News

By Jim Golden

Clean Mobility Fellow

Over the last two years, Buffalo and the surrounding region has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of cycling and pedestrian injuries and fatalities caused by motor vehicles. Some riders have been left for dead on the side of the road while others have suffered injuries from which they will never fully recover. As is too often the case, the immediate response is to attempt to normalize these deaths, or worse, blame the victims. Although reasonable safety measures can be taken to minimize the frequency and severity of such accidents, there are many who seem more concerned that they may be inconvenienced by the presence of bike lanes or speed bumps during their daily commute than they are by people getting killed while riding their bikes.

This is likely attributable to America’s car culture, which prizes the independence and autonomy offered by owning an automobile. Consequently, the country’s landscape has been shaped by our reverence for and reliance upon cars to the point that those who use alternative forms of transportation, such as a bicycle, are often viewed as a nuisance, if not worse. Setting aside the economic, health, and environmental benefits of cycling, it is myopic to believe that car ownership should afford one a greater claim to roadways and safe travel than any other form of transportation.

Nonetheless, whether someone chooses to ride a bicycle because it is good for the environment, good for their body, and the most economical means of transportation available to them, their safety should not be so easily sacrificed simply because we deign to inconveniencing motorists. If, as many assert, “all lives matter,” then that includes our friends, family, and children when they are on their bikes.