In this post, we look at one of Bikes 4 Life programs that connects with local deadly youths living in a remote community to a range of other health services by improving bike participation.
Bikes 4 Life is an international non-government organisation that supplies bicycles all over the world to improve education access, health outcomes and income generation.
One of Bikes 4 Life’s programs operates in a remote Western Australia community in conjunction with the local organisation East Kimberley Job Pathways (EKJP).
East Kimberley Job Pathways is located in the far north of Western Australia in the isolated community of Kunnunurra. EKJP is a ‘for purpose’ Aboriginal Corporation with the primary purpose of delivering the Australian Government’s Community Development Programme across the broader East Kimberley Region of Western Australia.
In 2019, the EKJP team ran a bike rescue program called BikeWorks. The Bike Works program underpins a social and emotional wellbeing program that EKJP runs for local youths. This program teaches youths how to refurbish and maintain donated bicycles sourced through Bikes 4 Life. Read more about the program here.
The bikes used for the program are all recreational bikes (no
roadies) because more robust bikes are better suited to the remote Western
Australian terrain and climate.
The Bike Works program outcomes are:
Increased social and emotional wellbeing
Teamwork and networks
Building new relationships
Improved attendance at school (and/or other education pathways)
Raised aspirations of future pathways
Connection and contribution to community
Employment opportunities (within the Bike Program and with other employers)
The program was very
successful. After a great start in 2019, and with increasing demands for bikes
in the community, Bikes 4 Life is will continue sending bikes and supporting EKJP
so this program can keep progressing.
Image: Bikes 4 Life
Parts of this post are sourced from Bikes 4 Life Projects web page.
Anna was riding with a group of friends in the Adelaide Hills when they saw a koala sitting in the middle of the road. With parts of the Adelaide Hills ravaged by fires, wildlife that are not killed, have been injured and displaced.
On the day Anna was riding, it was 42C and
this koala was desperate for a drink.
Anna stopped to give the koala a drink. The koala,
who has since been named Kodak, drank 8 bottles of water from the cyclists.
They then ushered him off the road to safety.
The moving video of this encounter has been seen worldwide and brought attention to the desperate plight Australian wildlife is experiencing during these bushfires – and particularly for koalas.
Since finding Kodak, Anna has a Thirsty Koalas project
on Go Fund Me and has been working tirelessly volunteering for Koala rescue
and rehabilitation to support their long-term survival.
Anna Heusler. Image: Chick who ride bikes.
Support the koalas
In support of Koala Rescue and Anna’s hard work, Chicks who Ride Bikes have re-released a limited edition Koala jersey where 100% of the profits will go to Koala rescue and rehabilitation.
Order a limited edition koala jersey and 100% of profits go towards the International Koala Centre of Excellence.
Supporting the koalas is a great way for cyclists to show they care, support bushfire efforts, see out 2019 and start the new 2020 year (and decade) on a positive note.
Our thoughts are with all those affected by the bushfires.
A big thank you to Jenny and Sam for emailing me about this film. I have known about it previously, but have not gotten around to posting about it. Their email provided the impetus to get it done! It is always so lovely to get emails from readers, supporters, family, friends and like-minded people. Happy holidays everyone! Enjoy! NG.
The end of the year is fast approaching and the holiday season is nearly here.
If you are looking for a film to watch over the festive season and are keen to try something totally unique (and bicycle focused), I’d highly recommend Wadjda.
Wadjda is an M-rated Arabic language drama film starring Waad Mohammed, (Wadjda), Abdullrahman Al Gohani (Wadjda’s father) and Reem Abdullah (Wadjda’s mother).
This film is written and directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour and it’s her directorial debut film. The film premiered in 2012 and is entirely shot in Saudi Arabia. As such, it is touted as being Saudi Arabia’s first-ever feature film.
And the whole
film has at its core a green bicycle.
What is Wadjda about?
Wadjda is a simple, but poignant
story.
It centres on a young girl (Wadjda)
and what happens when she pursues her dream of owning a bicycle of her own to
race her friend Abdullah, despite it being culturally inappropriate.
Wadjda’s desire to get a bike
means facing various family and cultural expectations in a series of ups and
downs with her mother, father, friends, bike shop owner and community members.
Despite all, Wadjda is adamant that she needs to own a bike of her own.
To achieve this, the ‘rebellious’ Wadjda enters a Koran recitation competition at her school in order to win the prize money so she can buy a green bicycle. The story is tailored to highlight the pressures and difficulties faced by women in Saudi Arabia. This film has been revered for providing a rare glimpse into the usually secret lives of Saudi women ad what life is like behind closed doors. It is also an exploration and celebration of the warm relationships between mothers and daughters.
I am thoroughly delighted that the ‘first feature film’ to come out of Saudi Arabia has such strong bike riding, cultural/social gender, equity and children’s determination themes, issues and engagement.
The importance of this film has been discussed widely. As Laura Nicholson writes for Dispatch: ‘That a film about a young girl protesting systematic oppression through the succinctly metaphorical dream of riding a bicycle was the first to be recognised as a product of (an emerging) Saudi Arabian national cinema, is exceptional. That the film was created by an Arab woman hailed as the first, Saudi female filmmaker, is monumental.”
Wadjda was Nominated for a 2013
BAFTA award for Best Film not in English.
Read more about the plot, cast, production
and the array of awards this film has received here.
This blog post comes from an email I recently received from fellow PhDer Janis. Janis’s research investigates the heritage of Queensland’s Woollen Textile Manufacturing industry, so she has a particularly keen eye for stories about fabrics and textiles. So when she saw this fabric-and-bike-related content, she sent it over to me. This content about the ingenious cyclewear Victorian women invented to navigate social mores, comes from a 2018 Guardian article by sociologist Dr Kat Jungnickel. Thanks so much for sending this through Janis!
Image: Kat Jungnickel
Kat Jungnickel was researching modern-day cycling and in her interviews, people (especially women) kept mentioning the role that clothing had on cycling identity, participation and enjoyment. So she started to investigate a very particular period of UK clothing design innovation for women’s cyclewear from 1895 to 1899.
Dr Kat Jungnickel is a senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. More about her research, including re-creations of convertible costumes and free sewing patterns inspired by the patents, is available at her website and in Bikes & Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and their Extraordinary Cycle Wear, out now through Goldsmiths Press.
In her article below, Kat explains how patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothing.
Ingenious Victorian cyclewear for women
Much has been written
about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is
known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and
public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when
they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile
through clothing reveals much about the social and physical barriers they were
navigating and brings to light fascinating tales of ingenious inventions.
Cycling
was incredibly popular for middle- and upper-class women and men in the late
19th century, and women had to deal with distinct social and sartorial
challenges. Cycling exaggerated the irrationality of women’s conventional
fashions more than any other physical activity. Heavy, layered petticoats and
long skirts caught in spokes and around pedals. Newspapers regularly published
gruesome accounts of women dying or becoming disfigured in cycling crashes due
to their clothing.
Fortunately,
little was going to stop women riding and they rose to these challenges in a
plethora of ways. Some took to wearing “rational” dress, such as replacing
skirts with bloomers. While this was safer and more comfortable for cycling,
dress reform was controversial. It was not unusual for onlookers who felt
threatened by the sight of progressive “New Women” to hurl insults, sticks and
stones. Other women adopted site-specific strategies to minimise harassment,
such as cycling in conventional fashions in town and changing into more radical
garments for “proper riding”.
Some
pioneering women came up with even more inventive strategies. Remarkably, some
Victorians not only imagined, designed, made and wore radical new forms of
cyclewear but also patented their inventions. The mid-1890s marked a boom in
cycling and also in patenting, and not only for men. Cycling’s “dress problem”
was so mobilising for women that cyclewear inventions became a primary vehicle
for women’s entry into the world of patenting.
The
patents for convertible cyclewear are particularly striking. These garments
aimed ambitiously for respectability and practicality. Inventors concealed
converting technologies inside skirts, including pulley-systems, gathering
cords, button and loop mechanisms and more, that enabled wearers to switch
between modal identities when required.
Alice
Bygrave, a dressmaker from Brixton, lodged a UK patent in 1895 for
“Improvements in Ladies’ Cycling Skirts”. She aimed to “provide a skirt proper
for wear when either on or off the machine”. Her parents owned a watch- and
clock-making shop in Chelsea and her brother and sister-in-law were
professional cyclists. Her invention brings all of these influences together in
an ingenious skirt with a dual pulley system sewn in the front and rear seams
that adjusts height according to the needs of the wearer. Bygrave also patented
her invention in Canada, Switzerland and America, and it was manufactured and
distributed by Jaeger. It was a hit and was sold throughout the UK and America.
It even made its way to Australia.
Image: The Guardian. Patent illustrations accessed in the European Patent Office Espacenet Database.
Julia Gill, a court dressmaker from north London, registered her convertible cycling skirt in 1895. Her aim was to “provide a suitable combination costume for lady cyclists, so that they have a safe riding garment combined with an ordinary walking costume”. This deceptively ordinary A-line skirt gathers up to the waist via a series of concealed rings and cord into what Gill called a “semi-skirt”. The lower flounce, when made from similar material to the jacket, creates a stylish double peplum. The inventor also recommended combining the skirt with some rather splendid “fluted or vertical frilled trowsers”.
Image: The Guardian. Patent illustrations accessed in the European Patent Office Espacenet Database.
Mary and Sarah Pease, sisters from Yorkshire, submitted their patent for an “Improved Skirt, available also as a Cape for Lady Cyclists” in 1896. As the name suggests, this is two garments in one – a full cycling skirt and a cape. The wide waistband doubles as a fashionable high ruché collar. This garment is one of the more radical designs of the period because the skirt completely comes away from the body. Cyclists wanting to ride in bloomers could wear it as a cape or use the gathering ribbon to secure it to handlebars, safe in the knowledge they could swiftly replace the skirt should the need arise.
Image: The Guardian. Patent illustrations accessed in the European Patent Office Espacenet Database.
Henrietta Müller, a women’s right’s activist from Maidenhead, registered her convertible cycling patent in 1896. Unusually, the inventor addressed an entire three-piece suit – a tailored jacket, an A-line skirt that can be raised in height via loops sewn into the hem that catch at buttons at the waistband, and an all-in-one undergarment combining a blouse and bloomer. Müller was committed to the idea of progress for women, and not content with trying to fix one element when she could see problems with the entire system. She was acutely aware of the politics and practicalities of pockets for newly independent mobile women. As a result, this cycling suit features five pockets, and Müller encouraged users to add more.
Image: The Guardian. Patent illustrations accessed in the European Patent Office Espacenet Database.
These
inventions are just some of the fascinating ways early female cyclists
responded to challenges to their freedom of movement. Through new radical
garments and their differently clad bodies they pushed against established
forms of gendered citizenship and the stigma of urban harassment. Claiming
their designs through patenting was not only a practical way of sharing and
distributing ideas; it was also a political act.
These
stories add much-needed layers and textures to cycling histories because they
depict women as critically engaged creative citizens actively driving social
and technical change. Importantly, they remind us that not all inventions are
told through loud or heroic narratives. These inventors put in an awful lot of
work to not be seen. They were successful in many ways, yet the nature of their
deliberately concealed designs combined with gender norms of the time means
they have been hidden in history – we have yet to find any examples in museums.
As such, they raise questions: what else don’t we know about? How can we look for other inventions hidden in plain sight? And if we learn more about a wider range of contributors to cycling’s past, might it change how we think about and inhabit the present?
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).
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.
Image: Global Hands Charity
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.
Image: Global Hand Charity
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)
Image: Global Hand Charity
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.
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.
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.
Meet the posters authors event. Tuesday 19th Nov. ICSC 2019.
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!
Image: ICSC 2019
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!!
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.
Image: Fine Art American. Jenelle McCarrick
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.”
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.
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.”
Image: Morten Fredberg-Holm. 1941 Truppenfahrrad
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).
Image: Karen Ifert
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.
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.
Image: Dario Bartole. 1952 Condor Militarvelo MO5 | Military Bicycles
This article written by Trevor Ward was first published in The Guardian.
Going overseas for a bike tour is a great way to get around, see local sites and keep fit and active.
Increasingly, cyclists are either taking their bikes away with them or are signing up for a localised one or multi-day biking adventure such as ‘bike and cook‘ trips or ‘winery bike tours‘.
If you are planning to book a bike tour overseas, a key consideration should be to check whether the bike tour is officially registered as an Eco-tourism provider.
There is a massive social, economic and environmetal impact difference between bike tours that are Eco-tourist registered, and those who are not.
For Storyteller, Eco-tourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in ecotourism activities should adhere to ecotourism principles.
Ecotourism Principles
• Minimise impact. • Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect. • Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts. • Provide direct financial benefits for conservation. • Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people. • Raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climate.
Image: Storytellers Eco-Bike Tours Cook Island
Cook Islands: Storytellers Eco-bike Tours
Storytellers stand by the principles of Ecotourism. They are the only Cook Islands Eco Tour on mountain bikes.
Storytellers give 10% of profits back to the community for development projects.
Their local storytellers (staff) are passionate and knowledgeable about the local culture, history and environment and love sharing stories of their heritage with guests.
So next time you look at a bike tour overseas, check to see if they are registered as a Eco-tourism operator – this will boost your enjoyment of the tour and help support local communities.
Brisbane, Fri 20th Sept. 2019. Nina and Leki joining 350,000 Australians protesting for Climate Action.
Last month, Leki and I joined 350,000 Australians nation-wide – and millions of people in over 150 countries worldwide – who hit the streets to rally for #ClimateAction. In Australia, there were mass rallies in 8 capital cities as well as 104 other centres. This day of action is known as ‘the student strikes for climate action’ and is led by Swedish Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
8-year old Luca, who I had the pleasure of working with recently on a project, also went to the Climate Rally. I asked her if she could a guest blog post about what the event was like – and luckily she said yes. So here it is!
Thanks so much to Luca for putting this together!
Here is a few photos I took from the rally. See Luca’s review below.
Image: @courtwhip
Luca’s review of the Climate Action Rally (Brisbane).
On the weekend I went to the Climate Strike with my family.
We all made posters and marched in the city to fight climate change.
While we were marching we did lots of chants about global warming and saw some great posters that others had made.
My favourite said “It’s getting hot in here so take off all your coals”.
At the march I saw lots of people of all different ages. There were many kids there as well as adults.
At the beginning of the march we listened to talking and started a chant.
Then we started walking through the city. There were about 30,000 people at the protest.
I found the protest fun and exciting but my favourite part was marching around Brisbane.
Reference: Kirkpatrick, S. J. B. (2018). Pedaling disaster: Citizen bicyclists in disaster response—Innovative solution or unnecessary effort? Natural Hazards, 90(1), 365-389. doi:10.1007/s11069-017-3048-3
Image: CBC.com
Citizen bicyclists in disaster response
This post looks at the 2018 academic publication by Sarah Kirkpatrick from North Dakota State University. In this article, Kirkpatrick explores how citizen bicyclists might be used in times of disasters. A very interesting topic!
In this article, natural events where bicycles could be used is focused on the US context, so includes tornadoes, hurricanes, and severe storms. However, bicycle response to events like travel hazards, flooding, blizzards, and wildfire events was almost universally rejected.
The post-impact disaster actions Kirkpatrick says local bicyclists can do include: conducting search and rescue, evacuating survivors, giving medical care, consoling survivors, providing needed supplies, directing traffic, extinguishing fires, and removing debris.
This paper suggests that the involvement of citizen bicyclists in disaster response, the outcome could be very beneficial for both bicycling and emergency management communities.
The idea of citizen bicycle response stems from the growing popularity in the USA of Disaster Relief Trials (DRTs). DRTs are community events organised by local bicycling enthusiasts that demonstrate how bicycles can be used in disaster situations. Community emergency response team (CERT) programs were also highlighted as possible sources of training for bicyclists, as well as a means for bicyclists to be integrated into disaster response operations.
The article discusses current DRTs and how bicycles have been used in relief efforts, including:
USA During the response to the September 11th attacks in 2001, bicycle couriers could be found riding along the secured perimeter and delivering food (Kendra & Wachtendorf, 2003).
Japan In the immediate aftermath of the 2011 To ̄hoku earthquake, the combination of traffic gridlock and the shutdown of train services in the Tokyo metropolitan area compelled stranded commuters to mount bicycles—included ones purchased in the immediate aftermath of the event—to make the commute home (Takahara, 2011).
USA In the days following Superstorm Sandy in 2012, a group of bicyclists strapped a variety of donated goods ranging from diapers to blankets to their backs and bikes before pedaling the 15 or so miles through debris-laden streets from Brooklyn to the Rockaways to deposit their commodities (Goodyear, 2012).
Sri Lanka During disaster recovery, the period when activities are being undertaken to restore all stakeholders to self-sufficiency (Alesch et al. 2009), bicycles gifted to survivors of the 2005 tsunami in Sri Lanka proved a key element in assisting people with recovering their economic livelihood and social connections, as well as increasing their accessibility to service providers (World Bicycle Relief 2007).
Kirkpatrick argues that implementing citizen bicycle responders would be best suited to communities that already have an established bicycle-friendly locale. In these places, bicycle response take-up, use and engagement would be less resistant.
The discussion of citizen bicyclist disaster responders is also valuable in exploring alternatives to current approaches and in shifting attitudes of policy, organisational and emergency managers towards the use and engagement of citizen responders more broadly.
Citizen bicycle responders are identified as being particularly useful in specific tasks such as messaging/communication, commodities distribution, messaging, and casualty evacuation—as a ‘‘last mile’’ solution. The idea is that bicyclists can make short runs to create the final link between information hubs, centralised distribution points, or evacuation locations
I loved this quote from the article:
For bicycles to reach closer to their potential as a cure for urban maladies, they must advance beyond the dominions of mall-bound middle schoolers and lycra-clad weekend warriors to a broader ridership.
Gold!
Certain bicycle types or accessories are highlighted as serving as a sort of force multiplier for task execution, particularly related to commodities distribution or casualty evacuation. Specifically, the use of cargo bicycles, bicycles with attached trailers, and electric bicycles were mentioned as ways to enhance the ability of citizen bicyclists to move goods or other people through a disaster area.
The article also points out that there are some concerns about citizen bicyclists in disaster response. A principle example of this is that responses rely heavily on the actual person who is riding the bicycle—and the knowledge and skills that person brings—that matters to the response and dictates the bicyclists’ ultimate response value. Additionally, responders will need some sort of training (or have a base understanding) of bicycle maintenance, safe riding, how to communicate/coordinate/operate within the response network, general safety and first aid/CPR.
Some research participants further suggested that citizen bicyclists receive the full gamut of CERT training, with modules on disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, disaster medical, light search and rescue, disaster psychology, and disaster simulation exercise. The type of training frequency, responsibility, and depth would need to be formalised.
There have been several papers that have considered the safety aspect, weighing the costs of increased injury risk and exposure to pollution against the health and communal benefits of regular bicycling. The table below shows some examples of studiescoering a few of these factors.
Image: Kirkpatrick (2018).
Some essential tasks citizen bicycle responders can undertake are:
movement of needed commodities like food, water, medication, other supplies
delivery of messages within the impacted area
bicycles and their riders providing power generation
casualty evacuation
first aid
safety and wellness checks
search and rescue
damage assessment
Overall, this article opens up a meaningful conversation about considering bicycles use in disaster relief.
The most appealing aspect of this article is the focus on the citizen bicyclist – a largely untapped and little-discussed potential asset.
I love the idea of local riders and their bikes being integral to disaster responses efforts.
Just another way bicycles could create change!
Abstract
Citizens have historically become involved in response to disasters by helping both themselves and others. Recently, the idea has emerged of individuals providing this assistance in the response period using bicycles. Community events have been organised by bicycling enthusiasts in US cities to demonstrate how bicycles could potentially be of use in disaster situations. Yet, there has been no empirical research around the idea of citizen bicyclists in disaster response.
This study explored the potential use of bicycles and their citizen riders in disaster events in the USA—specifically considering what role, if any, citizen bicyclists could play in such scenarios. Data were initially collected through 21 in-depth, telephone interviews with emergency management officials and bicycling advocates from bicycle-friendly cities in ten different states. Grounded theory was used to conceptualise the overall research design and analyse the data.
Based on theoretical and snowball sampling, an additional six interviews were completed with individuals who had requisite knowledge and experiences applicable to the research question. Participants indicated that there are a variety of tasks and activities citizen bicyclists could undertake in disaster response; however, it would have to be an event of significant scope and magnitude for bicycle usage to be widespread—an unlikely occurrence for many jurisdictions.
Concerns about training and integration with the formal emergency management structure were also identified. Implications for potential citizen bicyclists—and citizen responders more broadly—are discussed.
Image: Little Rock Air Force Base News
Some content of this post is adapted from Kirkpatrick (2018).
