell me the hate-filled letters with vitriolic attacks on bicycles and the folks that ride them are the work of the few, and not the general consensus of your fair city.
I brag to others about how progressive your city is, and how I think it would be one of the best places in the Southeast in which to live. Just recently I told my daughter that Chattanooga would be my first choice for her to move to and live after she graduates college in December. I now find myself re-thinking that recommendation and everything I thought I knew about your town. Talk about paradigm shifts.
First, a disclaimer – I ride several hundred miles a year here at home and in the cities I visit. I visit Chattanooga often and have ridden there before. I live in northern Middle Tennessee, and I and my bike riding friends have never experienced anything but admiration from the non-biking community. I often tell my daughter when we ride that “all the girls wish they were you and all the guys want to be me”. I still believe that is true for most people – even in Chattanooga.
Sure, bikers can sometimes be discourteous and ride two or three abreast and slow you down, but I think they are the exception, and not the rule. All the bikers I know, and I know a bunch, are conscientious, hard-working, taxpaying folks just trying to get by in the world.
Besides, what’s not to like about a group of people who are using less gas (more for you), and are not going to be a drain on your health insurance plan unless you run them over?
Like it or not we may all be riding bikes in a few years unless someone comes up with an alternative fuel source. Most European cities are way ahead of us in using mass transit and bike transportation to get to and from their jobs. I have ridden there and found that the cars and bikes respected each other and traffic flowed smoothly. In the meantime, can’t we all just get along? Until you get those designated bike lanes (and I am sure you will in the future) I will ride to the far right side of the road and keep in single file with my friends. In return, could you please be watchful for us on the streets, give us two or three feet when you pass, and treat us as if we are someone you know personally? With the boom in bike sales and the popularity of the sport, you probably do have friends and family out there on the streets. Hey, come December, one of those riders may even be my daughter.
Russell Brown
Lafayette, Tn.
rbrown@nctc.com
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Russell,
Don't change your opinion about Chattanooga. We are one of the most bike friendly towns in the southeast and becoming more so every day. I ride my bicycle everyday and have personally benefited by the bike friendly attitude we are developing. But that is not to say that there are bumps in this transition time. Remember we are coming from a culture (though not law) where the roads were for cars only. People who adhere to that policy wholeheartedly can be expected to be upset when they are asked to share.
The same culture that produced motorists that don't know the laws of the road produce the cyclists that also don't know the laws of the road. A set up for clash. This isn't a clash of different cultures but the same culture turning on itself. But as more cyclists get on the road and as more of those cyclists earn to ride lawfully, the more the motorists will adjust. As the culture changes, attitude changes. Even the writer, Arlos Dempsey, who wrote the first opinion wrote again backing off from his more offensive stand to a more reasoned expression of concern. A real conversation can begin.
So encourage your daughter to move to Chattanooga. Even the staunch motorists know that attracting young professionals to our city is our lifeblood. An emerging bike-riding culture helps with that. And that is just a tiny, tiny part of what a bike-riding culture helps with. Because of that, we will adjust, regardless of how car-centric we might seem. Just look out for the bumps.
Colleen Carboni
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