Originally Posted by
frmsncyclst
First, this is in no way meant as a attack or anything of the like on John Forester. While a lot of us disagree with & do not like what he has to say he has a right to say it.
I am calling a statment by him into question though. That statement is this one:
Most Americans on bicycles ride in the manner that they learned as children, according to societal norms that were produced by the motoring establishment in order to keep cyclists in their place.
Let's use the members of BF as a representation of most Americans. Vote in this poll, either yes or no, which will indicate whether you still ride in the manner that you learned as a child. Yes meaning you still do & no meaning you do not.
I would really like to see proof of the so called societal norms. What does that even mean, anyway? I'd love to see the documented proof that the motoring public created to keep cyclists in their place. Does such proof exist? If it does can anyone provide a web link to it?
The bolded statement above is a false premise. "Most Americans" do not frequent BF, nor do "most Americans" readily regularly ride a bicycle. The fact is that while the US enjoys more bicycles per capita than most other nations, we also have nearly the lowest number of regular cyclists, amounting to about 2% of all transportation needs in the nation. (I rounded up)
Now the ironic thing is that this creates a rather interesting picture of the bike industry in the US... an industry that manages to sell a product that is almost immediately stored in the garage, and rarely used.
The majority of cycling that is done in this country is recreational "park and path" riding.
So to use BF members as a representation of "most Americans" is to paint a pretty false picture.