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M o n a x,
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Tony Adams
email: tony at atoms.net

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AcktiveTrans
A couple of weeks ago, Kara and I attended the annual member meeting of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. At the meeting we were informed that the organization had changed its name to better describe its expanded mission. The CBF is now the Active Transportation Alliance.

At the time I was somewhere between crestfallen and dumbfounded, but I figured that I should give the change some time to sink in. Perhaps I'd get used to it.

Almost three weeks have gone by and I've moved from crestfallen to livid. The name is horrible. Even worse than the vague name is the cold and corporate logo.

Pedestrians, transit users and bicyclists certainly have a lot of overlapping interests. I commute to work on a bike almost every day of the year. I do most of my shopping on a bike and do as much riding to social and entertainment events as possible on a bike. But it is great to walk once in a while also. One sees far more stuff at walking speed and when one only needs to watch out for motor vehicles when crossing streets. I also use public transit once in a while - sometimes in conjuction with a bike trip and sometimes not. I'm grateful for the work that the CBF has done to get the Metra and the CTA to be more accomodating of bikes. As a user of all these modes of "active transportation" it is obvious that improving transit and conditions for walking will make Chicago not just a better place to bike, but a better place to live.

I don't have a problem with an expanded mission as long as the historical mission of bicycle advocacy does not get neglected. But I joined the CBF because it was the local bicycling organization. It did more than advocacy, it - and at the time I could say "we" - celebrated biking and recognized that biking was more than just a way to get from point A to point B.

Bicycling is more than just a mode of transportation. As often as I can, I go for aimless rides because it is a fun and glorious thing to do. I get some exercise and I don't pollute or need to send funds out of the country to fill my tank, but I don't do it for those reasons. I do it for the sheer joy of motion, feeling the wind on my face, seeing a new neighborhood or seeing an old neighborhood in a new light, from a particularly flexible vantage point on a finely tuned, but simple and inexpensive old American machine that allows my body to propel us along with amazing efficiency and impressive control. One is never more engaged in motion than when one is having a great bike ride. If it was about transportation than why would all of my best rides be big circles? The best of biking is not about getting from point A to point B, but about getting from point A and back to point A again with the greatest possible amount of fun. That is not transportation. That is riding.

By removing any reference to bicycles from the name, the organization has exorcised its very soul.

The most appalling aspect of the change is that they did this without consulting their membership. It seems that they (over)paid consultants to run this crap past some focus groups, but the members, people who allegedly drive the organization were not consulted. Institutions are generally soul-less, so this should have come as no surprise. But the CBF seemed different. It probably _was_ different.

I will give it a bit more time, but my current plan is to request a refund of this year's membership dues and will not renew my membership next year.

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