Some unfinished business: I’ve been thinking and writing about Bicycle Neglect now for half a year, and I still have not defined the term—an oversight that I’ll rectify right away.
Bicycle Neglect is a syndrome with four mutually reinforcing symptoms:
- A tendency to view bicycles as a form of recreation, not a form of transportation (this is typically a manifestation of Car-head);
- An institutional, legal, and physical environment explicitly or unwittingly hostile to bicycling for transportation (typical features include car-oriented traffic laws, car-oriented traffic policing, woefully inadequatebikingfacilities, and miserly budgets to improve these facilities);
- Unnecessarily dangerous conditions for cycling; and
- Very low levels of bicycling for transportation, as a result.
Bicycle Respect is Bicycle Neglect’s opposite, on each count:
- A tendency to view bicycles as a form of transportation, not just recreation;
- An institutional, legal, and physical environment supportive of bicycling for transportation, including bike-friendly traffic laws and policing, ample biking facilities, and adequate budgets to improve these facilities;
- Safe conditions for cycling; and
- High levels of bicycling for transportation, as a result.
Nothing more to say here: this series just needed a glossary.