Copenhagenize by Mikael Colville-Andersen

Author:Mikael Colville-Andersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2018-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

Parisians using the city’s Vélib’ bike share bikes for transport.

But if pointing fingers is your thing, then point them at the most dangerous and destructive elements in cities and towns: motorists and the automobiles they drive. Even if you are addressing a subculture, it gets tough. Subcultures have their own codes and language—and cycling is no exception, whether it’s fixies or spandex-clad racers. They are proud of being different and have often defined themselves by their unique identity in the cityscape. Their external environment—car culture, etc.—has in many ways dictated their perceived (and sometimes real) attitudes, styles, roles.

You don’t get very far when you tell them to behave. And the new cyclists, with a lack of alternative role models, will perhaps feel like you’re speaking to them. You’ll either strengthen their links to the underground or you’ll push them away completely. Treating cyclists as equals is more beneficial than highlighting that they are strange or aparté, especially when you’re dealing with so many new cyclists who perhaps don’t wish to be “underground.”

There’s an important sociological angle worth considering. When an underground group sees their chosen culture going mainstream, it often breeds resentment. “I’ve been doing this for years, now everyone’s doing it!” It’s not helpful for mainstreaming urban cycling. Here’s a quote I harvested from a New York newspaper article:

“There is definitely a downside to biking when bikes become a fashion fad … If you unleash a herd of teetering, wobbly fashionistas into city streets without any real knowledge of how to ride a bike in traffic, accidents can (and likely will) happen.”

Experience is important, sure. But this is a “purist” attacking other people riding bicycles.

You know what? The people who are new to the wild ride at the amusement park hold on tightest. “Wobbly” doesn’t need to be dangerous. “Style Over Speed” may be one of the greatest traffic-safety slogans in the history of cycling. It may be irritating to the purists who now have to ride crazier to avoid new obstacles on their previously sacred urban landscape. But really, who cares? Such is democracy and democratization.

Producing behavioral campaigns focused on cyclists only serves to continue the marginalization of cycling and just hammers home the misconception that urban cycling is not for everyone.

Segments of the underground are revolting against the mainstream. Just like they did over 100 years ago when the rich saw their prized toy—the bicycle—go mainstream. They mocked, ridiculed, spat upon the laborers and women on bicycles. History is repeating itself, it seems. All the more reason to stick to our guns and continue to work towards giving the bicycle back to the people. It worked the first time. It’ll work again.

The only thing that will get us homo sapiens to do something—anything—is a lot of other people who resemble us doing it. If people peer into a big, societal mirror and see like-minded fellow citizens staring back, they’ll be more primed for behavior change.

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