cycling | Velosophe

It Doesn’t Matter Who Pays for Roads

January 22, 2022 by Bernhard

In any discussion about making space for alternative transportation modes – whether buses, trams, or bikes – the likelihood of someone retorting, “but drivers pay for roads!” quickly approaches 100%. The implication here is that drivers have a special entitlement to road space on account of them being the primary (and some imagine, exclusive) financiers of roads. Those who don’t own cars – cyclists and public transit users – supposedly don’t pay for roads, and thus have little to no […]

Categories: Bicycles • Tags: bikes, cars, cycling, road infrastructure

Cycling is Still Bro

March 16, 2017 by Bernhard

Throughout high school, I played competitive basketball at the top level in Ontario. While basketball players are not at the very top of the jock-scale, there was still enough trash-talking, inflated egos, and shitty masculinity (which I regretfully participated in at times) to turn me off of the sport by the time I got to university, at which point I almost stopped playing altogether. In comparison, road cycling has to rank pretty close to the bottom of the jock-scale. This […]

Categories: Bicycles, Ethics • Tags: bikes, competition, cycling, gender, masculinity, sexism, sports

The Publicly-Funded Convenience of Cars

September 27, 2013 by Bernhard

Like most issues, people engage with transportation mainly in an individualistic way. Hence most “debate” about transportation infrastructure, as in this predictable piece, merely amounts to recounting a set of personal anecdotes such as seeing cyclists riding on sidewalks, without extrapolating any broader insights beyond expressing one’s peevishness. Maybe this is just systemic – people are “inherently” selfish (or encouraged to be so), and have great difficulty considering some issue beyond their immediately personal wants and experiences – say on a […]

Categories: Environment, Politics, Toronto, Transportation • Tags: cars, cycling, public transit, transportation infrastructure

Do Cyclists Pay for Drivers’ Use of Toronto Roads?

March 12, 2013 by Bernhard

The insinuation that cyclists do not pay for roads (with the further implication that motorists are paying for cyclists’ use of roads) is a well-worn refrain from motorists who are unenthusiastic, to say the least, about sharing road space with people on bicycles. The main thrust of the cyclists-are-freeloaders argument stems from the notion that roads are chiefly paid for by revenue schemes that are dependent on the production, sale, and operation of cars. Motorists pay licensing fees, fuel-taxes, and […]

Categories: Economy, Toronto • Tags: Bicycles, cost of roads, cycling, road infrastructure, road subsidies, Toronto, war on bikes, war on cars

Velosophe

Thoughts on Bikes

Tag: cycling

It Doesn’t Matter Who Pays for Roads

Cycling is Still Bro

The Publicly-Funded Convenience of Cars

Do Cyclists Pay for Drivers’ Use of Toronto Roads?