One Street News

Summer 2020

Vol. 13, Issue 1

1. Bosnia and Herzegovina Phase II Underway
2. The Bright Side of COVID-19
3. Resources – ECF’s Compilation of COVID-19 Bicycling Links
4. Hot Topics – Maple Street

Bosnia and Herzegovina Phase II Underway

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

Our campaign planning project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is finally moving ahead with Phase II after receiving initial funding from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. The pandemic prevented full funding of the project and, even if we had received all the needed funds, it would have prevented me from traveling over there this year to conduct the workshops.

After lots of discussions with our partners at the Center for Environment (CfE) in BiH we have chosen mid-June next year for the workshops. That will allow plenty of time in the first part of the year to select our new trainees from bicycle and environmental NGOs throughout BiH and help them prepare their campaigns before the workshops.

Once engaged in the project, our trainees will learn from and inspire each other along the way. Phase II will also enlist some of the campaign leaders from Phase I as mentors. If Phase I was any indication, these new campaigns will range from securing new bicycle infrastructure to stopping environmental damage. You can read about our earlier work on the project here.

This fall, we will launch a Go Fund Me online fundraiser to raise the remaining funds needed to succeed with the project. Please look for our announcement of the launch of this fundraiser and contribute if you can.

If you would like to contribute right away (thank you, thank you!!!), you can do so through either the One Street website (for U.S. tax deductibility and to help cover One Street’s expenses) or through the CfE website (where most of the funding needs to go). Make sure to include a note with your contribution that it is for the BiH campaign planning project Phase II.

The Bright Side of COVID-19

As a bicycle organization, we at One Street couldn’t help noticing some very interesting changes in communities around the world as the virus spread, including a rush on bicycling. Forced to stay home, people rediscovered their dusty two-wheelers long forgotten in garages and basements. Others saw this trend and longed for their own. Bike shops, deemed essential businesses in most countries, soon ran out of bikes. This bike boom continues and we hope it will for a long time.

Another trend we hope will continue is the reprioritizing of public spaces. Reshaping streets to allow walkers and cyclists more room has long been a goal of all our partner organizations around the world. Now city officials are clamoring to make it happen. Restaurants and other businesses are moving into the streets where space used to be wasted storing cars. Cities are investing more in their parks as they become favorite destinations. And some cities are turning their streets into parks as officials finally realize the mistake of relinquishing these public spaces to cars.

Here are some of our favorite stories we’ve gathered during the pandemic:

A troubling look at the mess cars have made of our cities, now being reversed for social distancing: The Pandemic Shows What Cars Have Done to Cities

Hundreds of Cities Worldwide Make Streets into Cycling and Pedestrian Walkways—With Plans to Stay That Way (find under Inspirations on One Street’s home page)

An in depth look at reshaping New York’s streets, even more than they’ve done: I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing

A warning from New York not to take positive changes for granted: Will Cars Rule the Roads in Post-Pandemic New York?

And finally, the top eight positive changes people are making around the world because of the virus: Quarantine has changed us — and it’s not all bad

Resources – ECF’s Compilation of COVID-19 Bicycling Links

Our partners at the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) have done a nice job collecting links to stories around the world where the virus has had positive impacts for bicycling. If you’re looking for more good examples, take a look at their list here.

Hot Topics – Maple Street

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

This newsletter includes lots of positive results from the pandemic. One Street is a bicycle organization, so we have the luxury of basking in that bright area of current times.

But there’s another side to this crisis, beyond the immediate positive and terrible results, that has deeply disturbed me from its outset. The virus has exposed serious tears in the fabric of our society, tears that began long ago. Until this crisis, these tears were easy to ignore.

My concern grew as fingers pointed at China, then any Asian person. Blame for the virus was then thrown at those who didn’t follow certain quarantine rules or whole countries that chose not to. Conspiracy theories went viral. Here in the U.S. our country has been torn farther apart as politicians use the pandemic for their campaigns, not caring about the harm as they instill fear and prejudice for their temporary gain. One side is stealing our freedom by forcing us to wear masks while the other side is murdering us by not.

For months now, I’ve looked for an anchor point for my concern. I considered a comparison between traffic crashes and bicycle helmets – one evokes complacency, the other hysteria. But there’s more to it. It’s not just complacency or hysteria or politics or racism or greed or hatred. The tears in our society are coming from something in all of us: our tendency to blame instead of solve. This realization reminded me of one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

This 1960 TV show is set on Maple Street, a lovely tree-lined neighborhood street where kids are playing in the street as parents start barbecues in their yards. There’s a flash of light and then strange things start happening at different houses. Lights turn on and off. Machines start and stop. Neighbors accuse each other of sabotage then spying and finally of being monsters from another planet. They throw stones, smash windows, and gather weapons to protect themselves from each other. A shotgun is fired and their friend falls.

As they attack each other, the camera pans back to a hill overlooking the street where an alien spaceship has landed. The aliens are calmly watching the scene below as they use a device that manipulates the machines along Maple Street. Other streets in the distance are similarly engulfed. One alien comments to the other about how easy it is to conquer Earth one street at a time by simply causing uncertainty.

Rod Serling, the wise creator of the show, ends the episode with this caution:

“For the record, prejudices can kill...and suspicion can destroy...and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”

As I recalled this show, I could see each of its characters behind the fingers I’d witnessed pointing at each other, happy to blame, ready to attack. Remember, he wrote that show sixty years ago. This behavior is not new to our species.

How can we expect to solve even larger global crises such as civil rights, environmental destruction, and climate change if we descend into this useless behavior over a virus?

Let’s heed Rod Serling’s warning, look up and out to a crisis that has hit our entire planet with equal uncertainty. We are learning about this virus, but we have many months to go before we can ease back into certainty, however false it might be. Let’s seize this opportunity of our shared uncertainty to look beyond our squabbles and finger pointing, beyond our isolated streets to every street around the world struggling with the same uncertainties.

Instead of blame, let’s empathize. Instead of pointing fingers, let’s listen and consider what others are trying. By respecting and learning from the efforts of others to solve this crisis, we will begin to reweave the fabric of our planet’s society with our shared experiences as humans, not in spite of, but because of our shared anxiety.

Because, after all, we only have one street.