Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!
Mlevin writes: Very insightful column on bikes. Until injuries stopped me I was an avid bicyclist, although not a habitual driver. I sort-of appreciated the freedom bikes afford, mainly because you can go almost anywhere, breezing past guards and barriers. I recall entering the dock where the Queen Mary II was berthed, getting very up close and personal, and being awed. Forbidden territory, but the guard didn’t pursue me. What would be the point? Never quite conceived the issue as a matter of freedom, but you’re right – it is.
My reply: I think so, too. Hence the column. I also remember as a kid how freeing a bicycle was; it was my ticket down the road – and on my own, without a care in the world. But cars beckoned (in those days) with even more freedom. Which is why – until recently – almost all kids who rode bikes moved up to cars once they were 16 and able to do so.
But consider how it is today.
In most states, you can’t get a full adult license until 18. Until then, you get a gimped license that doesn’t permit you to be out at night – or with friends in the car with you. And of course, the car itself is an expensive, unapproachable electro-mechanical debt albatross that probably narcs on you, too.
Who wants it?
Bikes, however, are still what they were – and even more so, really, because of what cars no longer are.
. . .
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>Bikes, however, are still what they were – and even more so, really, because of what cars no longer are.
…but for how much longer? Check out this bit of idiocy to tumble out of the cakehole of New York City’s communist mayor:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/4/bill-de-blasio-eyes-licenses-bike-riders/
Quote from the article follows:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is considering requiring bicyclists to be licensed and registered like automobile drivers currently are.
According to a report in the New York Daily News on Wednesday, the mayor also wants to expand the city’s safety regulations, which already have won it a nanny-state reputation, to include requiring Citi Bike renters to wear helmets.
Mr. de Blasio called the idea of forcing cyclists to have licenses and registration a “valid discussion,” the Daily News reported, and added that he also plans a crackdown on cyclists who break traffic laws.
Despite these proposals happening now and then, this one sounds like my prediction that the political class cannot possibly allow the freedom bicycling brings to people.
Not for long. Our freedoms are considered loopholes by those who wish to rule us. Rest assured there are people (I use that term loosely) out there doggedly pursuing the closure of said loopholes.
As always, I think the best course of action is civil disobedience. When they ban it, do it anyway, do it out in the open, and hopefully more will follow suit. Force the cretins to show their hand, which is of course violence. It’s the only tool in their employ, and it’s good for the ignorant masses to be exposed to it.