Bicycle activism!
By Deirdre Helfferich
Green Party of Alaska

"Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance,
you must keep moving."
-Albert Einstein

Consider the bicycle: a simple, lightweight, portable, easily maintained and repaired vehicle powered by human muscle. Bicycles are relatively inexpensive machines, good for one's health and the environment, and because of these features, a favored means of transportation and sport. There are more than one billion bikes in the world today, a testament to their popularity. The bicycle has influenced world history in significant and sometimes surprising ways: the improvement of metalworking techniques that lent themselves to the aviation industry, changes in women's clothing fashions which aided the emancipation movement, the design of roadways and cities, the invention of the pneumatic tire, increased mobility for the poor and reduction of dependence on horses.

In modern times, the bicycle continues to be a factor in social and political movements. Many Greens are familiar with the concept of Critical Mass, an event where bicyclists take to the streets en masse in order to enjoy riding together without fear of cars. Often, a Critical Mass bike ride makes a political or social statement, making city planners aware of the fact of bicycle traffic and cyclists' needs. Critical Mass has grown from the first regular rides in San Francisco in 1992 to a worldwide movement, usually happening on the last Friday of the month in more than 325 cities and towns.

Greens may not be as familiar with a quieter, less noticeable but older example of bicycle activism: the community bicycle movement, begun in 1968 in the Netherlands. Also known as free bike or public use bicycle programs, these are exercises in the promulgation of the transportation commons: public transportation at an individual level, via the bicycle. Paul DeMaio, transportation demand manager of Alexandria, Va., calls public use bicycles "the ideal form of urban transportation" in his paper, "Smart Bikes: Public Transportation for the 21st Century," because they:

• provide on-demand transportation,
• reach destinations that are not transit accessible,
• require less infrastructure than other modes of transportation,
• are less expensive to produce and maintain,
• do not add to congestion,
• do not create pollution,
• decrease theft of personal bicycles, and
• provide the user with the added benefit of exercise.

Although there are many forms of public bike programs, the basic approach is this: bicycles are provided to the public either free of charge or with a deposit (refundable when the bike is returned). The borrower may ride anywhere within a specified area (such as within city limits or on a particular university campus), and then either leave the bicycle anywhere for the next person to find and use, or leave it at a specified bike drop where the rider can receive a deposit refund. Many bike programs are educational and feature bicycle repair workshops, bike safety seminars, health classes and the like. The bicycles are usually painted a single strong color—such as bright green, white, or yellow, in order to distinguish them from ordinary bikes-and have some other kind of identifying tag or sticker. Sometimes bicycles chosen for these programs are sturdier and simpler than ordinary bikes, with special designs that give them a unique appearance and motility, in order to deter theft and to make maintenance easier. They may have only one gear, for example.

Theft and vandalism can be problems in such programs, but an effective way to discourage this is to encourage a sense of ownership or community in the bicycle program. In Copenhagen's City Bike program, bikes needing repair are taken to a local jail where they are fixed by the inmates, who thus gain a sense of community involvement. Bike theft in Copenhagen dropped significantly after the introduction of the program. "Convenience thefts," where the thief simply grabs a bike because it is a handy way to get somewhere, were also reduced, as there was no longer any need to steal a bike for convenience's sake—free ones abound. Other systems involving "smart bikes," and requiring magnetic cards for release of the bike, allow municipalities to track bicycle use and to fine the card holder if the bicycle is not returned. Such bicycles are often more expensive, and users may see the data sharing as Orwellian.

In the U.S., Green Party members have been actively involved in community bicycle programs. The Arcata Bike Library in Calif. uses a library model for distributing its bikes: the rider deposits $20, signs a waiver, and checks out the bike for up to six months. Bicycles are donated to the library and repaired and spruced up by volunteers.

The library also has a special arrangement with the city, according to their 2004 annual report: "Promise Bikes are Library Bikes that we have checked out to riders who promise not to have a car in Arcata. We reciprocate their promise with our guarantee of providing these riders with the very best of the repaired bikes…." These bike users save the city "an average construction cost of $2,000 per parking space," which in the 2003-2004 season was $382,000 for 191 promise bikes.

Troy Bike Rescue regularly conducts "streetshops," or public bike repair demonstrations and open lessons. Some are theatrical events, such as the Monster Bike Theatre streetshops, which draw attention to the program and its bicycle recycling, and encourage participation with the whimsical and fun parade of costumed bicycles and riders after the streetshop.

On the other side of the country, the Ithaca Green Party in New York started Recycle Ithaca's Bikes (RIBs) in 1990 as Operation Free Bikes. This public-use bicycle program developed into a recycling and education program, where volunteers earn a bicycle or bicycle-related parts and accessories by helping to repair bicycles donated to RIBs. The program teaches classes on bicycle repair, maintenance and safety. Other organizations may incorporate this recycling aspect into their programs (for example, Troy Bike Rescue, also in N.Y. and founded by Green Party members); this increases the sense of ownership of the bikes in the community, and thus reduces the likelihood of vandalism.

The 2004 GP-US platform specifically endorses community bicycles and bicyclist-friendly transportation and energy policies. State Green parties across the nation do likewise. Bike repair can be an empowering community-building activity, and community ownership of bicycles can contribute to cleaner air, less traffic congestion, healthy citizens, and reduced crime, making public-use bikes a social movement with a future.

Resources:

"Bycyklen"-Copenhagen's City Bike Program," 2000. Paul DeMaio.
http://members.aol.com/humorme81/citybike.htm

Recycle Ithaca's Bikes
www.people.clarityconnect.com/webpages2/RIBs/default.html

RIBS@clarityconnect.com
International Bicycle Fund
www.ibike.org/encouragement/freebike.htm
community-bike-subscribe@egroups.com

Back to Spring 2005