New York City traffic, circa 1890. (Associated Press)

It’s a great time to be a bike advocate—so go ahead and party like it’s 1899.

By Bob Mionske

Fifty years ago, there was no national bicycling advocacy organization. This hadn’t always been the case. Our nation’s first paved roads were developed expressly for cyclists—through the lobbying efforts of the League of American Wheelmen, which had 102,000 members in 1898. But new technology—the automobile—ended cyclists’ dominance, and the League disbanded in 1902. (It was eventually revived, and is now known as the League of American Bicyclists.)

During the 1950s and ’60s, car culture flourished, as did suburban living. Transportation planners designed streets to accommodate these trends, and by 1970, few people believed the roads were for anything but cars. Then, something unexpected happened: College-age baby boomers rediscovered the bicycle. Americans were riding bikes again.

Today, advocacy groups exist in every state, and many cities employ bicycle coordinators whose duties include developing cycling infrastructure. The bipartisan Congressional Bike Caucus has more than 160 members in 43 states. And riders now have a variety of tools at their disposal—including social media, GPS devices, and camera-equipped cell phones—that will no doubt play an increasingly pivotal role in the fight for cyclists’ rights.

GM Blunders onto Campus
 

Clearly GM has heard from a lot of cycling folks, including BikePortland who first alerted GM through twitter that all hell was breaking lose about these ads. According to the LA Times and from the GM Twitter feed, hey have been very busy responding to all the messages they got via facebook and twitter – and have basically apologized and said they are going to change the campaign and drop the ads, which is good.
If you are a student looking to add tens of thousands of dollars of long term debt, care little about the environment, and want to lump two tons of steel around campus while paying through the nose for insurance, gas, and parking…General Motors has got a perfect deal for you. Bonus: it’ll make you fat and unhealthy! All you have to do is give up that dorky bicycle that’s easy to use, practically free, gets you some exercise and is actually fun to ride.  

In one of the more remarkably ill-conceived car ad campaigns of all time, good corporate citizen GM is heading to campus to actively stop you from riding a bike by trying to make it look like it sucks. Obviously it’s been a while since GM execs and their creative teams set foot on campus. Anyway, I’m sure the campus facilities people will love having to add thousands of extra car parking spaces on campus at $30,000 a pop (who needs more buildings to learn in anyway, lets fill campus with parking structures).