Bikelash! Presentation at the National Bike Summit, Washington D.C.

@naparstek @brooklynspoke #bikelash
Doug Gordon | Aaron Naparstek
National Bike Summit
Tuesday, March 3, 2014
Moving Beyond
Bikelash!

Dr. Naparstek
Advocate
Journalist
Cyclist
Dr. Gordon
Advocate
Journalist
Cyclist

BIKELASH!
Know how to identify and treat it.

PATIENT ZERO
Prospect Park West Bike Lane

Prospect Park West: Lay of the Land
You are
here.
New York City

Prospect
Park
West
Prospect Park West: Lay of the Land

For $1.8 million you can have a 3-bedroom on PPW.
It's an
"exclusive"
address!

A PPW townhouse sold for $8.45 million in 2010!

The address of Brooklyn's stars.
Movie stars!
Paul Bettany & Jennifer Connelly
Political stars!
Governor Hugh Carey
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer
& NYC DOT's Iris Weinshall
Literary stars!
Jonathan Safran Foer & Nicole Krauss

The pedestrian safety problem has been around for a while.
Death-o-Meter at Grand Army Plaza, 1927.

June 2010, DOT redesigns Prospect Park West.
Before:
Intimidating three-lane speedway.
After:
Two-way protected bike lane.

Transformed overnight into a fantastic street for biking.
Photo by Dmitry Gudkov

Transformed overnight into a fantastic street for biking.

The impact of the redesign is dramatic:
 Surge in the number of people
biking on PPW.
 Speeding went way down:
From 74% of cars to 20%.
 Sidewalk cycling disappeared:
From 46% of cyclists to 3%.
 Car traffic volumes and travel
times stayed the same.
 Crashes resulting in injuries went
down 63%.
 And it's popular. 70%+ approval.

Surprise, surprise.
Not everyone is happy about it.

This is not your typical group of NIMBY bikelashers.
Former Deputy Mayor &
Sanitation Commissioner
Norman Steisel
Former DOT
Commissioner
Iris Weinshall

Did we mention Iris Weinshall's all-powerful husband?
Sorry… Wrong slide.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer
Did we mention Iris Weinshall's all-powerful husband?

Also atypical:
These bikelashers are mobilizing online.
291 members!

It's OK.
We can play that game…
291 members!
1,969 members!!!

A major litigation firm takes NBBL's case "pro bono."
"As a former federal prosecutor I've never seen something like this."
-- March 9, 2011

Sometimes a bike lane is more than just a bike lane.
"When I become mayor, you
know what I'm going to spend
my first year doing?" Mr.
Weiner said to Mr. Bloomberg,
as tablemates listened. "I'm
going to have a bunch of
ribbon-cuttings tearing out
your f*#king bike lanes."
-- March 4, 2011
Rep. Anthony Weiner
Remember this guy?

They launch a smear campaign attacking NYC DOT and advocates.
Video camera in the window of the mansion at 14 PPW

Chuck + Marcia: BFF's
CBS 2 Chief Political
Correspondent Marcia Kramer

Big rally on October 21, 2010
They're willing to hit the streets too.

This stuff can get… emotional.

Zombies for Better Bike Lanes?
Note to self: Try to be gracious toward your opponents.

What it's really all about…
The rallying cry of the aptly named Lois Carswell

We staged a counter-demonstration.
Transportation Alternatives' Director Paul Steely White

As on Facebook, supporters outnumber opponents 300 to 50.
We are also a much more generationally diverse crowd.

August 2011:
It takes more than a year, but we win in court.

BIKELASH SYMPTOMS

“This isn’t Amsterdam!”

“What is our objective in this city? To stigmatize the use of cars?
Do we want Brooklyn to replicate Amsterdam?”
– Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President

"One political consultant said the idea of expanding the use
of bicycles was foolhardy. Hank Sheinkopf told me:
'This isn’t Amsterdam.
We have many narrow streets and a great number of cars
and trucks.'”

“We will never be Amsterdam; never be
Copenhagen. We are never going to be Portland.”
– Louise Hainline, President,
Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes

“Beijing is looking more like New York City and New York
City is moving towards Beijing of the 1960s & '50s.”
– Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President

Beijing, 1960s

Beijing, 2013

“We keep hearing that St. Paul wants to be like
Portland, and I always ask, ‘How long does the snow
last in Portland?’”
– Clare Malloy Bluhm, Local Taxpayers
for a Livable Community, St. Paul, MN

"This is a city made for people who want to
go from point A to point B. This is not some
Seattle coffee, grunge, pothead experiment.
This is Chicago."
– John Kass, Chicago Tribune

But…

"…But a lot of people are not particularly calm
about bicyclists, and we are deeply sympathetic."

"Some of my best
friends are cyclists."

"We’re not opposed to bike lanes. We’re
opposed to this one and the way it was
done. You have to be concerned about all
who use it, and that includes drivers,
pedestrians, and the bicyclists."
- Norman Steisel, former Deputy Mayor,
NBBL member.

“This is consistent with DOT’s decision to enlist an
individual (the ‘Blogger’) to wage a viral campaign against
critics of the PPW configuration, many of whom support
bike lanes generally, including on Prospect Park West.”
– Jim Walden, NBBL attorney

"I'm not against cycling. I think it’s
environmentally friendly. But they share
the roads with drivers and pedestrians
and they have a responsibility to follow
the same laws."
– Eric Ulrich, New York City
Councilman, Queens

"Listen. First off, I’m not against bicycles. My wife and I
have a bicycle. But I have an absolute right to raise a
question as to whether or not bicycle lanes should be
emphasized as a viable alternative transportation mode."
– Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough President

 Pre-exemptive self-exoneration.
 Invocation of humorless cycling advocates.
 Invocation of personal cycling bona fides.
 Reference to America’s love affair with cars.
 Invocation of damnable scofflaw cyclists.

Additional bikelash symptoms:
 Concern trolling.
 Nobody bikes, so we don’t
need bike lanes.
 There are too many cyclists,
so bike lanes are dangerous.

CITI BIKE
Virulent, Rapid-Onset Bikelash

The invasion…
April 7, 2013

NOMB: Not On My Block!

Citi Bike: Lawsuits

May 27, 2013
The day we’ve all been waiting for!

“The bike lobby is an all-powerful enterprise.”

"They're just f*cking bikes!”

Citibike: A pleasant way for wayward pols to pay penance.

TREATMENT
You CAN Fight Bikelash

Strong local advocacy organizations are key!
Apologies to the many great bike advocacy groups not recognized here!

In NYC T.A. has been working since the 1970's.
New York Times, November 15, 1980

Even on PPW we had a long-running community process.
Park Slope Civic Council
Forum on Traffic and Transportation
March 2006

We brought together every stakeholder we could think of.
Grand Army Plaza Coalition
Visioning Workshops
Summer 2006.

Highlight the problem.
Generate demand for change.
Super-Advocate Eric McClure speed-gunning on Prospect Park West
65 mph!

Fast, inexpensive, incremental design improvements.
Test out ideas. Circumvent fear-mongering. Create "wins."

Test out ideas. Circumvent fear-mongering. Create "wins."
Fast, inexpensive, incremental design improvements.

Show what it's all about:
Safe streets for kids, seniors, families.
April 10, 2011: We Ride the Lanes. 700 participants.

Be organized, vocal and VISIBLE.
Outstanding community meeting tactic:
Hand out Day-Glo stickers. Take a photo of supporters.

Build your own media channels!

“Digital networks have acted
as a massive positive supply
shock to the cost and spread of
information, to the ease and
range of public speech by
citizens, and to the speed and
scale of group coordination.”
- Clay Shirky
The Internet is our competitive advantage.

 Access to Information
 Group communication
 Group coordination
 Public documentation and
distribution of information.
Four things that advocates
and organizers need most:

Livable streets advocacy in the "old days."

#BikeNYC
Today we can do so much more at a fraction of the cost.

#WinterBiker
A social media campaign
by the Boston Cyclists
Union after a state
agency refused to clear
riverfront bike paths.

#WinterBiker spreads to Buffalo, New York

How I learned to stop worrying and love the bikelash.

“…a cyclist has an increased
heart rate and respiration.
That means that the act of
riding a bike results in
greater emissions of carbon
dioxide from the rider. Since
CO2 is a greenhouse gas
and a pollutant, bicyclists are
actually polluting when the
ride.”
– Rep. Ed Orcutt
Kalama, Washington

Del Close, the father of improv comedy…
…and your guru for beating the bikelash.

The Upright Citizens Brigade
TV stars, comedians, and experts in
dealing with crazy situations.

1. “Yes, and…”
2. The Game of the Scene.
Fundamentals of improv:

What if they had a War on Cars and nobody showed up?

The Game
of the Scene.

"Imagine if the man on the bike was a terrorist!"

PPW protest: lots to disagree with here...but should you?

Neighbors for Better Judgment

Infiltrating enemy lines…with humor!

How do you play “The Game”?
• Many editors, writers, and TV producers have
a narrative in mind.
• They will not deviate from it even when the
facts work against them.
• Your job: recognize their game, call it out…
…and then heighten it.

What is The Brooklyn Paper’s “Game”?

Create your own game:
• People who bike are regular people.
• It’s not “funny” by itself, but that’s the point.
• In comparison, arguments against cycling.
seem ridiculous without need for arguing.

Prevent Bikelash in Your Community:
 Build and support a healthy
advocacy eco-system.
 Develop your own media
channels.
 Change the conversation
through agreement.

There is a cure.

Bikelash! Presentation at the National Bike Summit, Washington D.C.

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Bikelash! Presentation at the National Bike Summit, Washington D.C.