America's Other Pandemic
The Urbanist Virus has been infecting our body politic for the last few years. It is now metastasizing while we shelter in place.
Have you noticed that your city, county, and state are spending (or committing to spend) millions of dollars on road changes at the same time they are cutting budgets for critical services and effectively forcing financial hardships on virtually every citizen? Does this make any sense? Does it make you question the motives of the majority of our elected officials and members of the media? It should.
You see in May of 2019, I began documenting the outright lies, blatant hypocrisy, and unbelievable waste associated with the bike lobby on my Twitter account. [If any of these links don't work, please try copying and pasting the web address into a new browser tab.]
Up until the arrival of the Coronavirus, it was already glaringly obvious that the 99 percent of us who do not regularly ride bicycles were losing the war for our streets. Under the guise of Vision Zero (a ‘safety’ initiative that incredulously wants to eliminate all accidents), traffic lanes are being narrowed, parking is being eliminated, nature is being paved, and intersections are becoming more confusing… all so not-cheap bike lanes can be installed in case cyclists feel like using them.
Since March 2020 things have only gone from bad to worse. In a world where most of us are concerned about our next meal, rent payment, or family members’ health, politicians and urbanists are proposing pricey new infrastructure expenditures via virtual meetings with nothing resembling sufficient public notice. Just two weeks ago, my city’s bike-corrupt Department of Transportation colluded with an urbanist elected official to force this ridiculous concept upon a neighborhood full of people who had no idea it was being discussed.
Meanwhile, the media either turns a blind eye to it or outright employs people who support the bike agenda. I could show you countless examples of car-hating journalists doing this, but, for the sake of brevity, I’ll focus on one.
About a month ago, I was asked by an established senior writer for a major regional magazine to discuss my position in more depth. I made sure to answer every one of his questions and followups. I requested that we do this over email so that there would be a record of what was said, since a quick internet search of him and the magazine’s editor showed they were totally biased.
As it turned out, instead of twisting my words, they chose to bury the piece. I tried to get a few other journalists to write about the situation but never got traction. So, instead, I’ve decided to publish my answers below. I hope it helps shed additional light on the situation under normal circumstances. As you have seen, things have only been magnified during the Covid-19 crisis.
In closing, I sincerely hope you can see how we must eradicate the Urbanist Virus from the halls of government once and for all. [To be clear, cyclists should have safe places to ride in our towns and cities. That said, this tiny special interest group should no longer dictate policy… particularly those members who stand to make money off of these projects.] Here’s the good news: we already possess the vaccine. A simple regimen of logic and common sense would permanently reverse the comorbidities we’ve been experiencing.
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ABOUT ME, MY INTEREST IN THIS, & HOW I ADVOCATE
I am just a middle-aged married father who has lived in DC for over twenty years. As someone whose work comes in project form, I have the luxury of free time when I am in between assignments.
Starting in May of 2019, I decided to put that free time to good use by trying to fix what I perceived as a problem: specifically, how cyclists get a free pass on the laws that they constantly break. [Go try and ask DC Police how many tickets cyclists got last year. They don’t track it or enforce it, apparently. In the year 2018, Arlington only handed out NINE cycling tickets despite the county having 250K+ residents and numerous additional visitors.]
By June of 2019, I realized that this bike issue is about way more than just random people in lycra running stop signs and red lights. My first definitive exposure to this came when I went over to K St NE to talk to residents about the dozens of parking spaces they were losing for a bike lane in this five-block stretch. According to multiple folks I spoke with, there was a petition of close to 200 people in that small area who opposed this plan being thrust upon them by DDOT and the urbanist ANC commissioners there. One woman I spoke with told me how she stood up at the ANC meeting to say her elderly mother would be unable to get dropped off by taxi anywhere near her house with this new bike setup. She then informed me that the response from one ANC was to ask if her mother knew how to ride a bike! Soon after, the ANC and DDOT moved forward with the project despite the vast majority of residents showing up to oppose the plan. These scorched earth urbanists are the people I am trying to expose with the loose-knit alliance I formed called ABAW. [Often ignored is the way that this cavalier attitude not only affects the people on those blocks, but the surrounding neighborhoods as well. The K St NE residents are now forced to park in other areas, thus clogging up the available supply in those places.]
For most of 2019, I was content to point out the utter madness of bike advocacy on Twitter as a way to document what was happening here in the DC area and around the country. Occasionally, I would fact check certain cases that appeared particularly strange by requesting police reports or going to the site in question to talk with residents or witnesses. All told, on an average day, I probably spent less than an hour on this endeavor.
But as the calendar flipped to 2020, I realized that the urbanists are doubling down their efforts to make life harder for normal DC area citizens. As a result, I’ve decided to take a more active role in this (still just one guy averaging a few hours per day). Recently, I’ve worked with the churches on 9th St NW to battle a bike lane there that was being framed as an emergency safety measure despite advocates rallying around an accident where the cyclist was at fault, according to the police report. I have also started efforts to work with organizations fighting homelessness that could benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for bike projects that only 1 percent of the city will use. Think about it — we could be using that money to solve a civic issue that benefits everyone (yet is always placed on the backburner) OR we could use that money to make life harder for almost everybody trying to get around our city.
ABOUT ABAW
As mentioned above, the troubling number of changes happening on DC area roads that were going unchallenged really is the reason that ABAW has morphed into its current form. Whether we’re talking about bike lanes, road diets, reduced street parking, traffic cameras, congestion pricing, or any of the countless other ways city planners are trying to punish drivers, someone needs to stand up to it. Not only does it make living in and commuting to DC harder, but it costs a lot of money every time an “improvement” is made. Yet virtually no one questions this concept in the media or in government. In the rare instance that someone does publicly take a stance against an urbanist matter, there is a literal bike mob (both in real life and on social media) that unites to “ratio” that person into oblivion. Don’t believe me? Just ask Councilmember Todd how quickly cyclists flipped on him after he opposed the 9th St bike lane despite him catering to them for years before that vote!
Locally, the ringleader for these people is the advocacy group whose acronym is the reverse of ABAW. As you probably guessed, they are the reason we took those letters to begin with. While there might be a rare exception, it’s a pretty safe bet that we oppose everything they stand for. Unlike them, we have never taken a single dollar from anyone. Unlike them, we do not get a huge stipend from DDOT to then turn around and nag DDOT for bike infrastructure. Unlike them, we do not have about 20 salaried employees (we have zero). And unlike them, we do not tolerate people pretending to be about the environment who then lobby to pave over nature for a new bike path next to a bike path which is next to yet another bike path (see the Palisades Trolley Trail debate).
Given that we neither ask for nor receive any money, ABAW is a true democratic grassroots effort still in its first year. So, for anyone trying to downplay our efforts by citing a small Twitter following, please spare us the lip service. If you don’t agree with our efforts to point out hypocrisy and outright lying by the people we oppose, feel free to caucus with them and try to justify wasting precious resources on a miniscule percentage of the population that complains about (and often refuses to use) the things that they get once they get them.
ABOUT THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER & HOW REGULAR PEOPLE FEEL
We recognize that terms like “anti-bike” and “three-headed monster” might be off-putting for some people. But, there’s a reason why those terms are used: namely, if we try to sugarcoat things, it’s very likely our message will get lost in the shuffle.
When you are getting viciously mugged, there’s a 100 percent chance the mugger will steal your money if you don’t fight back. On the flip side, there’s a greater than zero percent chance you will walk away with your money if you do stand up for yourself. Both in the metaphor and in the real life war being waged by urbanists, we feel it is necessary to clearly and unequivocally take a stance against the injustice being perpetrated by the aggressor. As such, while we would be foolish to suggest that no bike facilities should exist in a metropolitan region of over 5 million people, we have seen time and time again what happens when those opposed to DDOT (or other agencies) try to treat them in a politically correct manner. Just ask the residents of Channel Square Apartments what happened when their ANC voted unanimously against the P St SW bike lane but refused to call out their DDOT representatives for not only being anti-car, but lying about it to the room full of constituents debating the matter…
In fact, go look at the Twitter accounts of the majority of the people who work at DDOT for confirmation of this notion. [If you need me to provide proof, let me know.] These urbanists actively celebrate their brazen hatred of cars openly on social media. They are part of a nationwide movement of city planners and transportation professionals spending billions of dollars to punish car users by making it increasingly more difficult to park and drive. In other words, the very people who collect salaries paid by us, the taxpayers, to manage our streets are going out of their way to make it harder for the 99 percent of us who do not bike on a regular basis. Can you imagine if our city government was made up exclusively of green-eyed individuals (2 percent of the population) and their allies? Now imagine that those people started to carve out huge chunks of budget money only for people with green eyes. That’s essentially what’s happening, only with a SMALLER group of people.
Inevitably, the urbanists and cyclists will point to Vision Zero at some point as the primary driver of this stuff. For starters, on its face, is it possible to reduce accidents to zero? Of course not… accidents, by definition, just happen. Now here’s a little secret that gets glossed over: our cities aren’t getting any safer with these new policies in place; rather, they are getting more confusing to navigate. Oh, and citizens are receiving more fines as a result. [DC rakes in twice as many dollars per capita in this manner than any other city in America.] Meanwhile, all of the businesses involved in pushing for these “improvements” make money off of every successful campaign, regardless of whether it provides any community benefit.
As far as the media goes, I can only say that there are plenty of examples of bias captured on our Twitter account. One instance that particularly stands out in my memory was an older man who hit a teenage girl with his car in Montgomery County late in 2019. He had the green light in that case, but that was never reported or followed up on by any of the online or tv sources. They merely went with the “old man hits teen on bike at night” narrative and never bothered to tell his side of the story. I sat down with him and he told me how hard it was on him emotionally, even weeks later, to think about how he was portrayed given who was at fault. On top of that, this elderly suburban resident, who lives alone, lost the use of his car for about a month because the police were performing analysis on it related to the crash (he also had to pay for it to be towed to the crime lab even though it was perfectly drivable).
To be honest, your question (“when I see these issues in the news, it certainly seems like the pro-vehicle (anti-bike) advocates are in the minority”) proves this point. Don’t you share my hunch that most people stand on the side of ABAW given the vast disparity between car owners and everyday cyclists? Do you honestly believe that people will actively vote against their best interest if alerted to something directly affecting them? Therein lies the problem… most people don’t have the time, energy, or desire to pay attention to this stuff (especially when it is happening across town from them). Plus, I can’t tell you how many people have told me some form of the deferential “everybody deserves a place” argument. What they don’t know is that their generosity and civility is being taken advantage of by the urbanists to strip away rights and perks, not to mention lowering property values (according to realtors I have spoken with)…
In short, the bike people are winning. They win because the subject is super boring and is hashed out at random government meetings that are lucky to get a handful of unaffiliated members of the public to attend. But the stakes are huge, both in dollars spent and quality of life. They win because the same small group of intense cyclists organize and show up at these meetings, in places they don’t even live. They win because they run unopposed for local government jobs (or get backing from urbanist media in contested races other publications won’t cover). They win because they have infiltrated city agencies with a very clear agenda.
And that’s why I’ve made it my mission to stand up for the silent supermajority getting trampled by the bike lobby. Whether it’s the people impacted by Alexandria’s ridiculous Seminary Road project or the sneaky Grant Circle bikeshare affair, ABAW is gaining traction little by little. In time, I truly believe that people will say enough is enough and hold these people accountable for what they have done.
***AT THIS POINT, I RECEIVED A BUNCH OF FOLLOWUP QUESTIONS.***
Judging from your answers, it sounds like in addition to your efforts on Twitter, you also meet with people out in the community who share your concerns. How do you connect up with these people?
Usually I just make my way over to a neighborhood or business by car or foot. Once there, I approach anybody that looks like they have a stake in the matter at hand and talk with them. Some people choose not to speak; but you’d be surprised how many people take the time to converse with a stranger about things that affect their daily lives.
Take the community in K St. NE for example: how did you learn that the proposed bike lane had become an issue in that community and how did you locate the people who you spoke with?
DDOT is required to post potential projects for the public to see. In theory, this lets people weigh in on the matter (but as you have seen from yesterday’s responses, people who oppose these projects are often ignored). I saw that the K St NE project was threatening to take away about 50 spaces and went there to see what residents thought about it. I walked the length of the project (down each side of the street) and struck up conversation with anyone who was in their front yard. I even get invited into people’s homes every now and then.
More broadly, how do you monitor these issues in Washington area communities?
The internet (specifically social media) allows me to monitor most of these projects. A few times per month, I’ll walk by a flier at a public building or receive an email from some entity that catches my eye.
How do you find out when a proposed bike lane, for example, has become an issue in a specific community?
As one person, there’s no way I can keep up with the constant deluge of projects coming out of the various DOTs in the region. On top of that, time only allows me to highlight what I see as the most egregious projects. That said, once I hone in on something that deserves to be pointed out to the public, I dive in headfirst, which sometimes means I must head to that community to verify that my hunch is correct. I can’t think of a time where I went to one of these neighborhoods and didn’t encounter people who confirmed my hunch. [Sure, there are people who are neutral or opposed to ABAW ideas, too. But, just because the Constitution Party received over 200,000 votes in the 2016 presidential election (0.15 percent of voters) doesn’t mean our country has done anything to specifically address this bloc of voters. Why is the opposite true for cyclists?]
Do you attend ANC meetings? If so, how often? How do these meetings make you feel?
I think I have been to two ANC meetings, a handful of DDOT open house presentations, and a few other things of this ilk. As I stated yesterday, these meetings are long and boring and often involve ANC members who have already made up their minds before the opening gavel. And that’s the problem: DC’s biased ANC structure is virtually invisible. Very few people even know the name of the person who represents them; far fewer really know anything about their policy leanings. I analyzed every single ANC member elected in 2018 that had any sort of internet presence and found that only about 6 percent were on the ABAW side of the ledger. Meanwhile, there were about 30 percent who could very easily be classified as urbanists, including people that work or have worked for DDOT or alternative transportation companies, as well as writers for urbanist blogs. [These are just the people who left a breadcrumb trail for me to follow.] This is what we need to fight in November. I highly doubt if you randomly polled people in each of the eight DC wards about bike issues that five times as many respondents would exhibit urbanist ideals when compared to those who are resistant to costly changes to the status quo.
How did you learn that members of the churches on 9th Street were fighting a proposed bike lane?
I believe I saw a reference to it on the "bikedc" hashtag.
Are there any members of that community — church leaders, for example — that you could put me in touch with? I’d be interested in speaking with them for the story.
They are very easy to find if you research what happened leading up to the Council vote last week.
Would you be able to put me in touch with someone from a homeless organization that you are working with?
I’d prefer to keep the details of this relationship private until we have something worth announcing.
A couple of times in your responses, you’ve used the word “we” to refer to the ABAW. Are there other people on your team? If so, how many? I understand that, at this point, you are still a small, recently founded organization. Do you have plans to grow? Add staff? Perhaps quit your day job and work there full time?
I want to be clear. The reason we are an alliance is because this is not an entity that deals with money. We do not have a physical headquarters. As such, there is no team, in the formal sense of the word. There will never be a staff. I am not looking to make money off of this. This is a very loose-knit group of people who are sick of what is happening in our cities, both big and small (although the DC area is my focus). ABAW’s rate of growth is not something I am concerned with; rather, it’s the amount of change we can make to the system and the doses of truth we can provide. Anybody who is making money off of a political matter is automatically compromised whether they want to admit it or not. For that reason, we will always maintain our place on the high road in these debates. [Of course, as a virtual group that is completely open to anyone, at some point in the future someone in the alliance might spread a falsehood or take things too far. Who knows — perhaps a cyclist will pose as a member to make us look bad. {They have a history of creating ‘parody’ accounts to weaken the arguments of those that oppose them.} If and when this happens, we will need to correct the record. To date, I don’t think there’s been a single instance of this happening.]
Also, you mentioned that you met with an older man who was in an accident with a bike rider in Montgomery County in 2019. How did you connect with him?
I pulled the police report after traveling to the intersection where this occurred and noticing that the odds of a car crossing six lanes of rush hour traffic are extremely low when someone has a red light there. He invited me into his home and spoke with me for about an hour. [In addition to everything I mentioned yesterday, I failed to tell you how he had witnesses confirm his account of the accident who were not included in the police report, for whatever reason. Those witness statements would have gone a long way to back up his claim.]
How often do you meet with people in similar circumstances?
Rarely. Usually it’s when it involves one specific person or when I want concrete proof from affected parties that my theories aren’t baseless accusations.
I’d still like to learn more about what life is like for you as an advocate for these issues. Do people in your everyday life know about your advocacy?
More and more do each day. Many of them get bored talking with me about bikes after about five minutes!
How do your efforts as an advocate in this space bleed into your everyday life?
They really don’t.
Do you find yourself, for example, arguing about these issues with neighbors or others at dinner parties or barbecues?
There are two types of discussions I have. The first revolves around me finding out someone shares my beliefs and then listening to them tell me their stories before I reinforce the conversation with mine. The second group of people are those “everyone should have a space” folks. These people rarely even own a bike; they just want to be nice. [Every once in a while, I will engage with someone who says they are a cyclist. In almost all of these instances, these cyclists are the “Pull my bike out of the garage for my biweekly ride down a bucolic trail” type, as opposed to everyday users.]
Are there other ways that your advocacy bleeds into your everyday life?
With the exception of being able to recognize hardcore bike advocates and people involved in city government when I walk down the street, no.
