A recent article in the New York Times provided less-than-flattering images of our fair River City. The story related the difficulties of auto-culture vs. bike-culture and ends up painting a picture of a backward anti-bike community from Kentucky. The pummeling of an innocent biker leaving him “prostrate on the sidewalk, bloodied, with a concussion and a torn ligament” certainly isn’t what Mayor Jerry invokes when describing Possibility City.
Describing the increasing popularity of biking as new bike lanes come online and environmental consciousness grows, the Times continued, “With more bikes on the road, the driver-cyclist, Hatfield-McCoy hostility seems to be ratcheting up.” The article goes on to detail the potentially dangerous reality of an emergent way of transportation in other cities and offers hope for civility in the future. Louisville’s glaring bad behaviour is placed front and center for the entire world to see.
What’s your reaction to the article and what are your experiences with auto-bike culture in Louisville? Don’t be shy in the comments (but do be civil).
- Moving Targets (NY Times)