I Don't Want To Be A “Bike Activist”
I moved to the Boston area in no small part because it had a subway.
I felt more at home when I realized I could bike from my residence in Belmont to the middle of downtown.
I found Cambridge Bicycle Safety when I realized almost getting hit by drivers had become a regular part of my day.
Now I spend almost as much time on street safety advocacy some weeks as I do on my job.
I have leveraged my existing graphic design, web development, and public outreach skills, but I have also learned more than I ever expected to about attending government meetings and hearings, urban planning, and street design and construction. I am not disappointed to have expanded my knowledge in that direction—in some ways, I am just getting involved with level and environmental design for the biggest massive multiplayer offline role-playing game out there, and there is a certain creative fulfillment in that¡ But this also isn't my job, and it is other people's.
Behind every genuine activist is a government not doing enough for its community. When that happens, the people affected can choose to grab the best lives they can within the status quo, or give up some of their regular lives in the hopes that, with enough effort, we can persuade the people who took on the responsibility of power that we deserve to not get killed. Think about the activists you learned about in grade school. How many of them got the basic rights they were owed and got to go live the lives they wanted, and how many “gave their lives” to the cause—not necessarily by literally dying for it (though many have), but at least by never being free of the fight? How many people are labeled activists for basic facts of their existences or activities that should be unremarkable?
The amazing volunteers I have worked with from Biking Brookline, the Boston Better Streets Coalition, the Boston Cyclists Union, Cambridge Bicycle Safety, Citizens Climate Lobby Boston, Families for Safe Streets, the LivableStreets Alliance, MassBike, Medford Bikes, the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets, TransitMatters, Transportation 4 Massachusetts, Walk Massachusetts, and whoever else I may have forgotten have spent more hours than I can count doing the jobs of the U.S. Congress, USDOT, Massachusetts legislature, MassDOT, DCR, Cambridge City Council, Brookline Transportation Board, Belmont Department of Public Works, and Mayor Wu and the members of her Streets Cabinet she hasn't pushed into quitting. Across the greater Boston area, Massachusetts, and the whole U.S., our governments are failing us on (among many other issues) the basic guarantee of being able to walk down your street without getting hit by an automobile.
And despite all that effort, do you know what actually makes the fastest progress? What got DCR to build new protected micromobility infrastructure the fastest? John Corcoran getting killed by a light truck. What got the City of Cambridge to build protected intersections the fastest? Kim Staley and Minh-Thi Nguyen getting killed by trucks. What got Mayor Wu to unfreeze one street safety project? 4-year-old Gracie Gancheva getting killed by a light truck.
I am proud of the street designs I am publishing on my website today, but please remember it should never have fallen to me to make them. I am proud to have personally gotten the intersection where I was hit by a light truck “daylit”, but please remember it should never have been on me to make that happen. I don't want to be an activist just to be able to get around my city without getting hit by an automobile. I certainly don't want to have to give my life for it.
Obligatory P.S.: You could say all this about all manner of human rights. Vulnerable road user safety is a hot topic in Boston right now, but so is the right to not get kidnapped by unaccountable masked agents, shot by police, abused by employers, or otherwise attacked for basic facts of who you are.
P.P.S. Massive thank you to Somerville, Massachusetts Mobility Director Brad Rawson, all the amazing folks in the Mobility Division, and everyone in the City Council and Mayor's Office who empowers them. Instead of just treating Vision Zero as a buzzword, they have made transformational changes to our streets over the past few years (with more on the way), and now we are in our 3rd consecutive year of zero (0) road deaths in Somerville!
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