What have we done to ourselves?
I read a story today about a little 10 year-old girl in Elizabethton, Tennessee. This little girl was riding her bicycle down a relatively quiet residential street to school one morning when she was stopped by a police officer who felt that it wasn't safe for her to be riding her bicycle to school. The officer took the girl home and explained to the mother that he felt the bicycling was unsafe. He informed the mother that he'd be speaking with CPS about the issue, but that until that had been resolved it would be considered child neglect on the part of the mother for the daughter to continue riding her bicycle to school.
Andy Clarke, the President of the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), commented that "is a frustrating story with no obvious winners and lots of people left feeling aggrieved. The basic principle that it really should be... perfectly reasonable for a capable 10-year old to ride her bike to school on local streets is in danger of getting lost."
I'm very sympathetic to the officer's plight. He has a responsibility to promote public safety. When he sees this little girl doing something that appears quite dangerous, he should do what he can to try to make sure the child grows up in a safe environment. I'm also very sympathetic to the mother and her daughter. Why shouldn't a 10-year old girl be able to ride her bicycle to school on quiet residential streets? What's wrong with our society that a young kid can't safely ride her bicycle to school nowadays?
The biggest problem is how wholly enmeshed in car culture we've become. Some communities (mostly older communities) have walkable and bicycle-friendly infrastructure. They have sidewalks. They have grid-style street networks that allow cyclists to choose routes that aren't as heavily driven Suburban arterial-surface street networks are a cycling nightmare because they force you to ride on streets poorly designed for cycling (accidents, particularly bad accidents, are more common here) and they're designed to increase traveling speed for cars even if that means the route is substantially longer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
As a society we've chosen to invest in infrastructure that is bad for everybody but automobile users. It's no longer safe for a 10-year old girl to ride her bicycle to school. The days of Theodore Cleaver riding his bike to school are dead. We've completely abandoned the world our fathers gave to us: a world that gave us great freedom and many worthwhile experiences as children. We've replaced it with a world that gratifies every desire that you and I have, even though it ruins the lives of many other people who don't have a voice in our society. Oh and did I mention that our brave new society makes us obese? What a bargain!
So much for the good old days.
I read a story today about a little 10 year-old girl in Elizabethton, Tennessee. This little girl was riding her bicycle down a relatively quiet residential street to school one morning when she was stopped by a police officer who felt that it wasn't safe for her to be riding her bicycle to school. The officer took the girl home and explained to the mother that he felt the bicycling was unsafe. He informed the mother that he'd be speaking with CPS about the issue, but that until that had been resolved it would be considered child neglect on the part of the mother for the daughter to continue riding her bicycle to school.
Andy Clarke, the President of the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), commented that "is a frustrating story with no obvious winners and lots of people left feeling aggrieved. The basic principle that it really should be... perfectly reasonable for a capable 10-year old to ride her bike to school on local streets is in danger of getting lost."
I'm very sympathetic to the officer's plight. He has a responsibility to promote public safety. When he sees this little girl doing something that appears quite dangerous, he should do what he can to try to make sure the child grows up in a safe environment. I'm also very sympathetic to the mother and her daughter. Why shouldn't a 10-year old girl be able to ride her bicycle to school on quiet residential streets? What's wrong with our society that a young kid can't safely ride her bicycle to school nowadays?
The biggest problem is how wholly enmeshed in car culture we've become. Some communities (mostly older communities) have walkable and bicycle-friendly infrastructure. They have sidewalks. They have grid-style street networks that allow cyclists to choose routes that aren't as heavily driven Suburban arterial-surface street networks are a cycling nightmare because they force you to ride on streets poorly designed for cycling (accidents, particularly bad accidents, are more common here) and they're designed to increase traveling speed for cars even if that means the route is substantially longer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
As a society we've chosen to invest in infrastructure that is bad for everybody but automobile users. It's no longer safe for a 10-year old girl to ride her bicycle to school. The days of Theodore Cleaver riding his bike to school are dead. We've completely abandoned the world our fathers gave to us: a world that gave us great freedom and many worthwhile experiences as children. We've replaced it with a world that gratifies every desire that you and I have, even though it ruins the lives of many other people who don't have a voice in our society. Oh and did I mention that our brave new society makes us obese? What a bargain!
So much for the good old days.