In today’s paper (I assume, it’s online, that’s all I know) Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius trains his eye on San Francisco’s attitude towards bikes and their riders. A timely piece, in light of the ink spilled recently on the Board of Supervisors’ approval of San Francisco’s bike plan Environmental Impact Report and last weekend’s bike sharing meet-and-greet at Golden Gate Park.
His argument seems to the the basic utilitarian one familiar to anyone who made it through to the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (“At the core of this is a simple proposition: the wishes of the few versus the needs of the many”) leading him to assert that “the idea of significantly reconfiguring the city (to accommodate cyclists) isn’t realistic.” Which, whatever. Y’all can fight that one out in the comments, if you’d like.
But the part of his piece that really jumped out at us:
“Want a cheap, easy way to get to the office? We have one. It is called a bus.”
Is this a trick? Really? Is he going there? There are entire, award-winning websites devoted to how non-easy riding Muni is. I’m having a hard time finding any on how unpleasant it is to ride a bike here. Hardly the ultimate answer, when trying to gauge ease of use of a mode of transit, but COME ON.
