Bicyclists Join the Voice of San Diego to Share their Perspective
Posted By Sam Ollinger on October 6, 2011
Two years ago a Voice of San Diego reporter, Keegan Kyle, revealed both his disdain for cyclists and his bias as a reporter when he made some not so subtle digs at critical mass and, thus, at cyclists.
Now with all eyes on San Diego as SANDAG scrambles to revamp their 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, the media outlets in San Diego appear to finally be understanding the significant role that the bicycle plays in the transportation sector, including how bicycling will be tremendously useful in solving our air pollution problems and our headaches with automobile based gridlock.
To that end, Voice San Diego has published a good selection of articles and opinion pieces to start a public conversation about the role the bicycle does and can play within our transportation sector:
- Fix San Diego: Bicycling and Bike Lanes : Grant Barrett, engagement editor for the Voice of San Diego, began the conversation on how San Diego ought to be fixed.
- Opinion: Making San Diego More Bike-ish: Grant then asked me about what I thought some first steps to making San Diego more bike friendly could be. I then shared some thoughts on how we could reach for some low hanging fruit.
- Specifically, Here’s How Biking is Terrible in San Diego: Henry Rosen, a resident and bike commuter from Pacific Beach, then shared his thoughts on why he thought San Diego was one of the worst cities for bicycling. He listed some specific sections of the city that have long been neglected by San Diego.
- Decoding Secrets in San Diego’s Transportation Future: VOSD reporter Adrian Florido wrote an article that delved deeper into SANDAG’s supposed proprietary transportation model (built using public funds) that is being used to determine how our transportation sector for the next forty years will be built and funded. I suspect the assumptions made by SANDAG are flawed, but without knowing exactly what variables are used to make the forecast, it is difficult to know whether their assumptions are valid or reliable.
Thanks, Sam, for your help and contributions. Lots of energy behind bikes here in San Diego and lots of pent-up good thinking waiting to come out. We’ll keep the door open for comments and opinion pieces as long as people want to continue to talk about bikes and bicycling (and whatever else is on their minds).
This Keegan fellow sits behind me. Sounds dangerous. Should I be worried?
Best wishes,
Grant Barrett
Engagement Editor
grant@voiceofsandiego.org
http://voiceofsandiego.org
cell (619) 800-3348
office direct (619) 550-5666
http://twitter.com/grantbarrett
I’m excited to see the shift in thinking at VOSD. I’d only be worried about that Keegan guy if he continues to spout off about bicycling without riding more often or keeping an open mind and learning all the reasons why cyclists in this city are so frustrated and grumpy.
I’m looking forward to see how this discussion plays out, going forward.
henry rosen’s article is spot on. the bicycling infrastructure in san diego is more family friendly vs commuter friendly. there are no complete or safe north/south east/west routes in this city/county. that’s where we should start.
you can see how well conceived our city is when you consider the trolley doesn’t go north of the 8 and nowhere near the airport.