Another excellent film about cycling and urban design from Street Films, Utrecht: Planning for People & Bikes, Not for Cars, dropped a couple of weeks ago.
My favourite passage comes near the beginning (emphasis mine):
I’m really fond of cycling, because it has so many positives: it’s about the noise, it’s about clean air, about climate, but also about how friendly it is. You really have the idea that people are the boss on the street, not machines.
Watching stories about dramatic and positive improvements in infrastructure and culture is inspiring, especially when you learn that they have taken place, in large part, within one generation.
We could do exactly the same thing here.
Comments
Re: who is the "boss" on the streets:
I heard someone from Reykjavik speaking about developing the bike paths in that city and he said, "We needed to make pedestrians and cyclists first class citizens and cars second." I think about that all of the time when I am walking.
This is why I refuse to yield to vehicles at crosswalks.
I think you need to be prepared for a long process of change - the car, and driving around dizzy block until you find a single spot in front of whatever store is left downtown, seems a big part of local culture. In fact it seems to have gotten worse since I left, with all the huge trucks so many love to buy for some reason.