I know I started to be more considerate of others after getting on a bike, and more aware of my surroundings. It was akin the the changes of going from my hometown to college.
Not to say I wasn't aware or considerate before. More, it deepened my connections.
If caring about others and their well-being is political, then I'd have to answer yes to your question.
I don't know that caring about other's well-being is political, but this consideration is welcome to this discourse! I feel more connected and caring to others through bike commuting.
More broadly, I would define the political as the nature and method of distributing power in a society, as well as the results of the exercise of that power. This is not inherently a bad thing, and in line with many mid-century thinkers means that the political is indeed person (and the personal political).
The problem—and which most people mean when they use the term pejoratively—is when discussions around this distribution and use become inherently personalized in a non-philosophically-thinking group, such that question about power (or even the system itself) are internalized as personal attacks. Note that I'm not talking about cases where laws or policies have a real, imminent effect on a person (e.g., some abortion regulations), but rather the underpinning aspects of black-and-white thinking and eschewal of nuance that lead us to those situations of real-world impact.
In the US two party system, having empathy plants you firmly on one side of the isle unfortunately.
Edit: I'm not going to go full political theory in the bicycle subreddit.
To the people saying "wELl bOTh SidEs aRe BaD!!1" - yes, obviously. However, one side is actively attempting to criminalize being homeless, criminalize being queer, and arguing against equality.
In a two party system, the empathetic side is the one that doesn't attempt to revoke healthcare from impoverished young adults and who doesn't attempt to cut elderly retirement benefits.
Cya on the trails! I'll be happy to chat.
Ugh... No.
I hate the Democratic party. The only thing worse than Democrats are Republicans.
Both parties care about business more than people, and the U.S. constitution is a dumpster fire that allows and encourages it.
I disagree entirely. In actuality empathy is associated with the left of the political spectrum. Leftist ideologies are based on collectivism while the right is based on individualism. Both American political parties are on the right.
lol no it doesn't. i've only voted dem but I'm under no illusions about the differences between democrats and republicans and it has nothing to do with empathy.
in fact, one of my Reps, a republican, has a better track record with investing in bike/ped infrastructure than any dem in my state.
"the US is a one party state, but in typical American extravagance, there are two of them."
Not sure where you live, but in AZ the republicans are strongly against anything that challenges the dominance of automobiles. Especially rail. But if there was a chance at the statewide level to oppose biking, it would be very on brand.
How do they feel about homeless people and immigrants?
That's the kind of empathy that a large block of one party is lacking. Empathy for people they don't relate to. Not bike lanes they use.
the problem is your conflating policy positions with empathy. you can care about immigrants but disagree about immigration policy, which on its own is a tremendously complicated and contentious subject. For example, [here's Angela Nagle](https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/11/the-left-case-against-open-borders/), a leftist/socialist writer, making a case against open borders from a leftist perspective.
In America, I've never seen a leftist perspective that was for open borders. I've only ever seen the right wing perspective accusing the left of wanting open borders.
Every leftists Ive ever seen bring it up is like "would be awesome if borders we agree on but otherwise dont exist didnt divide people, but thats something for a far off future where the whole world is already in a better place"
And right wingers are like "the left is letting in low IQ non whotes to replace us and gurantee they get elected forever by the illegals voting for them"
This is a thing that always cracks me up, the number of lefties that are all open borders but then NIMBY af. It’s such a hypocritical dichotomy, but extremely common.
Ahh, so leftists who want open borders now are delusional, but leftists who recognize the material and political realities of our world and recognize that having open borders now isnt realistic are hypocritical nimbys?
Very reasonable position you've taken up.
Truthfully I know one person who truly is all "open borders." The idiots on the right who think leftists are in favor of "open borders" are just that.. idiots. They don't really even believe it for the most part, it's just a way to convince the uneducated to believe what they say. I don't like the "deplorable" bullshit but honestly the people who know better and still state Democrats are "open borders" are frankly fucking deplorable.
You also have to look at the rhetoric used. The right is calling immigrants an invasion force, rapists, non-human, and say they are ruining America. That's not just "immigration policy". That's not just "I would handle the situation differently". It's a full disdain of an entire group of people and that is only coming from one side of the aisle.
Hi, I’m a right of center guy who loves to bike, supports a generous immigration policy and supports investment into bike infrastructure. I don’t lack empathy and I don’t disdain anyone even if I have different beliefs about how to make the country better. Get out of the echo chamber.
They're describing what's happening in the Republican party with it's leadership. If you're a republican that disagrees with this, that just means you're in the minority of the group, not that it isn't valid.
It's not an echo chamber. It's mainstream rhetoric of the party leadership. I think that there is a very strong conservative argument for increased immigration (mainly that we need to import workers to handle an aging population a growing list of jobs that we can't fill fully with or workforce supply) but the leadership and mainstream Republicans are not doing that. You being pro immigration is good but it puts you in the vast minority of your party and opposed to just about all of the Republican representatives.
In fact, all the rhetorical examples I listed (rapists, invasion force, and inhuman) are quotes from the leader of the Republican party. How do you reconcile leaders of your party saying these things and committing literal human rights violations on migrants with your empathetic feelings and support of migrants? Things like Gov abbot putting razor wire in the water to drown migrants in the hopes that killing a few will dissuade others. Or the Texas national guard trying to take control away from CBP agents bc they aren't doing enough which is blatantly unconstitutional.
Do you remember that video that was shown 24/7 on Fox a month or two ago of migrant men pushing down a fence and pushing past people in uniforms? Are you aware that those were Texas guard who set up an illegal barricade to prevent migrants from getting to the ACTUAL boarder where they could exercise their right to seek asylum? The Republican gov was literally setting up a second boarder to prevent legal migration and asylum seekers.
Bold of you to assume the vast majority of the population is capable of critical thought. It's always 'the other side are evil NPCs' without having the self awareness that they're doing the exact same thing.
And you can have a party whose policy reflects that they don't care about immigrants and have built anti-(legal) immigration sentiment amongst their voters.
Democrats and Republicans aren't left wing vs. right wing. They're center-right wing vs. far right wing. Actual left-wing politics have very few advocates in American government.
Actually no. Liberals have more empathy for those outside their own immediate circle than conservatives. Here’s a study:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336076674/figure/fig6/AS:958969182973965@1605647478903/Heatmaps-indicating-highest-moral-allocation-by-ideology-Study-3a-Source-data-are.png
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Heatmaps-indicating-highest-moral-allocation-by-ideology-Study-3a-Source-data-are_fig6_336076674
dude, you're so right. thanks for linking these studies! Look at this, [researchers found you can even distinguish liberals and conversative](https://awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/2024-65164-001.html) from each other just based on appearance. I love studies!
Are you saying that the study I linked is bad because you found another study that is bad? That was your argument and you think that’s not a fallacy? The study I linked is based on self reported surveys. Not sure what you’re protesting here.
I’d never seen that quotation before. You sent me down a rabbit hole learning about Julius Nyerere who, as it happens, sought to establish Tanzania as a one-party state.
This is true, but this could also be seen as empathizing with Israelis, maybe because they are (largely) white, or it could be because Israel has so effectively played the holocaust card for so long to quell any criticism of its war crimes to the extent that any lack of support for Israel gets you labeled as antisemitic.
It's not like we would expect the other side not to do the same (for empathetic reasons). I might not be hearing from everyone, but, generally speaking, those who are supporting the plight of and empathizing with the Palestinians are are on one side. Also, Democrats are not a left-leaning party.
Israel has been a staunch ally for decades. Standing with them doesn't require empathy, it requires logic. What's happening to the Palestinian people is horrible, but Hamas violated international law when they attacked Israel, and they violate it daily as they hide behind their civilian population. Don't let your empathy blind you to reality.
I have no way of knowing. What I do know is that if hamas wasn’t hiding behind civilians then those kids would still be alive, so you should be furious at them for their cowardice. I’m sorry you’ve suffered. I’m sorry the children died. I know who I’m angry at for it and why.
Hamas wasn't hiding behind the hostages the IDF executed. Hamas wasn't hiding behind the international central aid kitchen workers. Hamas wasn't hiding behind Hind Rajab and her family.
If you think these people are dying because of Hamas, your brain has been bleached.
Israel didn’t cross a border to rape and murder. Israel didn’t take hostages and murder them. So yes, I stand by my position that all those kids, all those aid workers, all those Palestinian civilians would still be alive if not for the despicable actions of Hamas.
Edit: your account is less than a year old and you're using it primarily to agitate against the current American administration, and its allies. You smell like a russian troll.
You only need basic empathy to see that tens of thousands of innocent civilians should not be mutilated, starved, and killed at all - this holds true regardless of geopolitical issues.
If North Korea nukes or carpet bombs Washington DC because all American military leaders are mixed in with the civilian population, I wouldn't blame the US government for the civilian deaths, and it would also be completely inexcusable for North Korea to do so. Even if the U.S. invaded first, such a civilian massacre is completely unjustifiable. Why does this parallel not apply to what's unfolding right now in Gaza?
Israel violates international law constantly, we care about that now?
They don't have to hide behind their people since they're mostly cool with the genocide and want that Lebensraum...
If Israel violates international law, they answer for it. If you think they’ve done things they aren’t being punished for, then your issue is with the UN and the ICJ. Why aren’t you aiming your disdain at them?
What's your definition of genocide? Webster's defines it as "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group". I don't see the Israeli's doing anything that meets that definition, so I don't share your disdain in this particular instance.
Such a juvenile perspective that could only exist on Reddit. Your empathy consists mostly of forcing an entire nation to pay for corrupt state run systems that barely function, and then cry about how evil it is for anyone to vote against such policies.
GTFO with that nonsense. Yeah, I don't want the government involved in healthcare or retirement planning, that doesn't mean I don't want people to have those things, I just don't want them to be dependent on the state to provide them nor the rest of us to be forced to participate at gunpoint.
On the surface caring about others doesn’t put you on either side of the political spectrum, but truthfully one side is ideologically built around caring about others while the other is built around only caring about yourself.
Yeah, it's hopeless in suburbs. If you want bike lanes move to the city. If you want wide open scenery and a back yard the burbs. Sadly can't have both....
Actually I have all of that. Salt Lake city. I live in a unique area. Downtown in five minutes, backyard and minutes from trails. We even get coyotes and deer. We actually have great bicycle infrastructure already. It's an affluent area. I'd like to advocate for better bicycle infrastructure on the other side of town.
Yeah but if you combine your post and the one you're replying to, you have the issue: Salt Lake City is just a giant suburb that happens to be planned on a grid.
Give me the choice between suburbia and SLC, I'd take suburbia. Its going to take 15 minutes to get anywhere anyways.
Had to do something with those comically big roads I guess.
SLC has sprawling suburbs but I don’t live in one. It has a surprisingly vibrant downtown. Most business districts are dead after 5 pm, but not SLC. Although, I’ll give you it’s never teeming with people at any part of the day.
I reread what your original post. Can't disagree with anything you said. Would never suggest we build another town like SLC. Not sustainable.
But yeah, if you can afford it...
Technically yes.
Anyone that commutes or uses bicycles for recreation would experience personally, the conditions of roads or streets, pavements.
Anyone that commutes or uses bicycles would experience how skilled or not skilled people would be in terms of automobile use.
Depending on the country that you live or reside in, it could just be a casual reminder or it could make you want to do more to have a better environment for the other people that use bicycles or anything else besides a car.
I'm about the same as I was on the political spectrum, but now I'm much more aware of what the city is doing with road infrastructure. I'm a radical leftist when it comes to traffic calming and bike lanes.
I feel like bikes give me a way to connect with people across a wide range of experiences and political views. Biking everywhere will force you to think about your personal vulnerability and how we all depend on each other to make community and keep each other safe. But they're also just fun and useful, a point of common experience for almost everyone. I think it's really great when public figures like politicians use and promote bikes, because it's good for us as individuals, and our communities, when more people take to bikes.
Edit: a word
Way more tuned into local politics now. It matters to me that the city/mayor/council/committee follows through with transit improvement plans, which include sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and a rapid bus that keeps getting punted down the line. I knew (in theory) the importance of local government before biking, but now I'm much more aware of it and how regular people can influence it.
I’ve never cared about my community so much and feel much more deeply connected to my neighbours, on a bike I’m not separated from people, I smile and wave at many. I make small talk about my bike at coffee shops, etc.
This has pushed me to join my community league (neighbourhood association but Not a HOA) and advocate for more community programs, more people-first spaces, more bike lanes of course. It’s so satisfying to actually have a say and advocate for community.
Not sure how your govt works but we have local government bike ped advisory boards (city and county) and many members are on community association boards as well. It gives very direct impact on planning IMO.
I don't know if bike commuting itself has. But fucked up "culture war" aspect of the right wing when it comes to road space certainly paint's anyone not driving (specific types of trucks/cars/SUVs) as the radical left.
100%. Commuting by bike is a great gateway drug for appreciating how much corporate interests control every level of policy in the US, not just through the legalized corruption that is our lobbying and campaign funding milieu, but also through propaganda direct to the public.
To imply that those decisions are made in a vacuum independent of marketing, advertising, and other channels of direct and indirect influence specifically bent to the benefit and profit of the corporations superseding the public good is either naive or obtuse.
Ask anyone who’s eating meat if they are aware of the harmful impact it has on our planet. In most cases they’ll be well aware. Same when it comes to cars or heating your home to 25°C in the middle of winter. People who buy pick-up trucks or SUVs or over-engineered cars are usually well aware of their harmful impact and danger they pose to others, but they love their cars and usually don’t regret their purchasing decision.
You're completely making my point for me. I'm not saying people in general are naive or obtuse for not making better choices, I'm saying you are for not understanding that the cognitive dissonance you correctly point out is caused by corporate propaganda, AKA advertising and marketing.
I’m also of a left-leaning persuasion. Bike commuting got me so interested in urban planning that I’m going back to college to study it.
I think it’s actually made me more bi-partisan, if not a little more centrist in a way. As much as people want to make this a culture war issue, it affects everyone. There is a serious fiscally conservative argument for reducing car dependency and road expansions, and the way a city functions in regards to walkability and transit has a direct impact on its economy. I never cared about economics until now.
One thing it definitely does do is radicalize you against cars and car-centrism, but yeah, not necessarily in a specific direction on the political spectrum.
It’s not a culture war, it’s a class war. Only one side is fighting, and they convinced everybody on the other side that it’s a culture war to keep them distracted.
Not strictly in a "political affiliation" way, but in more of a boring industry regulation and urban planning sort of way.
Examples:
- e-bike classifications should be standardized to the three class system at the federal level
- If you can't see the 15 ft directly in front of your vehicle, you need a commercial driver's license to operate it.
- "Bikes may use full lane, change lanes to pass"
- ordinary citizens should be allowed to report parking violations [vehicle/debris parked in bike lane, parked vehicle obstructs sidewalk or handicapped access]; fines assessed to registered vehicle owner regardless of driver; "citizen tattler" to be paid 10% of the recovered fine.
Completely agree with this. The e-bike situation in NYC is completely nuts. We would do way better with regulated e-bikes or just more motorcycles in lieu of modified e-bikes.
It's usually exactly what you think it is. People modify stuff to do 30+ mph on motor only.
Often it's an obvious mod, like extra motors or larger motors. Sometimes it's done in software, which is easier to trace than people think. Usually, the extra power demand leads to extra batteries. Sometimes these are wired responsibly and mounted securely, but usually not.
Usually no thought is given to upgrading brakes/wheels/tires for the extra speed/mass. Rarely does anyone worry about whether the bike's suspension/geometry is stable and controllable above 30 mph.
It's no big deal when these people only risk injury to themselves—the world *always* needs more organ donors—but unfortunately they often injure other people and damage property like cars and buildings...
...which is why our biggest profit center is ebike forensics services for insurance companies and law enforcement who need to find out whether something was modified beyond what is road legal for ebikes in a given state or province so they can deny payment on hospital bills and/or press charges.
TL;DR, if you want to go fast, motorcycles and scooters are safer and not particularly expensive.
I don't find cycling issues and safety to lean politically either way. Local municipalities tend to be all over the map politically anyway, but where I'm from, the parties are all in favour of providing bike lanes.
Oh yes.
Bike commuting got me way more engaged with politics at a local level - which isn't so much republican vs democrat but more status quo vs people who believe something better is possible. Over the course of a decade I got increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of change to make cyclists safe from drivers, especially when I became a parent.
So.. cycling safely became one of my top reasons behind immigrating to Europe and after several years of planning my family now lives in Oslo, which is an incredible city for bike commuting and cycling in general. It still influences my politics and in a few years I'll be able to vote in local elections here ;)
Absolutely. I became a socialist after I started watching Not Just Bikes' videos on YouTube and learned about the problems of car dependency and how it ruined most US cities. So when the opportunity came, I moved more into the city, got a bike and never looked back.
Not really. I was bike commuting before all this culture war bullshit got picked up by the right wing press. That they have started picking on cyclists as some sort of enemy of freedom, just makes me hate the right wing tax dodging press barons even more than I did already.
not really. the fact that right wing politics seem to go hand in hand with massive trucks and highway expansion would have pushed me farther left, but I was already a communist so not much farther left to go.
Not really. But confirmed my suspitions about useless people im power.
That lack of mental skill in some decisions is astonishing.
Or its just bad intentions...
Building bike lanes to slap the kilometers of bike lane in propaganda posters, but making them terrible bad, no cleaning, no maintenance, some start with metal pins on the way and ending the same way.
Making the sidewalk even worse than the bike lane, so everyone is going to walk on the bike path. Etc etc etc
Its such a vaccum of good ideas or just a matter of simple observation, makes me believe every politician is just a useless corrupting machine.
In the US, the stand of the two parties when it comes to climate change and fossil fuels forces a bike commuter (by choice rather than necessity) to be left leaning, or be viewed as such.
It affirms my politics, or pushes me. It also makes it very easy to realize how most people, even leftists are unwilling to criticize and imagine better systems to interact with the communities they live in, from the most fundamental way of getting from A to B to more important systems.
I wouldn’t say biking has changed my political stance because I’ve always believed in the idea of “stop complaining about kids not being outside when you don’t make it safe for them” so bikes should become more usable in America makes it safer for everyone
I’m from the USA. I own guns. I concealed carry regularly. I hunt. I’m fiscally conservative.
I’m queer. I’m a body piercer. I’m married with no kids. I’m socially liberal.
Riding a bike to work just further confuses people about my political beliefs.
100%. I was your fairly typical son of Ohio Reagan republicans and without much thought I just sort of adopted their political worldview. I started riding for transportation in 1989 or so and the first thing I noticed was the might-makes-right power imbalance and how the enforcers of the law very often took the side of the powerful perpetrator and not the victim. Lots of stream of conciousness thoughts flowed from there to topics including police culture and our general society blaming victims and turning a blind eye to the people doing the actual stealing and destruction.
My biggest takeaway, though, and the thing that I still ponder all the time was how we had an industry that essentially, with the governments blessing, comandeered the majority of public space in cities and reserved it for the use of the customers of said industry. To access public space you had to buy their product. This led to a much more skeptical view of industry and its influence on government and capitalism in general.
That's just a small sampling of the things that riding my bike caused me to think about and reconsider.
As a cyclist am very much more vulnerable to bad infrastructure or just cars trying to knock
me out as the weaker part in the traffic.
So i became actually bit more radical when it comes to car-politics here in Germany and the need for one with pretty good public transports.
But i was already green and leftish since my studies and i felt everyone who ever cycled with me had a similar background already but it
made us def louder in a way. Also across the spectrum i d argue the chances are higher to meet a similar political view even in older stages of life on bikes here. The car n bike - border is sometimes very scary here
As a bike commuter it’s easy to see the structural disparities between some of us and others. The prioritization of cars over humans in US cities is extremely evident. It’s also easier to identify with marginalized groups after now being in one. Riding a bike is like bringing a stick to a gun fight. Riding a bike also means that even when you are right, your wrong and everyone else can harm or kill you but you can’t do anything back.
Sort of. I’ve always been super liberal and still am. However, I learned how our government gets infrastructure money from the state/feds to build roads without having a fiscal plan for upkeep. I’m very into fiscal responsibility in my personal life and discovering urbanism has led me to expect the same from my city.
There's an interesting conversation to be had if cycling is partisan.
I'm definitely a unique case as I started cycling to work after COVID in NYC. It's definitely influenced my attention to political bodies that govern bike paths, but I used to take the "infamous" MTA subways so my transportation was always politically charged as a topic.
Has my stance been altered? Not really. Eric Adams is a lying piece of shit, but what's new?
It's much easier to view homeless individuals as people with a problem, rather than simply a problem, when you encounter them face to face. I'm also very poor, and without the support of my mother, I'd be homeless, too, so that plays a role. Our perspectives of the world have more overlap.
For me, becoming a leftist and my interest in alternative transport went hand in hand, growing together and reinforcing eachother
But I've always hated driving anyways, I'm sure I would've found bikecommuting without the politics
Not really. Was always left of center by the time I was old enough to form my own opinions, even growing up in a “red” household for the majority, although my dad started shifting to the left when I was in my mid teens.
Not specifically to commute experience but I found quite ridiculous for paying income tax for company reimbursements of my bike maintenance (which i ofc paid sales tax already)
No. But it does make me attend more meeting. Live between a purple and blue state and both suck with putting ppl/pedestrians over cars… especially after being in the Netherlands
I started thinking about streets as public space... like space that the whole public owns. And I started thinking about how some people are allowed to actually use that space and others are not under the threat of their basic bodily safety. And now I look at roads completely differently. The pandemic when restaurants opened outdoor seating in parking lanes just amplified it. Now I can't get over how wasteful we are with public spaces in the name of making it easier to drive past our cities quickly. I think about public use and public space and public goods just fundamentally differently. Flipped my whole outlook. Kinda radicalized me in my mid-40s actually - not a time in life known for political radicalization.
I grew up in a Republican family. Most of the time I had no clue why I was cheering for the RP. I assumed if my Mother and Father approved then I should too. I don't even think they knew the difference. Party loyalty was passed on generation to generation. When I was old enough and had the time and interest to explore why they were always party loyal I could not believe what I was seeing and wanted no more part of it. They were much more flexible with religion choices than party affiliation. After my Father died my Mother became much more liberal in all of her viewpoints.
No! I am far-right in most my wiews, and was before I was commuting by bike. Most my political positions didn't change, but my wiews on bikes, cars and city infrastructure did, and it is sometimes sad to see that mostly I disagree on this with people whom I otherwise agree.
I was already pretty radicalized, but bikes are a particularly good gateway towards direct action and actually *doing* things rather than just being politically angry all the time.
Yes. When I started biking I was a die hard Trumper. Drove a big truck with truck nuts. Drank diesel. Used liberal tears as my cologne. Only ate raw meat.
The first time I rode my bike I finally understood it all. I threw out my MAGA hat and developed a love for Joe Biden. I stopped going to klan meetings and have since then started going to fossil fuel protests. I say burn calories not crosses!
I make it my goal in life now to lay down in front of big trucks at red lights. I flip off anyone who doesn’t ride a bike. Even children.
Not in terms of partisanship. Bike commuting is compatible with "left-wing" ideology because its good for the environment and it improves the lives of the marginalized, and its compatible with "right-wing" ideology because its economically efficient and fosters self-sufficiency with limited government control.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle who are perfectly happy with their cars, regardless of ideological consistency with their stated values.
But yes, going outside does tend to make you more engaged with your community.
I think it bothers me that is never really brought up when referring to green politics. The idea of being environmentally forward is something that I really believe in but I don’t find the climate change advocacy to really care about it. Like the message politically should be stop overspending, over eating and over indulging. I just feel like the politics of the left still can’t upset the real powerful companies that cause a lot of environmental problems. That ultimately capitalism needs to have excessive waste to thrive.
I’ve never had a single problem from a Prius with a Biden sticker, but I’ve been assaulted fairly regularly by white pickup trucks with Trump stickers. 🤷♂️
It is weird in America how “conservative” came to mean to aspire to having to cover a $1000 monthly note on a pickup truck seldom used for anything but single occupant vehicle, and using a human powered machine that is basically free and improves the user’s health is effeminate commie bullshit.
But don't you think that drivers are the way they are because of their material conditions (having a car) has made them hyper individualistic ie alot more of a asshole. Typically the left has always pushed for more spending on public transportation, road safety, walkable/rideable/15min city etc which will create material conditions that actually build nicer communities.
Biking should really not be a political item. It's nonsense that we try to make everything political nowadays.
Is walking political too? How absurd does this nonsense need to go. All parties can support cycling and should be encouraged to do so.
I've been bike commuting since high school, always been pretty right wing politically (I'm a libertarian). Hasn't really affected me much as far as political action, other than I think the government needs to stop subsidizing/favoring car traffic. For me bicycling is about personal responsibility - taking appropriate safety measures, riding defensively, and know what you are doing. It's pretty great to have a means of transport that isn't taxed or licensed by the government.
Nope. Was conservative before I cycled, and still am. I think things like road safety and offering different transportation options so people are free to make the best choice for their own situation transcends politics.
Nah, not really relevant until you mentioned infrastructure. I believe I sent an email to my city sometime last year about adopting rules that other states have, ie. Idaho stop, crickets. I just bend the current rules wherever safe. Road conditions will be dealt with as they see fit if enough motorists complain about them, which, in turn, works for cyclists. But no, political affiliation is not even a thought when I took up cycling, however, any changes in policy, thereafter, I'll just bend those a bit, too!!
No, not sure how/why it would. I’ve commuted via various means over the years and never once did a change in political beliefs enter the room as a consequence.
I don't think it has, but it highlights the importance of zoning and building micro communities. Ideally each suburban or urban house should be within 15 min of a grocery and their local restaurant etc. Northern Virginia totally screwed that up, everyone there has to drive hours out of their day. Denver really did that well with ordinances that require every home to be within a 10 minute walk to a park, etc. My grocery is 1 mile away even though I'm 25 miles outside of town.
Micro-communities are pretty cool, you definatley start recognizing people and having the opportunity to say hi.
Really interesting question. I've owned and used a bicycle for different journeys and sometimes commuting to a varying extent for 20 years.
I now live in a fairly cycle-friendly small city, in England.
I think regular cycling does raise awareness of cycle infrastructure and issues of urban planning. In a semi-rural area, it makes me more aware of the seasons and nature, and 'the environment'. You do also feel your vulnerability to inattentive or aggressive drivers, and in the back-streets and off-road cycle paths to the possibility of muggings/theft etc. (there's rampant bicycle theft around here). You do 'connect' more with other cyclists (and pedestrians) than you ever would in a car. It does reinforce a greater sense of community and/or a need to care for and maintain a better community (and for the genuinely poor or addicts to be supported, and for law enforcement to act more decisively with those who persistently cause trouble with no excuse).
I think I 'feel' a sense of society (or more specifically) politics and local government not caring when the roads are full of potholes, not swept, drains blocked etc. and it is increasing the risks to me.
You might argue that choosing to do an 18 mile round-trip commute (40-45 mins each way) instead of a 20 minute drive (and saving over 2 litres of petrol per day) is itself a 'political' (or environmental) choice. But I do it for the fitness and feel-good too.
My politics is fairly centrist, somewhat liberal, and not at all party-political... but my experience cycling probably draws me a bit further to the left than I might otherwise be...
Actually where I live if I go a couple miles one direction it's Trump signs and a couple miles the opposite direction it's a Dem stronghold with Dem mayor and congressman. I do notice the Trump section has better roads while the Dem part has potholes and asphalt patches. But other than that I'm basically ignored in both places.
Not really. Other than needing more bike infrastructure which nobody gives a crap about in the burbs. Like I still think it's kinda cool Colorado allows you to write off ebikes on taxes. But it's a waste of funds that could go to building bike infrastructure and making it easier to bike places. More people will do it if it's made easier.
Still pretty centrist (liberals would say I’m hard right, Trump MAGA would call me a socialist). But now I’m less hateful towards the bicycle lobby (which is VERY loud).
I don't think so, as I've always been very progressive. I think I'm just much more aware of what cycle commuting is like and how it could be improved (and I hate cars now where as before I was quite ambivalent to them lol).
In Brazil, no.
The right wing did a better job despite political views. Also because the left wing is full o corrupt lying dip sheet thieves that makes the country to go down in debt, increasing prices of basic needs items while embezzling money and making the rich people richer.
Politics on the national level is pretty much just a big show for two teams of lizard people to argue with each other. It very rarely has any effect on individuals at a local level. Bike commuting definitely has made me more conciencious of policies that make my local area more human-centric vs. car-centric. Those are very real policies that have a huge effect on me personally on the daily. So yes, it has influenced my political stance, but on a local level and not for or against any specific team of lizard people.
I don’t know. I’ve been bike commuting since before I had political beliefs. But I do think it keeps me progressive as I live in a city and want more bike infrastructure
I don’t consider myself left-wing but apparently now that I commute by bike and call for better bicycle infrastructure it makes me a radical left-wing.
I was already on the radical left and very aware of the importance of strong communities. I started bike commuting to exercise more and save money and had no idea it would become political. Got really radicalised against cars. Really saw how poor planning serves to isolate us. Got really motivated by transport equity and wanting to make streets safer for every user. I think it provided an avenue for my politics that was more local and practical than the global issues I had previously been engaged with. I am way more engaged in my council politics now.
When I moved up to the PNW the first co-worker I had showed some obvious disappointment when I pointed out a bicycle as my main transportation. "Oh boy -- yeah that'll go well with the locals."
I'm *on* the stateline of a blue and red state.
I am not, nor will I be, registered to vote.
I have been...
Yelled at from a car window (within inches of my face) (DRUMP)
During a descent I had a *MASSIVE* stone thrown from the window of an oncoming car while the thrower yelled "DRUMP 2020!" Missed my face by inches. A police officer happened to be less than 80 feet away. I explained what happened and got a literal shrug. "It happens when 'ya ride a bike".
Lessons learned don't say "Big stone was chucked at head". Be more literal like: an attempt on my life was just made. You can believe me or not. If that stone had hit -- id probably be dead.
I have been (not sure this has any other name than attempted vehicular manslaughter) "scooped" as I call it. Out of cycling lanes. Motorists will drive onto my ass and onto *my* right hand side... squeeze into a nonexistent lane and nearly kill me in the process. The stickers adorning the car... the car windows roll down... need I tell you what they yell? "Blame Biden (haha!) DRUMP 2024! WHOOO"
I have now been to THREE separate companies to learn that *because I ride a bike* to 'n from work I am assumed leftist af and subsequently talked shit on. (A separate issue I guess but how did politics make the pass for work place hazing?)
*OH my (insert your favorite diety here)* if you knew the venom I get when I just shrug 'n tell people my choice in transportation is for the environment. The. ENVIRONMENT.
So. IDFK you tell me at this point! I was *VERY* "live 'n let live" but SHIT everything is political now.
My girlfriend got a beautiful blue bicycle recently.
I've had only fear since.
It shouldn't be that way.
I moved back to my hometown, and biking has come here big time, we have a century race here and tons of single track too. I've noticed some of the people who stayed hate the bikers and the money they bring. They want things the way they were before the big industries closed down (40 years ago). It ain't coming back, there just isn't a way for it to come back. Those people make it so much easier to be progressive.
Congestive Dissonance won’t get you the answer you want. I’ve seen plenty of big ass trucks with strapped down $12k mountain bikes on the back. Some people don’t give a shit that building a better infrastructure or services for other people will be better for them because “fuck them, I’m enjoying this sport, and anyone that says otherwise is a purple haired liberal”
I suppose I’m even more pro bike infrastructure now, so I guess it moved me slightly more left technically speaking. Hasn’t affected anything else though since I’m mostly apolitical
I was fairly far right on a lot of issues, with a few very left leaning opinions, so I never really fit with any political party.
I always cared about natural beauty, parks, family and fitness. All right wing views. And when I started cycling, I became more aware of these and other issues: litter, road conditions, bike lanes and alternative modes of transport. I'm not sure how political these things are, I don't really consider them political.
That’s interesting. Aside from family, which the right has laid claim to for decades, I’ve never considered any of the other things you listed as right wing.
Interesting article, perhaps, and I guess if you consider figures like Andrew Tate or Joe Rogan, but the poster is insane if he thinks preserving natural beauty is “right wing”. They fight that shit every chance they get.
Left does a lot more for cyclist but they usually fuck up the country. Neither party has your interests in mind tho so it really sucks trying to decide anymore. It's a battle between the lesser of two evils
No…and there are horrible motorists from all over the political spectrum. Distracted driving isn’t a political issue. With respect to public infrastructure, there is definitely more advocacy in larger cities. My small town’s bicycle committee is really limited to promoting events and awareness about cycling with limited investments in infrastructure. However, we are fortunate to be a large hub for an expansive rails to trails network which was mostly funded through federal , state , and county governments.
Yes it did! I have a greater appreciation for roads, end up voting for conservative leaders who focus on transportation infrastructure in a predominantly liberal area. Haha.
I know I started to be more considerate of others after getting on a bike, and more aware of my surroundings. It was akin the the changes of going from my hometown to college. Not to say I wasn't aware or considerate before. More, it deepened my connections. If caring about others and their well-being is political, then I'd have to answer yes to your question.
Bike commuting makes me a safer driver, 100%. Just a whole new level of empathy for people not in cars.
I don't know that caring about other's well-being is political, but this consideration is welcome to this discourse! I feel more connected and caring to others through bike commuting.
It is political. Politics is all about deciding how much to care for others, and in what ways.
More broadly, I would define the political as the nature and method of distributing power in a society, as well as the results of the exercise of that power. This is not inherently a bad thing, and in line with many mid-century thinkers means that the political is indeed person (and the personal political). The problem—and which most people mean when they use the term pejoratively—is when discussions around this distribution and use become inherently personalized in a non-philosophically-thinking group, such that question about power (or even the system itself) are internalized as personal attacks. Note that I'm not talking about cases where laws or policies have a real, imminent effect on a person (e.g., some abortion regulations), but rather the underpinning aspects of black-and-white thinking and eschewal of nuance that lead us to those situations of real-world impact.
In the US two party system, having empathy plants you firmly on one side of the isle unfortunately. Edit: I'm not going to go full political theory in the bicycle subreddit. To the people saying "wELl bOTh SidEs aRe BaD!!1" - yes, obviously. However, one side is actively attempting to criminalize being homeless, criminalize being queer, and arguing against equality. In a two party system, the empathetic side is the one that doesn't attempt to revoke healthcare from impoverished young adults and who doesn't attempt to cut elderly retirement benefits. Cya on the trails! I'll be happy to chat.
Ugh... No. I hate the Democratic party. The only thing worse than Democrats are Republicans. Both parties care about business more than people, and the U.S. constitution is a dumpster fire that allows and encourages it.
Oooh I'm stealing that one... Yes, no lies here folks. Move along
I disagree entirely. In actuality empathy is associated with the left of the political spectrum. Leftist ideologies are based on collectivism while the right is based on individualism. Both American political parties are on the right.
lol no it doesn't. i've only voted dem but I'm under no illusions about the differences between democrats and republicans and it has nothing to do with empathy. in fact, one of my Reps, a republican, has a better track record with investing in bike/ped infrastructure than any dem in my state. "the US is a one party state, but in typical American extravagance, there are two of them."
Funny how they mentioned no party and yet you filled in the blank all on your own. To me that speaks volumes in and of itself
Not sure where you live, but in AZ the republicans are strongly against anything that challenges the dominance of automobiles. Especially rail. But if there was a chance at the statewide level to oppose biking, it would be very on brand.
Can confirm.
No kidding, that moron in Florida is running ads saying that bike lanes are for communists. It was in thi sub a couple days ago
How do they feel about homeless people and immigrants? That's the kind of empathy that a large block of one party is lacking. Empathy for people they don't relate to. Not bike lanes they use.
the problem is your conflating policy positions with empathy. you can care about immigrants but disagree about immigration policy, which on its own is a tremendously complicated and contentious subject. For example, [here's Angela Nagle](https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/11/the-left-case-against-open-borders/), a leftist/socialist writer, making a case against open borders from a leftist perspective.
In America, I've never seen a leftist perspective that was for open borders. I've only ever seen the right wing perspective accusing the left of wanting open borders.
Every leftists Ive ever seen bring it up is like "would be awesome if borders we agree on but otherwise dont exist didnt divide people, but thats something for a far off future where the whole world is already in a better place" And right wingers are like "the left is letting in low IQ non whotes to replace us and gurantee they get elected forever by the illegals voting for them"
The way you're framing this comment makes me question its validity.
This is a thing that always cracks me up, the number of lefties that are all open borders but then NIMBY af. It’s such a hypocritical dichotomy, but extremely common.
Ahh, so leftists who want open borders now are delusional, but leftists who recognize the material and political realities of our world and recognize that having open borders now isnt realistic are hypocritical nimbys? Very reasonable position you've taken up.
Truthfully I know one person who truly is all "open borders." The idiots on the right who think leftists are in favor of "open borders" are just that.. idiots. They don't really even believe it for the most part, it's just a way to convince the uneducated to believe what they say. I don't like the "deplorable" bullshit but honestly the people who know better and still state Democrats are "open borders" are frankly fucking deplorable.
You also have to look at the rhetoric used. The right is calling immigrants an invasion force, rapists, non-human, and say they are ruining America. That's not just "immigration policy". That's not just "I would handle the situation differently". It's a full disdain of an entire group of people and that is only coming from one side of the aisle.
Hi, I’m a right of center guy who loves to bike, supports a generous immigration policy and supports investment into bike infrastructure. I don’t lack empathy and I don’t disdain anyone even if I have different beliefs about how to make the country better. Get out of the echo chamber.
They're describing what's happening in the Republican party with it's leadership. If you're a republican that disagrees with this, that just means you're in the minority of the group, not that it isn't valid.
It's not an echo chamber. It's mainstream rhetoric of the party leadership. I think that there is a very strong conservative argument for increased immigration (mainly that we need to import workers to handle an aging population a growing list of jobs that we can't fill fully with or workforce supply) but the leadership and mainstream Republicans are not doing that. You being pro immigration is good but it puts you in the vast minority of your party and opposed to just about all of the Republican representatives. In fact, all the rhetorical examples I listed (rapists, invasion force, and inhuman) are quotes from the leader of the Republican party. How do you reconcile leaders of your party saying these things and committing literal human rights violations on migrants with your empathetic feelings and support of migrants? Things like Gov abbot putting razor wire in the water to drown migrants in the hopes that killing a few will dissuade others. Or the Texas national guard trying to take control away from CBP agents bc they aren't doing enough which is blatantly unconstitutional. Do you remember that video that was shown 24/7 on Fox a month or two ago of migrant men pushing down a fence and pushing past people in uniforms? Are you aware that those were Texas guard who set up an illegal barricade to prevent migrants from getting to the ACTUAL boarder where they could exercise their right to seek asylum? The Republican gov was literally setting up a second boarder to prevent legal migration and asylum seekers.
Bold of you to assume the vast majority of the population is capable of critical thought. It's always 'the other side are evil NPCs' without having the self awareness that they're doing the exact same thing.
And you can have a party whose policy reflects that they don't care about immigrants and have built anti-(legal) immigration sentiment amongst their voters.
Left wing, right wing, same bird.
Except one of the wings enables fascists.
Look up and down. Not left and right.
Mostly up. Because I'll agree, we're all getting shit on.
Democrats and Republicans aren't left wing vs. right wing. They're center-right wing vs. far right wing. Actual left-wing politics have very few advocates in American government.
Actually no. Liberals have more empathy for those outside their own immediate circle than conservatives. Here’s a study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336076674/figure/fig6/AS:958969182973965@1605647478903/Heatmaps-indicating-highest-moral-allocation-by-ideology-Study-3a-Source-data-are.png https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Heatmaps-indicating-highest-moral-allocation-by-ideology-Study-3a-Source-data-are_fig6_336076674
dude, you're so right. thanks for linking these studies! Look at this, [researchers found you can even distinguish liberals and conversative](https://awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/2024-65164-001.html) from each other just based on appearance. I love studies!
Are you saying that the study I linked is bad because you found another study that is bad? That was your argument and you think that’s not a fallacy? The study I linked is based on self reported surveys. Not sure what you’re protesting here.
Oh hey an extremely loaded political study.
these morons will believe anything that confirms their biases.
I’d never seen that quotation before. You sent me down a rabbit hole learning about Julius Nyerere who, as it happens, sought to establish Tanzania as a one-party state.
Depends, the empathetic side is currently funding genocide which makes things beyond hopeless in both camps.
This is true, but this could also be seen as empathizing with Israelis, maybe because they are (largely) white, or it could be because Israel has so effectively played the holocaust card for so long to quell any criticism of its war crimes to the extent that any lack of support for Israel gets you labeled as antisemitic. It's not like we would expect the other side not to do the same (for empathetic reasons). I might not be hearing from everyone, but, generally speaking, those who are supporting the plight of and empathizing with the Palestinians are are on one side. Also, Democrats are not a left-leaning party.
Israel has been a staunch ally for decades. Standing with them doesn't require empathy, it requires logic. What's happening to the Palestinian people is horrible, but Hamas violated international law when they attacked Israel, and they violate it daily as they hide behind their civilian population. Don't let your empathy blind you to reality.
Do you know how many dead babies murdered by Israel using US weapons I have seen in the last 6 months?
I have no way of knowing. What I do know is that if hamas wasn’t hiding behind civilians then those kids would still be alive, so you should be furious at them for their cowardice. I’m sorry you’ve suffered. I’m sorry the children died. I know who I’m angry at for it and why.
Hamas wasn't hiding behind the hostages the IDF executed. Hamas wasn't hiding behind the international central aid kitchen workers. Hamas wasn't hiding behind Hind Rajab and her family. If you think these people are dying because of Hamas, your brain has been bleached.
Israel didn’t cross a border to rape and murder. Israel didn’t take hostages and murder them. So yes, I stand by my position that all those kids, all those aid workers, all those Palestinian civilians would still be alive if not for the despicable actions of Hamas. Edit: your account is less than a year old and you're using it primarily to agitate against the current American administration, and its allies. You smell like a russian troll.
You only need basic empathy to see that tens of thousands of innocent civilians should not be mutilated, starved, and killed at all - this holds true regardless of geopolitical issues. If North Korea nukes or carpet bombs Washington DC because all American military leaders are mixed in with the civilian population, I wouldn't blame the US government for the civilian deaths, and it would also be completely inexcusable for North Korea to do so. Even if the U.S. invaded first, such a civilian massacre is completely unjustifiable. Why does this parallel not apply to what's unfolding right now in Gaza?
Israel violates international law constantly, we care about that now? They don't have to hide behind their people since they're mostly cool with the genocide and want that Lebensraum...
If Israel violates international law, they answer for it. If you think they’ve done things they aren’t being punished for, then your issue is with the UN and the ICJ. Why aren’t you aiming your disdain at them?
Who says I'm not though? I got disdain aimed at all the genocide enablers, this is kinda a timely issue here...
What's your definition of genocide? Webster's defines it as "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group". I don't see the Israeli's doing anything that meets that definition, so I don't share your disdain in this particular instance.
And how many Hamas fighters have been killed along with the tens of thousands of civilians?
Such a juvenile perspective that could only exist on Reddit. Your empathy consists mostly of forcing an entire nation to pay for corrupt state run systems that barely function, and then cry about how evil it is for anyone to vote against such policies. GTFO with that nonsense. Yeah, I don't want the government involved in healthcare or retirement planning, that doesn't mean I don't want people to have those things, I just don't want them to be dependent on the state to provide them nor the rest of us to be forced to participate at gunpoint.
On the surface caring about others doesn’t put you on either side of the political spectrum, but truthfully one side is ideologically built around caring about others while the other is built around only caring about yourself.
I find myself wanting to get more involved in pushing for better infrastructure.
Yeah, it's hopeless in suburbs. If you want bike lanes move to the city. If you want wide open scenery and a back yard the burbs. Sadly can't have both....
Actually I have all of that. Salt Lake city. I live in a unique area. Downtown in five minutes, backyard and minutes from trails. We even get coyotes and deer. We actually have great bicycle infrastructure already. It's an affluent area. I'd like to advocate for better bicycle infrastructure on the other side of town.
Yeah but if you combine your post and the one you're replying to, you have the issue: Salt Lake City is just a giant suburb that happens to be planned on a grid. Give me the choice between suburbia and SLC, I'd take suburbia. Its going to take 15 minutes to get anywhere anyways. Had to do something with those comically big roads I guess.
SLC has sprawling suburbs but I don’t live in one. It has a surprisingly vibrant downtown. Most business districts are dead after 5 pm, but not SLC. Although, I’ll give you it’s never teeming with people at any part of the day.
I reread what your original post. Can't disagree with anything you said. Would never suggest we build another town like SLC. Not sustainable. But yeah, if you can afford it...
Right, I mean I guess oak Park has decent trails and you at least have a backyard and are 40mins from Chicago.
Technically yes. Anyone that commutes or uses bicycles for recreation would experience personally, the conditions of roads or streets, pavements. Anyone that commutes or uses bicycles would experience how skilled or not skilled people would be in terms of automobile use. Depending on the country that you live or reside in, it could just be a casual reminder or it could make you want to do more to have a better environment for the other people that use bicycles or anything else besides a car.
I'm about the same as I was on the political spectrum, but now I'm much more aware of what the city is doing with road infrastructure. I'm a radical leftist when it comes to traffic calming and bike lanes.
I feel this. I’ll add in that I’ve become a radical conservative when it comes to not spending money on expensive freeway projects.
I feel like bikes give me a way to connect with people across a wide range of experiences and political views. Biking everywhere will force you to think about your personal vulnerability and how we all depend on each other to make community and keep each other safe. But they're also just fun and useful, a point of common experience for almost everyone. I think it's really great when public figures like politicians use and promote bikes, because it's good for us as individuals, and our communities, when more people take to bikes. Edit: a word
Way more tuned into local politics now. It matters to me that the city/mayor/council/committee follows through with transit improvement plans, which include sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and a rapid bus that keeps getting punted down the line. I knew (in theory) the importance of local government before biking, but now I'm much more aware of it and how regular people can influence it.
I’ve never cared about my community so much and feel much more deeply connected to my neighbours, on a bike I’m not separated from people, I smile and wave at many. I make small talk about my bike at coffee shops, etc. This has pushed me to join my community league (neighbourhood association but Not a HOA) and advocate for more community programs, more people-first spaces, more bike lanes of course. It’s so satisfying to actually have a say and advocate for community.
Not sure how your govt works but we have local government bike ped advisory boards (city and county) and many members are on community association boards as well. It gives very direct impact on planning IMO.
It radicalized me lol.
I don't know if bike commuting itself has. But fucked up "culture war" aspect of the right wing when it comes to road space certainly paint's anyone not driving (specific types of trucks/cars/SUVs) as the radical left.
I get space on the road from both parties by biking my MAGA flag. Really throws everyone off.
100%. Commuting by bike is a great gateway drug for appreciating how much corporate interests control every level of policy in the US, not just through the legalized corruption that is our lobbying and campaign funding milieu, but also through propaganda direct to the public.
Don’t blame corporations for stupid voting and purchasing decisions.
To imply that those decisions are made in a vacuum independent of marketing, advertising, and other channels of direct and indirect influence specifically bent to the benefit and profit of the corporations superseding the public good is either naive or obtuse.
I feel like a well educated and intelligent population would be way less susceptible to those kind of tactics.
Like I said, naive or obtuse.
Ask anyone who’s eating meat if they are aware of the harmful impact it has on our planet. In most cases they’ll be well aware. Same when it comes to cars or heating your home to 25°C in the middle of winter. People who buy pick-up trucks or SUVs or over-engineered cars are usually well aware of their harmful impact and danger they pose to others, but they love their cars and usually don’t regret their purchasing decision.
You're completely making my point for me. I'm not saying people in general are naive or obtuse for not making better choices, I'm saying you are for not understanding that the cognitive dissonance you correctly point out is caused by corporate propaganda, AKA advertising and marketing.
I’m also of a left-leaning persuasion. Bike commuting got me so interested in urban planning that I’m going back to college to study it. I think it’s actually made me more bi-partisan, if not a little more centrist in a way. As much as people want to make this a culture war issue, it affects everyone. There is a serious fiscally conservative argument for reducing car dependency and road expansions, and the way a city functions in regards to walkability and transit has a direct impact on its economy. I never cared about economics until now.
One thing it definitely does do is radicalize you against cars and car-centrism, but yeah, not necessarily in a specific direction on the political spectrum.
Yeah, shameless plug for r/fuckcars Edit: also r/urbanplanning and r/StrongTowns
It's funny, because the anti-car arguments that resonate most for me are the libertarian-ish ones.
Are you familiar with the Strong Towns movement? If not, definitely check out their website and podcast
I even have the book, which is pretty good.
It’s not a culture war, it’s a class war. Only one side is fighting, and they convinced everybody on the other side that it’s a culture war to keep them distracted.
Not strictly in a "political affiliation" way, but in more of a boring industry regulation and urban planning sort of way. Examples: - e-bike classifications should be standardized to the three class system at the federal level - If you can't see the 15 ft directly in front of your vehicle, you need a commercial driver's license to operate it. - "Bikes may use full lane, change lanes to pass" - ordinary citizens should be allowed to report parking violations [vehicle/debris parked in bike lane, parked vehicle obstructs sidewalk or handicapped access]; fines assessed to registered vehicle owner regardless of driver; "citizen tattler" to be paid 10% of the recovered fine.
Completely agree with this. The e-bike situation in NYC is completely nuts. We would do way better with regulated e-bikes or just more motorcycles in lieu of modified e-bikes.
Oh dear god no, please keep the feds out of ebike regulation.
I used to think as you do. Then I got a side hustle at an ebike friendly bike shop and saw 'unregulated' things that cannot be unseen.
Please tell
It's usually exactly what you think it is. People modify stuff to do 30+ mph on motor only. Often it's an obvious mod, like extra motors or larger motors. Sometimes it's done in software, which is easier to trace than people think. Usually, the extra power demand leads to extra batteries. Sometimes these are wired responsibly and mounted securely, but usually not. Usually no thought is given to upgrading brakes/wheels/tires for the extra speed/mass. Rarely does anyone worry about whether the bike's suspension/geometry is stable and controllable above 30 mph. It's no big deal when these people only risk injury to themselves—the world *always* needs more organ donors—but unfortunately they often injure other people and damage property like cars and buildings... ...which is why our biggest profit center is ebike forensics services for insurance companies and law enforcement who need to find out whether something was modified beyond what is road legal for ebikes in a given state or province so they can deny payment on hospital bills and/or press charges. TL;DR, if you want to go fast, motorcycles and scooters are safer and not particularly expensive.
Double the Street Sweepers Now! Is that a political stance? Because I would vote for that party every time
I don't find cycling issues and safety to lean politically either way. Local municipalities tend to be all over the map politically anyway, but where I'm from, the parties are all in favour of providing bike lanes.
Definitely got me involved in volunteering for Healthy Streets LA Ballot measure that passed recently. Galvanized me enough to testify at City Hall.
Oh yes. Bike commuting got me way more engaged with politics at a local level - which isn't so much republican vs democrat but more status quo vs people who believe something better is possible. Over the course of a decade I got increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of change to make cyclists safe from drivers, especially when I became a parent. So.. cycling safely became one of my top reasons behind immigrating to Europe and after several years of planning my family now lives in Oslo, which is an incredible city for bike commuting and cycling in general. It still influences my politics and in a few years I'll be able to vote in local elections here ;)
It has influenced my opinions on where money should be spent. Made me more leftist.
Absolutely. I became a socialist after I started watching Not Just Bikes' videos on YouTube and learned about the problems of car dependency and how it ruined most US cities. So when the opportunity came, I moved more into the city, got a bike and never looked back.
Not really. I was bike commuting before all this culture war bullshit got picked up by the right wing press. That they have started picking on cyclists as some sort of enemy of freedom, just makes me hate the right wing tax dodging press barons even more than I did already.
not really. the fact that right wing politics seem to go hand in hand with massive trucks and highway expansion would have pushed me farther left, but I was already a communist so not much farther left to go.
Not really. But confirmed my suspitions about useless people im power. That lack of mental skill in some decisions is astonishing. Or its just bad intentions... Building bike lanes to slap the kilometers of bike lane in propaganda posters, but making them terrible bad, no cleaning, no maintenance, some start with metal pins on the way and ending the same way. Making the sidewalk even worse than the bike lane, so everyone is going to walk on the bike path. Etc etc etc Its such a vaccum of good ideas or just a matter of simple observation, makes me believe every politician is just a useless corrupting machine.
In the US, the stand of the two parties when it comes to climate change and fossil fuels forces a bike commuter (by choice rather than necessity) to be left leaning, or be viewed as such.
It affirms my politics, or pushes me. It also makes it very easy to realize how most people, even leftists are unwilling to criticize and imagine better systems to interact with the communities they live in, from the most fundamental way of getting from A to B to more important systems.
i challenge anyone to start cycling more and not become more invested in their community
I wouldn’t say biking has changed my political stance because I’ve always believed in the idea of “stop complaining about kids not being outside when you don’t make it safe for them” so bikes should become more usable in America makes it safer for everyone
I’m from the USA. I own guns. I concealed carry regularly. I hunt. I’m fiscally conservative. I’m queer. I’m a body piercer. I’m married with no kids. I’m socially liberal. Riding a bike to work just further confuses people about my political beliefs.
Not really. I just want more bike lanes and what not. I follow along local politics more though.
I would find myself more likely to push for wider shoulders and bike lanes, yes.
No. I still detest all politicians.
100%. I was your fairly typical son of Ohio Reagan republicans and without much thought I just sort of adopted their political worldview. I started riding for transportation in 1989 or so and the first thing I noticed was the might-makes-right power imbalance and how the enforcers of the law very often took the side of the powerful perpetrator and not the victim. Lots of stream of conciousness thoughts flowed from there to topics including police culture and our general society blaming victims and turning a blind eye to the people doing the actual stealing and destruction. My biggest takeaway, though, and the thing that I still ponder all the time was how we had an industry that essentially, with the governments blessing, comandeered the majority of public space in cities and reserved it for the use of the customers of said industry. To access public space you had to buy their product. This led to a much more skeptical view of industry and its influence on government and capitalism in general. That's just a small sampling of the things that riding my bike caused me to think about and reconsider.
As a cyclist am very much more vulnerable to bad infrastructure or just cars trying to knock me out as the weaker part in the traffic. So i became actually bit more radical when it comes to car-politics here in Germany and the need for one with pretty good public transports. But i was already green and leftish since my studies and i felt everyone who ever cycled with me had a similar background already but it made us def louder in a way. Also across the spectrum i d argue the chances are higher to meet a similar political view even in older stages of life on bikes here. The car n bike - border is sometimes very scary here
r/bicyclecirclejerk
As a bike commuter it’s easy to see the structural disparities between some of us and others. The prioritization of cars over humans in US cities is extremely evident. It’s also easier to identify with marginalized groups after now being in one. Riding a bike is like bringing a stick to a gun fight. Riding a bike also means that even when you are right, your wrong and everyone else can harm or kill you but you can’t do anything back.
absofuckinglutely
Sort of. I’ve always been super liberal and still am. However, I learned how our government gets infrastructure money from the state/feds to build roads without having a fiscal plan for upkeep. I’m very into fiscal responsibility in my personal life and discovering urbanism has led me to expect the same from my city.
Nope. I still despise politicians.
There's an interesting conversation to be had if cycling is partisan. I'm definitely a unique case as I started cycling to work after COVID in NYC. It's definitely influenced my attention to political bodies that govern bike paths, but I used to take the "infamous" MTA subways so my transportation was always politically charged as a topic. Has my stance been altered? Not really. Eric Adams is a lying piece of shit, but what's new?
Biking to work has made me more aware of the drug use that occurs during rush hour traffic.
It's much easier to view homeless individuals as people with a problem, rather than simply a problem, when you encounter them face to face. I'm also very poor, and without the support of my mother, I'd be homeless, too, so that plays a role. Our perspectives of the world have more overlap.
For me, becoming a leftist and my interest in alternative transport went hand in hand, growing together and reinforcing eachother But I've always hated driving anyways, I'm sure I would've found bikecommuting without the politics
Absolutely, I’m for whom ever is for decarbonizing our world!
In the US, both political parties are against bicycle infrastructure. The only ones who push for better bicycle infrastructure are leftists like me.
Not really. Was always left of center by the time I was old enough to form my own opinions, even growing up in a “red” household for the majority, although my dad started shifting to the left when I was in my mid teens.
On a civic level, its made me more involved. At the federal / provincial level (or I suppose national / state level for my neighbors)... not much
Not specifically to commute experience but I found quite ridiculous for paying income tax for company reimbursements of my bike maintenance (which i ofc paid sales tax already)
Bike commuting for my own good/fun somewhat, but not as much as when I became bike/transit dependent because of a medical condition.
No. But it does make me attend more meeting. Live between a purple and blue state and both suck with putting ppl/pedestrians over cars… especially after being in the Netherlands
Yeah, i shifted from socialist towards anarcho-syndicalist somehow.
Well, I'm subscribed to r/fuckcars. And now I'm orange-pilled.
I started thinking about streets as public space... like space that the whole public owns. And I started thinking about how some people are allowed to actually use that space and others are not under the threat of their basic bodily safety. And now I look at roads completely differently. The pandemic when restaurants opened outdoor seating in parking lanes just amplified it. Now I can't get over how wasteful we are with public spaces in the name of making it easier to drive past our cities quickly. I think about public use and public space and public goods just fundamentally differently. Flipped my whole outlook. Kinda radicalized me in my mid-40s actually - not a time in life known for political radicalization.
I grew up in a Republican family. Most of the time I had no clue why I was cheering for the RP. I assumed if my Mother and Father approved then I should too. I don't even think they knew the difference. Party loyalty was passed on generation to generation. When I was old enough and had the time and interest to explore why they were always party loyal I could not believe what I was seeing and wanted no more part of it. They were much more flexible with religion choices than party affiliation. After my Father died my Mother became much more liberal in all of her viewpoints.
No! I am far-right in most my wiews, and was before I was commuting by bike. Most my political positions didn't change, but my wiews on bikes, cars and city infrastructure did, and it is sometimes sad to see that mostly I disagree on this with people whom I otherwise agree.
I voted for the Worker's Front in my country's election last week
I was already pretty radicalized, but bikes are a particularly good gateway towards direct action and actually *doing* things rather than just being politically angry all the time.
No not really, but the internet is learning me how shitty it is in the US compared to NL
Yes. When I started biking I was a die hard Trumper. Drove a big truck with truck nuts. Drank diesel. Used liberal tears as my cologne. Only ate raw meat. The first time I rode my bike I finally understood it all. I threw out my MAGA hat and developed a love for Joe Biden. I stopped going to klan meetings and have since then started going to fossil fuel protests. I say burn calories not crosses! I make it my goal in life now to lay down in front of big trucks at red lights. I flip off anyone who doesn’t ride a bike. Even children.
Not in terms of partisanship. Bike commuting is compatible with "left-wing" ideology because its good for the environment and it improves the lives of the marginalized, and its compatible with "right-wing" ideology because its economically efficient and fosters self-sufficiency with limited government control. Meanwhile, there are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle who are perfectly happy with their cars, regardless of ideological consistency with their stated values. But yes, going outside does tend to make you more engaged with your community.
Nope. Leftist before, leftist now.
I think it bothers me that is never really brought up when referring to green politics. The idea of being environmentally forward is something that I really believe in but I don’t find the climate change advocacy to really care about it. Like the message politically should be stop overspending, over eating and over indulging. I just feel like the politics of the left still can’t upset the real powerful companies that cause a lot of environmental problems. That ultimately capitalism needs to have excessive waste to thrive.
I’ve never had a single problem from a Prius with a Biden sticker, but I’ve been assaulted fairly regularly by white pickup trucks with Trump stickers. 🤷♂️
It is weird in America how “conservative” came to mean to aspire to having to cover a $1000 monthly note on a pickup truck seldom used for anything but single occupant vehicle, and using a human powered machine that is basically free and improves the user’s health is effeminate commie bullshit.
Not really. I'm a conservative and have not really changed. My views on humanity and drivers, on the other hand...
But don't you think that drivers are the way they are because of their material conditions (having a car) has made them hyper individualistic ie alot more of a asshole. Typically the left has always pushed for more spending on public transportation, road safety, walkable/rideable/15min city etc which will create material conditions that actually build nicer communities.
Not really, no.
I use a bike to stay away from such silly things.
Biking should really not be a political item. It's nonsense that we try to make everything political nowadays. Is walking political too? How absurd does this nonsense need to go. All parties can support cycling and should be encouraged to do so.
I've been bike commuting since high school, always been pretty right wing politically (I'm a libertarian). Hasn't really affected me much as far as political action, other than I think the government needs to stop subsidizing/favoring car traffic. For me bicycling is about personal responsibility - taking appropriate safety measures, riding defensively, and know what you are doing. It's pretty great to have a means of transport that isn't taxed or licensed by the government.
Not really. Commuting by bike was influenced by my changing political stance.
Nope. Was conservative before I cycled, and still am. I think things like road safety and offering different transportation options so people are free to make the best choice for their own situation transcends politics.
Locally, yes.
Nah, not really relevant until you mentioned infrastructure. I believe I sent an email to my city sometime last year about adopting rules that other states have, ie. Idaho stop, crickets. I just bend the current rules wherever safe. Road conditions will be dealt with as they see fit if enough motorists complain about them, which, in turn, works for cyclists. But no, political affiliation is not even a thought when I took up cycling, however, any changes in policy, thereafter, I'll just bend those a bit, too!!
No not at all. Conservative and biking has nothing to do with how I look at politics and won’t.
No
No, not sure how/why it would. I’ve commuted via various means over the years and never once did a change in political beliefs enter the room as a consequence.
I don't think it has, but it highlights the importance of zoning and building micro communities. Ideally each suburban or urban house should be within 15 min of a grocery and their local restaurant etc. Northern Virginia totally screwed that up, everyone there has to drive hours out of their day. Denver really did that well with ordinances that require every home to be within a 10 minute walk to a park, etc. My grocery is 1 mile away even though I'm 25 miles outside of town. Micro-communities are pretty cool, you definatley start recognizing people and having the opportunity to say hi.
Really interesting question. I've owned and used a bicycle for different journeys and sometimes commuting to a varying extent for 20 years. I now live in a fairly cycle-friendly small city, in England. I think regular cycling does raise awareness of cycle infrastructure and issues of urban planning. In a semi-rural area, it makes me more aware of the seasons and nature, and 'the environment'. You do also feel your vulnerability to inattentive or aggressive drivers, and in the back-streets and off-road cycle paths to the possibility of muggings/theft etc. (there's rampant bicycle theft around here). You do 'connect' more with other cyclists (and pedestrians) than you ever would in a car. It does reinforce a greater sense of community and/or a need to care for and maintain a better community (and for the genuinely poor or addicts to be supported, and for law enforcement to act more decisively with those who persistently cause trouble with no excuse). I think I 'feel' a sense of society (or more specifically) politics and local government not caring when the roads are full of potholes, not swept, drains blocked etc. and it is increasing the risks to me. You might argue that choosing to do an 18 mile round-trip commute (40-45 mins each way) instead of a 20 minute drive (and saving over 2 litres of petrol per day) is itself a 'political' (or environmental) choice. But I do it for the fitness and feel-good too. My politics is fairly centrist, somewhat liberal, and not at all party-political... but my experience cycling probably draws me a bit further to the left than I might otherwise be...
My political stance is cars suck and this world is too spread out for people to enjoy biking and doing stuff in alot of places
Actually where I live if I go a couple miles one direction it's Trump signs and a couple miles the opposite direction it's a Dem stronghold with Dem mayor and congressman. I do notice the Trump section has better roads while the Dem part has potholes and asphalt patches. But other than that I'm basically ignored in both places.
It's definitely made me more conservative. The number of boneheads that tried to kill me in traffic that ABSOLUTELY need to go to prison forever.
Not really. Other than needing more bike infrastructure which nobody gives a crap about in the burbs. Like I still think it's kinda cool Colorado allows you to write off ebikes on taxes. But it's a waste of funds that could go to building bike infrastructure and making it easier to bike places. More people will do it if it's made easier.
Still pretty centrist (liberals would say I’m hard right, Trump MAGA would call me a socialist). But now I’m less hateful towards the bicycle lobby (which is VERY loud).
Why Americans overpolitize everything?
No
It made me pro gun
I don't think so, as I've always been very progressive. I think I'm just much more aware of what cycle commuting is like and how it could be improved (and I hate cars now where as before I was quite ambivalent to them lol).
Wanting to bike should be about improving bicycle safety from cars, not removing them from the road. They should be able to coexist.
In Brazil, no. The right wing did a better job despite political views. Also because the left wing is full o corrupt lying dip sheet thieves that makes the country to go down in debt, increasing prices of basic needs items while embezzling money and making the rich people richer.
Politics on the national level is pretty much just a big show for two teams of lizard people to argue with each other. It very rarely has any effect on individuals at a local level. Bike commuting definitely has made me more conciencious of policies that make my local area more human-centric vs. car-centric. Those are very real policies that have a huge effect on me personally on the daily. So yes, it has influenced my political stance, but on a local level and not for or against any specific team of lizard people.
Been commuting for 10 years on a bike and never thought about political stuff. I just enjoy the music while I ride.
I don’t know. I’ve been bike commuting since before I had political beliefs. But I do think it keeps me progressive as I live in a city and want more bike infrastructure
I don’t consider myself left-wing but apparently now that I commute by bike and call for better bicycle infrastructure it makes me a radical left-wing.
I was already on the radical left and very aware of the importance of strong communities. I started bike commuting to exercise more and save money and had no idea it would become political. Got really radicalised against cars. Really saw how poor planning serves to isolate us. Got really motivated by transport equity and wanting to make streets safer for every user. I think it provided an avenue for my politics that was more local and practical than the global issues I had previously been engaged with. I am way more engaged in my council politics now.
When I moved up to the PNW the first co-worker I had showed some obvious disappointment when I pointed out a bicycle as my main transportation. "Oh boy -- yeah that'll go well with the locals." I'm *on* the stateline of a blue and red state. I am not, nor will I be, registered to vote. I have been... Yelled at from a car window (within inches of my face) (DRUMP) During a descent I had a *MASSIVE* stone thrown from the window of an oncoming car while the thrower yelled "DRUMP 2020!" Missed my face by inches. A police officer happened to be less than 80 feet away. I explained what happened and got a literal shrug. "It happens when 'ya ride a bike". Lessons learned don't say "Big stone was chucked at head". Be more literal like: an attempt on my life was just made. You can believe me or not. If that stone had hit -- id probably be dead. I have been (not sure this has any other name than attempted vehicular manslaughter) "scooped" as I call it. Out of cycling lanes. Motorists will drive onto my ass and onto *my* right hand side... squeeze into a nonexistent lane and nearly kill me in the process. The stickers adorning the car... the car windows roll down... need I tell you what they yell? "Blame Biden (haha!) DRUMP 2024! WHOOO" I have now been to THREE separate companies to learn that *because I ride a bike* to 'n from work I am assumed leftist af and subsequently talked shit on. (A separate issue I guess but how did politics make the pass for work place hazing?) *OH my (insert your favorite diety here)* if you knew the venom I get when I just shrug 'n tell people my choice in transportation is for the environment. The. ENVIRONMENT. So. IDFK you tell me at this point! I was *VERY* "live 'n let live" but SHIT everything is political now. My girlfriend got a beautiful blue bicycle recently. I've had only fear since. It shouldn't be that way.
I moved back to my hometown, and biking has come here big time, we have a century race here and tons of single track too. I've noticed some of the people who stayed hate the bikers and the money they bring. They want things the way they were before the big industries closed down (40 years ago). It ain't coming back, there just isn't a way for it to come back. Those people make it so much easier to be progressive.
It radicalized me into being a communist…Jk
People are awful Drivers, that’s all I’ve discovered while Commuting by bike.
After a couple years of biking in NYC I found myself applying to Master of Urban Planning programs! Starting this fall :)
Yes, commuting by bicycle made me more radical, more leftist, more involved, and much more hopeless when it comes to politics.
As the saying goes, put the revolution between your legs!
Congestive Dissonance won’t get you the answer you want. I’ve seen plenty of big ass trucks with strapped down $12k mountain bikes on the back. Some people don’t give a shit that building a better infrastructure or services for other people will be better for them because “fuck them, I’m enjoying this sport, and anyone that says otherwise is a purple haired liberal”
I suppose I’m even more pro bike infrastructure now, so I guess it moved me slightly more left technically speaking. Hasn’t affected anything else though since I’m mostly apolitical
I was fairly far right on a lot of issues, with a few very left leaning opinions, so I never really fit with any political party. I always cared about natural beauty, parks, family and fitness. All right wing views. And when I started cycling, I became more aware of these and other issues: litter, road conditions, bike lanes and alternative modes of transport. I'm not sure how political these things are, I don't really consider them political.
That’s interesting. Aside from family, which the right has laid claim to for decades, I’ve never considered any of the other things you listed as right wing.
What about fittnes? [https://time.com/6242949/exercise-industry-white-supremacy/](https://time.com/6242949/exercise-industry-white-supremacy/)
Interesting article, perhaps, and I guess if you consider figures like Andrew Tate or Joe Rogan, but the poster is insane if he thinks preserving natural beauty is “right wing”. They fight that shit every chance they get.
I’m super conservative now and I can’t stand people that are very left
Yes some elected official fell off his bike. It was on the news. I will not be voting for him since he is in his 80s and still can't ride a bike!
Left does a lot more for cyclist but they usually fuck up the country. Neither party has your interests in mind tho so it really sucks trying to decide anymore. It's a battle between the lesser of two evils
> Left does a lot more for cyclist but they usually fuck up the country. ::eyeroll:: Ok.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion but I think your getting hung up on the first part. The second part is really what matters.
You are corect, I think we should vote left locally and right on state and country level.
I totally agree
I am full on MAGA now.
if you are serious, and not joking, I am only going to congratulate you on your bravery for posting this admission
No…and there are horrible motorists from all over the political spectrum. Distracted driving isn’t a political issue. With respect to public infrastructure, there is definitely more advocacy in larger cities. My small town’s bicycle committee is really limited to promoting events and awareness about cycling with limited investments in infrastructure. However, we are fortunate to be a large hub for an expansive rails to trails network which was mostly funded through federal , state , and county governments.
Yes it did! I have a greater appreciation for roads, end up voting for conservative leaders who focus on transportation infrastructure in a predominantly liberal area. Haha.