Biketopia

I've been rereading Margaret McMillan's excellent book Paris 1919 about Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceu, and Orlando's attempts to reconstruct a collapsing Europe after the First World War. Wilson's watchword was 'self-determination' by which he meant people should have a say about the kind of government they are ruled by. The problem is that people identify themselves by race, ethnicity, language, religion, history, economics, politics, and a whole host of other things. So what, exactly, denotes a group of people that can form a country?

I identify myself as a cyclist. I wondered if a 100,000 like-minded people got together and persuaded the US government to allocate 1000 sq. miles of the US of A to be a bicycle only zone, what would happen?

For example, where would we want this? Should we chose an area that is already good for cycling like between Solvang and SLO or the area around Eugene, OR? Or should we chose an area that is currently very bad for cycling like most of Florida (see my earlier post about the ten most dangerous cycling cities), and, by excluding cars, make it very good?

There are other considerations. What if you were having a heart-attack and the nearest doctor was either a 5 minute ambulance drive or a 20 minute bike ride away. Which would you chose? Would we have to have bicycle taxies for the sick and infirm? What about bicycle delivery trucks, fire trucks, and farm equipment? Would we make an exception for trains?

It's fun to speculate. I have to say - I think the benefits would far outweigh the drawbacks.