Letters to the Editor

What You Say

Death Becomes Us

I received an Evite from Chicago's Balloon Contemporary about a show they are co-presenting with the Slought Foundation — um, the same one here in Shaun Brady's article "Lovely Bones" [Arts, Jan. 21]. I Googled "Strictly Death" and found Slought's Web site and also this article. Slought's site mentions Balloon Contemporary three times and also the curator, Michael Graham, yet there is no mention of either in Brady's article. Why the omission? Chicago curator brings Chicago collection to Philadelphia; sounds like an important detail. Would "Strictly Death" ever have happened if not for Balloon Contemporary and Michael Graham? I think somebody owes Mr. Graham an apology. Just sayin'.

Brian Howard accuses me of cherry-picking stats [Editor's Letter, "Lane Rage," Jan. 21]. (I did.) So did he. All columnists do. Duh!

While he attacks me for saying it, Brian doesn't deny the city's bike report was incomplete. He reports Streets didn't count two major intersections because it was raining. Is that a good excuse? The counts were done on a single day. Is that solid research?

Brian notes "dramatically increased bike traffic." To cherry-pick (uh-oh) a median intersection, there was a 68 percent increase at Pine at Broad during morning rush. Huge! But — in numbers — it's an increase of 28 bikes. Not so huge.

Brian's reporting shows 1.9 percent of streets dedicated to the 1.2 percent who commute by bike, so how are they being shorted?

Then there's the dog-eared charge that I oppose unclogging the streets and cleaning the air through using bikes. You get those benefits without bike-only lanes, which is what I oppose, not bikes. Finally, since biking will never be a realistic choice for the vast majority of commuters who come from more than four miles out, we ought to focus on building a safe, clean, comfortable and low-cost mass transit system. Maybe Brian and I can agree on that.

P.S. I don't own a car.

Thanks for your column, Brian! Your research is really great to read, and everyone I talk to about cycling has read your column.