At Monday night’s City Council meeting, the mayor and council president read a proclamation celebrating national bike week. I thank them for this.
However, I haven’t seen the paper of record, the Daily News, follow-up with a story. Maybe one is planned.
Earlier this month, the Daily News reported on the rising cost of gas, then at $3.60, and how businesses such as Port Taxi, Volpone Towing Service, and Pizza Factory II are feeling the pinch.
One sentence in the article stands alone:
Be it car pooling, riding a bicycle, walking or taking another form of transportation, many drivers are conserving.
Despite being the second sentence in the article, this notion of a consumer’s choice to not drive a car but ride a bike, walk, or use public transit is not elaborated.
What’s the point of the sentence?
Last October, the Daily News published this article about the initial erection of three bike racks downtown in an effort to cut down on the number of cars in the downtown district and increase the number of bicycles.
I don’t recall subsequent stories on whether more people are riding their bikes downtown. Granted, the weather is only getting warm so maybe a story is planned.
Officials hope the racks will encourage people to ride bikes to the city rather than drive their vehicles, wrote reporter Stephen Tait in the above article. There are many benefits, they say, including helping to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and helping to fix the parking and traffic congestion problems downtown.
I’ve seen subsequent stories on parking and traffic congestion, but not anything on whether more people are riding their bikes to the city. I know of many people who ride their bikes from their homes to downtown locations and would be more than willing to talk about it.
In an effort to give the DN an idea of the type of story I’d like to see, take a look at this article in today’s issue of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington, about the benefits of bicycle commuters.
I’ll soon join the bandwagon, as I filled my tank yesterday at $3.67 for regular unleaded gas. My bike is in the shop for a tune-up; and I anticipate 2-wheeling around the area more than 4-wheeling.
Related posts:
- Eyeballing the News in 140 Characters
- How Newspaper Mission Statements Could Change
- How Citizen Journalists Scoop Newspapers
Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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