Re: Bicycle Friendly Cities

"RicodJour" <ricodjour@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:1174929748.321115.82870@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

On Mar 24, 6:13 pm, Dan <d...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tim McNamara <tim...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:timmcn-
9CA44C.11135924032...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Where would be a good source of information to locate a bicycle
friendly US city?

I want to commute to work on bicycle ways that are separated from
the motor ways. I prefer commuting through countryside to
commuting through suburbia. I had this when I was living in
Germany, and now that I'm back in the USA, I miss it. Do I have to
move back to Europe?
There are lots of places that are pretty bike friendly. Try
Googling "bicycle friendly cities" and see what you get. Several
organizations do rankings along these lines.

I got that far. These organizations are promoting a lot of what I
would call hype in their zeal to get all the cities on board.

An example of the hype is the situation in Boulder which I just
learned is a heated and dangerous battle between too many cars and
too many bikes. I have a picture of congestion, smog, and heated
close calls. That sounds too much like the ugly situation in London
for my tastes.

Anyway, it's hype to me when we only read about platinum, gold,
silver etc status and the good points meriting them and don't see
anything written about the negative points, which in the case of
Boulder negate the whole thing for me.

I got the negative points from a Boulder resident on another
newsgroup.

BTW, Boulder has a gold rating. If the resident who responded is
right and Boulder is a gold rating. <shakes head> I can't go by the
articles on the sites with the Agenda 21 zeal.

I need practical response from residents or people who have no
interest in putting the bicycle friendly efforts in glowing terms.

Portland OR is usually high on the list as is Seattle. Davis CA is
another. Minneapolis/St. Paul is pretty bike friendly and getting
more so.

It looks like there is a Eugene, Oregon that has separated paths
through some natural areas, the swamp outside of town. That could be
relaxing.

http://www.nwsource.com/travel/scr/tf_story.cfm?st=695230

Minneapolis/St. Paul was one of my earlier ideas, but I hadn't seen
anything written before what you wrote about its bicycle
friendliness. Is that where you live? What I like about that area is
that those of scandinavian descent like myself tend to be low key.
I've also heard that they are pretty outdoorsy there for a northern
city.

I hear Davis is a hippy town. Maybe there'd be too many bleeding
heart opinions about minutia to have to suffer through there for my
tastes, but I guess I'll never know without a trip there to get the
atmoshere.

It seems to me that you're putting political, lifestyle,

Yes, I am.

and bigoted

No, bigoted is when you tear other people down. It is not when you state
your own preference. I'm not the one saying that people are not allowed
their preferences. You are the one that is saying that. Look. You just
did it. You just said that I am not allowed to have my preference.

criteria (people of Scandinavian descent are...WTF?)

What's wrong with that? Scandinavians are even keel. The Italians would
perhaps say about them, "Oh, those Scandinavians are icey. They have no
*PASSION*. What boring people. Stone faced trolls." They can think that
about me if they want, but apparently you don't allow them to.

And to me, the Italians are hot blooded, jumping to a heated verbal fight
for the fun of it, and aggressive players of chicken on the road. Again,
I have the right to my impressions, if that's what I think. It's not, but
if I did, it would my right. I like the Italians too, just fine. But when
it comes to where I want to live and work, I'd probably live to a riper
old age if I stayed with my even keeled kinsmen.

Of course, the tendencies are just broad brush strokes that fail to take
into acount the texture layed over them. There were certain ones of us
Vikings who were total berserkers wielding an axe and a sword in battle
with no thought to their life and limb. That doesn't seem even keel. So,
on every broad brush stroke there can be texture.

That's why I use the word 'tendency.' That makes what I'm saying useful
instead of misleading.

It's not my fault if you are intolerant of broad brush strokes described
as 'tendency.'

Here's another one for you. Women tend not to be even keeled. Are you
going to fight me on that one too? Note the word, 'tend.'

into your
decision making process.

<shrug> Nothing wrong with that. If I decide women are too skizoid for
me, I can be gay, can't I? Isn't that what you liberals preach?

I'm not gay, but I've seen their tendencies. They tend to fantisize about
men instead of women. Are you saying tendencies don't exist?

What happened to free speech? Free thought? Orwell was right. This world
is rampant with corporate wars, double think, new speak, and thought
police.

Who put you in charge? Komrad Marx? You are supressing reality, dude.

Sounds to me like you're the one that's hard
to please as there are a number of cities where riding bikes work out
just fine.

I'm not hard to please. I just want a laid back background for my life
without short fuses going off all around me all of the time--like your
short fuse.

How about this... Hop on the bike, check out a whole bunch of cities,
and write up a blog.

Thanks for the invitation. Are you saying you like my writing style?

Make sure to rate each city on your
discriminatory...excuse me...discriminating criteria.

OK. I have no problem with that. I am discriminating. That's a good
attribute. I admit it. Everyone should do it and admit to it.

Now discriminating is a different thing from bigotry. Bigotry is what you
are doing. You are attacking me for the way I am.

That way people
will hopefully be able to filter out your bias in a way that you are
unable to filter out other people's biases.

And they should. That's called discrimination. They should discriminate
what I'm saying.

.

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