Protecting the Paint

For the vast majority of us, the white lines are nothing more than paint.  A visual representation of the kind of white noise and distractions that we tune out on a daily basis.  To those with the lines in front of their homes, they are a barrier to enjoying the full use of a public utility.  But to those who demanded they be put down, the white lines are a powerful symbol of what they think society should be like--and they will not stand for seeing them removed.

In case you didn't figure it out, I'm talking about bike lanes here in Oshkosh.  And they are facing their first challenge since being put down--as residents of Westhaven Drive between Witzel Avenue and Highway 21 have petitioned the city to have them removed so they can park in front of their condos.  Those residents point out that they did not ask for bike lanes to be put on Westhaven--and they argue that they are never used by bicyclists--but the Oshkosh Common Council is sending the petition on to three committees filled with members that will fight tooth and nail to keep those lines on that street.

The Advisory Bike and Pedestrian Plan Committee, the Sustainability Committee and the Advisory Traffic Review Board were the architects of the bike lane plan here in Oshkosh.  And for them, those bike lanes are their crowning achievements--monuments to their belief that automobiles are really going to be replaced by non-fossil fuel powered vehicles or government-run mass transit.

In developing their plans, those committees did not conduct bike traffic studies.  And one will not be ordered to determine the need for bike lanes on Westhaven now--because those members know that such a study would show NO bikers using the lanes on Westhaven.  That would be the same result for a traffic study on any of the other bike lanes outside of the streets near the UWO campus, and it's built-in bicycling population. 

Instead, those committee members will echo the sentiments expressed by Council Member Lori Palmeri last night--who did not argue that volumes of bikers use the lanes along Westhaven, nor that the bike lanes have prevented any accidents between vehicles and bikes on any street in Oshkosh--but rather that removing bike lanes anywhere would be a "step backwards for the city".  A "step backwards" from what?  You can't go any more backwards from zero usage!  But if you give in to residents of one street, another will petition to have theirs removed, and another and another--until the beautiful master plan you worked on so hard for so many years is gone--even if just a handful of people will miss it.

I would suggest that the Westhaven residents that appear before Advisory Bike and Pedestrian Plan Committee, the Sustainability Committee and the Advisory Traffic Review Board to ask the members a simple question: When making a right turn on a street with bike lanes, do you always check your passenger side mirror and your blind spot?  Or do you know that there is never going to a be a bike in that lane?  Of course, the members aren't going to give an honest answer.  They feel it's too important to save that paint.