Current bike lanes are far too short in length. They are hardly used for the most part for any serious long-range utilitarian purposes like shopping for groceries or even pleasure tours with the whole family to the movie theater. To do anything like that at all, there is going to have to be someone in leadership with a much broader vision that is planning full-length bike lanes all the way down every major street within Shelby County and Memphis. Simply put folks, we Car-Free Citizens want to be able to go everywhere that car drivers go and without having to use a public transit bus, a taxi, or even sharing a car ride with family and friends. We want our independence and we have wanted it since about 1992. Yes, that is way back when a plan was first drawn up to complete our streets with bike lanes long before the day would ever come that you would be reading this truth telling comment of mine. To illustrate, we were supposed to actually look more like Vauban, Germany, which is a section of town that is car-free, not even car parking is allowed within that zone. And look at what we have to show for our own plan so far: only a few nominal bike lanes that run along tourist attractions to make it seem like we are really making progress towards turning green; and, there are hundreds of feel good blogs and news articles that make it seem as if our whole town has turned environmentally green from the very depths of our hearts, as if the pipes of pollution have just quit puffing up 7.8 metric tons of fumes all across our city and we are no longer the asthma capital of the USA. What a big lie the powers-that-be are telling us, and the whole world! Well, Shelby County, nor Memphis for that matter, is green folks. If it were green, other people visiting here would be green with envy. If the truth is to be told, here at all, the City of Memphis is one of the filthiest crime ridden cities in the Mid-South region. And so, I do hope that we will not be waiting yet another twenty-something years before the powers-that-be get off their damn asses and actually implement a long-range bike lane plan worthy of mention because it is long overdue. And they need to do this within the next five years if they dare want bragging rights about making progress. That is the only way I will be writing a favorable mention about the progress concerning this issue, among others. If I cannot write about progress soon enough, then people like me are going to lead this city in the right direction by voting all these old school cronies out of office forever; and please, do not dare expect for us to vote in the same cronies relatives either --- the slate will be wiped as clean as the air we would like to breath.
Click the following link to find out more:
City Moving Forward With More Green Lanes, Cycling Campaigns | News Blog | Memphis News and Events | Memphis Flyer
