🚳Anti-Cycling Candidates🚳 The Lessons I've Learned
Time: If you thinking that all it took to complete this was 10 minutes, then you would be wrong. It took missing bike rides, weekends and available free time. The reason why the cut off date was put back wasn't because the lack of responses but because work and life in general made it so that I had to push the deadline back from March 27 to April 2. This is the reason why during this election I started to limited my reaching out to only those candidates who have one of either a Facebook page, a Twitter handle or a website. My time is a valuable commodity and not having a website that can be found after googling "(candidate's name) for San Antonio", then in my opinion, you're are not a serious candidate.
Flexibility: You need to be flexible enough to allow someone you don't like to win, but have thin red lines that you hold your ground on. This is a very nuance lesson and I've haven't quite completely learned all that I need to on this one.
Don't look to BikeTexas for help: I reached out to their organization in late 2014, early 2015 for some pointers and help on doing a Voter's Guide. I got no reply. It was this event that convince me never ever to give them money. The only thing that they're good for is lobbying for state laws. Anything local, well you're on your own.
Holding Candidates Accountable: You can't hold them accountable for every little thing and that's what I tried to do in 2019. Apparently it took a survey last year to get the point out that the majority of people want to be able to use the Linear Creekways after dark and until SAPD officers abuse their power and give young kids a ticket for riding their bicycles on the sidewalk it will continue to be illegal to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk. Since everyone who advocates for bicycles works for a living, the best way to hold candidates accountable is to see where they vote on major issues concerning bicycles and bicycle safety. If said candidate blocks a major project or votes a certain way then you declare them to be Anticycling and put 🚳 emojis around their name.
Sec. 19-286. - Driving or parking on sidewalks prohibited.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to drive or propel or park or stand any vehicle upon any sidewalk.
(b) Law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel while using bicycles provided by governmental agencies and while in the performance of their authorized duties are exempt from the provisions of subsection (a). Any person, while parking a bicycle in city installed bike racks, is also exempt from the provisions of this section.
Nominating is a NO NO: That's another lesson that I learned from 2019, which is not to nominate anyone. At that time I was still grieving from Tito's death and I couldn't figure out how to evaluate anyone, so I nominated people. The thing about nominating people is that if a less desirable candidate wins but still scored pretty high, well you're leaving that other candidate out. A wise man once told me if you try to hard to find the perfect diamond, you'll end up missing out on all the beautiful gems gleaming all around you. That's the reason why I went back to the grading system. Yes there are perfect diamonds out there but they're many more pretty gems shimmering all around.
Desperate For Votes: Not everyone who replies want to be friendly to the bicycle community and their concerns. Many are in tight races and see the writing on the wall that they have no chances of winning. A good example of this when mayoral candidate Matt Piña posted on the SATX Social Ride Facebook group saying he was the most bicycle friendly candidate. He never replied to my survey nor the other survey that popped up after Tito's death and long timers who ride bicycles independently came to the conclusion that he was no cyclist.
Labeling who's Anti-Cycling: You probably notice the 🚳 emoji on each ends of some of the candidate names running for office. I mention back in February in the posting on this Voter's Guide for it is time to to point out who's here in San Antonio politics are Anti-Cycling and Anti-Transit like Rebecca Viagran who voted to remove the S Flores Bike Lanes along with Julián Castro, (yes that Julián Castro who ran for President in 2020) I don't care what political party that they're a member of, if you voted to do something which goes against the majority of the local cycling community wishes here in San Antonio, then yes I will not contact you and encourage others not to vote for you.
It's easy to get on the "Anti-Cycling Candidates" list. You get on it by ignoring my inquiries for two consecutive election. You also get on it doing things while in office include removing bike lanes and preventing safe bicycling infrastructure or through your answers from taking my survey.
Charlatans: I can safely say that I can spot the fraudsters about 30% of the time. It's not perfect and I do take the saying that "a politician lies everytime they open their mouth" a little two serious. But this time I can safely say that Katherine Herrera Garza for District 3 is Anti-Cycling to the core. Her answers for question 2 and question 5 contradicted each other and after reading all the other answers, she would have received a higher score if she answered question one truthfully.
And that gets into the other two candidates that when asked, why didn't you add (D6) Chris Baecker (13.9% 🚲 Friendly) and (D8) Rob Rodriguez (44.2% 🚲 Friendly) to that list. And the answer is simple, you need to be flexible, but have thin red lines that you don't cross. The impression that I got is that Chris Baecker is desperate to be noticed as is Rob Rodriguez. But if Manny Pelaez can get a 70% after being critical of the new protected bike lanes in the Medical Center, then I'll give them a chance as well. All three candidates really need to learn the lesson about 'Induced Demand' and diversifying the transportation system.
Prevention of Critical Infrastructure: That's how District 1 Roberto C. Treviño, District 6 Melissa Cabello Havrda and District 10 Clayton Perry got on this list. They all prevented a protected bicycle lane from being put on Broadway and if the city council went to a vote, then more incumbents would be on this list. But because this project wasn't put towards a vote, Mayor Ron Nirenberg doesn't have a higher score and wouldn't have a high score if my honey didn't pressure me into giving him a 78.6%. His score would have looked more like a 67.2%.
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| Image: 2021/04/14/1 |
No Replies: The easiest way to get on this list is not to hear back from you. You could be the most bicycle friendly person out there, but if I don't hear from you after the deadline of the city council election, then I'll be declaring you from this point forward as anti-cycling. That goes for candidates like Antonio Salinas, John Courage and Emily Norwood. If you guys run again in 2023 and I don't hear back from you, then I'll be the putting an 🚳 emoji around your name.
If you got on this list because of a no reply, then reach out to me in the next election and try to get a bicycle friendly score of 65% or better before the deadline. As a rule I reach out to everyone, but I don't reach out to people who are known to be Anti-Cycling or don't have either a website, Facebook or Twitter presence. My time is a valuable commodity and not having a website that can be found after googling "(candidate's name) for San Antonio", then in my opinion, you're are not a serious candidate.
The people who almost made it to the list because of no responses this election was District 8 Manny Pelaez and Mayoral Candidate Greg Brockhouse. When I started this voters
guide in 2017, I got no reply from either candidate. It was only after
Tito death that I finally got a responses in 2019. To not be accused of
being bias against Mr Brockhouse, I sent out a all points bulletin over all the the local
bicycle groups on the Facebook pointing out that I've been reaching out
to his campaign with no response. Only after doing that did it I get a
response. To all the Brockhouse supporters out there there who dislike
his bicycle friendly score of 38%, the question I have for you is why
didn't a single private message on Twitter, Facebook and email failed to
alert his campaign? If he's not answering my questions, what makes you
you think that he's answering other voters inquiries?
Update: apparently
after several local newspaper outlets broke the story of that Nirenberg is well in the lead to win by a landslide, Greg Brockhouse and
others who I assume are are more than die hard supporters bellyached about his bicycle friendly grade. Apparently he thinks that just saying that he's
bicycle friendly and declaring me a Nirenberg supporter which I'm not,
is going to point out my bias. To answer his question, yes I'm bias
against those who have said in the past that they think that a bicycle lane is a waste of money and not fighting for a Protected Bicycle Lane on Broadway while in office also added to my opinion when evaluating how
bicycle friendly someone is. This reaction is no different than what Matt Piña did in 2019. Also I didn't grade him, a friend did and
you can see her responses below was she more or less bias. In the end I
knew that this was going to happen. I was either going to be getting
flack for declaring him Anti-Cycling because I didn't receive a response or a
low bicycle friendly score. My advice to Mr Brockhouse is this: from what I gathered from your answers is that you look like a you're campaigning for city council District 6 and not Mayor. Perhaps in 2023, you could run again, but this time, run for your old District 6 seat. From the looks of Chris Baecker, (13.9% 🚲 Friendly) you're definitely more bicycle friendly than he is and it would be nice to have a person in power to keep the majority of residents of District 6 who think that useless Sharrows are graffiti and prevent those same people in stopping the building of Vision Zero infrastructure.
Brockhouse Evaluation:
1. 2 2 - Reason: His comment about being protective of his surroundings and recognize the need for safety for the cyclist and himself. A driver must always be DEFENSIVE. Vehicle to cyclist incidents always end with a minimum injured cyclist to death of cyclist. Drivers have the responsibility to be defensive not protective.
2. 2 1 - Reason: Cited using trails as transportation. He should know as a prior council member that access to trails are limited to sun up/down. Transportation should be 24/7
3. 3 4 Reason: He is right on this, but I don’t trust that he would have or will do better than current Mayor based on his prior comments.
4. 1 1 Reason: Public Transportation is a service not a capitalist business. Focus should always be on ridership needs and accommodating citizens.
5. 2 2 Reason: He had time in D6 to educate and spend funds on signage. I do not believe he would do a better job as Mayor.
6. 2 Overall hard to make a number… I would support the overall of 2 because his record as coucilman was not impressive and I don’t believe him.
The
goal of my Voter's Guide is to get people elected who will get a
network of protected bicycle lanes build across the city within the
current decade and at the very least, to get people elected who won't
remove a bicycle lane because of a bunch of disgruntled senior citizens.
My goal is to have city improvements like what was recently completed on DeZavala and Protected Bicycle lanes for future planned projects such as Bandera, Culebra and Roosevelt. As I stated back in 2017, it ain't going to happen over night and I'm going to be doing this Bicycle Voter's Guide well into the future. The question will change every year but as every election goes by, I'll be getting better and better at figuring out who's bike friendly and who's anti vision zero.
For a complete list of the Anti-Cycling Candidates: Click Here - https://aatblog210.blogspot.com/p/anti-cycling-candidates.html
For A complete List candidates and their bicycle friendly score for the 2021 Bicycle Voter's Guide: Click Here - https://aatblog210.blogspot.com/p/bicycle-voters-guide-2021.html
For a complete list of Early Voting Locations for the May 1, 2021 Election: Click Here - https://www.bexar.org/2237/Early-Vote-Information
Images:
2021/04/14/1: Viewing North, a picture of S Main at Old Guilbeau. Picture taken in February.
Links:
Candidates Position on Cycling: http://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2015/04/candidates-position-on-cycling.html
#ivotebike2017: http://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2017/04/ivotebike2017.html
Suburbans Complain about Useless Sharrows: https://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2016/05/suburbans-complain-about-useless.html
Bexar Facts poll: Mayor Ron Nirenberg leads challenger Greg Brockhouse 56-21 among likely San Antonio voters: https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/04/06/bexar-facts-poll-mayor-ron-nirenberg-leads-challenger-greg-brockhouse-56-21-among-likely-san-antonio-voters/
Poll shows San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg likely to win third term, while voters split on Prop B: https://m.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2021/04/06/poll-shows-san-antonio-mayor-ron-nirenberg-likely-to-win-third-term-while-voters-split-on-prop-b
Bexar Facts poll shows Nirenberg with sizable lead in mayoral race: https://sanantonioreport.org/bexar-facts-poll-mayors-race/
Brockhouse Bellyache: https://facebook.com/groups/SanAntonioCyclingCommunity/permalink/3791509640926845/
Reach Out: https://facebook.com/groups/SanAntonioCyclingCommunity/permalink/3694471577297319/
Mayor Calls for More Protected Bike Lanes as Broadway Corridor Remains Under Review: https://sanantonioreport.org/mayor-calls-for-more-protected-bike-lanes-as-broadway-corridor-remains-under-review/
Council Committee Seeks New Sidewalku, Bicycle Facility Rules for Developers: https://sanantonioreport.org/council-committee-seeks-new-sidewalk-bicycle-facility-rules-for-developers/
Vision Zero: A Vision of the Future: https://www.sarisinfrastructure.com/post/blog-16-vision-zero-a-vision-of-the-future
UPDATE: De Zavala Road Improvements: https://vimeo.com/508116633
What's Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse: https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/
Widening Highways Never Fixes Traffic. But Darnit, It Did in Texas: https://www.wired.com/2016/04/widening-highways-never-fixes-traffic-darnit-texas/
Expanding highways and building more roads actually makes traffic worse: https://archive.curbed.com/2020/3/6/21166655/highway-traffic-congestion-induced-demand
Matt Pina SATX Post: https://m.facebook.com/groups/SATNBC/permalink/1214447408719622/
San Antonio Removes Bicycle Lanes Again: https://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2016/11/san-antonio-removes-bicycle-lanes-again.html
Anti-Cycling Candidates: https://aatblog210.blogspot.com/p/anti-cycling-candidates.html
San Antonio’s Public Works Department asks for input to plan Culebra Road: https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/04/14/san-antonios-public-works-department-asks-for-input-to-plan-culebra-road/
Transportation for Everyone: https://www.planetizen.com/node/93534/transportation-everyone
In Short: Induced Demand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAezAGogWOI
Roosevelt AvenueVisual Concept Plan Report: https://www.sanantonio.gov/Portals/0/Files/WorldHeritage/Appendix E_Final.pdf?ver=2020-05-04-200031-370
Bandera Rd Corridor Virtual Meetings Presentation (PDF): https://www.sanantonio.gov/Portals/0/Files/Planning/Highway16/BanderaRoad-Presentation.pdf
Greenway trails survey explores idea of 'dark-hour usage' as San Antonio becomes cycling destination: https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Greenway-trails-survey-explores-idea-of-15998479.php?cmpid=gsa-mysa-result#photo-20698064
ARTICLE VIII. - MISCELLANEOUS DRIVING RULES: https://library.municode.com/tx/san_antonio/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICO_CH19MOVETR_ARTVIIIMIDRRU
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