> City councils believe cycling is recreational, not for commuting or for "real" use.
And nobody gives them a talking to? If any official said that here they would never live down the humiliation. They'd be the butt of every joke for weeks.
Some societies appear to tolerate stupid ideas that I'd be afraid to say out loud. Or maybe nobody actually believes that.
Is there actually someone from a city council or whoever on record saying that? I am doubtful.
It's not even this specific thing. There's a lot of "nothing going is going to happen because X believes Y" to go around that may just be straw men. Seems more like a defeatist attitude to me than something resembling reality.
There are hardly any active commuting cyclists in most cities, so no. Anyone who speaks up is outnumbered 50x by motorists who feel extremely entitled to never have to see a bike.
Don't forget the active recreational cyclists ("middle aged man in lycra", or MAMIL) who only cycle on the weekends. The city planner in the LA suburb I was referencing said that the councilmen were all weekend cyclists, so didn't see the need for bike lanes as a form of commuting.
And nobody gives them a talking to? If any official said that here they would never live down the humiliation. They'd be the butt of every joke for weeks.
Some societies appear to tolerate stupid ideas that I'd be afraid to say out loud. Or maybe nobody actually believes that.
Is there actually someone from a city council or whoever on record saying that? I am doubtful.
It's not even this specific thing. There's a lot of "nothing going is going to happen because X believes Y" to go around that may just be straw men. Seems more like a defeatist attitude to me than something resembling reality.