SAN FRANCISCO -- when more than 6,000 cyclists brought San Francisco commuters to a dead stop last Friday evening, motorists were spat on, cyclists were screamed at and swerved into and about 250 of them were arrested on assault or other charges, their bicycles confiscated by police.

Apart from the orgy of finger-pointing over who is to blame -- normally peaceful bike riders were said to have been in the grip of a "mob mentality" -- the incident has exposed the widening gap between defenders of an ever-expanding car culture and eco-topians promoting alternatives to the auto.

Both sides are blessed with absolute certainty. Supporters of Critical Mass, the monthly bike ride through San Francisco streets, are passionate about blocking ever more costly highways, behemoth trucks and road rage. Their message was clear: Bay area residents better choose what side they stand on -- highways or bike lanes -- or find themselves stranded in city intersections at all hours.

"People want alternatives but are forced to take cars," says David Snyder, executive director of the S.F. Bicycle Coalition. "Most people don't see the trend changing, because the auto industry spends a billion dollars a year on advertising."

Some advocates believe that the Friday night incident will change all that. "The solidarity of numbers and a brutal police response may have transformed (Critical Mass) into a movement," wrote one bike rider who participated in the event. He was referring to eyewitness accounts claiming that police cycles rammed bikes, used billy clubs on bicyclists and smashed cameras.

Bicycle advocates accuse San Francisco officials of having no policy toward "alternative" -- i.e. non-car -- transportation. In fact, the city's Department of the Environment, following the lead of Portland and Seattle, recently issued a "Sustainability Plan" that calls for barring autos holding only one person, eventually closing principal downtown thoroughfares to private cars and installing people-movers.

City Transportation Planner Peter Albert says such a plan is particularly logical for San Francisco. "We're not like Houston or L.A., which have been taken over by the freeway. The quality of life here is legendary in so many ways ... It is San Francisco's biggest asset, and we're starting to recognize these things and make them sustainable for the long term."

Some critics would say such statements reflect a rather inflated and conceited view of San Francisco. And not every resident agrees with it. "If you have a city, you need a freeway going through the center of it," one neighborhood activist told reporters. "It makes sense." Chinatown merchants -- angered when the freeway closest to them, damaged by the 1989 earthquake, was shut down -- are now planning a huge parking garage to lure more autos.

Meanwhile, across the bay in Oakland, the re-opening of the Cypress Freeway -- at $250 million per mile, the most costly freeway ever built -- nearly eight years after the earthquake that knocked it down was greeted by much fanfare. And Detroit certainly hasn't been swayed by the anti-car rhetoric. Auto manufacturers there are gearing up to produce "monster trucks" -- massive "sport utility vehicles" that weigh more than 3 tons and get 14 miles or less to a gallon. Through a loophole in the law, these are considered "light trucks" and so do not have to meet federal fuel economy standards.

These developments don't sit well with bicycle advocates, who say such modern urban phenomena as "road rage" will increase as a result. "Road rage is a symptom of a contradiction between the image and promise of cars and the reality," says Snyder of the S.F. Bicycle Coalition. "You never see a car ad showing someone stuck in traffic."

Certainly, the lines are clearly drawn. The question is whether San Francisco and other cities will be able to find a sustainable compromise between the forces of pedal power and the lovers of the automobile. It could be a rough process. Writing about last Friday's violent confrontation between bicyclists and police, one bicycling participant observed: "The sheep -- like the man who was just riding to the gym and decided to join and have a little fun -- were bewildered, angry, defiant. Turned into wolves."
July 30, 1997

Michael Blanding, a freelance writer, bicycles to and from work. Travis Lea is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay area young people.

© Pacific News Service.

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