Cycle Chic Goes Global

The post is related to Bicycle Culture Goes Mainstream in Canada in that a national newspaper has picked up on global bicycle culture.

Karen Burshtein’s piece in the National Post called, “Stilletos on Wheels: Cycling goes Chic” brings attention to the the fashion of bicycle culture.

How valuable should  we consider this kind of contribution when we read phrases like, “Fashion, they say, comes and goes in cycles. Now, it’s cycling that’s in fashion; the style brigade has taken up the two-wheel ride and, in doing so, is changing the image of the cyclist.”

On the other hand, let’s not keep cycling culture for the most radical activists or messengers; cycling is an activity for everyone, stylish or awkward. What I like most about this global trend is that the stigma of cycling being for the poor or the political is dying away.

Contact us for the pdf of her article.

Bicycle Culture Goes Mainstream in Canada

At least this is the premise of a recent column by Karen von Hahn in the Saturday, July 19, 2008 issue of the Globe and Mail (permanent link). As a driver, Hahn finds it hard to love her fellow cyclists who she finds, “empowered by their environmentally correctness that they have begun to proclaim their own (naturally superior and far more fashionable) bike ‘culture.’

The optimist would say, “Yipee! Bike culture has gone mainstream, we can now all relax as the bike lanes pave themselves and all people rejoice in human-powered joy!” But let’s get real. The only thing mainstream about bike culture is that it is summer. Just because gas prices are through the roof doesn’t mean we can cheer our unique brand of North American bike culture.

Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate Hahn’s bringing the bike culture idea to the attention of her and thousands of Canadian readers, but newspapers, and especially “style” critics have a tendency to write about what’s current as opposed to ongoing trends or lasting effects. What Hahn is listing with her references to Critical Mass, the Bicycle Film Festival, urbanvelo.com, “Ghost” bikes and the like a great primer for people to get involved in a growing bike culture.

I just find it hard to believe in the “mainstream” celebration of bike culture on Saturday, when on Tuesday the same newspaper’s editorial cartoon is making fun of the Leader of the Official Opposition for riding a bike, or the “Bat Cycle” and being “Cheep!”

but we must not forget that we are up against a much more dominant culture of automobiles, adds selling the sexy factor of cars and endless, traffic-free highways without sidewalks or bike lanes.

We have a long way to go.