Cohen quoted on KQED on expansion of bike share network in Oakland
“There will be more butts on bikes — and that’s a good thing.”
That’s probably the most memorable line from the speaker’s podium during last week’s Ford GoBike launch in downtown Oakland, marking the first-ever arrival of bike sharing in the East Bay.
But some supporters of the system say they’re thinking not just about how many butts, but whose butts, will be on the 1,500 or so shared bicycles expected to be rolling in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville by Labor Day.
“Bike share has traditionally been white, male and college-educated dominated,” said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the transit advocacy group TransForm, at the launch event. “And with the inequality gap we have here in the Bay Area, that would just widen it and would be the wrong way to go.”