Many issues stated by bicy.cling(on) advocates as their primary goals of advocacy befuddle the real objective; increase safety. People, in general, are naturally concerned about the environment, health and city planning concepts that strengthen a sense of community, but ask them why they don’t ride their bikes and you’re likely to get the answer: “It’s not safe.”

Studies have shown when people feel safe they’ll venture out on their bikes, and studies have also shown the safety quotient naturally increases as more people ride bikes; it’s a symbiotic relationship.

Many of the advocates I’ve met recently (who seem to be an “advocate” first and a “cyclist” somewhere else down the chain of priorities) focus on the outcomes of  increasing the number of people on bikes rather than the solution to increasing those numbers; they focus on environmental issues, health concerns, community and social engineering and not safety as the primary motivator to getting people on their bikes.

Those outcomes will be a great consequence of increasing safety and would unlikely be achieved without addressing safety first.

We need to keep people who ride their bikes safe from harm. Solutions that protect cyclists will also protect motorists and pedestrians too.  The rest will follow.

nO hablas tOnTas AniMaUx!

This is your carbon footprint.

If everyone suddenly stopped driving we’d reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by 10% (there’s a balance that also gets shifted around but we’ll ignore that for this argument).

Consider that CO2 contribution next time you get in your car.

Huh? 10%  – How many drivers need to be converted to bicycling if we want to reduce our carbon output by just 1%?

I wonder how much it would offset (positive or negative) car manufacture & delivery or clothes and personal effects.  How about Recreation & Leisure.

Looks like bicycle advocacy needs a stronger argument than merely CO2 reduction.  As BlahBlahFreddie likes to say: “It’s about the safety stupid.”

Image: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbonfootprint.html