The City posted a careless note on social media this week. It's not the first time they haven't been serious about bicycling.
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| via FB |
As others have pointed out, the person biking is likely salmoning, biking against traffic. Another person suggested it was a stock image from Getty, nothing to do with Salem. The imagery is not very helpful and doesn't point to anything very useful for a person interested to "try alternate forms of transportation."
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| Focus on individualism is also a discourse of delay |
The text also offers no policy or other action to support a personal, discretionary decision to bike. Ostensibly inviting, it actually expresses the marginalization of "alternate forms of transportation" and remains stuck in an autoist frame. There's nothing here about making it a primary or central form of transportation. Additionally, by branding it as part of the "clean streams" initiative it is a little distant from the transportation mainstream, a way to consider water quality but nothing really about mobility, and nothing about direct benefits in mood, incidental socializing, exercise, budget savings, or freedom from congestion.
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| Considered in July last year, but not done yet |
The City might have announced more programming to support employees who bike. The Climate Action Plan calls for a "commute trip reduction program," for example.
They might show City of Salem employees biking to work. Here's an image of a City of Portland bike room.
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| City of PDX, Bike Coordinator - via Twitter |
If images of bike parking for Salem City staff seem paltry or embarrassing, then the City should undertake a more serious self-assessment for why employees don't seem so interested in "clear choices" for "clean streams" they recommend for the citizenry.
There are lots of ways with choice of image, rhetorical framing, and substantive policy the City might improve on their off-hand social media. This was a missed opportunity.
- See also, "Break the Annual Cycles of Bike Month" (2022)
1 comment:
Over on FB a person objects: "I really don't think it's reasonable to claim that the when the City's Clean Streams Team writes a post that it somehow reflects the City's complete transportation policy. Breakfast on Bikes takes a unitary view that all city staff are automatons that channel a larger, cohesive intelligence that is "The City." Instead, it's a group of people working in different departments, with different foci and different priorities and values. Sometimes, one group doesn't know what the others are doing, sometimes they are in conflict, and sometimes they are in agreement."
This is not all wrong! As they say, the City is in fact composed of multiple departments and people whose agendas are not always consistent. Since we try not to personalize much here and to focus on policy instead, "the City" is sometimes a convenient fiction. (Though they overstate the extent to which we take a "unitary view" with "automatons." That's a parody and straw man.)
The point here is that if the City had stronger policy direction on and support for bicycling, stronger leadership on biking, there would no room, no vacuum to fill, for a social media posting like this, either originating from the social media team or from the water resources team.
If biking were a priority, social media like this just wouldn't happen. The post is unserious because on biking and transportation the City is not in fact coherent and doesn't offer strong enough direction across City departments. The disconnect here is not some sign of a virtuous departmental autonomy, but is a symptom of inattention. With more attention there would be more resources for messaging (like as one person suggested a photo of the Mayor riding his bike), a narrower range of possible messages, and clear links to formal action and policy. When there is strong leadership and direction on an issue, multiple departments will have a more coordinated and consistent message and action. People will know what to say.
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