What seems like an age old debate, the issue of transportation equality between bikers and drivers, is again driving a new argument. This time, it involves Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who says, “The government is going to give bicycling — and walking, too — the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money.” LaHood announced this in transportation policy last month.
While this may be a giant leap in the direction of rider equality, conservatives have backlashed against LaHood, arguing that his proposal is “nonsensical,” suggesting that his judgment may actually be clouded by drugs. Congressman Steve LaTourette, who hugely opposes the plan to give bicyclists and pedestrians equal ground with automobiles, even went so far as to wonder, publicly, how such a policy could be enacted. “So is it his thought that perhaps we’re going to have, like, rickshaws carrying cargo from state to state, or people with backpacks?”
The bike community has been quick to praise LaHood, and contrastingly, to question the outright “childish” nature of LaTourettes comments. Regardless, LaHood, who enjoys recreational cycling himself, refuses to back down, and says, “I think this is what the people want.”
[Via: Associated Press]
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