An Amazing Takedown of John Forester

[My personal copy which I did not pay money for.]

TL;DR: it’s about damn time someone did in-depth analysis of John Forester's retrograde, toxic, and highly effective life’s work

Sometimes I take solace in the fact that Youtube urbanism is thriving (perhaps a bit too much given the inevitable deluge of slop). If you are the kind of person who likes watching video content, there’s a lot of great stuff to be found covering pretty much every topic you can imagine. 

[Not Just Bikes = Jason Slaughter.]

There’s one video that I’ve really appreciated, though. Snarky Youtuber Not Just Bikes, an urbanist named Jason based in the Netherlands, makes long-form sarcastic and didactic videos. One of them features an epic, long-overdue takedown of highly influential (and somewhat recently deceased) anti-bicycling advocate, John Forester. 

I’ve written about John Forester on this blog before (Warning: 3,500 words!) as he was the inventor and chief proselyte of “vehicular cycling”, a wildly wrong approach to bicycle planning that embedded itself in public works departments across the country for decades. The first time I read Effective Cycling, Forester's most well-known book, my jaw hit my desk so many times I got a major toothache. I did so many double takes the world was increasing exponentially. It was and is the most condescending piece of text I’ve ever encountered, and it’s wild to me that people took it seriously for so long.

(The book is still in print, AFAIK, and was last “updated” in 2012, right around the time I was doing research on my dissertation on bicycle planning.)

The story of John Forester is a wild ride in and of itself, and is certainly captivating enough that his name isn’t a forgotten piece of history. That's why I wrote about him in my dissertation, and again on this blog when he died back in 2020. 

Since then, scrutiny of Forester has waned along with his influence. People even seem to have become sympathetic. For example, over the last few years, I listened to two podcasts about vehicular cycling and Forester: one from the mainstream War On Cars crew and one from Well There’s Your Problem, a “dirtbag left” podcast loosely about engineering. Surprising to me, both podcasts ended up expressing quite a bit of empathy for JF's story than I think he deserves. I get the feeling that the authors there didn’t read closely enough JF’s actual books, which (to be fair) is an understandable thing given their inhuman combination of length and atrocious prose.

This is why the Not Just Bikes video it was a breath of fresh air. Again, if you’re the kind of person that can sit down for a 90 minute Youtube video rant, and likes bicycling, I highly recommend it. Slaughter make sit clear that John Forester was was a horrible person who profoundly damaged street safety in the US (and elsewhere), setting the United States (and much of the rest of the anglosphere) back one or two generations. He did so with a decided lack of empathy for others, and a privileged arrogance that’s really hard to describe unless you’ve read his work yourself.

By contrast with other looks back at vehicular cycling, the Not Just Bikes very long takedown of John Forester does him the favor of using his exact words over and over ahead, pulling the receipts and looking up the references from Forester's books.

Here are some choice excerpts:

It’s pretty easy to critique a John Forester book because all you have to do is quote it extensively, which is precisely what Slaughter does here. In addition to the ample research and epic deep digging into Forester's history, he bring a well-deserved level of scorn and opprobrium into the conversation. 

Here's another example, probable the craziest one, explaining how bicyclists shoudl handle explicit conflict with drivers:

Importantly, John Forester also wrote amazingly condescending things about regular people that really have to be read to be believed. He not only infantilizes women, he also throws in the vast majority of men. The jaw-dropping offensiveness is not a simple generation gap or rhetorical disjuncture, but Forester believed he was smarter than everyone else, and thus treated most of the world like children. Also he never admitted he was wrong, or apologized for anything.

“This is an absolutely terrible book, and nobody should ever read it.” -Slaughter

Not Just Bikes also takes the (significant) time to dive into the planning literature, patiently explaining how Forester's citations and research, the footnotes that propped up his unkillable Zombie claims, painstakingly pulling receipts to debunk Forester's bullshit. He walks systematically through the pseudo-scientific approach, focusing particularly on Forester's lesser-known engineering textbook (which I've never read) and describing why it's bad.

It's tempting go say that all of this is ancient history, but if you follow bicycle advocacy at all in the US, you probably know that the fight between traffic engineering and non motorized transportation is alive and well. These books stayed in print well into the 21st century, and I’d wager to say continue to shape engineering practices in many places around the country despite being absolutely nonsense.

As Slaughter rightly point out, a good deal of John Forester's beliefs are insane in the real world. He deserves very little sympathy and it’s about time someone said so. Anyway, check out the whole video if you can stomach it. I highly recommend it.

Jazz and Traffic #3: The 101 Synthesizer

Well, this is amazing. Someone tied a customizable synthesizer to an actual live traffic camera on Los Angeles' famous CA 101 freeway. It's a miraculous coming together of jazz and traffic in a way that I never thought possible. Trains have rhythm, of course, but freeways are closer to an ambient drone.

It's called "The 101 Plays Itself"," a reference to Reyner Banham, of course. Astounding stuff! Play away, freeway. 

Twin City Doorways #84

 

[Lowell, MA.]

[Lowell, MA.]

[Northeast, Minneapolis.]

[West Side, St. Paul.]

[West Side, St. Paul.]

[Bloomington.]

[West St. Paul.]

[West St. Paul.]

[West Side, St. Paul.]

[Marshall Avenue, St. Paul.]

Vintage Music Company, South Minneapolis' Obscure 78-Record Museum-slash-Wizard Repository, Sadly Closing

[The amazing Vintage Music Co. storefront.]

Years ago, I was low-key conducting a project I called “Obscure Museums” where I led tours to off-off-the-beaten-path “museums”, i.e. any place where interesting collections were on display in either a formal or informal way. The 2018 tour included the Vintage Music Company, truly a magical storehouse of 78 rpm records.

(Note: I’m still hoping to put together a published guide to these places. I think my list would be great fun!)

[78 rpm records used to be wildly popular.]

Some time back, I inherited a trove of 78 records and have a (crappy) turntable that can play them, and so I have an interest in these amazing artifacts. But the real reason I wanted to bring people to Vintage Music is because it’s straight out of a urban fantasy story, the closest thing to a wizard’s shop I’ve ever encountered. (And that includes my time spent in the South Minneapolis “witch district.”) 

You step inside and are immediately engulfed by musty chaos. Two men tinker behind a raised central pedestal island, tweaking turntables some of which have actual ear horn-style speakers straight out of the ancient RCA dog advertisement. (“Put a sock in it!”) Nobody helps you. If you ask an inadequate question, one of the record wizards might castigate you sarcastically as if you’re a first-year student at wizard school. (This happened to me, of course.)

The place is an idea obscure museum, and that’s why it’s sad to see its closing. Places like this, where they are obviously barely scraping rent money together, always seem doomed. But whenever I’d go past Vintage Music Company and see its building still standing, its faded sign still legible, I’d knew Minneapolis still had more than its share of magic. 

For further reading, here’s a great 2017 Star Tribune story on the owner and his idiosyncratic ways. (h/t Keith at Racket):

Star Tribune quote article here asdf

Holthus, 54, has spent decades collecting, cataloging and selling this music — big band and Billie Holiday, country western and Bing Crosby — in its original form: records that spin at 78 revolutions per minute. He also collects, restores and sells the machines that play them: spring-driven phonographs with stately finishes and names like Edison, Brunswick, Victor.

His shop, Vintage Music Co., which smells of spray varnish and dust, is one of the last record stores in the country to stock solely 78s. Vinyl is popular these days, of course, in its wider LP or 45 rpm format. But Holthus, nostalgic even as a kid, has never been driven by trends.

"I'm not malleable," he said. "I should be able to bend with the times ... and I just can't do it."

Instead, he keeps alive records and players that others have given up on.

In the piece, you learn that the store had over 750,000 78 rpm records in it! That's a wild number, especially considering each of them is about 2-3 minutes of music on each side. In other words, the entire store probably didn't account for as much music as you'd find on a 20-year-old iPod. 

Anyway... the real treat for me was the total characters running it. 

Even on days the shop's doors are locked, Holthus is there, repairing and cataloging until dark. He's known both for happily sharing his encyclopedic musical knowledge and his persnickety spirit. He hates the word "vinyl." He disdains new, cheaply made portable players. He scoffs at reissues.

RIP, godspeed and good health to Scott, and I hope someone can do something with this fantastic obscure museum of a shop.

[A wizard shop for sure.]

Twin City Doorways #83

 

[Chicago, IL.]

[Chicago, IL.]

[Chicago, IL.]

[Chicago, IL.]

[Tomah, WI.]

[Chicago, IL.]

[Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]

[Williamstown, MA.]

[Lowell, MA.]

Sidewalk Dogs #18

 

[Southwest, Minneapolis.]

[Selby Avenue, St. Paul.]

[Grand Avenue, St. Paul.]

[Sent in from a reader, Brazil.]

[Frogtown, St. Paul.]

[Highland, St. Paul.]

Vote for Rebecca Noecker for Ramsey County Board

 

[Rebecca is the right choice for Ramsey County Board.]

There aren’t many elected officials that I’ve seen up close for their entire careers, but Rebecca Noecker is one of them. I’ve known Rebecca since we both joined the St. Paul Planning Commission together in 2011. We often sat next to each other. I remember her bringing her one-year-old to the meetings, literally juggling her duties. (He’d sleep through them, which often seemed like the wisest move to me.) She rose to become St. Paul Council President, and I want to endorse her for the open* Ramsey County board seat.

(* Noecker announced her campaign before long-time incumbent Rafael Ortega announced his retirement, i.e. she basically forced him out. That's already an accomplishment given the conventional wisdom about how County Board seats are effectively unassailable.)

Since our early days on the planning commission, and after helping with her first City Council campaign, I can say three things about Rebecca as an elected official: she pays attention to detail, is a good listener, and works hard. 

This last point is key; for years, Rebecca has gotten up early to answer emails before her kids wake up, way earlier than I ever do. She also knocks doors tirelessly, even in high heat or decent rain. (I’ve witnessed this!) 

She follows through, replying to questions and sending thank you notes, the kind of attentive constituent service that is often seen as superfluous to the job. She actually reads memos and reports, public comments and studies, and is eager to ask questions of staff and experts to learn about policy complexities. She shows up for public engagement work, and it's not always transactional; instead, she spends time actively listening to people’s gripes or dreams. 

Those are invaluable attributes in any elected official, but I think are suited to what we need at the county level. Ramsey County government is not know for being close to the people, and, to be fair, that’s largely a structural issue around Counties having less direct connections to most people. Still, it could be better...

Meanwhile, the previous County Commissioner had some weaknesses. To my mind, Ortega was neither transparent nor accessible, not someone who spent much time on outreach or engagement. Living in the district for years, I only saw him in person once: at a West Side caucus where he gave a 30-second speech before walking out of the room. 

My general sense, having observed County Board members and their staff, is that there's a lot of inertia. It’s not “Gondor-level" sclerotic, but let’s just say there’s a lot of downtime. The way I interacted with Ortega was that I heard second-hand pronouncements, most of which were meant assuring people that “everything was fine” or to “trust us” on key projects under his purview: improved transit on West 7th Street and big downtown development opportunities. Many, many years have gone by, and those projects are failures. 

Noecker and I don’t always agree, and to be honest, there were at least two major issues times where she voted against whatI thought was the right thing to do. (Thankfully, in both major cases — the Ayd Mill Road bike trail and Grand Avenue housing approval — she was in the minority.) Even so, I trust Rebecca to put in the work and be transparent. 

I won’t say anything particularly negative about the other candidate for County Board, Maria Isa Perez-Vega. I think she is a good state representative and a good fit for the legislature. In that role, giving speeches and being a strong advocate is a key part of the job. Legislators need to claim space on a few key issues and operate through their committees, all while working in a contentious, insular political bubble. 

(I worked as Minnesota House Page twenty years ago, so I’m an expert. /s) 

Ramsey County board is a different job. It requires administrative chops and bureaucratic follow-through. Rebecca’s work ethic will be a welcome change. Her attention to detail and experience with budget and administration are a good fit for the County, where big development failings have really damaged the regional tax base and local economy. Her experience with the city gives her good knowledge of its limits and potential, and where the County can fit in. 

If you’re still undecided about what to support in the August 11th primary, please support Rebecca Noecker.

PS. See also the indefatigable Naomi Kritzer’s analysis of the race, which comes to the same conclusion I do. Vote for Rebecca!

You're Not From Here #14: Cedar Rapids, Lima, and Flint on Wednesday August 5th

After a month off for our World Cup international break, I'm happy to report that You're Not From Here is back at the Black Hart of St Paul for an August 5th show. We have a great lineup of guests:

• Austin from Cedar Rapids
• Rodrigo from Lima
• Kareem from Flint

I'll be introducing the group with some fun facts about regional natural disaster patterns. As always, it's free. It's at 7pm and should be fun. Don't miss it!

Public Character #11: Trevor Born Walks Daily to Make a Neighborhood Newspaper

[Diving as deep as possible into local news with shoe-leather journalism.]

Most people, myself very much included, gather our news in front of a screen, scrolling through websites, RSS feeds and social media streams. Trevor Born does it the old fashioned way with shoe leather. Nearly every day, he walks the streets of Minneapolis' Longfellow neighborhood and tries to figure out what’s going on.

“I usually call it a newsletter, but if I'm trying to sound high-minded, I might call it a news project,” Born said.  

Trevor Born’s project, the Longfellow Whatever, has been around now for two years and, judging by several hundred subscribers, it’s thriving. 

According to Born, Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood is bound by the Mississippi and the Hiawatha freeway on the east and west, and the Greenway and Minnehaha Falls / Creek on the south. In between lies a substantial swath of south Minneapolis, mostly middle-class housing with a few key commercial corridors like East Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue. 

In other words, it’s just at the right size for a local newspaper. But since the decline of that industry, there’s a vacuum out there. 

That’s no longer true in Longfellow, where Born walks the streets daily searching for story ideas. After two years he hasn’t run out of them. 

“Today, as I was about to hit send [on the newsletter], I was walking down the street, and noticed people buffing out this piece of graffiti that I had noticed before,” explained Born, who included their story. 

It was a short 50-word blurb about the maintenance ot the wall of Longfellow Market, an East Lake grocery store, but it was the kind of irreplaceable detail that makes Longfellow Whatever worth the subscription.

Born publishes two articles a month with a wide variety of angles. This week the Whatever featured a piece on dog treat stations, profiling residents who have installed front yard boxes boasting Milk Bones (like little free libraries for dogs). Another recent piece covered the 1975 “freedom train” that ran through Longfellow in fifty years ago to celebrate the bicentennial. In February Trevor Born dug into the backstory of a mutual aid fund that opened up during the ICE occupation.  

Still, the bulk  of the Longfellow Whatever features cover business comings and goings, like what’s happening tho this building or if the old Chinese restaurant is every going to be remodeled, a new dispensary, or the history of the dog sauna business. 

That’s kind the kind of story that gave Trevor Born the idea for his news project in the first place. A few years after the COVID pandemic, he was at a gathering and a someone mentioned to him that the local long-shuttered wine bar (the old Riverview, on the corner of 42nd and 46th) was about to get a new owner. 

That was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to know.

“I really wish that it could just be somebody's job to stay on top of that stuff,” Born said. “So, I figured I would just try.”

Thus the Longfellow Whatever was born, beginning in March of 2024 when Born began recruiting subscribers from the neighborhood. It’s been growing slowly ever since. 

[Born leading a tour of old fast food joints for Preserve Minneapolis: here at the White Castle corner.]

Trevor Born got his journalism start quite young, as he describes it, with a childhood newspaper he ran out of his house during grade school. Growing up in Bloomington, he was lucky to have a friend Star Tribune who let him hang around the newsroom. When he went off to college at the University of Minnesota, he naturally gravitated to journalism at the Minnesota Daily, and became an editor. 

Over the years he’s had his byline in the Star Tribune more than once, and after graduating worked at the AP, along with a brief stint doing private public relations. Following the COVID pandemic, Trevor left that job behind, and went out on his own, essentially creating a dream job in his backyard.

“An amazing aspect of the job, because of the small folk geographic footprint of it, it has this ability to be just kind of old school,” Born said. “It’s almost a Mr. Rogers' neighborhood kind of thing, a lot of what I do is conducted on foot and it serendipitously happens just from running into people. It's kind of what you dream of: [For] most beats, it doesn't really get to happen.” 

[This building used to be an old-school Kentucky Fried Chicken.]

Two weeks ago, I tagged along with Trevor Born walk down East Lake on a local history tour, sponsored by Preserve Minneapolis. Titled “Lost Fast Food Joints of Longfellow,” the stroll was a blast: a trove of deep history like the first Kentucky Fried Chicken location (above: the building is now an eye clinic), a once-popular A & W restaurant at East Lake and West River Road, and the White Castle location on the corner of 36th Avenue.

In each case Born illuminated the landscape with histories of fast food in general and specific South Minneapolis franchises. The tour was supplemented with cans of root beer and enlarged photographs, and the audience of a two dozen mostly older preservation buffs was delighted. 

For the newsletter, subscribers are charged monthly or yearly, Patreon style. They receive twice-weekly stories about their neighborhood, and the results pay Born’s bills and even allow him to rent a desk at an East Lake co-working space.

A recent Longfellow Whatever newsletter blast included the following: a bakery (temporarily) closing, a cancelled art fair, an upcoming corn roast, the energy utility’s impending telephone pole inspections, park board arborists condemning diseased trees, a near-drowning at the falls, a closed wading pool, an office building for sale, a commercial building getting repainted, a new projection system at the micro-cinema, a new sign at the animal clinic, a brewery block party, three different concerts, and the news that the Japanese deli is now open for lunch on Fridays.

This is the kind of thing that once would have been the purview of print community newspapers you could pick up at coffee shops or grocery stores, all supported by local advertising and want ads. As readers well know, though local news is still vital, those days are far behind us. City papers have been cutting local newsrooms for decades, and where a four or five people might have covered city hall a generation ago, today it’s likely one reporter juggling that beat alongside a bunch of others.  

In that world, the Longfellow Whatever is the kind of solution we need: a micro-enterprise, where one person fills in gaps about business openings, the politics of neighbor disputes, and local development drama. If every neighborhood could have a Born on the beat, I would not be so worried about the future of local news.

Correction: the original version of this article claimed there were two separate buildings hosting White Castle franchises at the corner of 36th and Lake; in fact, there was only one. (Thanks Trevor!)