Green is in your head
Urban Mobility - Vive la Velorution
“You say you wanna revolution, well you know, we’d all love to change the world” (“Revolution” by the Beatles)
Urban Mobility: A new form of Rock n Roll? The word is out on bikes these days. What used to be targeted at the guys that look good in Lycra is now looking at the type of person you see on your street. From leather pants and chucks to Norwegian sweaters and Birkenstock sandals, from radical chic to scruffy secondhand street style, your bike clientele is as varied as the colors of the rainbow.
Bikes always intrigued me, that feeling of getting around on your own human power, not wasting precious resources, but still having fun and defying simple things like gravity and the weather. These days we have bikes with internal gear hubs and hub dynamos for low-maintenance, good lights with a high safety factor but there is a new market out there that wants something else…
…What we need today are bikes that do things. Bike to take us home, bikes to take us out, bikes that carry our stuff and carry our friends. We can ride in gangs and look like Brando in “The Wild One” or pick up brezels at the bakery with Grandma and the kids. Bikes deliver our pizza and bring the mail. We can choose speed or scenery, we can climb the highest hill or cruise the riverside, the choice is ours. We are the movement.
Bikes are a great companion, for kids they are the first steps of freedom, they take us to school which is practical, but they also support our growing independence from our parents when we go off meeting our friends and exploring the world. Later they take us to our first date, to the cinema or wherever we want to go. They watch over us and bring us home safe and contented.
For adults riding a bike is a political statement. People who ride bikes care about the world, the environment and they have opinions and attitude. We ride bikes to the beer garden and to the supermarket and they keep us a little fitter and more active than we would otherwise be. Mobility will be the big thing in the next decades and it’s time to reduce our carbon footprint, what better place to start than our own micro-mobility. Some of us bike people go to the US Bike show in Las Vegas, a few years ago when you rode your bike down one of the boulevards there, you’d get shouted at, almost run over and everyone thought you were from Mars, but now the mood and responsibility is changing. We all are realising that energy is the main issue and will be the cause of future wars. We are the only ones that can change that. I can still love my car, but anything less than 5 miles should be done on two wheels, even for old guys like me. Maybe next time in Vegas they will have Valet Parking for bikes ;>)
Don’t get involved in that “replace your car with a bike” debate. It might work in a few scenarios which are mainly the really big cities where driving is a hassle and the public transport system has enough funding to work. Bikes must co-exist with cars, buses, trains, subway and even walking, because that is the secret of success for bikes. We can’t afford to polarize because we need the common ground to progress. So all you bike fanatics, take a deep breath, share the road and wave nicely at the car driver next to you at the next traffic light, he might even wave back!
But is it enough to be an alternative way of getting around, is it enough to give car drivers an idea of how things could be so much better or is it enough that it's just cheaper by bike?
The answer of course is no. We need more than ideas, facts and technical specifications. We need culture, we need art and we need beauty. People don't ride bikes just because it makes sense, they do it also because it's uplifting, and exciting and it’s cool to be doing something good. Good for your health, good for your wallet, good for the environment, good for goodness sake. Your karma gets better and I’m sure your partner will love you more too. Keep the momentum going.
Frank Zappa playing the Bicycle in 1963 on the Steve allen showWant an example of the beauty of bikes? Well one might be this video of a young Frank Zappa playing the bicycle in 1963, but the one i really like is a 5000 mile trip through Mexico, by the band “The Ginger Ninjas”, playing their version of rock’n’roll, totally powered by bikes: Bikes to carry the band and crew, bikes to carry the instruments, even bikes to provide the electricity for the concerts if there are four people prepared to pedal and power the batteries. That is indeed beauty. Gimme more.
The Ginger ninjas in mexico