Chrissie Hynde: Walker and Rocker

It's cool when your heroes do you proud. Often, the opposite happens (Lance Armstrong was a major disappointment), but over the past few years some of my favourite musicians from punk-rock days have turned out to be cool in ways I hadn't expected. For instance, my favourite bass player of all time, Mike Watt (Minutemen and fIREHOSE), became a born-again cyclist at age 37 after a 22-year hiatus of going by car only ("I  was an asshole!" he's quoted as saying). Then Talking Heads frontman David Byrne did Watt one better by becoming a spokesman for active transport and public space reform in New York City, and then writing a book about the joys of cycling. Recently, it's happened again: Chrissie Hynde, singer and rhythm guitarist for the (great) Pretenders, stunned and amazed me in a recent autobiography when she laid down some biting social commentary about the value of public transport and how her home country shot itself in the foot by killing it off.

Ok, "stunned and amazed" is exaggeration. Hynde has said some of this before. One of the Pretender's biggest hits, My City Was Gone, told of Hynde's dismay at what had become of her hometown, Akron, Ohio, in the wake of Autogeddon: the disappearance of the train station and of downtown, and the paving over of the surrounding countryside with shopping mall parking lots.

Her new book (actually published at the end of 2015) expands on these observations and shows that sustainable transport (not a term she uses -- but this is what she's taking about) is a huge preoccupation. In fact, after reading the book, it's a fair bet that sustainable transport (America's lack of it vs. Europe's wealth) is the main reason Hynde abandoned the States in her 20s, before she'd even made a name for herself, and then settled in London, where she hit the big time and still resides at age 65.

In an early chapter, Hynde describes the Akron of her childhood ('50s, early '60s),  as America's slide into car-centrism was under way. Hynde and a friend from junior high found themselves outcasts because they walked.

"Neither of us was interested in what the 'popular' kids were interested in ... . But what really set us apart, aside from our love of sewing, was that we were walkers. Our favorite pastime was walking to downtown Akron ... We walked, rambling and philosophizing; our journeys up West Market Street were adventures. We studied every house and redbrick road, speculating about their histories while discussing the world and what might be out there beyond Akron ... ."

One day, Hynde got on a bus for a covert excursion.

"Taking a bus almost felt like a subversive act, given that most (white) Americans living in the suburbs were required to have at least one car per family. Only 'poor people' got buses in the new world. Well, you couldn't walk to a bus stop out there -- it was too far. You'd have to get a lift to catch the bus, so why bother taking the bus if you were driving anyway?"

In her 20s, Hynde finally did get out of Ohio, and her peregrinations eventually led to London. She loved the Victorian buildings, cobbled streets and double decker buses. But the big revelation was the ease of getting around:

"Public transport! (What genius thought that one up? If the word got out in America, they'd all want it!) I could now go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. The days of waiting for someone to pick me up in a car were over. For the first time I felt like my own person; I didn't have to answer to anyone. It felt so right, like something I'd been waiting all my life for."

Of course, most of the book is about Hynde's music career, but I recommend it also for her social commentary on the differences between the US and Britain, including quite a bit about transport. For me, a fellow transport exile who loves the trams, buses and trains of Europe, this book showed a little of the heart behind Hynde's trademark snarl.

Taking the high way

This is one way to get a bike path around the Nagykörút.

A radical approach to bike path development was circulating on social media a couple weeks ago: elevating bikeways above street level, thus solving the problem of lack of space.

The idea was first proposed for London. In this case, the bikeways would be built above rail lines, which snake all over London and would offer space for a comprehensive elevated cycling network. The Britsh rail operator even expressed support for the idea.

The expense would be huge -- hundreds of millions of pounds for just the first small section of the network. But London's mayor has promised to spend a billion pounds on cycling, and that created an opening. The idea is apparently getting official consideration.

The proposal was all over facebook and cycling blogs and it somehow caught the eye of the vice-mayor of Budapest's District XII. He posted about it on his blog, and from there, it ended up in the Hungarian edition of the Blikk news tabloid.

Although this idea probably doesn't have a prayer outside Photoshop, it does stir my imagination. Wouldn't it be great to ride all over the city on paths where you're literally priortised above motor traffic? No one could cut you off, door you, tailgate you, leave you in a cloud of fumes, or pass too close. You wouldn't even get honked at. In fact, from three or four metres up, cyclists would be in a better position to abuse motorists. I'm all for peaceful coexistence, but if that's not happening, I would definitely take this.

Rant on ranking

When Sequoia heard Budapest was ranked the no. 13 cycling city in the world, she just laughed.

Budapest ranked no. 13 in the recently published Copenhagenize Index of best cycling cities in the world. This year the index covers an expanded list of 150 cities.
My first reaction at seeing this? You've got to be kidding! Budapest, Hungary?! Where I was nearly decapitated by a hedge after riding into a pothole the size of Kim Kardashian's butt? Where they won't allow cyclists on the main streets in the city because there's no room?? Where the name of the much anticipated public bike system is a homonym for the mildly vulgar English term for a woman's breast??

Who are the idiots who make these listings, anyway?

Then I remembered it was me. Or at least partly me. The Copenhagenize Index is a sort-of "group-source" thing relying on some 400 local yokels who do self-evaluations of their own cities. They don't compare and contrast cities, but just rate their own scene, albeit according to standardized criteria given by Copenhagenize. Each city is supposed to be evaluated by multiple volunteers, so there's some triangulation. You can look over the index questions and methodology yourself.

Although memory doesn't serve as well as it used to, I don't think I gushed about Budapest in my own evaluation. I remember being generally critical. But I may have let some local pride skew my score upward. Or maybe it was another Budapest local who exaggerated the city's virtues. 

In any case, no. 13 in the world seems like an AWFULLY high rating for Budapest. That puts us one step ahead of Paris, which back in 2005, I proposed as a good model for Budapest. Have the tables turned since then? I don't believe they have. Velib has been expanding since its launch in 2007, while Bubi is already two years past  the originally announced roll out. Meanwhile, the Paris Respire and Plage schemes, where streets are closed to motor traffic every weekend of the summer, help promote active transport and better quality of life. Budapest has had only occasional one-off street closures -- usually on European Mobility Week.

Or take London, which didn't even crack the Index's top 20. I was in London last fall, and tried out the Boris Bikes and Barclay's Cycle Superhighways -- impressive investments that had been implemented in the previous couple years. Budapest cycling investment during the same period paled by comparison.

Of course, Budapest does have its good points. They're pretty much the same now as they were in 2011, when Budapest was ranked no.11 in the Copenhagenize Index. No other city beats Budapest Critical Mass. And largely because of the local CM, there is today a large, enthusiastic population of citizen cyclists who are out braving Budapest traffic everyday despite potholes the size of Kim Kardashian's butt. As the Index explains, "Budapest is a regional leader in bicycle culture but without political will and a modern desire for mobility change, their role will be overtaken by others." Amen to that!