An interesting take on bike culture in America and the conflicts between drivers and cyclists:

Creating a New Normal

So why are cyclists so hated?  Blame social-identity theory.  Cyclists can be dismissed as a sub-subculture, one far removed from an American mainstream defined by cars and drivers.  To a driver, a cyclist is an unpredictable outsider, someone implicitly less worthy of respect — or for that matter, of space on the road.  And if one biker blows a red light, that’s evidence that all these outsiders are careless, whereas a lawbreaking driver isn’t held up as proof that all drivers are thoughtless…”People tend to look at the out group and overgeneralize them,” says Ian Walker, a professor of traffic psychology at the University of Bath in Britain, “while you tend to underplay the differences within your own group.”

With most American cities designed around the automobile, I believe that people’s mindsets are framed to create a close relationship between the idea of “the road” and “the car”.  As a result, some drivers perceive cyclists as interlopers into a space whose original purpose was to serve the automobile.

What are your thoughts?

(Source: TIME)

Shared Spaces: NY’s Flatiron District is doing it right.

Flatiron Public Plazas

The Public Plazas were opened in August 2008, complete with a reconfiguration of traffic patterns at the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. This project creates safer conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. Additional pedestrian space, new crosswalks and bike lanes and simplified patterns for vehicular traffic knit the neighborhood together and provide a more enjoyable experience for the people who live, work, do business in, and visit the area.

(Source: flatironbid.org)