Is cycling cool now?

I’ve waxed lyrical here and on the twitter device (among other places) about the fact that it is a long held belief of mine that cars are, for the most part, utterly useless creatures in a city. Sitting in traffic jams listening to mediocre radio while you commute to/from work in a tin box that was never really designed to go so slow is not my idea of fun. Most city people drive cars, it’s a fact. Unless you live in Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Sure, it’s more comfy to sit in a car; but it’s also insanely expensive. Year after year you pump an ever-depleting resource into your car, only to burn it while moving slowly in city traffic. You pay tax to fund roads that are barely maintained and have to consistently look after the most depreciated item you’ll ever purchase.

Sure, it’s great for carrying the weekly shopping and taking the kids to school, but these attitudes are what has given us a nation of fat, spoiled dirtbag children. If I ever have children, they sure as hell will do what I did as a kid – walk to school. I was walking to/from school when I was probably too young to do so. It was a time to socialise with my friends, throw rocks at each other and laugh at some who needed to wee down alleys. I think I was about 9 or 10 when I started walking. It’s not a far journey by any stretch, but some friends had to walk much further then me… and sometimes I would walk with them to their houses. When secondary school came along we still walked. And at some stage I decided to ask Santy for a bike and cycled to and from school, often taking “scenic” routes home to chat to friends while we cycled. As a result, I have a decent physique. I’m not an athlete by any stretch, but I can comfortably fit into any airliner’s seat and slide into the main entrance of Starbucks on Dame St, Dublin (it’s a tight squeeze).

Dublin, for example, is not a massive area. Cycling to and from work in this city, or to the suburbs does not take longer then a car. Often it’s quicker because of traffic. The system here was not meant to handle so many cars or people, and was never really adapted to handle so many either. Dublin is now adopting cycling, with massive plans to regenerate roads with cycle lanes in mind as well as expanding the Dublin Bikes scheme across both of the canals – presumably to DCU and UCD.

More and more people are cycling here. Which is great news for our health services, because cycling is only good for you. Not only is it cheaper (no tax, insurance or petrol to buy) but it’s also incredibly healthy for you. Why would you decide to sit in an office all day and then sit in a tin can going to your office? Your poor heart needs a workout!

However, a new movement is happening. Not inspired by the work commute per se. Not inspired by the Dutch or Danes with their last-a-lifetime workhorse bikes. Nope, this seems to be a youth rebellion type of thing. Using bikes to get back at “the man”, be unique and also – for the most part – do it on the cheap. Lots of material is surfacing about cycling on fixies (fixed-gear) to do tricks and zip in-and-out of traffic. Not just reserved for the amazing skill of the couriers, now it’s open to anyone to take part in.

Music videos and general “critical mass” movements have started shifting young people back to cycling. Mostly, it seems, on easily-customisable fixies or on hybrid bikes like my trek 7.3 fx. Sure, I might be making myself more aware of it, but on your commute today, make yourself aware of the number of cyclists. There’s a lot more, especially in the city center.

Sure there are slightly wanky videos like the one below, but it is cool to some people, and those few may decide to buy a new bike and customise it with funky coloured grip tape or LED’s instead of flashing the cash on a car that ultimately, will waste away into a bottomless pit of money.

The counter-argument is that cycling is dangerous. Which is true. It is. But with cities advancing and more cyclists around, drivers are getting used to their new road buddies and learning to anticipate the more fragile road users. They’re also getting used to the idea that bikes can travel faster then cars in a city – so when a car turns left it really can cut off a cyclist. Also, with bike lines appearing everywhere there’s no need for any collision between bikes and cars. The same goes for bus lanes. Drivers have no right to be there, so a bike should never have any issues with that. But as biking reaches critical mass in cities like Dublin, drivers will not only have to get used to having bikes zipping around them, they’ll also have to consider switching to a bike. It’s just easier, healthier and when the weather is calm – much, much nicer.

And so we get the crux of this, and why I was inspired to write so much on biking. Well, we all know the devilishly handsome actor-come-musician Jared Leto. The blondey one who got the shit kicked out of him in Fight Club. Well, his mediocre emo band “30 seconds to mars” released some pile of catchy garbage song, but the accompanying video is entirely consumed by cycling fixies around a rather picturesque and well-lit area of Los Angeles, featuring hundreds of dressed up, manicured and made-up cyclists who are in the prime of their emo youth. The video above is a more real version of that, a critical mass “ride out” in San Francisco filmed by Copenhagenize.

So, get on yer bike. I have been considering mimicking the blogs linked in this entry with a Dublin-style blog about commuting and bike culture in Dublin, but I’m still not entirely convinced it’s worth the effort in terms of a plausible audience. I guess this post and the stats I get will confirm whether or not it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

It’s also worth noting that, if you’re a driver and nervous about biking. Pay attention to the cyclists around you. Look at how many there are and how they do their thing. Then go rent one of the virtually-free Dublin bikes for an afternoon and enjoy the city in a more natural manner. You won’t regret it.