AfricanAmericansDon'tBike2011

 

Introduction/Definition/etc Body Conclusion Discussion Page History Page Statistics Page Views:  since creating on 20110718

 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

After years attending Bike Advocacy meetings in Alexandria, VA

a comment dismissing the possibility of outreach to the

African American community, makes me walk out of a meeting...

 

20110718 11 pmish Jerry

 

 

Body

 

They say they didn't say it.  Which is a lie...

 

What is so surprising is expecting advocates

to just sit with the program as is...

 

Ramming through the agenda, no talking order at all,

at least Robert's Rules of Order and government public meetings

have comment periods.   The most Hierarchical meetings

I go to, NVRPP, CSB Execs and Facility Directors

of Hospitals and Training Centers, and they do a round

the table at the end, (I was not mentioned in the last one,

in fact, the person taking minutes/ notes didn't include

anything I said, IIRC, so there is a history in NoVA of not

caring what others think.  And these are public money

paid people..)

 

So A Long Time Ago, hard to count how many years,

but after the Mental Health Advocacy stuff had started,

with me involved, I started attending Bike Walk Alexandria

meetings, which were a chapter of Bike Walk Virginia,

most known to bikers as the Bike Virginia tour down

in other parts of VA, last time in Radford, ironically enough...

given BambisOutToGetMeAndSnakesInTheStore2011

and VOCALCon2011

 

The governor had ridden in that, years ago and broke a bone or

something, IIRC.  And others bikers were there too...

Not me.  I'd hoped to learn some more about advocacy

and biking, and they had a yearly training or conference,

but I could not afford the hotel costs and travel costs

even if the conference was comped for officers,

or other interested parties...

Another way disabled are left out of the discussion

and not at the table, finances, aka poverty,

something an employed person would think would be

a reasonable price to pay, is way out of what a disabled

person on social security can afford to do.

And there are different types, General Relief (minimal assistance,

may $80 - $200/ month like when first coming into services

and a shelter, have a case worker, get paperwork in, and approved.

While waiting for social security applicaiton which takes a year,

and is usually rejected the first time...  Then Social Security

Insurance (SSI) is very low, subsistence really, at maybe $500 / month

or probably has gone up, a little, since then maybe $700 in 10+ years.

And then there is SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance)

for those that have had a work history of significant work quarters

to qualify, have medical review, over a year waiting on the process,

etc, to be determined by previous income.  There, I'm a little lucky,

as had a Fortune 500 company job and rather high income for someone

who hadn't finished college, at that point, but too high to get help

for Medicare Insurance payments (Part D, the prescription drugs one, etc)

 

And Bike Virginia tour is so far away, I usually bike TO places,

and don't own a car (way out of the possible with Social Security

for most people, insurance, maintenance, usually clunkers, etc),

haven't in a long time, (lump sum and help from family in finding cars,

but eventually that runs out) so getting to a ride to start

has always been a controversy for me.  I Bike TO Someplace. 

Not put it on a car rack, bike around there, put it back on the Car,

drive back...

 

 

Anyways, politicians aside, Bike Walk Virginia,

the state wide organization decides not to have

Chapters anymore, and there is no legal

structure to operate under, so they search for another

and Bicycle Advisory Committee, fashioned after

Arlington is chosen.    Arlington's BAC is a semi/ quasi?

government organization, originally, it has had

some official capacity...

 

Locally, Alexandria seem to do things differently...

 

In general, I like bikers, I prefer them to car drivers,

mostly saying "Get The F*** Off The Road"

usually out of a pickup truck, but not always,

 

BWA was a way of learning about advocacy from

a different angle.  The FABB, the Fairfax Advocates

for Better Biking met way out in Western Fairfax,

 

at night and while I was living in Fairfax, most of my time

was going through Alexandria to other jurisdictions

like Arlington or into DC, or sometimes Maryland...

 

I did do the Fairfax map focus group when they had

one on Franconia Road government center.

As well as Alexandria's closer by.

 

 

So I ended up BWA Secretary, some years back,

they needed someone, and I should have refused,

as I'm incompetent at Secretarial duties,

I have a hard enough time getting my own opinions down,

and generally they didn't care much about mine,

but was still allowed. People had parties,

and somehow I was still tolerated...

 

Enter the reogranization, elections and new officers,

and the new people generally don't like me much.

I can't be in meetings where my opinions don't matter,

and basically just told to shut up most of the time,

so why bother? What effect does it have?

 

I don't do things for title.  So and So is member

of some BAC...  So what?

 

What can you do?  Do you have an effect?

Will you keep someone from likely being killed

biking Telegraph and the Beltway?

(my likely place when I lived down there,

commuting in rain and winter, after dark,

like most people travel.  Most of my commuting

to Falls Church Consumer Wellness Center was through

there, the trails, MetroRail and such are designed for

IN and OUT to DC and back, basically radially (spokes)

from the hub (center) of DC, not around like the Beltway

(rim)...)

 

I don't care much about Wayfinding Signs,

in Old Town Only.  I don't like being lost,

but I don't need extensive surveys and

marketing stuff, and high paid contractors

to do that.  I need a map that shows neighborhoods. 

A tourist comes into town and looks for

Del Ray or Arlandria, where exactly is that?

They will need to know, and I'd likely be one they

might stop and ask...  Or people sitting waiting for a bus...

Or StreeetSense vendors or PediCab operators,

a bane on their existence is people think they

are around to give directions, which is unpaid,

person after person, all day long,

versus what they are doing there is trying very hard

to make a few bucks...  In the hot summer sunshine,

in the rain and cold of winter... Basically out in the elements,

while most are just running from heated building to heated building

or Air Conditioned to Air Conditioned, with a roof...

 

 

Where are the Hills?  I helped get those marked

on one Alexandria focus group a long time ago...

People planning rides, especially with kids

need to know where the hills are, and I learned

Commonwealth Avenue bike lines up through the

side of Del Ray in the process, though it's a really

long way around the big hill up King Street MetroRail.

(And an area may not want a Hill as an Iconic Landmark

for the biker community, argh hills, not unlike San Francisco,

but only a few here)...

 

There is no standard between the local jurisdictions,

for the maps.  You read an Arlington Bicycle Map

and you have one set of symbols and scale.

Next Alexandria, other symbols and scale,

and finally Fairfax County, a huge double sided

map, and another set of symbols...

And then there is DC and Maryland

(PG, Montgomery, townships, etc),

even more different systems.

All within one Metropolitan area...

 

The best I could do was audio record some of

the BWA meetings and then didn't have an online

place to put them and couldn't make transcripts,

too much work, and what is important to me wasn't

to others and vice versa.  I never got the previous

secretary's meeting nor notebook of how it was

supposed to be done or how it was done before.

I attended regularly, even in bad weather, sometimes the

only other person, and frequenely the only person biking

in that bad weather (snow, rain, cold, etc) and

might have brought up a few points,

but don't ask me what they were,

probably poverty related...

 

DASH Buses still don't have bike racks.

Alexandria is generally so small that I can

bike across it without much trouble.

 

When injured in a wheelchair however,

(uneven bricks and cobblestones are a PITA for wheelchairs

and blind with canes, and low vision,

or when a bike is broken and say needs to get to a shop

from Wilson Bridge, and no bus is bike rack compatible,

that is a problem,   Some MetroBuses go that way,

Wilson Bridge to Arlandria or somesuch, not the direction I really

did more than once or twice over 10+ years,

but DASH, without bike racks is not a Bike Friendly Community

to me...

 

And businesses, it's so much about the businesses,

they started putting bike racks, little double racks,

stylish cast iron type ones, a logo type loop up top,

a little better than a parking meter, but not entirely,

and eventually, over the years, they are at a lot of places.

I may have pushed for them at some places,

common grocery store, farmers markets, etc...

 

What I want is Bike Lockers...  For recreational biking,

a rack might work, but look at most Metro

Stations and you will likely see some bikes that are

in disrepair, some parts missing, bent rims,

seats gone, etc...  Some might be abandoned,

but not what I want to walk out to, a vandalized bike...

 

Mostly, bikes are a big shopping cart to me.

The utility of a bike is what it can carry,

besides myself.  Groceries?  That is useful.

And stopping in at a second store?

What do you do with those groceries? 

Your trunk is open....  Even worse in sketchy areas...

OR ride all the way back, dump them at home,

and take another trip?

 

I want bike lockers.  Like MetroRail lockers, but cheaper.

I talked about it for years, and nobody seemed to care.

 

Getting back to topic, I've volunteered at Bike Rodeo

in the Convention Center, years back, and more recently

East of the River in SouthEast and NorthEast, and African

Americans do bike, even with difficulty not having bike stores

and coops around, somehow they manage to get bikes,

with kids usually department store low quality, non adjustable

bikes, and outgrow them, and some of the disrepair the bikes

came in with, it was sad, and we didn't have parts, just taking

tools and some supplies across town in trailers to get there to help...

Later some articles were published by others of those events,

and a Black Women Bike club and Washington Post article

with some of the people I met.  I was busy most of the time

and didn't get to photograph nor write about it,

but I mostly stayed out of photos of those events,

as I prefer my anonymity and no photos of me...

 

Some of the worst was the ridiculing photos taken

of me by someone I had liked and trusted over the years

at Bike To Work Day 2011..  It signalled to me the end

of Respect in that group.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Summary of experience or similar

 

Discussion

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

Page History

20110718 Jerry

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