Watch: pulitzer prize winner rants against 'all-powerful' bike lobby

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Dorothy Rabinowitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning member of _The Wall Street Journal_'s editorial board, is no fan of New York City's new bike-share program. In a performance worthy of


_The Onion_'s Joad Cressbeckler, she railed against the "blazing blue" Citi Bikes, which she said had "absolutely begrimed" the city. "Do not ask me to enter


the minds of the totalitarians running the government of this city," she said, when asked to theorize why Mayor Michael Bloomberg instituted the bike-share program. "The bike lobby


is an all-powerful enterprise." Claiming to represent "the majority of citizens" in New York City, she then said the bicycles were more dangerous than taxi cabs: "Before


this, every citizen knew, who was in any way sentient, that the most important danger in the city is not the yellow cabs. It is the bicyclists." SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo


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to your inbox. While the merits of bike-share programs can certainly be debated, it was Rabinowitz's cantankerous tone that seemed to amuse Twitter: So what's behind this intense


hatred of bicyclists? It's not necessarily the bikes themselves, writes _The Washington Post_'s Erik Wemple, but competition for the road in crowded cities: "Wherever space is


at a premium in the United States, there is a swinging, brawling and never-ending debate over the relative villainy of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists." _The New York Times_'


Paul Krugman sees it as conservatives trying to paint liberals as effete Europhiles: A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com He


then equates conservatives' bike-hate to their general distaste for public transportation by quoting George Will, who once said that liberals pushed for trains with the "goal of


diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism." Citi Bikes: Convenient way to travel or socialist plot to destroy America? New York City


residents and tourists will have to decide for themselves.