aspiring “aggromuters”.
(Photo: Joe Bike)
Knowing the jargon is a key part of being a true bike nerd/transportation wonk. VMT, fixies, bonk, roadies, ‘bents, multi-modal — someone should publish a dictionary of them all.
On that note, in the interest of helping you stay current, I thought I’d share two new terms I’ve come across in the past few days: “aggromuter” and “policy crush.”
Aggromuter, a combination of aggressive and commuter, was coined by Joe Doebele of local shop Joe Bike to describe a line of bikes he sells. Specifically, Joe says the Proletariat model from Portland-based bike brand, Stop Cycles is the bike for aggromuters (it caught my eye at the recent Pedal Nation Bike Show).
on NYC’s Sadik-Khan, I’ll admit to
having one for Gil Penalosa.
(Photo © J. Maus)
The next one is “policy crush” which was first brought to my attention by New York City-based filmmaker (and man behind the lens of many Streetfilms) Clarence Eckerson. The term was used in a recent Streetfilm by New York Times ethics columnist Randy Cohen. It means to have an affinity for someone because you love their policy ideas. In common usage, the term has so far been mostly associated with NYC DOT’s Janette Sadik-Khan — the much-loved, bike-riding visionary who has spearheaded a transformation of public space in that formerly (but not as much now) car-choked metropolis.
Are you an aggromuter? (Not sure we want to be encouraging aggressive commuting, but that’s just my opinion).
Who do you have policy crush on? (In addition to Sadik-Khan, I’d have to say Gil Penalosa, who’s inspiring speech at the 2008 Carfree Cities Conference still echoes in my head and he’s the man who helped inspire cities across the country (including Portland) to start their own “ciclovias”.)