by Bike Courier | Jul 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
Approaching the Bardstown Rd & Eastern Parkway an airhorn (?) sounds just feet away from the bike’s rear tire. A quick glance over the shoulder identifies the source as a big dark SUV. The SUV passes and the cyclist realizes the vehicle belongs to LMPD. The LMPD vehicle stops at the traffic signal. The cyclist pulls up to the passenger side window. It comes down. There are two officers in the front. The driver: “Stay in the bike lane.” He is referring to those mysterious parallel lines one foot apart in the door zone. The cyclist: “That is not a bike lane.” The driver: “Stay off the road.” The cyclist: “Cyclists are permitted to ride in the travel lane.” The driver: “Stay off the road.” The cyclist: “Arrest me.” Repelled by the LMPD vehicle’s exhaust fumes and the motor’s 250 degrees heat, the cyclist advances ahead and in front of the SUV and waits on the light to turn green. The LMPD vehicle roars as it blasts past and to the right of the cyclist. On the other side of the LMPD SUV a father and his two young sons, straddle their bicycles on the sidewalk waiting to cross the road. The first cyclist pulls on to the sidewalk and conversation ensues. The father, grateful the driver did not lose control of the SUV, identifies the behavior as bullying. The first cyclist expresses the hope that the officer will vent to his buddies and that they will set him straight. Godspeeds expressed, we part. Public Works. Several conversations concerning those parallel lines on the newly reconfigured Bardstown Rd have...
by Bike Courier | Jul 29, 2023 | Uncategorized
Three emails of July 8, 19, & 28 to Mayor Greenberg, Deputy Mayors & Council Members July 8 – At the rate at which heat records are falling and other geo measures are escalating, 10 years from today, maybe 2 years from today, no one will be interested in the details of the police chief search, or what photographers and bakers are doing, or the latest real estate development, or any of the other current distractions from what really matters, livability on Earth. Draft a climate change position, policy, and practices paper free of greenwashing. Distribute it widely. And let it be known that every media conference on any subject will start with a conversation on how we slow climate chaos, and every subject will be addressed in light of its relation and relative importance to climate chaos. July 19 – Heat records are falling daily, torrential rains are resulting in floods worldwide, oceans are overheating, and storms are increasing in violence and frequency. The responsible course of action for every city is to publish a climate chaos position, establish assertive climate chaos policies and practices, and evaluate every subject in light of its relation and relative importance to climate chaos. The opportunity to slow climate chaos is fading. Fast. July 28 – Last summer I was asked if Louisville needed a chief heat officer. With the understanding that CHOs, in the face of escalating heat worldwide, are simply applying Band-Aids to the problem, my response was: “No, not if the administration’s policies and practices are focused on shutting down surface parking lots, reducing private urban automobile usage, helping JCPS reorganize education...
