November 2019 - Bicycles Create Change

30/11/201904/12/2019

Bikes help break the poverty cycle

For this blog post, we are looking at how bicycles are being integrated into two programs run by Australian-based INGO Global Hand Charity.

Global Hands Charity

Global Hand Charity (GHC) is an Australian international NGO founded in 2008 that works to improve educational opportunities for children in remote communities in Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and now Cambodia.

During their initial programs, GHC quickly realised that before children could learn, basic needs like access to drinking water and toilets or WASH (Water and Sanitation and Hygiene) needed to be addressed. So before working on education, they built wells, toilets and showers near the schools before introducing learning interventions.

GHC have a strong supporter base and links to a number of Australian universities (like Curtin University). 100% of all money raised by GHC go directly to people in need. They are completely volunteer-run and do not take any money for administrations costs. Their running costs are supported by government grants.

Two of Global Hands Charity projects involve bicycles. First, GHC’s Education program Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty program has provided bicycles to remote communities to help local Laotian children access schooling. Second, Trade school: building a sustainable future is a bicycle repair and trade skill workshop space to upskill children with diff-abilities (deaf and mute).

Bikes help break the poverty cycle. Bicycles Create Change.com 30th Nov 2019. — Schoolgirls in Laos

Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty program

In remote villages where schools are scarce, many kids walk on average 4 hours a day to attend school. Some travel up to 8 hours return. With a bike, these same children can ride the 10-15 km to get to their local Secondary School in less time, more safely and still have the energy to learn.

Currently in Laos, only 50% of students attend secondary school because they are usually further away. Most primary schools are located in villages, so the travel is less and attendance is usually about 85%. The transition from primary to secondary school is a critical aspect of continuing education – and bikes are a way to address this issue.

To test the program, initially 50 bikes were donated by GHC as well as another 50 bikes going to Sister Catherine’s Trade School (Laos). Since then, the program has expanded and more bikes have been distributed.

Trade school: building a sustainable future

GHC has built a bike and carpentry shed at the Disabled Children’s School for Deaf and Mute in Luang Prabang (Laos). The Shed is a place for students to learn how to repair and service bicycles donated through GHC’s Bike Program. This program is specifically for the deaf-mute boys at the school.

So far over 100 bikes have been purchased to enable children in remote villages to attend secondary school up to 20 km away. Working alongside the Bicycle Program, students who extend skills in bike repairs and carpentry skills as a way to build skills for future employment opportunities.

Another Trade School project taught girls commercial cooking, hospitality, hair and beauty skills to reduce the risk of girls crossing the border into Thailand and ending up in sex work on living on the street.

GHC Core Programs

Global Hand Charity has 4 core programs: Education, Schools & Buildings, Healthcare and Community. Here is an overview of some of their initiatives:

Education

Textbooks: Books for education (Laos)
Professional Learning: Teacher Education (Vietnam)
Bicycles Program: Bicycles break poverty Program (Laos)

Schools & Buildings

Dormitories: A Safe place for girls to realise dreams (Vietnam)
Community Centres: Community hubs for families (Laos)
Trade School: Building a sustainable future (Laos)

Healthcare

Deaf & Mute Orphanage: Hearing for the first time (Laos)
Mobile Eye Care Camps: Seeing a way out of poverty (Laos, Sri Lanka)
Medical Visits & Funding: Making lives easier (Laos)

Community

Clean Water: Tippy Tap saves lives (Universal)
Girls Hygiene Project: Laos girl power (Laos)
Hygiene Bags: Hoikor Bags (Laos)

Helping others

Global Hands Charity is committed to making positive change for rural kids in Laos and Sri Lanka which are among some of the poorest countries in the world.

In these rural villages, there are no doctors or hospitals and children stop going to school because it is too far and too difficult to walk.

GHC is providing community nurses and running free medical clinics in rural community centers, building schools, learning centers, dormitories and providing bicycles so kids can access education. They also provide specialist educational and medical programs, such as vision and hearing initiatives, that are not available in many parts of South East Asia.

Organisations such as Global Hands Charity can help improve education, employment and health opportunities for locals living in remote areas– and it is great to see bicycles playing an important part in these projects.

26/11/201929/11/2019

Pro cyclists overtaken by local farmer

Video: Youtube RM Videos

Sometimes after a busy week like the one I’ve just had, all I want is a quick happy bike story fix.

This week, I revisited Luis, the local Colombian farmer who effortlessly overtook a group of ‘pro’ road cyclists up a hill while they were attempting a world record.

It a simple story that many cyclists love.

Here’s what happened: Two road cyclists, Axel Carion (French) and Andres Fabricius (Swedish) were trying to break the current world record (58 days) to ride the whole length of South America (7,450 miles in total).

While in Antioquia (Colombia), they were struggling up a particularly steep hill, when local farmer Luis rode up behind them and then continued to sail past them on his old clunker wearing only a shirt and denim jeans.

The pro cyclists in full lycra and on high-end bikes couldn’t believe their eyes!

He gives them a friendly nod as he overtakes them and just keeps going about his business – GOLD!

Apparently, Luis rides 62 miles every day around his hilly surrounds – which explains why he is so fit and could so effortlessly overtake them.

Pro cyclists on the rivet overtaken by a local farmer. Bicycles Create Change.com 26th Nov 2019. — Image: The Daily Mail – CEN/Biking Man

I know it is a clique, but I still love the idea of a local on a clapped-out bike creaming professional cyclists all decked out in lycra on high-end bikes. It just makes me happy.

It totally speaks to my it-doesn’t-matter-who-you-are-just-get-on-a-bike-and-ride approach to biking.

It’s also a good reminder for all riders not to take themselves too seriously.

For all those Luis’s out there…. we need you!!

Keep being amazing and ride on!

This story was first published by The Daily Mail.

26/11/201901/06/2021

New Materialisms SIG: Sharing data that ‘glows’

This was our final SIG Meeting for 2019. Oh no!

For this last meeting we did things a little differently!

Instead of having a guest presenter, we invited everyone to present.

In the spirit of New Materialisms, we wanted to hear, seem think-with lots of different voices, perspectives, approaches and ‘data’.

So , we asked attendees to bring a piece of data that ‘glows’ and that they would like to re-turn-with other members of the SIG.

The idea here is that we are all working on different research projects, with different applications and with different data. As we break for the holidays for the end of the year, we thought it might be interesting for participants to share a part of their research with others as a way of mining alternative insights.

We asked participants to chose a data’ selection’ that was digestible in a short time frame (i.e. within 2 minutes to present to leave time for discussion).

An example of this might be 100 words of writing/transcription or an image or an object.

And we had a great time!

Participants shared all kinds of ‘data’ – photos, images, artwork, audio, moments of research(er)-becomings and other material. I won’t share people’s content here as the material is often confidential, part of resarch project (covered by Ethics) or personal – you had to be there!

It was lovely to have the time and space to share work and ideas and get some inspiration to tide us over the holiday – and to get some fresh eyes and ideas to look anew at the content and ideas we were working with.

What a way to end the year!

Below are some moments from the workshop – it was super fun and inspiring!

Image: Night Owl City

Reading material for this meeting

There are two readings for this SIG meeting were selected as they attempt to articulate the difference between fNM approaches and other (post)qualitative approaches.

Jackson, A. Y. (2013). Making matter making us: Thinking with grosz to find freedom in new feminist materialisms. Gender and Education, 25(6), 769-775. doi:10.1080/09540253.2013.832014.

Hughes, C., & Lury, C. (2013). Re-turning feminist methodologies: From a social to an ecological epistemology. Gender and Education, 25(6), 786-799. doi:10.1080/09540253.2013.829910.

22/11/201925/11/2019

Global Childhood Juxtapositions: World Children’s Day 2019

Regular readers of this blog know that my PhD research explores how bicycles feature in rural African girls’ access to education. This means mobility, education, in/equity, gender justice and children’s rights are central to much of the work I do. They are also reoccurring themes for this blog. I regularly post articles that showcase how bicycles create more positive social, environmental and educational change for all – and in many cases for children specifically.

A few previous BCC posts that feature bikes and kids are:

Bicycle Washing Machine (15 Nov 2015)
Do education levels effect cycling rates? (18 Nov 2015)
Bihar – Girls’ Bicycles Education Scheme (26 Feb 2016)
Japan: Bicycles that expand children’s potential in Cambodia (20 Apr 2016)
Indigenous Youth Olympic Track Cyclists (4 June 2017)
Let your kids Ride2School – then go to jail! (17 Mar 2017)
Jakarta slums alive with fold-out bikes (8 Sept 2018)
The Orange Bike project in the Philippines (27 Jan 2019)
1,300 South Sudanese girls to get bicycles to access education (20 Aug 2019)

November 20^th is the World Children’s Day.

This year, I wanted to acknowledge this date in a different way.

Instead of sharing a project where children benefit from bikes, I wanted to highlight the juxtapositions of cultural experiences of children around the world.

Expand your cultural competency

This week in my Griffith Uni 1205MED Health Challenges for the 21^st Century class, we discussed cultural competency and cultural safety. I challenged my students to set themselves a cultural competency experiment/activity for homework – something that they needed to do that would push them outside their own cultural box.

It is too easy for us to think that our experience of life is how it is everywhere.

In Western countries, we are very privileged and sheltered. The experiences of being a child in Australia, the US, Europe, Scandinavia or the UK is vastly different than those in less advantaged countries.

To more broadly consider how culture and environment impact children’s lives differently, look no further than artist Uğur Gallenkuş (@ugrgallen) – his work does this uncompromisingly.

Global Childhood Juxtapositions: The work of Uğur Gallenkuş.

To honour 2019 World Children’s Day, I’m sharing some of Turkish artist Uğur Gallenkuş work. Uğur is a digital artist who collages images to highlight binaries, juxtapositions and contrasts in human experience. His work comments on conflicts, political issues and social disparities. Some pieces can be quite confronting, others heartfelt, but all have a clear message and are thought-providing.

Uğur’s work forces us to rethink our privilege and remind us that we need to think, feel and act beyond our own immediate cultural experience.

And that many children worldwide need a voice, recognition and help.

Volunteers help a refugee man and baby as refugees hoping to cross into Europe, arrive on the shore of Greece‘s Lesbos Island after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on November, 2015. Image: @ugurgallen. Photo: Özge Elif Kızıl @oekizil @anadoluajansi

See more of Uğur’s work on Instagram -it is well worth checking out.

All images are created by Uğur Gallenkuş.

17/11/201920/11/2019

International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2019)

International Cycling Safety Conference 2019. Bicycles Create Change.com 17th Nov 2019. — Image: ICSC 2019

This week the best minds working on cycling safety are coming to my home town!

The 8^th International Cycling Safety Conference (ICSC2019) is being held in Brisbane this week on the 18-20 November 2019 at QUT.

This is the first time this conference has been held in Australasia.

This event is hosted by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q).

Included among the delegates attending are Australian and international keynote speakers, advocacy groups, researchers, practitioners, businesses and policymakers.

This conference includes research presentations, workshops, technical tours, poster presentations, networking opportunities and other social events.

Full Conference Program here

What is on?

The conference goes for 3 days and is jam-packed full of sessions.

The program also boasts a host of international guests, with delegates coming in from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, Japan, Norway, USA, Sweden, Canada and as the host country – Australia has a very strong representation from pretty much every University nationwide.

Presentation sessions are discussing ideas such as: obstacle avoidance manoeuvres, e-scooters/e-bikes, infrastructure challenges, rider/pedestrian conflicts, traffic control, crash data, bikeshare data and social media interfaces, and lane marking/intersection analysis, bicycle delivery modalities, and studies using agent-based modelling – and more!

I ‘m not attending this conference because I prefer to focus on the positive aspects of bicycle riding – which of course safety is part of…I just don’t want to be constantly working with ‘negatives’ such as crash figures, injuries and traffic hot zones and contestations – also crunching quantitative data is not my strongest research skill. But I appreciate that this is super interesting to many cycling researchers and policymakers. Such conversations and information sharing is critical to progressing more innovative solutions to cycling dilemmas and to increase the take up of biking universally.

Daily synopsis

Monday is the first conference day. The day is split into four sessions under two main streams: Workshops and Technical Tours. The two workshops offered are: Low-cost infrastructure for low cycling countries and Using bikes for all kinds of deliveries. Concurrently there are 5 technical tours: Inner City (x 2), Riverside, Bicentennial Bikeway and Connecting the infrastructure. The evening is the Welcome Reception and Stakeholder Dinner.

Tuesday before morning tea is official registrations, Introduction and Opening Keynote Trends and innovation research in cycling safety by Prof Christopher Cheery (Uni of Tennessee, USA).

Then there are 2 rooms running concurrent 20 min presentation sessions all the way up to afternoon tea except for a Conference Plenary and another Keynote Cycling Infrastructure: if you build it, will come? (and will they be safe?) by Dr Glen Koorey (ViaStrada, NZ) after lunch.

Tuesday afternoon session has two 1-hour Rapid Oral Presentation sessions followed by Meet the Poster Author’s Function and then the official Conference Dinner.

Wednesday morning opens with a Conference Panel session entitled Arising trends & challenges: what, why & how. Then a full day of 1-hour and 20 min concurrent presentation sessions all the way up to 4.30pm… Phew – what a long day!

At 4.30 it is ICSC Awards and official conference close. The final official event is the Peoples’ Night from 5pm.

Then it’s party time!

People’s Night

For the first time, the ICSC community is inviting the general public to attend the Cycling Conference free People’s Night.

I love the idea of a conference having a ‘People’s Night.’ Every conference should have one!

This is a unique opportunity to meet, discuss and network with conference delegates, check out the digital research poster, hear about some of the latest innovations, technology, infrastructure, developments, trends and findings in cycling safety research.

This event is offered in the spirit of the conference guiding principle to share cycling safety research with ALL stakeholders – which I think is a great move. Not everyone is interested or can afford the money or time to attend the whole conference, but to open up your doors and invite the local public an opportunity to interact with delegates is a very smart move – good for the conference, good for the locals!

I’ll be heading in for this event, so if you are in Brisbane on Wednesday night, I might see you there! If you would like to attend you can RSVP via the ICSC FB page HERE. Details below.

Date: Wednesday 20 November
Time: 5pm-6.30pm
Venue: The Cube, P Block, QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane
Cost: Free
Inclusions: Complimentary food and non-alcoholic beverages

If you are riding your bike in and around Brisbane this week, check out the ICSC. Always good to get the latest intel of what is happening in the cycling world!

Hopefully, the safer it is to ride a bike, the more people will ride.

If that is the case, get ya conference on ICSC 2019!!

13/11/201915/11/2019

Remembrance Day 2019: Lest we forget the cyclist soldiers

November 11th is Remembrance Day. Along with many others around the world, each year on this day Australians observe one minute’s silence at 11 am in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. Here is a guest blog post by UK former professional cyclist (postman) and now freelance writer Trevor Ward. This article was first published in The Guardian. In this account, Trevor provides an often unknown UK historical context to the tens of thousands who signed up and served in dedicated cycling units during 20th-century conflicts. Many thanks to Trevor for his research and insights tracing British bicycle use and cycling soldiers through the wars right up to the start of modern-day MTB. Lest we forget. NG.

My regular bike ride takes me past a couple of village war memorials, but to the best of my knowledge, none of the names engraved in the stone was ever a member of Britain’s specialist cycling corps.

Tens of thousands of “cyclist soldiers” signed up to serve during both world wars and other conflicts. Recruitment posters in Britain on the eve of war declared: “Are you fond of cycling? If so, why not cycle for the King? Bad teeth no bar.”

Other countries – notably Italy and Germany – also had dedicated cycling units. In fact, the world’s last surviving cycling regiment was disbanded by the Swiss Army only 10 years ago.

The origins of cycling soldiers can be traced back to the second Boer war in South Africa at the end of the 19th century. Historian Colin Stevens, who curates an online museum dedicated to vintage and military bicycles, says:

Remember that the messenger pigeon was one of the most advanced communication methods of the time so this was a logical step, especially as automobiles and motorcycles were still far and few between. And did not require the constant care and feeding that horses did.”

The cyclist soldiers weren’t merely confined to scouting and messenger duties. Plenty of them saw frontline action. When a Boer position was attacked, “a cyclist or two would be with the leading rank,” according to Jim Fitzpatrick, author of The Bicycle In Wartime. “By the end of the war, Lord Kitchener was asking for several more cyclist battalions,” says Fitzpatrick.

And during the early weeks of the first world war, before the fighting became trench-bound in northern France, several cycling units were involved in daring raids on German ammunition wagons, according to breathless reports in the weekly “military cyclists’ journal”, Cycling.

As an example of what the cycling corps could achieve, Fitzpatrick quotes the case of the 2nd Anzac cyclist battalion – comprised mainly of New Zealanders – that earned 72 medals despite suffering 59 fatalities during its 32 months fighting on the western front. It was also honoured by the town of Epernay for its role in repelling a German attack.

Campaigning for more cyclist battalions to be formed in 1908, Captain A. H. Trapmann tried to convince a military panel of the merits of soldiers on bikes:

The cyclist does not suffer from sore feet, nor does his mount ever get out of condition. The longer a campaign lasts the fitter the cyclist becomes. When on the move the cyclist offers a much smaller and at the same time more difficult target to hit than even the infantryman. He can ride behind hedges with body bent low and remain invisible…It may also perhaps be of interest to note that the great majority of cyclists are practically teetotallers.”

After the first world war, Britain disbanded its specialist cycling battalions, partly because of the difficulties of riders steering and firing their rifles at the same time, and also because the bicycle had proved useless at transporting heavy loads such as machine guns. A 1932 history of the London Cyclist Battalion noted that though “it was the ambition of every hardy cyclist to get posted to the Gun Section … only the hardiest enjoyed it.”

The Germans and Italians, however, commissioned extensive studies into the effectiveness of their cyclist-soldiers. As a result, German Radfahrtruppen were involved in the blitzkriegs of world war two – “several hundred thousand, right behind the Stukas and Panzers,” according to Fitzpatrick – while units of cyclists riding folding Bianchi bicycles with optional machine gun mounts were added to Italy’s elite regiments of Bersaglieri (marksmen).

In Britain, though, soldiers on bikes were largely limited to home defence duties, until BSA designed its folding “Airborne” bike for paratroopers jumping from gliders. However, by the time of the D-day landings, much larger gliders – big enough to accommodate jeeps – had been produced, so instead the “airborne” bikes were carried by infantry soldiers arriving by sea.

According to Stevens: Going down the ramp of a landing craft carrying a rifle or Bren Gun, a heavy ruck sack, ammunition and a bicycle was very difficult and some soldiers drowned when they fell into the water and could not get rid of their load. Even once they were on shore, cyclists quickly ran into the problem of flat tires due to the broken glass, shell fragments etc. that littered the roads.”

Despite such shortcomings, the legacy of military bikes lives on in today’s designs. A modern, US version of the BSA Airborne, the Montague Paratrooper Tactical Folding Mountain Bike, was used during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. A civilian version – still in camouflage colour but minus the gun rack – is available for $725.

A folding bike co-designed by French Army lieutenant Henry Gérard in 1893 became the first mass-produced bike of its type when Peugeot won the contract to supply it to the French, Russian and Romanian armies.

And the 1912 model designed by Bianchi for Italian troops is widely regarded as the forefather of modern mountain bikes, thanks to its slightly smaller wheels, rear suspension and front shock absorbers.

This article written by Trevor Ward was first published in The Guardian.

09/11/201904/12/2019

Adelaide Bike Art Trail

Bike art trails have been featured previously on this blog in various conceptions.

They include Dubbo’s unique Animals on Bikes paddock art tourist trail in NSW and London’s interactive community bike art installation Bow Bells Ring by Colin Priest.

For this post, we travel to the beautiful city of Adelaide.

Adelaide’s Bike Art Trail project has 10 public art installations by four different artist/teams dotted around Adelaide on bike paths.

The idea behind this project is to use the art map to ride around and see each of the artworks which are located at key landmarks and tourist locations around the city.

A unique feature of this project is that some of the artworks have been incorporated into – or as – an actual bike rack as well as other being installed alongside bike paths. Although an interesting idea, I doubt cyclists would actually use the bike rack art to lock up their bikes. I’ve never seen any bikes locked up to them. The art bike racks seem more designed for aesthetics, public curiosity or as talking points. Even so, it is still good to see some colour, design and funding being invested to enhance local bike experiences.

These artworks were commissioned by the City of Adelaide, with assistance from the Government of South Australia, through Arts SA.

What are the artworks?

1. Onion Rings by Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell (Groundplay) – Grote St.

Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell’s simple organic form references an onion. Adelaide Central Market is an incredibly popular destination. At 1.8m high, this work commands a significant presence in the streetscape. The circular form also allows several bikes to be locked to it

2. Play Here by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Hutt St.

Hutt Street is a busy urban place in Adelaide that has a strong café, art and design culture. As soon as Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa saw the site they knew it needed some bold graphics. Somewhere that was a special place to lock your bike but also somewhere that could hold its own against the backdrop of the local TAB and the two nearby banks.

Deb and Christine took their inspiration from the roads, airports, helipads and line markers of the world. They played with the predictable seriousness and colour tone that line marking usually delivers and added a few tertiary colours and a ‘you are here’ sign that reassures the person sitting on the bench close by of where they are

3. Perspective by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Tandanya, – Grenfell St.

Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa wanted their bike rack/artwork to be a gentle reminder:

that someone has been here before
that time will change your perspective
that we are inexorably linked to the land and the sky.

They have installed two differently shaped bike racks. Each bike rack has a shadow of a bike sandblasted into the ground below it, as if the bike is still there. Drawn from actual shadows, the shadow images indicate different times of the day; one long shadow for early morning and the shortened shadow for early afternoon.

4. Fashionistas by Greg Healey and Gregg Mitchell Groundplay) – Rundle St.

Rundle Street is fast becoming a high street fashion shopping destination and a pair of interlinked coat hangers not only acknowledges, but celebrates this.

Shaping the hooks of the hangers into heads is intended to give them character and pay homage to Joff and Razak of Miss Gladys Sym Choon, recognised pioneers of fashion and of Rundle Street Culture.

5. Branchrack by Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa – Botanic Gardens Entrance.

The Botanic Garden is a place that celebrates plants. Deb Jones and Christine Cholewa wanted to make a bike rack using plant materials, however, that wouldn’t last very long so they opted for the next best thing: a bike rack made from bronze, cast directly from a tree branch.

When they visited the site and saw the row of existing standard bike racks, they decided to model the branch rack similar in form to the standard racks so that the artwork blend in and come as a surprise at the end of the bike rack line.

6. Camouflage by Karl Meyer (Exhibition Studios) – Adelaide Zoo.

This artwork was inspired by animal themes and connects with the diversity of animals within the zoo. Evoking childhood memories, it invites the user or passerby to ponder the relationship between ourselves and other animals. Playing with scale and colour, capturing the essence of the richness in diversity, the satin surface finish and smooth form is designed to invite touch, exploration and connection.

The work subtly embraces the cycling narrative with it spacing and orientation to the existing brightly coloured rack. Within the entry plaza the form and colour is conceived to integrate and complement the landscaping and forms. In contrast to the bright yellow bike racks within the space, the circular shapes seek to connect with bicycles wheels and animal diversity.

7. FORK! by Karl Meyer (Exhibition Studios) – Melbourne St.

The artwork seeks to connect with the contemporary cafe and food culture and as a free standing element.

The Melbourne Street precinct is a vibrant blend of retail, residential and business. The pavements bustle and the area is well known as a popular eating place offering a range of restaurants. The artwork seeks to affirm the cafe scene, to entertain and provoke enquiry and is seen to be a statement to the independence and identity of Melbourne Street as a destination within the broader context of Adelaide.

8. Ms Robinson by Tanya Court – O’Connell St.

The current resurgence of the animal print trend is captured in ‘Mrs. Robinson’. Leopard prints are used as the basis to modify standard stainless steel bike racks, transforming our impoverished urban realm with the most exotic of animal simulations.

9. Paper Bag by Michelle Nikou – North Terrace SA Museum

The location and the numerous ‘heads on plinths’ that line North Terrace generated the concept for this work. ‘Brown Paper Bag‘ is a contemporary and quirky take on ‘the establishment of success’.

Michelle Nikou considered shyness, anonymity and the feeling of not wanting to be seen – or perhaps even negating the pressure to be great when creating this work. Whilst the work does have a serious undercurrent it is also, perhaps foremost, humorous and playful. There is something most charming about little people who play with the anonymity of putting a brown paper bag over their heads–moving in circles and bumping into things.

10. Parking Pole by Michelle Nikou – Hindley St.

This work of Michelle Nikou will mirror what exists beside it but perform a ‘softening of the rules’. It was not possible to construct a conceptually difficult work in such a fast paced zone, however, in the most gentle of ways Michelle hopes to shift perception with ambience of material and humour.

Bronze always says ART and in this way the material is able to insert itself into a ‘dictated space’: changing the paradigm and presenting no rules. From the experience of having parked in the spaces just near this zone, Michelle realised they require some inspection to avoid a fine. Adding to the mix of that inspection is a blank – a blank parking pole and signs made from traditional artists’ materials, it has no instruction on it and therefore remains a space to project oneself on to, appreciable in today’s graphically overloaded world.

Details of each artwork from City of Adelaide blog.

05/11/201904/12/2019

@CyclingBrisbane Instagram Takeover

This week I have been invited to take over Cycling Brisbane’s Instagram account.

This is an ongoing initiative that gives an individual or organisation the opportunity to control the Cycling Brisbane (@cyclingbrisbane) Instagram account for 7 days.

This is a great way to showcase community members and local biking groups various interests, perspectives and personalities.

The idea is that participants share their views of what riding in Brisbane means to them.

This account has guest host takeovers by an impressive range of Brisbane cycling and biking enthusiasts including Colony (BMX), Queensland Police, specific-type-of-bike fanatic/s, school groups, racers, families, local businesses, MTB clubs and more!

Similarly to this blog, my takeover key themes are inclusion, participation and diversity for a range of ages and stages of the community and for all types of cycling.

Ongoing motifs will also be dogs, local personalities, riding for enjoyment, having fun, sustainability/recycling, getting out in nature and showing off my local bayside surrounds.

And of course, lots of photos of Leki my flowerbike!

Check out what I have uploaded so far here.

IG Account Takeover

To do a @cyclingbrisbane takeover, you can either contact the organizers (at the link in the IG bio) or you are directly approached through the local cycling network or because someone knows/recommends you.

From there it straightforward. After you receive the terms and conditions and fill out the consent, then you receive the account login and dates of the takeover

I was contacted directly by the organizers who I know through various local biking events.

During the takeover, you need to upload between 1- 4 images per day to the @cyclingbrisbane Instagram account.

The idea is that images should be inspiring, visually appealing and most importantly representative of the great cycling options around Brisbane.

Content should align with Cycling Brisbane’s core themes of commuting, connectivity, discovering Brisbane by bike or active and healthy lifestyles.

You can only upload images and/or videos and they have to be your own original work.

Uploads need to include the hashtag #cyclingbne

Of course, all content uploaded needs to model responsible cycling practices. So, you need to obey road rules, wear a helmet and not use a mobile phone while riding a bike. That’s why there are no selfies of people riding their bikes.

This is a great initiative and one that other organizations might consider doing to increase engagement, exposure and diversity in their social media platforms.

It also makes it much more interesting for those who follow the account because each week you are getting these insights into the vastly different people, places and biking lifeworlds that make up our Brisbane bicycle/cycling community.

If you are in Brisbane, love bikes and are interested in doing a takeover, direct message the Cycling Brisbane (@cyclingbrisbane).

01/11/201903/11/2019

2019 Fancy Women Bike Ride

2019 Fancy Women on Bikes. Bicycles Create Change.com 28th October, 2019. — Image: Bikeitalia

Despite being flooded by negative news from Turkey due to Kurdish, Syrian and Russian turmoil, the recent annual 2019 Turkish Fancy Women Bike Ride has given us some much needed grassroots balance, hope and biketivism positivity.

Fun, colour, community and flowerbikes – woohoo!

2019 Fancy Women on Bikes Ride

The Turkish Fancy Women Bikes Ride is held every year.

Thousands of women (and their friends, men too) get dressed up and ride decorated bikes around the city in order to increase the visibility of women in society.

I first posted about the Fancy Women Bikes Ride in 2016. If you have not read this post, check it out. Thanks to the support of A Might Girl, the post gives a detailed background about the ride, the organiser, key issues and some awesome resources.

Since 2016, the Fancy Women Bikes Ride has gained in attendance and reach.

Fancy Women Bikes Ride is now held in more than 100 cities worldwide, including Amsterdam, Athens, Milan, Washington and Edinburgh.

This year there were over 60,000 riders worldwide.

This isn’t a bike ride so much as a reclaiming of the streets – it’s about women making themselves visible in an outfit that doesn’t make cycling look like an urban battle. It’s a powerful way to rethink our streets so that they’re fit for everyone, however they choose to dress. Suzanne

The ride has expanded to represent wider gender rights and bike advocacy aims such as safety, awareness, better infrastructure and inclusion for all.

The event motto is: Cycling for not one but every day to encourage daily bike use.

The Fancy Women Bike Ride takes place every year on the World Car Free Day in late September.

Visibility and safety for women

Didem Tali sees this event as being a forum where the local women defy systemic intimidation and reclaim the streets. In Turkey, crooked roads, pollution, mushrooming construction and — most importantly — lingering sexism, means Istanbul and many other cities in Turkey and beyond aren’t always hospitable to women.

Catcalling, harassment, intimidation and road rage are very common experiences that Turkish women experience in the streets every day.

Event origins

Writer Pinar Pinzuti explains the origin of The Fancy Women Bike Ride as coming to life in 2013 thanks to Sema Gür, who hoped to challenge the male-dominated world of cycling in Turkey. Sema, a teacher living in Izmir, created a Facebook event and invited her friends to come together for a bike ride one Sunday afternoon. It was by coincidence that it was on the same day as the annual World Car Free Day, during the EU’s Mobility Week.

Sema ür learned to ride a bike at the age of 39 and she started to participate in bike tours in her city. She realized immediately that the bicycle scene was dominated by men. Men choose the cycling route, men decide how fast the group should pedal and men also say how women have to dress during the bike tour. Sema did not agree.

Therefore, she decided to organize an “easy” ride in the city center of Izmir for her friends and asked them to wear whatever they wished, regardless of what the common dresscode would be. Her friends and other women loved the idea and they came to the event with flowers and balloon decorated bikes.

The foundation for an annual event organized by women for women was set. In the following year The Fancy Women Bike Ride already expanded. Volunteers from Istanbul, Ankara and a couple of other cities organized women bike rides at the same day and same time.

The event is organized by volunteers who are eager to promote cycling to their peers. Hand-in-hand with the organization of the ride they ask local authorities to increase safety on roads, create urban cycling infrastructure and plan bike-friendly services.

Although the event itself is once a year, the women’s peer-to-peer initiatives last all year around. Women organize cycling courses in their communities, group rides for the weekends, cycling events for families with small children.