Bike-Friendly Towns for the Dummy Cyclist

North Cedar Lake Trail

One of the "tricks" that cash-hungry freelancers have adopted at the content farms that let them create their own titles¹ is to reword a magazine article or even someone else's online content. This is especially popular with those who know nothing about the topic but are desperate for a post to meet "deadline." We suspect that's the case of "Get Active: 5 of the Best Cities in the US for Cycling," posted to the blogsite IntentBlog.com by returning DotD Natalie Bracco.

Bracco must have found an old print copy of Bicycling at the pediatrician's office, since her mid-2014 post references changes made by cities in 2010 (San Francisco) and 2011 (Chicago). That's not, however, what caught our bike specialist's attention when she originally read the post. This did:

"As time goes on, an increasing number of people have started leaving their cars in the garage and grabbing their bikes instead. As populations grow, streets become more crowded. Rising gas prices make driving in a car more expensive. Cabs can cost a fortune, and nobody enjoys riding the bus."

Our staffer points out that, even in 2014, "cabs" had been supplanted in many cities by Uber and Lyft. But that isn't really the point: Bracco's intro suggests that people are choosing to use bikes for errands and commuting, which still account for but a small proportion of cycling miles every year compared to recreational cycling. That, and the article is titled "Get Fit..." – Natalie's already off-topic!

Let's have a look at some of the "information" included in her city selection, apparently carved off the top of Bicycling's top 50 (for 2012, anyway):

"Madison: Madison draws some of the top cycling companies thanks to its bike friendliness such as Planet Bike and Saris." – FYI, Natalie, it might have been better to point to Trek, a company that actually makes bicycles in "suburban" Madison. Saris manufactures racks and trainers, while Planet Bike makes accessories; neither of which makes them a "cycling company" in our eyes. "San Francisco: Recent innovations in 2010 included 20 miles of new bike lanes, 25 bike parking corrals and traffic signals to help give bikers right-of-way. These led to a huge increase in cycling over the past five years; around 71 percent more." – Wow: a whole 20 miles. And what's a "huge" increase? Seventy-one percent more what: total miles? daily trips? Riders? "Chicago: Fifty one percent of traffic during rush hour now consists of bike riders. Elevated railways should soon become bike paths..." – We love disconnected "factoids" like those. First, that 51 percent number is for a single intersection. Second, there's only one elevated train track converted to a bike path, the three mile long 606 in northwest Chicago.

4. "Minneapolis: You’ll find the 4.57 mile Cedar Lake Regional Trail as one of the largest biking trails in America." What does "largest" mean here? Four and a half miles is by no means "long" – many rail-to-trails exceed fifty miles in length, even 100 miles. Is it wide? Popular? Busy? We speak from experience when we say that we'd rather not be subjected to busy bike paths.
5. "Portland, Ore.: Motorists have spent so much time around bikers, they’ll often let you into the road when no bike lane exists." – Clearly, Bracco has no idea that in 49 of the 50 states, bicycles have the same rights (and responsibilities) as motor vehicles!

Based on her tenuous grasp of cycling (the article is the only post on the internet in which both her name and "bicycle," "bike," or "cycling" appear together), we think Bracco should have stayed in her "freelancing mommy" lane and left the bike lane to people who've ridden a two-wheeler in the past decade. It's one thing to repurpose content when you're familiar with the subject but just rewording something at random? That's Dumbass of the Day work.

¹ That's as opposed to the eHow family (Leaf Group), who provides a list of topics for freelancers to choose from

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