Once You Go Bike, You Can’t Go Back
Walking into my apartment for the first time in over a month, I had the normal concerns of any millenial renter.
“Did my apartment burn down? Did a mouse family take over my kitchen? What if I dreamed the past five months and I don’t actually live here?”
But one concern overrode all the others: WOULD MY BIKE STILL BE THERE?! (spoiler alert: it was).
Not being able to ride my bike for five weeks, after months and months of (in Susan B. Anthony’s words) being a “free, untrammeled” woman, whizzing around campus with the greatest of ease, was simply depressing. As someone who finds solace in movement and joy in being outdoors no matter the weather, riding in cars on a regular basis became a source of panic. Seeing other people riding bikes was like seeing an ex with a new flame. I felt mad I was not with my bike, I was jealous that other people were with their bike, and I was hurt that these riders would openly taunt me with their bikes. I longed to be reunited with my preferred mode of transportation, to have the freedom to travel when I wanted, wherever I wanted.
I thought a trip to the United Kingdom would help me get through this languid period of separation, but boy was I wrong.
Bikes Abroad
Spending a week in the United Kingdom only enhanced my wronged emotions at being separated from my long-lost love. Living in a “Gold Level” bike friendly community, I am no stranger to bike commuters. But never have I seen double- or even triple-level bike parking “garages,” cycle stores in every neighborhood, bikes zooming in and around cars and buses at all hours of the day. Here, as in other large urban areas outside of the United States, biking was not merely a lark but an escape from the crowded urban commute. With winter temperatures dipping only into the mid 30's Fahrenheit, biking every day is not just feasible but perhaps preferable to the tube or the bus. And after several mornings crammed onto the tube trying to convince myself that claustrophobia was a figment of my imagination, I could not help but to glare with envy at the bikers with their speed and their fresh (well, fresher than the underground) air.
While the smaller collegiate cities of Oxford and Cambridge were much more bike-friendly than their dense urban neighbor, London had something that these cities did not (at least on such a large scale): a bike share. Though several American cities such as New York, Chicago, Washington DC, and Denver have urban bike share systems, it was still a novelty for me as someone hailing from the Motor City. I’m sure I looked every bit the tourist taking pictures of the bike share bikes, but in my longing for my own bike I cared not.
What was also strange to see was how accommodating…or perhaps, tolerant…drivers were of “sharing the road” with bikers. With no bike lanes anywhere, and several streets being laid with ancient cobblestones, riders often take up the precarious inches between the sides of the car and the menacing curb. Though the cars are often smaller than the average American SUV, it’s still a tight squeeze. I wouldn’t call myself the most cautious of bike commuters, I definitely do not have the balls of some of these urban riders. Props to them, and props to the drivers who make room for them!
Seeing the amount of bike commuters in around London, while admirable, also gave me pause. The riders that I saw in and around central London would not what I would call “diverse,” at least from my perspective. In America, especially in the planning realm, there are seemingly endless articles on how an increase in bike usage, bike commuting, bike infrastructure, etc., is linked to gentrification of certain neighborhoods. In the UK, at least in London, there seemed to be similar concerns. Though I found several articles discussing who is gentrifying, what their occupations are, whether they are neoliberal creative class types, and even a (my favorite) “gentrification pub crawl,” I found only one recent piece that touched specifically on cycling. According to an analysis of 2011 census data, housing price increase has a direct correlation with an increase in bike commuters. In addition, the percentages of professional and managerial types who bike to work are much higher in London than elsewhere in the country, where the trend is actually reversed. While I would not use this one article as complete validation of the bike-equals-gentrification theory, I think it does offer some points to consider, both for residents of the UK and elsewhere.
Moral of the story, I am happily reunited with my bike, and I now have some new urban issues (both near and far) to mull over as I zoom around central Illinois.
