This is the first in a series of Under the Hood interviews detailing the nuts and bolts of alternative transportation.

A couple of weeks ago I happened upon CommuteOrlando, an enormous resource for bicyclists in Orlando, Fl. Keri Caffrey put up a post on strategies of building a cyclist friendly community. She also has articles on how to be an advocate for biking and one of my favorites, how to ride in the lane next to the freeway entrance (the source of a lot of stress when I biked to UNR passing the I-80).

Caffrey is involved in a movement to promote “civility” on the roads. She, the Florida Bicycle Association and Salter>Mitchell, a marketing firm, have teamed up in a three-year plan to make biking safer in Orlando and its environs. Through a grant offered by the Winter Park Health Foundation, the FBA is in the first stages (research) of the plan.

Here’s an interview with Caffrey on building community, activism and what it means to be a cyclist. Enjoy!

EcoStreets: How did the FBA come about?

Keri Caffrey: Here’s the history of the most recent incarnation: http://www.floridabicycle.org/about/history.html

FBA’s role in the Civility Coalition is administrative: it is providing a non-profit entity to receive the grant money from the Winter Park Health Foundation.

ES: How did you get paired up with Salter Mitchell?

KC: Lisa Portelli, who directs the Healthscaping program at Winter Park Health Foundation, had attended a Salter>Mitchell presentation at Rollins College. She was the driving force in getting this grant funded and hooking us up with Salter>Mitchell to do it right. I love working with them!

ES:How are you framing the message of “civility”?

KC: I am framing it in terms of community. First of all, ALL citizens are stakeholders in creating a more civil and cooperative roadway environment. The roads are the public space in our community where we all interact every day. The way we treat each other, the way we coexist in that space, affects the quality of our community and the quality of our lives. Think about it, even if you are driving a car, if your drive home is marked by tailgating, honking, finger-wagging animosity, how are you going to feel when you get there? How are you going to feel about your community when you have to deal with that day after day?

One of the wonderful things about using a bike for transportation is the stress-relief of the exercise, fresh air and sense of accomplishment. It’s a terrific alternative to sitting in traffic in a metal box. What takes the blush off that—one thing that makes many people not even want to try it—is the incivility of the grumpy people in the metal boxes. Fearing that you will be abused as you make your way through the public commons sorta undermines the benefits.

There is economic value as well, if you visit a town where the public spaces are populated by happy humans, you’ll want to live there. Businesses want to locate there. Home values are higher there.

I realize this is no easy task. There are a number of cultural issues that require reframing for this to work:

• Roads are for people, not cars—all citizens have a right to travel by human power on the public roads. The right to the road is based on First Come, First Served, not your ability to drive fast. We’ve really damaged our communities by engineering everything for the speed and convenience of motorized vehicle drivers. It makes it that much harder to overcome the social expectations created by our infrastructure. But, believe it or not, engineering separation for slow vehicle drivers only feeds that beast!

• Safety is something we DO, not something we buy—how many times have you heard someone justify the tank of an SUV they just bought with a bogus safety argument? “Everyone else has huge cars, it’s not safe to drive an economy car.” Wow. So how does that play out for the exposed driver of a bicycle? Worse, people can’t stop themselves from risk-compensating. The more safe they feel in their tanks, the more risks they take on the road. It feeds the beast.

• Cycling in traffic is safe— No really! With a few simple skills it is safer than driving a car. The idea that bikes and car’s can’t mix is a mythology of the auto age. It’s been hammered into our heads since childhood. Its only purpose is to keep us out of the way. Sadly, it is the very response to that fear which leads to the majority of bike-v-car crashes. It turns out, staying out of the way actually increases your risk of being hit. It also increases your risk of crashing on your own (hitting a fixed object, curb, pothole, etc). It makes cycling a constant struggle. It feeds the beast. When you get over that and move out into the road, you develop this wonderful bubble of safety—you’re clear of debris and potholes, cars change lanes to pass—riding becomes so easy and pleasant!

• Cyclists in traffic do not cause delay—AT MOST, they temporarily redistribute delay caused by motorists, traffic signals and other factors. The platoons of traffic that pass me on the road, are almost always waiting at the next traffic light when I arrive. People are frustrated and impatient, they can’t stand to have anything in their way… but when it comes to “delay,” there is a Grand Canyon between perception and reality. The worst thing we can do for ourselves as cyclists and for our communities is continue to cater to that misperception. It feeds the beast.

If you want to kill the beast, stop feeding it!

ES:What do you envision Orlando looking like in 10 years?

KC: This Civility pilot is happening in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville (just north of Orlando).

I would like for it to be successful and expand metro-wide. Honestly, I’d like for it to become a model for addressing the social structures of Livable Communities.

I would like to see more people riding bikes and walking in the Orlando area—but doing so with confidence and a sense of equality.

1. I would like to see the cyclists feeling comfortable and confident to ride assertively—like they belong on the road. There are a lot of cyclists here now, but they’re almost invisible to the untrained eye because they are skimming along in the shadows (44% of our bike-v-car crashes involve sidewalk cyclists). I see people struggling to avoid all manner of hazards because they don’t believe they belong on the road, they’re scared of being hit or they just don’t want to be honked and yelled at on their bike ride. Truth be told, riding assertively doesn’t result in any more harassment than riding in the gutter, but the treatment of cyclists could still improve.
2. I want the Orlando area to become pedestrian-friendly. When I’ve visited cities in California and Oregon, it amazes me that I can step to the curb at a crosswalk and motorists stop. Wow! Today in Orlando, you can get half way across the street, stand in the middle of a road in the crosswalk and motorists will drive right past you. I have yielded to a pedestrian in a crosswalk only to have that person have to stand at the centerline and wait for three cars to blow by in the opposite direction—on a 25 mph road through a hospital campus. It’s apalling. Really.
3. I want the roadway environment to become less agressive for all of us, no-matter what mode of transportation we’re using. We have come to tolerate (even apologize for) excessive speed, tailgating, cutting through neighborhoods to avoid traffic, and other community-degrading behavior. It’s time to take a conscious look at it. All of us. And the role we play. It’s not all the “other guy.”

Culture change is hard work, but it’s possible if we embrace all citizens as stakeholders and work together toward a common goal of a more human-friendly community.

Related posts:

1. Public Transportation in Bogotá
2. Bike stuff: how to make left turns or I’m an idiot
3. Why “My Commute Sucks” is Unproductive
4. Thoughts on Viva Bike Vegas ’09