Nâm Arya is a first generation
Tibetan-America. In 2016, she spent a year undertaking an epic bike-packing and
speaking tour of the U.S called Bike
for Tibet.
Her goal was to spread the word about the impacts of climate change in Tibet and to seek climate justice for Tibetans.
I got excited to find out more about the trip online. I went to Nâm’s online journal, but there was not much content there. Bummer because the trip itself sounds awesome! Even so, this initiative is so worthwhile. I suppose you have to go to one of the talks in order to get all the details! Fair play!
What is Bike for Tibet?
It was a year-long bicycle tour of the U.S. for the purpose
of bringing Tibet and Tibetans into the global conversation on climate justice.
Along the way Nâm offered 60+ min presentations
to discuss and dissect climate change issues in Tibet.
During these discussions, she highlighted key concerns
including the displacement of nomads, the effects of dams along Tibetan rivers,
and mining.
Nâm also outlined root causes,
false solutions, issues of colonization, and how democracy features within the
context of exploited communities.
A central theme in all the presentations is inter-dependence. She also linked wider issues from other communities seeking environmental justice in the US and abroad.
Who is Bike for Tibet?
Nâm is an exiled Tibetan woman
who was
born in Mungod Resettlement Camp in southern India. As a youth, she attended Tibetan boarding school in the
northern India until she immigrated to the US in 1996 where she now lives.
She and her bike-riding-mad partner Jonni undertook the 12-month Bike for Tibet journey together.
Jonni is adventure bicyclist and Instagram celebrity under the moniker UltraRomance. If you have not seen Jonni’s IG before, check it out – he is hilarious!
What a brilliant idea for a bike project! Get out on the road with your favourite person, ride around living a simple life and promote a very important environmental and social issue at the same time– wicked!
How did Bike for Tibet get started?
Nâm says she was inspired by Drukpa Rinpoche’s Eco Pad Yatra and the enduring work of Tibet climate change organizations working to vision to bring stabilise the Himalaya Plateau.
She created Bike For Tibet to be a nexus for these projects, influences and practices – as well as something she loves best to do – biking!
The Bike for Tibet project builds on Nâm’s decade-long leadership and work within the environmental movement.
Nâm used crowd funding to get Bike for Tibet up and running. Although she is advocating for climate action, Bike for Tibet is independent and not affiliated with any one particular group.
Some parts of this post were taken from the Bike for Tibet website to ensure accuracy of facts. All images by Bike for Tibet or IG UltraRomance unless otherwise indicated.
Bike riders are a wonderful reflection of the society in which they live. Globally, there are myriad cultures, styles, approaches and lifestyles, just as there are bike riders and bikes.
It is raregain access to the lifeworlds of bike riders elsewhere. But this is what Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Groble’s South African Bicycle Portraits project provides.
Bicycle Portraits is a creative 2-year project that showcases everyday South African locals and their bicycles. Through photos Stan and Nic took while riding around South Africa and meeting local bike riders, it reveals who rides, why they ride, and why so few South Africans choose the bicycle as a primary mode of transport.
It was ambitious and simple in its conception, yet community-minded in execution.
For many South Africans, bicycles are the only transport option.
Today, Bicycle Portraits has more than 500 portraits compiled over three years. Stan and Nic have cycled over 10,000 kilometers in order to complete their collection.
It is a wonderful expose and homage to South African bicycle subculture.
It is a fascinating insight into the diverse societal, historical and cultural characteristics that make up the eclectic RSA community.
Bicycle Portrait – Stephanie Baker
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Stephanie is an 82 and ¾ year old Pretorian local, who rides her bike a kilometre uphill every other day.
In addition to being a portrait participant, Stephanie was the only personality that Stan and Nic also made a short video about (see below).
And you can see why.
Most touching is that bike riding has given Stephanie a very particular view of how cycling improves ‘public relations’ and how it helps her connect with the locals.
Unsurprisingly, Stephanie’s wholesome outlook which she aptly describes, has been viewed over 14.7 thousand times.
Stephanie is a wonderful reminder that you are never too old to enjoy riding a bike.
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Bicycle Portraits – Final Result
Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler are publishing their best 165 portraits and stories selected from over 500 images they’ve collected during their 2-year journey.
The selected final portraits are included in 3 volumes. Each book also has includes different 55 stories and two essays – one essay by a local South African and the other by major international cycling figure.
The three books have been produced in collaboration with other local artists. The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy. Also, celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff had created an individual hand-painted watercolor map (based on Google Maps) to indicate where portraits was taken. The final product is impressive (see below).
What a wonderful project to showcase the diversity and characters that make up the unique South African bicycle culture. I would love to see more project from around the world like this!
It’s Australian Walking and Cycling Conference (AWCC) time again!
Hooray!
I really like this
conference.
The people are great, the program is always interesting – and it doesn’t cost and arm and a leg to get there. Perfecto!
In 2017, I presented an AWCC roundtable session entitled Bicycles Create Change: An
innovative guide to creating memorable and meaningful engagement in community
bike projects.
The session went very well
and it was great to share my work people outside of Griffith Uni and Queensland.
It was also a valuable opportunity to network and meet some incredible people. I came home from the last AWCC with a big smile and many new ideas and resources.
This year, AWCC is returning to Adelaide on October 24-25th 2019.
Image: @bykko_au
AWCC 2019 – Abstracts open!
The 2019 conference and related activities aim
to engage more directly with local issues of climate change mitigation and
adaption in relation to walking and cycling.
The 2019 AWCC theme is Active transport in a changing climate.
Abstracts for AWCC sessions are now open.
Session Formats
Learnshops: 20 min podium presentations with 10 mins Q & A.
Spin cycles: Short, fast-paced podium PPTs of 3.45 mins for 15 slides.
Roundtables: To a table of 10 – present for 10 with 15 mins group discussion
Key dates
Abstract submission opens: Monday 22 April
Abstract submission closes: Monday 22 July
Authors notified of outcome: Monday 19 August
Authors notified of program placement (date/time): Mon 26 Aug
Presenting author registration deadline: Monday 16 September
The simple acts of walking and cycling have
the potential to transform the places we live, our economies and how we engage
with our environment. The Australian Walking and Cycling conference explores
the potential for walking and cycling to not only provide for transport and
recreation but solutions to challenges of liveability, health, community
building, economic development and sustainability. As one of Australia’s
longest running, best regarded and most affordable active travel conferences,
we bring together practitioners and researchers from Australia and across the
world to share their work and engage with conference participants.
Conference theme: Active transport in a changing
climate
We aspire to promote work which creates a transport
mode shift away from cars towards walking and cycling, and using active means
to link with improved public transport in suburbs and rural towns. We want to
shift away from CO2 reliant mobility and keep people active as temperatures
rise, and extreme weather becomes more common.
What can a transport mode shift in our suburbs and
rural towns contribute to CO2 reduction nationally? What concomitant air
quality benefits are felt in suburban streets and towns as a result?
Acknowledging that climate change is occurring, what changes are to be made to
suburban and town environments so that walking and cycling are almost always
convenient, pleasurable, safe and life affirming even in the face of rising
temperatures? What does a small town or suburban neighbourhood retrofit look
like in the next ten or twenty years, so that people are out and about and
interacting? How do people of all ages and abilities avoid retreating to
air-conditioned ‘comfort’ – ‘comfort’ that is inactive, isolated and CO2
producing?
These questions indicate the directions we hope to explore in the 2019 conference.
My last post was an invitation to Brisbane’s upcoming BikeHack19 event. I have had a lot of interesting responses and conversations with friends and colleagues about this event and suggestions for pitches.
I asked Alison Turner, a dear friend, if she would like to come to BikeHack19 with me.
Alison and I have worked on a number of creative projects before. She not only has a head for business and project managing, but she is a skilled artist in her own right and I have called on her (many times!) when working on this-or-that thing either to cast her discerning eye over an idea, to practically help solve a design issue or just to join in making whatever it is I’m working on.
She is great company, a skilled artist, a flexible thinker and killer at scrabble – everything you want in a project buddy!
Unfortunately though, Alison can’t come to
BikeHack19.
But the offer got her thinking.
Alison worked for Australia Sailing for many years and was in charge of training and increasing participation in sailing in Queensland. So unbeknownst to me, she set her business prowess and program insights to good work. After doing some research of her own, she used her experience promoting sailing participation to the BikeHack19 cycling challenge and brainstormed some ideas.
The next time I saw Alison, she presented
me with her brainstorm (see below) and explained it in detail – it was spot on.
Alison and her BikeHack19 brainstorm.
We chatted about the similarities in crossover
of participation issues between sailing and cycling – and how much transferability
there was between the two sports.
I love having people like Alison in our community.
She is an example of those who not only freely give their time and ideas to friends,
but who are equally excited to apply the same effort and passion to building a
more cohesive and active community – what a gift!
I am very appreciative to Alison.
Thanks so much for your ideas and time!
I will definitely be taking these ideas to
BikeHack19.
Brisbane is hosting Australia’s first-ever hackathon about bike
riding BikeHack19 later this month.
In a similar vein to a 3 Day Start Up or tech Hackathons, this event is focused on solving a problem. In this case, the cycling challenge is…..
How can bike riding be more accessible and appealing in
Queensland so people ride bikes more often?
This event is not focused on changing policy, but it is an exploration
of any other possibilities that could include bike tech, gamification, design,
data, support services or new business ideas.
Anyone over the age of 18 can participate as long as they
are not a government employee.
When I went earlier this week to
BikeHack19’s info night, I was sitting next to a tech start-up entrepreneur
on one side and an engineer on the other. Other people I spoke to came from widely
diverse backgrounds including sociologists, researchers, students, town
planners, public health academics and programmers. I was surprised at how few
cyclists there were.
Here’s the event schedule.
BikeHack19 is promoted as being an opportunity to meet new
people and expand networks. As well as working with fellow hackers in teams over
the weekend to process their ideas, there are also industry experts, advisors
and funders on hand to suggest and mentor teams throughout the process.
Previously, I participated in a 3 Day Start-Up (3DS) intensive which ran 40 Griffith PhD
candidates through an entrepreneurial practical intensive on how to develop aspects
of their PhD research into a start-up business. It was fun, but very intense. Five
key reflections emerged for me from my 3DS experience – insights that I will need
to revisit as I consider if I will participate in BikeHack19.
To help focus and refine ideas, the organisers commissioned Enhance Research
to look into the issue using a 3-phase research design. They collated findings
into 3 ‘profiles’ on the common type of bike riders in Queensland and their
motivation.
These profiles (see them below) inform the three challenge categories and can be used as a stimulus ‘target market’ for the teams.
Cash Prizes
Overall,
there is $25,000 in prize money – much more than other similar events.
The $25,000 is divided into four cash prizes.
Overall team with best idea: – $10,000
One (1) overall winner prize of $10,000 for ‘best overall idea’ and three category winner prizes ($5,000 each) will go to the teams that come up the best ideas that address each of the three categories:
Active
Transport – $5,000 prize
Happy,
Healthy Families – $5,000 prize
Tourism
and Recreation – $5,000 prize
Winners will be determined by a judging panel on the Sunday
night. Prize money will be distributed to each member of the winning team,
equally with no
strings attached.
What is expected by the end of the weekend?
There are no hard and fast rules on what is expected as a finished ‘product’
to be pitched in the final presentation on Sunday evening. The focus is more
on teams working through stages of ideation, process and development of solutions
to the challenge.
So if you have an idea about how to get more Queenslanders on bicycles – check out BikeHack19 and pitch your idea.
Who knows maybe your idea will win!
To be part of BikeHack19 will cost you $30. Register here
Here is the fourth and last in the US bicycle politics review essay series written by Dr Jennifer Bonham. This review detailed three key texts. The first post outlined the socio-political context to set the scene. The second post reviewed the book ‘Pedal Power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life’ while the last post focused on Zack Furness’ ‘One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility’. This post looks at Jeff Mapes’ Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities’ which rounds off a very comprehensive and informed discussion about the history and activities of bicycle politics in the USA. This book in an especially valuable inclusion to this discussion given that according to Dr Bonham ‘it comes the closest to conjuring a culture of cycling which values diverse mobilities’ of all the books reviewed. A massive thank you to Dr Bonham for sharing her research, thoughts and passion. Enjoy! NG.
Mapes, J. (2009). Pedaling revolution: How cyclists are changing American cities. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
More Space
Jeff Mapes’ Pedaling
Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities targets a general
readership as he traces changes in the status and popularity of cycling in the
United States. A senior political reporter with The Oregonian, Mapes’
sympathy for bicycling is informed by debates over the livability of American
cities, health and the built environment, and the costs of suburbanization and
automobile-oriented transport systems. Mapes does not explicitly challenge
fundamental notions of technological progress or dominant values of
individualism and materialism. Rather, he argues, automobile-oriented transport
systems bring a range of problems—suburban sprawl, affordability, exclusion and
constraint— that will worsen into the future. His analysis is concerned with
the formal political institutions—parliament, elected and appointed officials
in all spheres of government, legislation, funding arrangements—he believes are
essential to increasing bicycle use.
Mapes introduces his
book with a description of the different people to be observed riding bicycles
in North American cities today. As he challenges cycling stereotypes, he is
also quite aware this latest turn to bicycling may be short lived, just one
more crest in a series of highs and lows that reach from the nineteenth to the
twenty-first centuries. The bright moments for “everyday” cycling in the United
States have occurred under “not so everyday” conditions. The 1940s boom came
with wartime petrol rationing and the 1970s boom amid the fuel shortages of the
oil crisis. But Mapes traces threads from the 1970s to the present day as he identifies
the people (bike advocates, bureaucrats, industry representatives,
politicians), maps the legislation (ISTEA), and describes the ideas and
programs (e.g. Safe Routes to School) he believes have enabled a recent
resurgence in cycling.
Once he has
positioned the United States on the brink of change, Mapes turns his attention
to the Netherlands for a glimpse of what the future might hold. He provides a
detailed description of the infrastructure, road rules, etiquette, legislation,
and funding arrangements in place in the Netherlands. Mapes emphasizes the
importance of the Dutch government’s political will in re-orienting the
transport system to accommodate all modes of transport (not just the
automobile) and, in contrast to Wray, he explains this re-orientation largely
in terms of the 1970s oil crisis.
Mapes, like Wray,
discusses the various roles played by bike advocates, advocacy groups, activist
events and sympathetic politicians in developing a culture of cycling in U.S.
cities. The discussion is rich with examples as he takes readers on a cycling
tour of three U.S. cities: the university town of Davis, California; Portland,
Oregon; and New York. Combining tour with commentary, Mapes describes the
streets he cycles along and uses buildings, landmarks, and pieces of
infrastructure as entry points into the network of people, organizations,
events and opportunities he argues have been instrumental in the development of
local cycling cultures. The “bicycle tour” through these cities is particularly
useful as it situates cycling within the broader context of debates about
public space, sub/urbanization, urban planning and transport. In doing this,
Mapes draws back from the car versus bike dichotomy bringing into view myriad
elements, actions and relations that make up the urban landscape and shape
mobility practices today.
Mapes’ cycling
advocacy is keen but measured. In the final chapters, he focuses on the three
issues he clearly considers to be at the heart of livable cities: cyclist
safety, health, and children’s independent mobility. He presents a useful
summary of the contrasting views of “cyclist safety” from prominent U.S.
cycling activists—including John Forester’s “vehicular cycling,” Randy
Neufield’s traffic calming approach and Anne Lusk’s segregated bikeways—and
discusses their implications for transport infrastructure, public space and the
conduct of the journey by bike.
These debates
currently reverberate in developed and developing countries across the globe.
As Mapes places the bicycle within a broader sub/urban context, he presents
research into the health benefits of cycling alongside discussions between
geographers, planners, transport, and health researchers on the role of the
built environment in facilitating— or not—active modes of travel. Finally,
Mapes examines the decline of cycling in children’s everyday mobility in the
United States and discusses the competing concerns over sedentary lifestyles,
children‘s independent mobility and parental responsibilities.
Pedaling Revolution is not explicit in its theoretical underpinnings nor does it problematize the power relations through which bicycles/bicycling/ bicyclists have been marginalized in contemporary American culture. Further, Mapes’ discussion of bicycle culture tends to be overshadowed by the role he attributes to politicians and bureaucrats in bringing about change. But what is crucially important about Pedaling Revolutionis that it places cycling within a broader spatial and mobility context than either Wray or Furness allow. In doing this, Mapes comes closest to conjuring a culture of cycling which values diverse mobilities.
Image: Mona Caron
Centering Cycling?
Each of these
books advocates for cycling as they explore its position in the United States
and reflect on bringing about change. They are important in their efforts to
persuade a broader audience—beyond the committed cyclist—of the benefits of
public investment in cycling; demonstrating alternative (more or less radical)
ways of being in the world; providing insights into how cycling advocates and
sympathizers have intervened in decision-making processes; the rich and
detailed examples of the individuals, groups, places, and processes that have
been pivotal in fostering change—and the pitfalls to be overcome.
However, their efforts to centre cycling within their respective analyses meet with mixed success. As Wray and Furness introduce cycling through a dichotomous relation with the automobile, the bicycle is immediately “de-centered” and, despite demonstrating alternative futures the struggle for change remains daunting. Their political strategy is to “grow” cycling cultures outward into the broader population so that an increasing number of people come into the “fold” of cycling. Arguably, Mapes retains cycling at the centre of the analysis through reference to broader spatial and mobility contexts. In doing this, his strategy is to foster general conditions which value cycling—a culture which welcomes bicycling without demanding mass participation or positioning cyclists as victims needing concessions or protests.
Image: Pedal Revolution.org
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images and hyperlinks included here are not part of the original publication.
Welcome back to this third post in a series of four taken from Dr Jennifer Bonham’s Bicycle Politics Review Essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE. In the first post, Dr Bonham provided the background and context for the three bicycle politics books she reviews. The second post reviewed the book ‘Pedal Power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life’. In this post, she reviews Zack Furness’s ‘One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility’. This book is a personal favourite of mine. I have a copy on my desk and I love that this book is a reiteration of Furness’s PhD Dissertation. It was also the first time I saw the term BIKETIVISM. Books like this one keep me motivated in my own community bicycle PhD research. If you get a chance, read this book. It is comprehensive, thought-provoking, full of interesting bike facts and is incredibly well-researched. A must read for any cyclist! Thanks again to Dr Bonham. Enjoy! NG.
Furness, Z. (2010). One less car: Bicycling and the politics of automobility. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Less Cars
Zack Furness is an assistant professor in cultural studies at Columbia College, Chicago. His book One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility is a revised version of his Ph.D. dissertation and it is impressive in its scope and detail. Furness carves out a place for cycling both in the formation of automobility, which he locates in the late nineteenth century, and as a point of resistance to it. The bicycle, he argues, played a central role in a series of cultural transformations in “mobility, technology, and space” (16). These transformations included the construction of a “mobile subjectivity,” the development of a meaning system around personal transportation and the disciplining of bodies and environment to long-distance, independent mobility (17).
These transformations, according to Furness, were key components in the new “system of automobility.”9 Following from this, the automobile did not initiate cultural transformations; rather, the automobile itself “made sense” because these transformations had already taken place. Furness acknowledges cycling was not alone in bringing about some of these changes but he regards it as a proto-type of automoblity so that “automobiles provided an almost logical solution to the culture of mobility forged by cyclists and the bicycle industry” (45).
Having argued that cycling played a key role in the formation of automobility, the substantive chapters of One Less Car operate as point and counterpoint to the automobile norm. In Chapter Three, Furness discusses the early twentieth century growth in automobile ownership, legislative changes regarding conduct on the streets, and the modification of public space to facilitate motor vehicle movement. These changes are explained in terms of the automobile-industrial complex, which facilitated production and consumption on a massive scale. The discussion then turns to cycling as a point of resistance to this complex. Furness locates the emergence of U.S. cycle activism in the 1960s/1970s and places cycling organizations, advocacy groups and activism at the centre of challenges to the automobile that run through to the present day. Like Wray, he explores the role of different political actors and actions in creating alternative mobility cultures, illustrating the case with a detailed and multi-layered account of Critical Mass.10
Moving to contemporary society, Furness is particularly concerned with the mechanisms by which cycling is devalued in relation to the automobile and focuses on specific cultural products—film, television shows, road- safety pedagogy and news reporting—for the way they have created and maintained automobile norms. Bike riding characters in films such as Pee- wee’s Big Adventure and television shows like Get a Life infantilize and emasculate cyclists while road-safety “documentaries” effectively prepare child-bicyclists to become adult-motorists. In terms of news reporting, he argues, cycling has been represented favorably in times of crisis—the war effort and petrol rationing—but more recently power relations have been turned on their head as motorists are positioned as victims of the inept or elitist behavior of cyclists.
Image: Contra Texts
As a counterpoint to these negative representations, the remaining chapters offer thick descriptions of cycling sub-cultures in the U.S. These chapters are the real strength of One Less Car, offering insights into an aspect of U.S. cycling that, until recently, has been overlooked. They examine the linkages within specific sub-cultural groups between bicycling, environmentalism, community development and anti-consumption. These include the “Do it Yourself/Do It Ourselves” ethos of the punk musicians who have embraced bicycling, bike messengers and mutant bike clubs.
Furness also explores the important role of community bike projects within disadvantaged localities as they provide places for people to gather and access resources and knowledge that is usually unavailable. He examines the role that specific projects have played in supplying bikes to people within their own local communities and, with a more critical eye, the place of such projects in developing countries as they assist in creating alternative global networks.
Furness also examines the more problematic aspects of cycling sub-culture—the pervasive sexism of cycling in the U.S. and the assumptions that underpin bicycle projects in developing countries. Furness finishes the book with a brief review of the shift of bike manufacturing out of the U.S. to low-wage countries and contemplates the potential of the industry to once again provide employment in the U.S.
Furness attempts to place the bicycle at the centre of the analysis but, like Wray, he re-inscribes the bicycle/automobile dichotomy and despite paying careful attention to one set of cultural transformations he ignores others. Furness does not draw attention to the micro-political processes through which decisions about the material formation of cars and bikes have been (and continue to be) made. Nor does he relate the bicycle or the automobile to broader discussions in the late nineteenth century about the spatialization of activities and the development of cities, which included the urban industrial economy; urban efficiency, sub/urbanization and public health. Although Furness examines contestation within the various cultural transformations he describes, there is an air of finality in these transformations that offers little hope of change.
Finally, as Furness identifies bicycle activism as the key point of resistance to the automobile in the anti-freeway protests of the 1960s/1970s, he overlooks the efforts of local communities, built environment professionals, politicians, and academics in questioning freeway planning.
Image: behance.net
Notes
10. Critical Mass is a regularly staged bike ride in cities around the world that brings cyclists together in a blend of political statement and celebration of cyclists.
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review Essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images and hyperlinks included here are not part of the original publication.
Welcome back to this second post in a series of four taken from Dr Jennifer Bonham’s Bicycle Politics Review Essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE. In the last post, Dr Bonham (Uni of Adelaide) provided an introduction and background for this essay and established the histo-politico-social context. This post reviews the first (of three) American books on Bicycle Politics. Thanks again to Dr Bonham. If you have not yet read this book, check out this review and see if you want to head to your local library for more. Enjoy! NG.
Wray, J. H. (2008). Pedal power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life. Boulder, CA: Paradigm Publishers.
Pedal Power
J. Harry
Wray’s Pedal Power: The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life is
an immensely readable account of the nascent shift toward bike friendliness in
the United States. Wray has written both a cycling advocacy text and, as a
professor of politics at De Paul University in Chicago, an accessible
introductory text for students taking courses in culture and politics. Each
chapter offers an entry point into discussions about the nature of politics,
political theory, the mechanisms that foster particular meanings and values
over others, and the processes of political struggle and change.
The early chapters of Pedal Power establish the background for the pivotal third chapter after which the discussion turns to the development of a bicycle culture and the process of creating political change. Wray opens his case with a “bicycle view” strategy—that of the touring cyclist— to contrast the embodied experiences and social interactions enabled through cycling and car driving. He uses a familiar set of concepts in making this comparison: the surface of the road reverberating through the body; muscles responding to topography; elements assailing the flesh.
Further, the fact of sitting “on” a bike and “in” a car facilitates different types of relations with co-travelers (those who walk, ride, drive (passenger) alongside), “by-standers” (those not going anywhere—for the moment), and other species and things. Wray links these different experiences of mobility to different political positions arguing the bicyclist tends to a more progressive (and preferable) politics as the cyclist is always located within his/her context whereas driving tends to isolate and insulate motorists from their environment.
Clearly,
the bicycle and the motorcar will enable different experiences and interactions
but Wray misses a number of opportunities by simplifying the argument into a
bicycle versus car dichotomy. It works toward fixing differences between cars
and bikes and smoothes over the processes through which bodies, machines,
materials, spaces, and concepts have been, and continue to be, wrought
together. Further, it limits our view of other ways of getting around and the
diversity of experiences and interactions these enable. To illustrate this
point, we could assemble cycling (racing, utility, etc.), walking (jogging,
running), taking the tram, bus or train, riding a scooter, wheelchair or sled,
skateboarding, being a passenger in a car, driving a truck, taxi or automobile,
rickshaw cycling, parcour and rollerblading. We could then question the
apparatuses through which these particular categories have been created, or
excised, from the mass of human experience and bracketed into discrete sets of
mobility. Picking apart these categories (the practices, emotions, concepts,
materials and interactions they entail) is a political tactic through which we
would scramble our existing categories, create new ones and challenge the
valuing or prioritization of any one set of practices over another. The point
Wray makes in contrasting bicycling and driving is to challenge the privilege
accorded to motoring practices. However, he also re-inscribes the car/bike
hierarchy as he seeks to value the very characteristics through which cycling
has been devalued.
The
second and third chapters contrast the politics and culture of bike riding in
the Netherlands and the United States. Wray explains bicycle culture in the
Netherlands in terms of a sense of shared responsibility and a political
pragmatism that was brought to bear on the 1960s/1970s backlash against the
motor vehicle. This explanation prepares the ground for a discussion of cycling
and motoring in relation to the core American values of individualism and
materialism. He is specifically concerned with whether and how cycling and
motoring foster and extend each of these values. The “myth” of individualism,
and its strong links to materialism, are explained as the outcome of the
country’s Protestant roots, (initial) fluid class system and the stories
Americans tell about their long frontier history. This individualism was transformed
through the process of industrialization where it was reconstituted as
“personal product choices” (61).
It is
within this context that the motor vehicle figures as a symbol and mechanism
for the further elaboration of consumption and individualism. The motorcar
represents the U.S.’s extreme form of individualism— isolation and separation.
Writing in the lead-up to the 2008 election campaign, Wray argues that growing
disillusionment and discontent in the United States provides fertile ground for
alternative cultural norms. The bicycle is a symbol of that alternative.
Importantly, Wray links the bicycle to both a “tamer” form of individualism and
community cohesion. Rather than the bicycle being a “private” means of
transport, Wray emphasizes the particular social interactions it enables
thereby making a powerful challenge to the traditional public/private transport
dichotomy.
The
second half of Pedal Power is devoted to challenging current cultural
norms, the mechanisms by which participation in everyday cycling is being
encouraged and the role of different players working inside and outside formal
political processes to revalue the bicycle. Wray devotes a chapter each to the
role of: individual cyclists and advocates who provide alternative ways of
seeing and being in the world; bike advocacy groups which reinforce each other
as they lobby for funding and legislative changes from the national through to
the local scale; bicycle activism that engages the wider citizenry in bicycle
politics by encouraging participation in myriad bike-related activities; and
sympathetic politicians who can influence legislation and funding decisions to
further the interests of cycling. These chapters are alive with detail as Wray
offers numerous examples of the people, groups, activities, and legislative
changes he believes are facilitating a culture of bicycle use and political
change.
Image: Mary Kate McDevitt
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social
Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography
specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research
focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between
bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research
explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for
equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of
Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia.
jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle
politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137.
doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images included here are not part of the original
publication.
Work on my community bicycle PhD research project requires me to read a lot of academic literature on bikes. Whilst it is my immense pleasure, there is always more to read. Recently, I came across a review essay by Dr Jennifer Bonham (University of Adelaide) that summarised and appraised three key (and popular) American ‘bicycle politics’ books. This essay a very interesting read as it identifies critical histo-politico-social aspects of bicycling from each of the books in an accessible, succinct and thoughtful way. Woohoo! What a gift! So here is Dr Bonham’s full essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE as a series of four blog posts. This first post covers the intro and background, followed by three more – one post each reviewing, in turn, the three bicycle books below. A massive thank you to Jennifer for her analytical synthesis explaining why riding a bike is a political act. Enjoy! NG.
Wray, J. H. (2008). Pedal power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life. Boulder, CA: Paradigm Publishers.
Furness, Z. (2010). One less car: Bicycling and the politics of automobility. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Mapes, J. (2009). Pedalingrevolution: How cyclists are changing American cities. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
Since the mid-1990s,
bicycling has been identified as a solution to problems ranging from climate
change and peak oil to urban livability, congestion and public health. A
plethora of guidelines, strategies, policy statements, plans and behavior
change programs have been produced— especially in industrialized countries—in
an effort to encourage cycling. Despite many localities registering increases
in cycling over the past decade, English-speaking countries such as Australia,
Canada, the United Kingdom and United States continue to have extremely low
national rates of cycling. The benefits of cycling are widely accepted and
barriers well documented but changes are slow, uneven, and often contested. The
disjuncture between government rhetoric and commitment to bicycling (via
legislation, funding, infrastructure) foregrounds the broader cultural and
political context within which cycling is located.
Implementing pro-cycling1 policies is difficult in cultural contexts where bicycles/bicyclists are set in a hierarchical relation with automobiles/ motorists and the latter valued over the former. It is equally difficult to effect cultural change when decision makers fail to prioritize cycling on the political agenda. A key research problem has been to understand how the hierarchical relation between different travel practices has been established and reproduced. Often, this problem is approached by centering the automobile in the analysis:2 a tactic which positions the motor vehicle in a series of dichotomous relations with “other” travel practices—private/public, motorized/non-motorized, choice/captive.
Such dichotomous
approaches have been widely criticized for re-creating rather than undermining
established hierarchies.3
An alternative tactic
involves unpicking the mechanisms through which these categories are produced
and bodies are differentially valued. Recently the bike has been placed at the
centre of the analysis in an effort to unsettle its persistent marginalization.
However, this type of analysis will be limited if it simply reproduces the
bicycle/automobile dichotomy.
Throughout the late
twentieth century, “cyclists” and everyday practices of cycling have been
constituted through concepts and research practices within the field of
transport and positioned as problematic—in terms of safety, efficiency,
orderliness. But the past 15 years4 have
seen researchers from a range of disciplines—health, political science,
geography, sociology, urban planning and transport—creating new “versions” of
cycling.5
As they centre
bicycling in their work and offer recommendations on “what is lacking” and
“what should change” they also provide insights into the mechanisms by which
cyclists have been explicitly excluded from or marginalized within public
space, academic study and public policy. This literature is a fundamental part
of political and cultural change not so much for the veracity of its claims but
in re-constituting cycling as an object of study and opening the path to
alternative ways of thinking about and practicing mobility.
From the early 2000s,
there has been a steady growth in research into practices of cycling and
cycling sub-cultures.6
Arguably, this
ethnographically oriented work can be traced to Michel de Certeau’s seminal
essay Walking in the City,7 which made apparent the historical and
cultural specificity of contemporary travel practices. There has been a steady
growth in research into particular travel/mobility practices and sub-cultural
groups who identify through their mobility.8 The study of local cycling groups and
cycling sub-cultures challenges hegemonic meanings, which devalue bicycling,
and offers alternative mobility futures. They can also link bike riders to more
mainstream values and beliefs thereby questioning their marginal status. The
very practice of riding a bike and/ or being part of a cycling sub-culture is
implicitly political as it challenges dominant forms of mobility. However, some
individuals and sub-cultural groups are explicitly political as they use the
subject position of cyclist as a means by which to resist exclusion and
advocate for bike riding.
The books reviewed in this paper examine the bicycle culture-politics nexus in the context of the United States. They provide explanations for the marginalization of cycling but more particularly they are concerned with how to bring about change. Each author addresses culture and politics to different degrees, recognizing them as inextricably linked but emphasizing one or the other in their analyses. They draw upon research from health and environmental sciences, architecture, urban, and transport planning to support their arguments rather than reflecting on this knowledge as a fundamental part of contemporary culture or cultural change. Culture is discussed in terms of the sites through which meanings are attached to cycling—especially film and television, literature, advertising, and news reporting—and how these are being challenged through the bicycle cultures and everyday mobility practices that form part of a growing social movement in cycling.
Image: Bikeyface.com
Notes
Pedestrians, public transport users, scooter riders, roller bladers and so forth could be included along with cycling.
For example, James Flink, The Car Culture (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1975); Peter Freund and George Martin, The Ecology of the Automobile (Montreal: Black Rose Books Ltd 1993); Mimi Sheller and John Urry, “The City and the Car,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24 no. 4 (2000): 737–757.
Feminists from Butler to Hekman have been at the forefront of this critique. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1990); Susan Hekman, The Material of Knowledge: Feminist Disclosures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010).
This timeline reflects research into everyday cycling in English-speaking countries.
Borrowing Annemarie Mol’s theorization of different versions of reality, I want to suggest we do not have a single object (the cyclist) which is studied through a different lens by each discipline; rather we create the cyclist in different ways through the methodologies we use within each discipline. Annemarie Mol, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002).
The Ethnographies of Cycling workshop held at Lancaster University in 2009 included presentations from a number of researchers working in this area since the early 2000s. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/cemore/event/2982/
Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide,
Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images included here are not part of the original publication.
This guest blog post by Jen Sheean is about the Brisbane Bicycle Film Festival. Onthe night, The Style over Speed crew rode from Brisbane city to the cinema at St Lucia, where the incredible cycOZ performed an infectious bicycle-inspired percussion set on arrival (see end photos). Last year, Bella and I entered our film Leki, which took out the People’s Choice Award. This year, I gave my tickets to Jen, a fellow singlespeed MTBer who had not been to the festival before. Not only did Jen have a good time, but she kindly wrote a summary of the films shown. Thanks so much Jen! See you all at the Brisbane Bicycle Film Festival next year! Enjoy! NG.
Image: Martin Fisch
Brisbane Bicycle Film Festival 2019
Thanks to the generosity of Nina, my husband and I spent a slightly wet Friday night at the Schonell Theatre in UQ enjoying the Brisbane Bicycle Film Festival.
It was a wonderful night and very well-attended. As I understand it, the change this year to a bigger venue meant that the previously sold-out event still had some tickets available. This is a great development because, in my opinion, more people should head to it and see what it has to offer.
I plan to go again!
The first half of the night saw some announcements from Mark Bailey, the
Minister for Cycling (as I understand is his preferred title having moved on
from being mangocube), about the newly opened Gateway Bicycle Path and some
upcoming projects for more bicycle paths in the northern suburbs of
Brisbane. Announcements of more paths
are always a happy thing in this somewhat cycling challenged city of ours.
Space for Cycling is the organiser of the event and they should be
congratulated on how smoothly it ran.
Their drive to push for safer ways to travel by bicycle in the CBD
appears boundless – and I hope they see some decent success soon.
After the formalities, it was on to the short films competing for
prizes, including the People’s Choice Award which was won last year by a film in
which the indefatigable Nina was heavily involved.
@space4cyclingbne
Brisbane Bike Bites
These short films must be no more than 5 minutes and have some connection to both Brisbane and cycling. There was a range of approaches to these very broad criteria but that just added to the fun.
The first film was called I Love to Ride My Bicycle. It was a spiffy 1:37 long but it had everyone laughing from beginning to end. The concept was simple but brilliantly executed.
The next was The Gate. Another simple concept but the credits were the real star of this film. They were full of tongue-in-cheek references greatly appreciated by the audience – so much so that they (the film makers not the credits) took out the People’s Choice Award.
Pedal-mentry provided a fascinating look at a club that is populated by people who have customised their bicycles. Some of the creations were totally whacky! But the individuality shown by all of the bicycles is a testament to the creativity of their owners.
On the Fly followed a ride around Brisbane. Then it had a cat at the end. I really liked the cat.
Club Song Film was true to its name. It showcased the vocal talents of a penny farthing club. They all dressed in era-specific garb and seemed to be having a jolly old time in their singalong around the piano.
Inspired by a similar era, A Jaunty Jaunt took out first prize. The highlight was the juxtaposition of the olde time costume and penny farthing bicycle of the main character and his meeting with his modern day counterpart. It was a truly fun concept.
Finally, the last bite sized film was The Epic of Spring Hill. This faux-documentary about an intrepid pair attempting to summit Spring Hill was a delight from start to finish. The bike skills on display while riding City Cycles were impressive but I particularly liked when they decided to climb the steps up to the summit using a rope and the lead climber thought briefly about cutting the rope holding his companion. Spoiler alert: They did reach the summit by bike but it appears their claim to be the first to do so has been disputed.
Image: The Bikes of Wrath
The Main Feature
These very clever short films were followed by the main feature. The Bicycles of Wrath is a film in which 5 mates from Victoria decide to follow, by bike, the route taken by the ill-fated Joad family in the Steinbeck novel, The Grapes of Wrath.
It was beautifully done and showcased the generosity of those with little to give in a way that nicely mirrored Steinbeck’s underlying theme. I truly enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested in Steinbeck, bicycles, travel or human nature.
We left the event wondering how it is we’d never been before.
That said, we will be there next year and I recommend you consider going as well!
@claudia_bergs@space4cyclingbneEntertainment on arrival by cycOZ. Image @space4cyclingbne@space4cyclingbne@space4cyclingbne
