Do Bike Lanes and Marijuana Have Common Cause?

A proposal to create bicycle lanes on Colorado Boulevard is the latest hot-button issue in Eagle Rock—and at least one local opponent of the plan is a recreational bicyclist whose pet passion is the legalization of marijuana.

Tim Ryder, founding president of Cannabis Clubs United With the Community, has once again thrust himself in the neighborhood’s culture wars—even though he confesses he doesn’t really care either way about bicycle lanes.

“It’s not really my thing,” says the Eagle Rock native, “but everybody wants to express their opinion.” The reason “bike lanes are on my brain now,” he adds, is that some of the people who oppose medical marijuana dispensaries are behind the cause of introducing bike lanes.

It’s not that Ryder shares a concern expressed by some that slower traffic would make it harder for outsiders to zip in an out of Eagle Rock with their requisite ounces of pot, presuming, of course, that Eagle Rock’s cannabis shops reopen after next month’s referendum on their regulation by city authorities.

Rather, for Ryder, the whole controversy about bike lanes reached a tipping point when a member of the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council known for his opposition to pot shops joined the pro-bike lanes forces.

“Probably the best reason I can give you for being against bike lanes is that Michael Larsen came out for them,” says Ryder, referring to the ERNC’s immediate past president, who has done more than anybody else in Eagle Rock (and beyond) to draw attention to the issue of medical marijuana dispensaries.

“At this point I’m going to come out against everything that Michael Larsen is for,” says Ryder, adding: “Just because Michael Larsen is for ’em I’m gonna go against them.”

Ryder’s blatantly polemical campaign against bike lanes began in the aftermath of a March 6 Patch story about the ERNC’s postponement of a vote on whether or not to support the creation of bicycle lanes on Colorado Boulevard.

In the comments section of the story, somebody identified as “Tim Bike-Ryder” posted a remark that evidently set Ryder off.

“Don't let the Bike-Lane Prohibitionists (Tim) and Fear Mongers (Topping) win!” the comment read, echoing Ryder’s own oft-repeated phrase in his comments about Patch’s past stories on medical marijuana (“Don’t let the marijuana prohibitionists and fear-mongers win”).

The comment added: “Check out my new organization www.bike-lanes-united-with-the-community.duh.” [Editor’s note: the link is a dud.]

“Larsen is that you?” responded Ryder in the same comments thread. “I'm now 100% against these dumb bike lanes and the kookie activists that want to force them down our throat!”

That wasn’t all. After denying he was “Tim Bike-Ryder,” Larsen went on to mention an October 2012 interview that Ryder had given to KCET, the television channel. “I never knew that your lobbying for unregulated pot shops was motivated by ‘getting your piece of the $14 Billion pie,’" Larsen wrote, adding: “Makes perfect sense though. Why else would someone who doesn't smoke pot spend every waking hour advocating for it?”

Larsen was referring to Ryder’s response to a question in the KCET interview about Ryder’s “reason for leading a cause [that] certainly isn’t the most welcoming and supported subject.” This is what Ryder said: “Another reason I'm involved is that I read somewhere that this is a $14 billion industry, and I thought to myself maybe I could get a little piece of that. This is a capitalist country and this industry attracts a lot of money.”

The fact that Ryder, by his own admission, is opposing bike lanes because Larsen supports them, “speaks volumes about his character and genuine concern for the Eagle Rock community,” Larsen told Eagle Rock Patch. “There are those who work had to better our neighborhood, and there are those who work hard to create drama for personal and financial reasons.”

Asked to clarify if he had any financial motives in fighting for marijuana dispensaries, Ryder told Eagle Rock Patch: “I think I pretty much explained that in the [KCET interview] paragraph there. Basically, I just wanted to bring attention to the financial aspect of the emerging medical marijuana industry. While prohibitionists like José Huizar and Michael Larsen focus on slandering this new industry and calling our fellow Americans 'drug pushers,' 'criminals' and such, I like to focus on the potential benefits to society like legalized profits and tax revenue it can generate to help pay for Huizar's $180,000 salary. You can't fault a man for trying to improve his lot in life, right?”

So far, Ryder’s opposition to bike lanes has consisted mostly of riding his mountain bike and carrying a large banner depicting a cannabis leaf, with the words “Legalize It” displayed above. (Ryder was unable to attend last Wednesday’s public forum on bike lanes at Occidental College because of work commitments, he said.)

When Ryder isn’t carrying the banner around, he bikes for fun at the Rose Bowl, sticking closely to side streets on his way there and back.

“Going on the main boulevard is a little hairy,” he says. “Too many cars, buses and trucks.” And “putting in a bike lane isn’t going to make it any safer.”