A Bike-to-Work Solution for the Post-Privacy Era

Now that bicycling to work seems viable in New York City,  bicycle riders must figure out how to become more common in public life without becoming more unpopular among drivers and pedestrians. Cyclists have grown accustomed to the shortcuts that became easy to grab when there were hardly any of us out there: wrong-way travel, unpredictable lane shifts, disregard for traffic lights.  Now, how do drivers and cyclists learn to respect each other?

I have an answer, which like all grand compromises mixes elements that one side finds hideous with elements that another side finds insulting. It uses smartphones, and government accountability, and faith in humanity.Want to learn more?

A culture of respect between cyclists and drivers won’t begin until the roads the two groups use earn a little more reverence. Today, they’re full of ruts and craters. With roads like these, why shouldn’t a truck double-park in the bike lane and why shouldn’t a hipster on a Trek swerve into the crosswalk? We’re all just bobbing between potholes anyway. But a new way to smooth the roads can also smooth relations between riders and drivers.

Start with everyone accepting the rules. Cyclists ride in their lanes or, where lanes are missing, on the edge of traffic. They obey all traffic signals and conventions just as if they were driving cars. And drivers respect the bike lane, which means they make a point to stay out of it.  Whenever someone  breaks this deal, he or she pays- into a fund that fixes potholes.

The infrastructure for this approach already exists. New York City’s 311 information service, which collects complaints about potholes and busted traffic lights and such, has accepted photos from phones since 2007. So a cyclist can snap the license plate of a driver who invades her lane and send it to 311. A pedestrian sideswiped by a cyclist can call the police and report where the brush happened; the police can then look for cyclists in the area and pull them over if a similar swipe happens again. (This kind of police activity would exacerbate the tension between cops and generally well-heeled cyclists, which might force more public awareness about police tactics and even lead to law-enforcement reform.) Adjudicatory processes would follow. People found guilty of violating the law would pay a fine that feeds a fund for pothole repairs.

An elixir for this approach would entail giving bicyclists licenses to ride, or at least inducing us to register our bikes, which might help recover bikes after thefts.

Of course, this notion plays fast and loose with all sorts of uncertainties about privacy, reliability of witnesses, fidelity of memory, and public management of funds. It would take several months of discussions, papers and dealmaking among cycling advocates, transportation engineers, software types and lawyers. It might not work at all, but might lead to a more airtight idea.

I have skin in this game, both as a bike commuter and a role model.  My daughter yells “Yay, we’re in a bike lane!” when I chauffeur her on my bike in her Tyke Taxi, and rides her balance bike on the sidewalk. I want her to learn both that clean transit defines the smartest way of moving around a city- and that we citizens respect the public sphere enough to keep its roads in shape.

I’m willing to own the mistakes I make in order to teach those lessons. Honk if you’re with me.