The wrong attitude: "alternative" transportation

Why do the lights on Scull Creek trail turn off at 11pm, but street lights in unbuilt subdivisions stay on until morning?

I admit it. I'm one of those crazy bicycle-riding radicals. I don't even own a car, and I choose to live in a location that puts everything within walking distance. I might spend a little more on rent, but I spend a lot less on gas, insurance, and maintenence. Plus, it's not like I don't have access to a vehicle. I can always rent one.

But that's not really the point. The point is that thinking of automobiles as our primary mode of transportation is ignoring people like me. It's willfully ignoring people that have made "alternative" transportation their "primary" transportation.

It's frustrating, because even though our demographic is growing faster than cars, the attitude towards "alternatives" is that they barely deserve our attention.

A Fayetteville resident wrote me with a thought-provoking question:

why do the lights on the bike trail turn off at 11pm? is the trail part of our transportation infrastructure or a recreation facility? If the lights must be shut off for cost savings then why can't some street lights be shut off as well? I know of some abandoned Barber Group subdivisions that are lighted all night long despite the fact that no houses have ever been built there.

That's a good question, and it's one I don't have a good answer to. Why do we worry so much about paying for trails, but we don't ask any questions at all about paying to light abandon streets?

Well, I'm investigating, but in the meantime, we need to realize that this instance is just part of a larger laissez faire attitude towards "alternative" transportation. We see it in City trails funding and we see it in the University's long-standing refusal to install more bicycle parking (which is finally changing with new leadership).

The fact is that these transportation methods aren't alternative at all. People get around in different ways, and different kinds of transportation infrastructure deserve proportional investment. We're just not seeing that now.