As I understand it, "elite" is a group or class of persons enjoying
superior intellectual or social or economic status.
Let's break it down into how we're all elite:
- superior intellect: those who think they have the right answers are
intellectual elitists
- superior social class: those who do not choose our preferred form of
transportation are social elitists
- superior economic status: people with jobs or positive income are
economic elitists
I suspect that since we all have opinions (here anyway ;-), we're all
intellectual elitists to somebody. And since we all have internet
access, we're social and economic elitists.
I think what Eric is saying is that bikers shouldn't force drivers to
give up their cars and get on bikes through legislative (or other non-
democratic) means. If bikers think that they know what's best for
drivers (biking), then they are (intellectual) elitists.
I think what Mitchell is saying is that Madison's bikers come in all
economic shapes and sizes and are thus not (economic) elitists.
But this doesn't really touch the heart of the question, which I think
was about building bicycling infrastructure to attract more drivers
onto bicycles more frequently (do I have that right?). One side might
argue that by building this infrastructure, we are unfairly
subsidizing an elite minority. The other side might argue that we're
already unfairly subsidizing a motorized elite, and investing in more
bike (and pedestrian) infrastructure is only an impossible game of
catch-up (they'd say "Imagine what the world would look like if what
was spent on cars was matched with forms of human-powered transport!")
My .02 cents suggests that as the ratio of drivers:bikers goes down
(that is, as more drivers get on bikes), the number of ambulances
needed will go up (Eric's point a few messages ago) *unless* a bike-
friendly infrastructure accompanies the shift, and *until* drivers
become familiar with the travails of bikers (Matt's point), and
accustomed to bikers on roads (the Modest Proposal).
See, we're all right. And we're all elitists!
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