Gimme a D. Gimme an E. Gimme an I.
I was sitting in my shoebox-sized apartment, pumping up the tires on my bike and snacking on crickets, when I heard that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDoT) is going to make bike riding more dangerous.
According to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, giving bicyclists dedicated bike lanes in which to ride on roads and highways is, ya know … woke. Three weeks ago, Duffy appeared before Congress to say that that he would be would redirect $1.73 billion in Biden-era grants away from establishing “DEI bike lanes.” The money, he said, would be used to build or repair roads, bridges and harbors. It’s just one part of the Trump administration’s drive to remove all references to DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) from documents, buildings and even national parks. Because, ya know, America always did everything correctly.
America always made sure it was the “Shining City on a Hill” that President Ronald Reagan referred to quite often during his presidency. President Donald Trump likes to think that America still shines, if only because he has plastered the Oval Office with cheap, gaudy, gilded bric-a-brac readily available from your local home supplies store. In his farewell speech, Reagan described his vision as “teeming with people of all kinds, living in harmony and peace.” President Trump sees America teeming with Caucasians, some of whom came from South Africa and paid to jump to the front of the immigration line. In an executive order ironically called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” Trump actually removed truth and sanity by directing that signage, exhibits and verbiage be “corrected” to remove references to slavery or any suggestion that America has been less than pristine through its 250 years. Enjoy our spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains and fruited plains, folks. Just forget that we stole most of the land they sit on from Native Americans. It’s DEI: Disturbingly Enthusiastic Ignorance.
When did bike lanes become DEI? Apparently in 2021, when former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that grants funding bike lanes would serve to “improve infrastructure, strengthen supply chains, make us safer, advance equity and combat climate change.” Equity? Allowing bicyclists to share highways with automobiles safely? What are ya? Woke? Climate change? Yeah, right.
In the weeks since Duffy announced his intention to redirect funds, NPR reports, bike-related safety materials have disappeared from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) website — including highway safety recommendations that included bike lanes and speed cameras on a list of “Proven Safety Countermeasures” that have been shown to improve road safety. Asked about the changes by NPR, an FHWA spokesperson emailed, “Since nearly 80 percent of the population uses cars to get to work and their important medical appointments … this is a common sense approach despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.”
OK, Mr. Duffy. I guess we really don’t need those wheelchair ramps and curb cuts mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act after all.
Because, ya know, only 13 percent of the population is disabled.
Gonna go ride now. I need more crickets.