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this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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Bicycling industry lobbyists need to step up their game
I think one of the main points in the article is that there is no group of cyclists able to come together to lobby and tbh, I don't see how it's really possible. It's something I've been thinking for a while.
I am a cyclist and a driver. I am not personally in a lobbying group for either. However, like another poster said, oil companies and car manufacturers have the money and reasoning to come together to lobby on behalf of drivers regardless of my actual wishes but they've got lots of my money from having bought and maintained a car. Cyclist manufacturers aren't exactly large, have much money or are as combined into a few multinationals. There is no fuel industry either.
I don't really know any other cyclists like me who are more casual, and use it for local journeys. I want better segregated lanes, better and more secure parking (my bike got stolen recently), the police to actually care about bike thefts, and more considered routes/junctions. There are social groups of long distance weekend cyclists but tbh, they have completely different priorities and interests to me. Even when I used to commute my cycling habits were completely different so my requests would be different.
Depends where you live, of course, but in the UK, where this article was published, there are quite a few organisations for cyclists, like the London Cycling Campaign, British Cycling and Sustrans (which advocates for Sustainable Transport generally, hence the name, but I think focuses mainly on cycling).
I think all three are membership organisations, with slightly different focuses (like obviously the LCC focuses on London!). The LCC definitely is partly funded by the bicycle industry.
EDIT: Somehow forgot about the greatest cycling club of all for UK-based cyclists: The National Clarion Cycling Club, which is a socialist cycling club!
Very interesting, thank you for sharing!
Some of these are exactly what I was thinking so will join or see how they can help. However, I do get the sense they have no real say in local politics here given what I've seen in proposals and plans from the local and county councils. I noticed new caveats to some of the 20mph and LTN type plans (which are far behind other areas already) with "depending on the wishes of actual residents in that area", or something along those lines added that sounds like full on NIMBYISM or anti-woke to me. I do reply to consultations with my concerns as a local cyclist but don't see much changing. Perhaps doing so as part of a group will be better.
Unfortunately I'm just outside London in Surrey where the infrastructure is awful. There is a noticeable drop in quality as soon as you cross the invisible border. It's worse for cyclists and pedestrians.
For example, the behaviour of car drivers outside my child's primary school is terrible and they school constantly asks people to be more careful but the council doesn't seem to care. They have yellow lines on the smallest stretch you can imagine and not even on both sides of a small road, which are ignored anyway. The road is still 30mph, there are no ped crossings, let alone crossing guards. I even requested parking enforcement to come. They said would add it to their list but have seen them once in 6 months.
Sorry, turned into a bit of a rant towards the end!
Sure, there are lots of advocacy groups for good things with positive externalities that exist... but the funding for them tends to be vastly lower than the amounts thrown at lobbyists from industries with negative externalities.
There's not exactly the same amount of money sloshing around in the cycling manufacturing industry. It's a relatively cheap product, and there's no consumables involved. In contrast, if you drive, you give the oil industry something like $100/month.
I've been to the Pacific Cycle corporate headquarters, the current owner of well-known brands like Mongoose, Schwinn, GT, and Rioadmaster, supplier of most of the bicycle-shaped objects sold by mass-retailers like Walmart and Target.
That's right, into the very belly of Big Bike!
And, uhh, they're not very big. I'll bet more people work at the Toyota dealership just down the highway. That is to say, bicycle industry lobbyists don't stand a chance against automobile lobbyists.