Re: Utah bicycling groups and Democrats call on Mitt Romney to rethink his comments calling bike lanes 'the height of stupidity'

[Romney is correct]

Kurt Nicklas <nambla...@gop.org> wrote in
news:ssq0d2$ltma$2...@news.freedyn.de:

> Jim McCron now spamming at bgeserver.de wrote
>
>> Make me cry because I am a wimpy liberal piece of shit.
>>

Nine Utah groups that support bicycling sent a letter to their US senator,
Mitt Romney, requesting that he "reconsider" his recent comments to
Insider calling bike lanes "the height of stupidity."

The Republican lawmaker told Insider last month that he opposes bike lane
construction that replaces car lanes, claiming that it increases
automobile carbon emissions by worsening traffic congestion. Romney also
told Insider that he opposes federal legislation that would offer tax
rebates on electric bicycle purchases.

The groups pointed out in their letter that "bike lanes are proven to
reduce car traffic and resulting emissions," citing studies by Carnegie
Mellon University and McGill University.

"We invite you to join any of us for a bike ride to highlight the value of
functional bike infrastructure in Utah," they wrote, calling his views
"both inaccurate regarding emissions and hurtful to the exploding number
of Utahns who opt to travel by bicycle."

"We ask you to reconsider this statement and listen to your constituents
who support investing in the connected, protected bike infrastructure
keeping Utahns safe and active," they wrote.

Spokespeople for Romney didn't respond to Insider's request for comment
for this article.

Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat who introduced the E-BIKE Act, told
Insider that Romney's arguments regarding cycling are "wrong" and that
he'd speak with him privately about the issue.

"I love Mitt," Schatz told Insider recently in the Capitol. "I don't want
to get in a public fight with him because he's one of the Republicans that
I admire the most, but he's just flat wrong on substance here."

"This idea that you're either a pedestrian, or an automobile driver, or a
transit user, or a biker, has no basis in reality," Schatz said. "Most
people are all of those things depending on the day and depending on the
circumstances. And so the basic principle in transportation is, however
people want to move around, efficiently and safely, the federal government
should enable that."

Schatz argued that cities and states put bicyclists and other micro-
mobility users in an increasingly untenable position by failing to provide
safe and adequate infrastructure. He called Romney's argument that bike
lanes increase emissions "wacky."

"Bikes are increasingly a viable way for people to move around — it's
often cheaper, more efficient, and more enjoyable," Schatz went on. "We're
not forcing anybody from an automobile onto a bike, but the truth is, the
market is starting to demand that, but the bike lanes haven't caught up.
So now you have a bunch of bike users, or would-be bike users, and a
relatively dangerous transportation system for them."

<https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/utah-bicycling-groups-and-
democrats-call-on-mitt-romney-to-rethink-his-comments-calling-bike-lanes-
the-height-of-stupidity/ar-
AA1b6YUK?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a409d4ccfa21440b86b5027be8995cbd&ei=16>

Bikers who think they have the right of way over automobiles deserve to be
run over and killed.

Politicians and activists who support those beliefs should be tossed in
wood chippers.