Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Like Bike Lanes. Floridians Seem To Agree.
I have made the argument that turning street safety into a culture war issue is a losing move for bike and walk advocates. I've also argued that we should all have empathy for drivers — that the ability to genuinely understand the driver’s mindset is a prerequisite to changing America's driving culture and the priorities of the 92% of Americans who routinely drive.
The fact that this is controversial among some is telling. Biking and walking are the most local and intimate of public policy decisions, yet we have allowed them, like so many other things in society, to become part of a dysfunctional national conversation. I acknowledge being frustrated by this.
About a decade ago, I was invited to speak at a bike/walk conference in Washington DC. I did not realize until I arrived that the bulk of the programming was about ways to lobby for more federal money for bike/walk infrastructure. It was, in essence, a conference to reinforce helplessness, to turn local heroes into pawns in a top-down policy battle. Again, it is frustrating to watch capacity wasted in this way.
Whether intended or not, this reinforced helplessness empowers distant lawmakers and the many adjacent influencers who benefit from reinforcing our collective impotence. I've been saying for a decade and a half here that the price of a mile of DC-funded bike lane is hundreds of miles of auto infrastructure. At some point, watching Lucy repeatedly pull the football away from Charlie Brown gets old.
It gets especially old when I have to watch many bike/walk advocates repeatedly double down on the us-versus-them rhetoric of division. And then repeatedly lose from doing it. Car-free and car-lite streets worked so well during the pandemic that many assumed there would be no going back. As these streets are systematically converted over to automobiles, many seem reduced to blaming car culture, mocking drivers and calling for federal legislation on monster trucks.
Learned helplessness. Empowering others feels like a path to gaining power, but it's not. That's especially true for something as hyper-local as biking and walking.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, speaking to the overwhelming majority of Floridians who routinely drive in his state, just signed legislation to accelerate road projects. Standing behind a podium with the words, "fully funded and ahead of schedule" written on it, DeSantis said, "some activists want to make driving so miserable that people have to abandon their cars."
"That's not going to happen in Florida."
Here's the thing: DeSantis is not wrong. There is a significant percentage of safe streets activists whose motivation seems dominated by a hatred of automobiles, a derision that often crosses over into a hatred of drivers. They do want to make driving miserable — make life miserable — for the vast majority of Americans. They are not shy about demonizing people who drive.
Regardless of whether they are right or wrong, in a culture war, in an us-versus-them framework, these activists are easy to caricature. They are too often mean and confrontational, and (broadly speaking) they present as the kind of holier-than-thou elitists that politicians such as DeSantis love to highlight.
In a country where 92% of people drive and nearly all public spaces are built primarily around accommodating automobile traffic, an antagonistic approach that highlights differences and then demands action is doomed to failure. "I am a vulnerable road user so get your death machine away from me" might feel righteous, but it's not going to motivate many drivers to change, even if they wanted to.
Even worse, an us-versus-them approach often results in each side growing tolerant of disgusting behavior from their own team. Jokes about running over cyclists are not funny when that cyclist is a fellow human being, but those jokes become comical for many when the cyclist is thought of as a self-righteous, whiny elitist who wants to make your life miserable so they can feel superior to you.
In a country where 92% of people drive and nearly all public spaces are built primarily around accommodating automobile traffic, an approach that draws a big circle of inclusion around shared experiences is necessary to motivate change. Here’s the trick: It's not hard to draw that circle.
I don’t think that the state or federal level of government is the right place for safe streets and bike/walk advocacy to engage; there is much more to be gained by building a local culture of biking and walking, one that starts with focusing on where people are already struggling to bike and walk. Even so, if you forced me to engage on a statewide level in Florida, here’s the approach I’d take:
Governor DeSantis, I agree with you: Driving in Florida is miserable. However, let’s not deflect from what is really going on. Driving in Florida isn’t miserable because of the tiny number of bike lanes or the handful of restaurants that have now converted parking into street seating. In fact, if nobody biked or walked in all of Florida, driving would still be miserable.
Driving in Florida is miserable because of how the state of Florida has built its transportation system. It is a mess, one of the country’s worst.
Florida has embraced the hierarchical road network, a funneling system that generates the maximum amount of congestion possible at any one time. Florida drivers are funneled to the same arterial roads, the same signalized intersections, and the same highways and onramps, at the same time, day after day.
Drivers are forced to take maddening, circuitous routes for even the most basic of trips. Florida is famously the land of boom-and-bust real estate, with the stroads and cul-de-sacs that make it possible. Imagine having to drive seven miles to pick up your next-door neighbor whose home you can see from your kitchen window!
This is a widely shared experience in Florida, Governor. It's miserable for everyone who drives in it.
Florida's highways and side roads are congested, yet Florida drivers are constantly bombarded by the stupidity of being told that more lanes will lead to more growth and more growth will lead to better outcomes. The way Florida does it, more growth creates more traffic congestion. The misery is accelerating because the more we grow, the worse it gets, and everyone knows it.
Contrary to what you suggest in your speech, Florida is merely coasting on momentum at this point. To the extent you can claim that Florida's highway projects are “fully funded” (we all know they are not), it is because of a one-time surge of highway expansion money from the federal government.
The same federal government that is broke, running massive deficits and paying over a trillion dollars a year just in interest on past debts. Their ridiculous spending is not something to cheer about, let alone pretend will somehow solve Florida’s transportation funding problems. While Florida’s drivers sit miserably in years of construction delays, they will know that critical roadway maintenance funds were diverted to provide the state matching funds required to secure that federal money.
All this while you cut tolls on roadways already overrun with cracks, potholes and wheel ruts. Florida drivers don't feel miserable because of bike lanes. They feel miserable because driving in Florida is miserable. The state has no plan but to increase that misery.
Florida’s roadways are also becoming less safe by the day. Florida has some of the nation's most dangerous roadways. Every Florida resident knows someone who, through no fault of their own, has been in a car crash where someone was killed or traumatically injured. That is misery that never goes away.
The state keeps building in the stroad style of medium-speed traffic with half-mile-spaced signals on roads lined with strip development. This is designed to create growth, but the growth is a collection of strip malls, franchise restaurants and other low-value investments. This is not only the most miserable environment to drive in, it is an approach well known to be deadly.
Governor DeSantis, the experience of driving in Florida is one of continual misery. You never go fast enough to get anywhere quickly, but everything is so spread out that you are forced to drive nonetheless. Many residents have gotten used to this and welcome any chance at a respite, however lacking in credibility. An increasing number, however, are asking for something else.
It is no coincidence that the highest real estate values in Florida are places where you can safely bike and walk. In fact, the most successful places intentionally get people out of their cars to increase the value of biking and walking. And they make that experience as pleasant as possible.
Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld bring millions of people to Florida every year. Those guests endure the misery of driving in your state to get to places where they don't encounter automobiles at all. And they pay premium prices for this luxury.
Development doesn't have to exclude automobiles, however, to see huge benefits from biking and walking infrastructure. Whether it is Winter Park, West Palm Beach, or the famous Seaside, Florida has lots of places designed to de-emphasize the automobile. These places are wildly successful.
Instead of lurching from one boom-and-bust funding crisis to the next, instead of building the next tier of strip malls or the next round of congested highways, Florida needs a different approach. The state needs to lean into a mindset of quality over quantity. We've expanded enough; now we need to make better use of all the stuff we have built.
To do that, Governor, we need to have a serious discussion about bike lanes, sidewalks and safe streets.
I agree with you that seldom-used bike lanes and underutilized buses are a waste of public funds. Most of the transportation investments we build today flow through the state DOT and regional highway authorities. They have money, but their systems are not where people are biking or where we want them to walk. When FDOT adds biking and walking facilities as an afterthought to their projects, it is mostly wasteful spending that makes me cringe.
As much as you might not want to hear this, Governor, the ones in the best position to make great biking and walking investments are cities. They know where people bike, they know where people are trying to walk and they know where these investments will have the greatest impact.
Here's the great thing: They don't need your money. A little money would help, but what would help more is a state DOT that was easier for them to work with. That, and for the state to stop funding highway expansions and new roads (which Florida can't afford anyway) and to instead focus the state's efforts on really maintaining the transportation system we've already committed to.
Ultimately, the best thing that will help the state is a development pattern that is more financially productive, less about getting the next thing, less about needing state subsidies and less dependent on the next frontage road. Quality over quantity. Florida needs to truly become the nicest place in America to live.
That’s the aspiration. To get started, let’s simply make it a little less miserable to drive. A big part of that is making it easier for people to bike and walk, especially within the state’s cities. Governor DeSantis, you can be an ally for that effort without cost, financial or otherwise. And you can do it in a pro-driving way because every auto trip begins and ends with someone walking.
We can make the entire experience less miserable for everyone.
Charles Marohn (known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) is the founder and president of Strong Towns and the bestselling author of “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.” With decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer, Marohn is on a mission to help cities and towns become stronger and more prosperous. He spreads the Strong Towns message through in-person presentations, the Strong Towns Podcast, and his books and articles. In recognition of his efforts and impact, Planetizen named him one of the 15 Most Influential Urbanists of all time in 2017 and 2023.