Boycott South Carolina?  As we noted in the FABB blog, South Carolina Senator DeMint wants to ban all funding for bike projects in the stimulus package. This is a very mean-spirited swipe at bicyclists. As Congressman Earl Blumenauer wrote, some Republicans don't get it. Bicycling should be a non-paritisan issue, supported by everyone as a non-polluting and healthy alternative to people using their cars for the 50% or so of trips less than 3 miles.

Blumenauer notes, there are many reasons why people should and do ride their bikes to work:

More than 50% of working Americans live less than 5 miles from work, an easy bicycle commute. Already more than 490,000 Americans bike to work; in Portland, 8% of downtown workers are bicycle commuters. Individually, they are saving $1,825 in auto-related costs, reducing their carbon emissions by 128 pounds per year, saving 145 gallons of gasoline, avoiding 50 hours of being stuck in traffic, burning 9,000 calories, reducing their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50%, and enjoying 14% fewer claims on their health insurance.

Maybe one way for bicyclists to send a message to DeMint is to boycott his state. However, he would likely welcome such a boycott. Maybe the opposite should occur, a protest ride by thousands of bicyclists to his offices in Charleston, Greenville, and Columbia. Maybe George Hincapie, who lives in Greenville, could lead that ride. I'm sure there are many cyclists at University of South Carolina who would participate.
posted by Bruce Wright at 9:41 AM #