By: Purwanto Setiadi , co-founder of Lestari Negeriku consultancy who volunteers at B2W Indonesia
In recent days, when reality as well as the mind are relentlessly occupied by an obsession with motorized vehicles, there is too much hostility towards people on bicycles. This antagonistic gesture, be it visible or undisguised, or expressed quietly, generalizes bicycle users, that is all of them are jerks.
However, of all the bicycle users haters, there is one who raises concerns, or, more appropriately, gets us offended: those who could be called (or claim themselves as) keen cyclists or avid cyclists a.k.a. enthusiastic cyclists, if not fanatics. They usually say, “I am a cyclist myself, but…bla, bla, bla.”
That is what exactly sprang up as a response to the criticism put forward by B2W Indonesia with regard to the dropping from Jakarta’s budget plan money allocation to build more bike lanes, as reported in the media.
How do we know they have enthusiasm or display fanaticism? Honestly, I’ve never dealt face to face with one of them. They–men, women, old, young–could be doing daily bicycling and have been on it for years; they could also be pedaling only on…social media. But without doubt they have one thing in common: they hate, at least they don’t support, people/community groups who fight for special infrastructure in the streets dedicated to bicycle users.
”I am a cyclist too, but I don’t need bike lanes.”
”I am a cyclist too, but bike lanes are worsening traffic.”Indeed, it is with such sentence patterns they […]
Continue reading the original article at: en.tempo.co