If you are one of those people who will read this title and say “We can’t do anything like this where I live,” you should just sign off and never come back. I’m so tired of the defeatist attitude, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Paris is a cycling city once again. Has the entire city abandoned their cars? Has the biking infrastructure become the most used transport? No. Of course not, but what many said could not be done is happening, and it’s happening for several reasons including strategic political allies and the general public saying, “We want this.” Shifter is a YouTube channel that is unrelated to my channel. Coincidentally, the host and I have similar interests.
As I sit here, I will tell you that my next move will be to a city with extensive mass transit and established bike infrastructure.
Most likely, this means I need to leave the United States, but my wife and I are entirely ready to do so. This is something I think about daily. I’m fortunate. I live in a city with clean air and virtually no traffic. I can ride my bike to most places, and I am treated fairly by most drivers. Bike theft is a huge issue. The elevation is high. The distances are great, and the weather can be a real challenge, but overall, I’m one of the lucky ones. When I visit many of the major cities in America I see how little effort has been made to make the bike an integral part of urban living.
Paris is proof that positive change can happen. Again, if you are looking for a reason to find fault with what Paris has done, I’m sure you can find it, but what’s the point? Each time I hear anti-bike folks talk they sound a lot like Trumpers. Fictional narratives control their lives, crippled by fear of the other. Lame. The rest of my year is mostly booked up. Lots of movement both foreign and domestic. All the domestic movement is tied to the bike. That’s not my main reason for going, but all locations are bike-ready. Some of the upcoming foreign travel is based on where I can fly my Brompton and where I can live with mass transit and bike. To watch the bike become a political pawn is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Watching friends and family who live in brand new suburbs void of mass transit and bike infrastructure complain about traffic is equally dumb, especially those in flat, fair-weather cities. It’s just a bicycle, the most common vehicle in the world. Needs no battery. Needs no gas. Doesn’t pollute. Doesn’t make noise. Can’t we see an advantage to that?
THIS JUST IN FROM TODAY’S BBC. There are many holes in this story and some of the same old tropes that it seems to attract, but it is still an interesting read with some good stats.
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My two worlds finally meet! Shifter/shifter!!
I’m Still a working photographer but bike advocacy is a passion.
I’ve hung out with Tom in Edmonton. (He’s in Calgary I’m in Winnipeg) he’s a great guy.
Highly recommend his video on motornormality. Patiently explains the idea for those who can’t understand it
Author
I fear it might be my next life. Post Blurb/Photography. Bikes.
Interestingly, Calgary punches way above it’s weight for cycling, even year round. It actually punches way above it’s weight for photography too, and I’m not talking about that PetaPixel YouTube show (but good, as far as those things go). Calgary people were early leaders in the digital stock game, spawning Image Club, EyeWire, Adobe Stock and Veer. And then again with iStock which pretty much killed the idea of making a living shooting stock. They also were early leaders in digital video stock (Dissolve). I lived there for a year, and really liked it but it was when the oil biz was in the dumps, and money was hard to come by. But it’s where I became a daily bike commuter…. from Sunnyside to Fish Creek. Not for a job…to get laid. ANYWAYS, what’s happening in the ‘Peg with cycling?
Author
I used to go there for Blurb and always loved it. Always seemed to land in winter.
We in Belgium are spoiled having our mass transport everywhere and cyclepaths almost everywhere; the Dutch and the Danes have even more and better infrastructure to enjoy. So if you have to a pick, Denmark or the Netherlands fill fit you best: flat, great public infrastructure, moderate(but rainy) climate. Belgium falls in between France with except for Paris, bordeaux, etc no descent cycling infrastructure but thousands of small great D(épartemental) roads in the countryside make up for it, and the Netherlands. The South of France is to be avoided in summertime for cycling, the heat can be unbearable.
The G line Brompton seems excellent: finally a descent geared hub from Shimano and no shitty Sturmey anymore, larger 20″ wheels as 16″ is a pain the a.. in loose sand or mud, big good tires from Schwalbe, wide handlebars and finally 3 sizes for the larger guys and girls among us! The 3300$ prices makes things complicated to sell to average cyclists but this is a bike targetted on the more than average riders.
Author
Yep, you are spot on my friend. Am I going to see you on this trip? If no, I understand. Just glad we are talking cycling. I can’t wait for the Brompton. The price is crazy for many, but I’ve already saved over $1500 by riding instead of driving, so it will pay for itself in no time. And if I sell my current Brompton, well, that much quicker.
For me the amazing thing is that whenever I watch American movie or series from 80’&early 90′, kids commuting to school is a thing is suburbs. Often bike represents freedom for kids just as cars for older teenagers. What happened?
Author
We all rode our bikes to school. And everywhere else. But this issues ties back to subsidized gasoline, something many Americans still don’t realize they have, and to the building of suburbs post WWII. And the auto and extraction lobbies, two of the most powerful orgs in the world.
I credit two things for saving my life: photography and cycling. What seem like completely disparate activities share, in my view, perhaps the most important fundamental prerequisites of being: movement and presentness. I started making photographs when I lived up north in Yellowknife, NT, Canada, not really knowing what I was doing, except that I was passionate about photography, and instead of lamenting my circumstance of living in a place I despised living in, I would explore it through a viewfinder. That viewfinder was an anchor to the present. What started as this little window on my Nikon D800, became the structure I needed to survive. Things made sense in 3:2. Walking around Yellowknife, trying to find compositions: this was persevering through the nihilistic preconceptions I had of a place I didn’t understand, and didn’t want to understand. I understood the pictures though. They made sense to me. No matter my sentiments, photography had no allegiances. It had no depression. It lived in the light. It required only two things from me: move and be present. Making photographs was a not a requirement, and there would be weeks where I would have only a near frostbit right hand and ceased lenses, but I was moving and I was there. The pictures came, but that movement and presentness was the medicine.
Cycling is the same in so many ways. The bike requires you to unmoor from your stasis, mental or physical. In demands your capacity to be present, first to the pedal stroke, than to the road, and finally, to the world you’ve been hiding from.
I remember having a conversation with you, probably close to a decade ago now. We talked photography and books. I was naive and barely holding on, but that conversation went a long, long way. I would love to have another one, and talk bikes too.
Thanks Dan.
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Yellowknife! That’s on my list for a project. How are ya Mat? Cycling is the most fun way to travel. It’s the perfect speed. And you are exposed. Same for photography.