by Bike Courier | Apr 18, 2015 | Advocacy
On Friday morning, an angry cyclist came into my bicycle shop, Bike Couriers, complaining that the city had closed the Clark Memorial Bridge (Second Street) and the Big Four Bridge for Thunder Over Louisville. He could not get to Indiana by bike. I asked him to consider the anger of the bus riders who will show up at bus stops this Sunday only to find a street-closing event,CycLOUvia, has rerouted and rescheduled the buses that take them to work. Once again Louisville will sabotage the public transit system, and TARC riders, already burdened by very infrequent service on weekends, will find both the TARC schedules and the TARC routes blown. People who depend on the bus will be late for work, may miss work entirely, could lose their jobs as a result. Grandchildren will not get to visit grandma. Mothers’ grocery shopping plans will be trashed. Public transit-subversive events are not limited to the cycling community. Charity runs/walks, races, fairs, parades all share responsibility. Such events take place nearly every spring, summer and fall weekend. Cities and citizens depend on the reliability of urban public transit systems. No compassionate city would do this to those dependent on public transit. Louisville would do well to apply to events the real estate adage “location, location, location.” River Road, for instance, is a beautiful corridor with no significant cross streets and no TARC routes. Why not make River Road, a park, or an equivalent venue the “parade route”? The question before us is one of venue; the question does not challenge the event. For those cyclists who are up in arms about my raising this issue,...
