Why is Riding a Bicycle in the City Turning Into a Culture War

Because the cities are being actively altered in a way that transfers space and other resources from cars, to bikes.

Zero sum game, resources being reallocated, obviously the people whose resources are being taken away are going to view that as a war.

I honestly think conservative media just tries to start as much shit as possible so they have something to talk about.

At this point they probably start out by picking some slightly complex idea that's objectively correct and then work backwards to find a way to disagree with it.

The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank, argues that the costs of such green initiatives outweigh their benefits, suggesting that they impose unnecessary economic burdens (Heartland Institute, 2017).

Guess some people see everything in a cost-profit margin only.

Man I am so tired of the endless parade of articles with the premise "How could conservatives possibly think this?? Surely if we just take the time to carefully understand their reasoning we can blah blah blah...."

Here I'll answer the the "why" right now:
A) Most US conservatives live in suburbs and rural areas and generally hate and fear inner cities and the people who live there. They also generally hate and fear environmentalism. They also greatly resent the idea that the USA isn't the best country on earth at literally everything. They're also violently homophobic and have such deeply toxic ideas of masculinity that they consider it to be weak and "gay" to drive a smaller vehicle.

So when an urbanism advocate says they want people to give up their lifted truck to live in a city and ride a bicycle so the US can be more like Europe and East Asia to help the environment how in the world do you expect them to react in any other way?

B) This is a population that's addicted to hate, fear and opposition like a drug, and conservative politicians and news orgs are the dealers. They need to periodically find something new to tantrum about. If there is no reason to hate something then a reason will be created. This was the case with LED lightbulbs, with COVID, with Romneycare, and so on and on and on. The 15 minute city conspiracy theories are not some sort of new unprecedented pattern of behavior.

There should be zero delivery trucks clogging city streets. Zero.

Good luck with that. And the bike-riding population will do all their shopping far outside the city, where shops still survive? A cargo bike is nice for personal shopping, for deliviering letters or small packets, but you won't be able to fill the shelves of a supermarket this way. And whoever thinks about using freight trams for this, sit down and actually think this idea through for a change.

1. New thing goes against capitalist interests
2. Propaganda machine manufactures consent via anti-thing news coverage
3. This works on people who are generally aligned with internalized capitalist assumptions (ex. climate regulation is worse for humanity than allowing market forces to act unimpeded)
4. People (conservatives) are now generally against thing and will block progress out of fear, even (and especially) if they don't really understand it on a meaningful level
5. Status-quo is maintained through perpetuation of internalized capitalist assumptions and self-censorship by those aligned with market forces
6. Profit (for billionaires)

A large part of this is about control. E-bikes are affordable, easy to use, and make it easy and cheaper for anyone, even poor people, to get around. The upper classes do not want the lower classes free on any level.

Because everything is a culture war.

What's your favourite colour? Whatever your answer to that question is, it will determine the side you're on for a culture war next week.

I live in a rural area, driving is basically a requirement. I've gotten to the point where I've driven for so long that, I don't really want to drive in cities anymore. Too many stupid people. I'd be happy to drive to the city limits, then hop a bus/train/subway/bicycle/scooter/electric riding thing to where I need to go.

I only still have a car because I live in such a remote area and there's literally nowhere nearby to go if you can't drive. It's literally an all day outing if you want to go to the nearest city by any method other than a vehicle.

I've been working from home the last few years and my car only really gets use when I'm called to a site for work, or running errands on weekends. I literally only travel maybe 30 hours of driving a year. This is in contrast to doing more like 60 hours behind the wheel every month before COVID...

IDK what you people are doing in cities, but "bike friendly" shouldn't be a conversation or debate. It should be the rule. However, far be it for me to tell you city folk what to do.

Consider this dichotomy:

• https://jalopnik.com/study-finds-cyclists-are-better-people-than-drivers-1850964103

• https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/more-than-half-of-motorists-view-cyclists-as-subhuman-cockroaches

There have always been jerks. I had things thrown at me from cars and cars swerving at me 40 years ago. Back then they were just random jerks and no part of some us/them mind set.

Forcing bikes into conflict with cars is of course going to create problems. When I first started riding being on a sidewalk was fine. If that wasn’t available there was usually a sufficiently wide breakdown lane. Only fools and couriers rode in busy urban environments. But with the big push for bikes both municipally and on the basis of personal preference they had to get bikes out of conflict wirh pedestrians on sidewalks, but in built-up urban environments where there isn’t any room to put in proper bike lanes. It’s just a recipe for inflamed tempers. Even on roads that are more suburban, a couple of 18mph bikes blocking a 45 mph road is stupid even if they have a right to be there. But we need more bikes.

Apologies as this is off topic, but does anyone have suggestions for how to minimize the extremely intrusive advertising that kind of ruins reading articles like these? 2/3rds of my mobile screen is covered with ads. If it matters I'm on iOS and use Chrome for my default mobile browser. I'm aware of the privacy implications of those choices.

because a lot of people are very stupid

Because cyclists are narcissistic people who think the vast minority of people who live in cycling distance of their work and everything else and never get enough from the store or anywhere else that is problematic to carry back home (seriously, do these people ever actually get anything of substance?) think they need entire city blocks completely dedicated to them while giving a big middle finger to people who just want to get to where they're going directly because they CAN ferry any decent amount of goods back and forth.

Not to mention their massive ableism that ignores people who cannot easily walk or ride for any decent distance and denies them direct access to places. Cities already do this to a point where there's no actual free parking anywhere for people, even parking dedicated for them which, in the suburbs, every single parking lot has spots right next to the building for them so it's as easy as possible to access. Most cities rely on garbage paid parking decks and lots far away from most things people need to get to, and even if they have spots for those people, they're still not as accessible as the vast majority of places in suburbs.

Cyclists are basically like vegans and religious people: ignorant, hateful, and annoying. It's not "turning" into a culture war: it is a culture war, with rich, fortunate elitists on one side and the rest of us on the other.

Because the powers that be created both r/fuckcars and pushed anti 15 min city bullshit. They now play both sides using research done by former wall street quants now working for major think tanks

Unpopular opinion: because cyclists are entitled assholes 😘