DBAGS #1

Welcome to the Douche Bag Awareness Guidance System, this is not a test.  From time to time we will be activating the DBAGS system when pretentious cyclist think, “it’s all about me”.

Today’s DBAGS alert is about New York City based filmmaker Casey Neistat and his rant about bicycle parking. Sounding like someone who drives a car, Mr. Neistat in his latest YouTube video complains about how he can’t park his bike in front of the studio he rents and is often forced to park his bike down the block. Recently due to a bad job of locking his bike it was stolen.

Mr. Neistat has achieved a double DBAGS alert in the video. Due to limited bike parking he often resorts to locking his bike over another bike, the equivalent of double parking. Which makes it very difficult for you to get your bike out if your bike is under his bike.

The second alert is for his solution. Mr. Neistat is young, healthy, and physically fit and he could easily carry his bike inside his studio and keep it there. Instead his excuse is “ever been to new york city? nothing simple about bringing a bike inside”.  I’ve lived and bicycled in a number of cities in the United States, including NYC and short of someone telling me I can’t bring my bicycle inside. I’ve always managed to bring my bicycle inside without to much difficulty. So what is his solution, a video is worth 1000 words.

Installing a personal bike rack on a public street will not guarantee other people are going to use it. As for his whining about having to remove it, he could have just as easily created a time-lapse video documenting how many bikes are locked in the street over 30 days and lobbied New York City to install a bike rack. But that’s too much work and effort.

Congratulations Casey Neistat for being a double DBAGS alert, please let us know where to send your award.

All I'm asking for is some respect

Aretha Franklin sang it best when it came to respect and that appears to be what the city of Philadelphia is doing with its campaign, Give respect, get respect, when it comes to addressing the laws and safety issues that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers must face. The campaign is being implemented in an effective manner, a team of police officers on bicycles and a patrol car will be handing out these brochures to educate their rights and responsibilities. They will alsowrite tickets to cyclists and drivers who endanger others.

This was clearly a well thought out and researched to create maximum effect with minimal disruption, while at the same time giving police the ability to say, “don't say we didn't warn you” when drivers and cyclists get ticketed in the future.

This campaign could have been a lot worse, New York City also kicked off an an educational campaign of its own last week. Unfortunately this was proceeded by the police departments Operation Safe Cycle. In theory the NYPD was going to start ticketing cyclist for some of the more egregious traffic violations, in reality they went after easy targets to make their data look good. This included ticketing cyclists in Central Park for running red lights when the park is closed to cars and having a tote bag on their handle bars. But the worst was when the NYPD created a speed trap in Central Park based on outdated information that the speed limit for cyclists was 15 miles per hour when it is actually 25mph. Requiring the NYPD to send police officers to 9 ticketed cyclists to apologize for ticketing them.

Then to add insult to injury New York City kicked off its educational campaign by calling cyclists who break the laws jerks. Lets face it folks no matter how cute the videos might be or how famous the stars are you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Philadelphia has found a much more effective method by educating everyone instead of targeting one group. The people who created the Give Respect, Get Respect program should be commended for creating a rational plan that educates everyone without name calling.