New Jersey Bike Summit!

The first ever New Jersey Bicycle Summit is over and we are on our way to a better New Jersey. 130 advocates from around the state joined together with national advocates, state legislators and the Department of Transportation to energize the Bicycle Friendly Movement and set an agenda for the future. 

Included below are my opening remarks:

As the United States of America travels headlong into the future, our nation faces monumental challenges unprecedented in human history. We are on the tipping point between saving and irreparably ruining the atmosphere on which our very lives depend. Americans face a crisis of health from debilitating illnesses due to lack of exercise and poor dietary choices. Our children are becoming lethargic, obese- diabetics who are incapable of walking a mile to school and we are spending ourselves into oblivion trying to fight these problems through a corrupt insurance system that provides obscene profits to a select few while denying care to many in need.  Meanwhile, our national security is increasingly threatened by an insatiable appetite for energy produced in foreign lands filled with people who have no interest in our continued success. As people buy more and more cars to get to jobs, and shopping, and recreation that all become farther and farther apart, our roads become jammed with traffic and our air becomes poison. Our quality of life, that was supposed to get better as technology eased our burdens, has become increasingly stressful and unsatisfying.

Just recently people seem to be waking up and realizing that we must address these problems before it is too late. We’re all “going green”. Prizes are offered for technological breakthroughs and billions are spent trying to figure out how to perpetuate the misguided car culture by replacing gas powered cars with electric cars that don’t really address the underlying problem of time and space. But what if there was a simpler solution? What if people had the freedom to go where they wanted at a reasonably fast speed and not use a single drop of gas or watt of electricity? What if four people could travel in the space now used by only one? What if this solution made people healthier by reducing their weight and improving the efficiency of their circulatory system? What if this solution was cheap to buy and easy to maintain? Wouldn’t that be marvelous? The best part is that this solution already exists and has been with us since the nineteenth century! This solution for freedom in personal transportation is the humble bicycle. 

Our challenge is not in coming up with this solution but in helping people to recognize and embrace this obvious truth. All of the arguments that are offered to exclude bicycles as a part of a larger solution in overcoming problems in health, energy, and transportation, are all easily overcome in light of the successes in places like Copenhagen Denmark, Davis California, Portland Oregon, and Louisville Kentucky. In all of these examples it is shown that quality of life improves for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Reduced traffic congestion and pollution, better health and lower healthcare costs, energy saved—who could possibly argue against these benefits? And yet here we are, faced with the challenge of carrying this message and proving to the people of New Jersey that these things are worth having. It is up to us to bring this truth to our neighbors and elected officials that an equitable transportation infrastructure benefits everyone. People have asked me why we need the bike coalition.  There are already many people engaged in this work. The West Windsor Bike/Ped Association, Bike/Walk Montclair, Hoboken Sweet Streets, JORBA, and Walk/bike New Jersey, just to name a few. But I say, that if we are going to make real changes, we must unify our efforts and speak with one voice in doing our part for the well being of future generations. So let today be the day that we look back to as the turning point in creating a better New Jersey, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. Let today be the day that we join together in proclaiming  “The future is coming and it will be powered by people!”