What is it about the Midwest and bikes? Last year, a group of Iowans circulated a petition calling for a ban on bikes on farm to market roads, and now the St. Charles County Council in Missouri is considering several ordinance changes including a complete ban on bicycles on some public streets . In classic paternalistic double speak, the measures’ author, Councilmember Joe Brazil, says “We would provide maps and actually make St. Charles County more bicycle friendly.”

Right. Banning a mode of transportation actually will encourage its use?

The article also quotes bike advocates with this particularly eloquent statement:

“It’s a basic human right to be able to move about freely in this country,” said Patty Vinyard, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation and a Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation board member. “That liberty doesn’t apply only to people who own or drive cars.”

I don’t know what personal insecurity bicycles of Brazil’s bicycles are tapping to, but maybe he’s joining his fellow Republicans in fighting the bicycle-U.N. conspiracy to keep America free . This measure makes just about as much sense.