By James Griffin, Washington Daily News, 22 May 1971
Nicholas Johnson, hunched like an uneasy rider over the microphone, his three-speed English roadster at the table beside him, pedaled his call for a “national revolution” before the City Council.
“I don’t ride a bicycle because I hate General Motors but don’t have the courage to bomb an auto plant. I don’t do it as a gesture of stoicism and personal sacrifice. I am not even engaged, necessarily, in an act of political protest over the company’s responsibility for most of the air pollution by tonnage in the United States,” said the tall, youthful-looking Mr. Johnson, who daily commutes by bicycle to his job as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
BICYCLE FIENDS
The audience, largely bicycle fiends, was delighted with his speech, titled, “Pedal Power.” Read in a wry drawl, and coming from a man with long hair, floppy mustached, dressed in casual khakis and boots — he really is an FCC Commissioner — the speech was the highlight of two sessions of hearings before the council’s transportation committee yesterday to study changes in D.C. bike regulations.
“It’s finally like giving up cigarets. You just wake up one morning and realize you don’t want to start the day with another automobile.”
“Just as cigaret smoking is not a pleasure, it’s a business; so you finally come to realize that you don’t need General Motors, they need you. … You ride a bicycle because it feels good. The air feels good on your body; even the rain feels good. The blood starts moving around your body, and pretty soon it gets to your head and, glory be, your head feels good … You start whistling nice little original tunes, to suit the moment,” the commissioner said.
BICYCLE ‘SUPPRESSION’
Mr. Johnson even criticized his own commission—”The FCC has supported the effort to keep the auto in front of the American people,” he charged in his pedal assault on government agencies and industries, he believes are conspiring to “suppress” the bicycle.
While commending the council for studying new bicycle regulations, he noted the absence of legislation for bicycle lanes. He also blasted the 50-cents a day charge for parking in the one or two bicycle parking lots here. “It’s a preposterous charge,” he exclaimed, urging the council to secure free parking areas for bikes.
And there was a bitter sense of irony in his remarks as he took leave of the council. “I’m a Presidential appointment,” he said, “and it took me over a year to get parking in my building.” He lives in Glover Park, west of Connecticut Avenue NW.
When he was finished, Mr. Johnson headed for the door, the gears of his Raleigh clicking at his heels.
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