Excerpt from Streetsblog Capitol Hill by Angie Schmitt<\/p>\n
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Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland<\/a> attended both his local protests and it got him thinking about the parallels between Occupy Wall Street\u2019s rallying cry \u2014 \u201cWe are the 99 percent\u201d \u2014 and the 68 percent of city dwellers who say they would bike if they felt safe enough. He wonders if bike advocates could take a page from this phenomenon:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s, for the sake of discussion, compare the \u201ctop 1 percent\u201d with the last century of auto-dominated urban planning and its ongoing primacy due to the politics around transportation funding.<\/p>\n And many of you are aware that bicycling dominated American life in the late 19th century, only to be all but eradicated by the onslaught of the automobile (which, ironically, took over the \u201cgood roads\u201d bike lovers pushed for<\/a>). The dominance of auto-centric development, policies, and roads are what have led to the situation where we currently have only 0.6 percent<\/strong> of our fellow citizens who use a bicycle as their primary means of getting to work.<\/p>\n Outrageous right? The 68 percent should be marching in the streets! People deserve equal levels of safety whether they choose to drive a car or ride a bike!<\/p>\n To make change in America that\u2019s not supported by corporations or the existing power structure (both of which apply to bicycling), you need people in the streets. It\u2019s as simple as that. Conferences, summits, meetings with politicians, and new laws will only get you so far.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n