I Bike NY

A few weeks ago our office received a map request from Roos Stallinga, a Dutch girl who was writing a book about biking in NY.  After sending the map files I emailed her and asked if she would like to contribute to the blog.  She graciously accepted my invitation and below is a short story about her experience biking in New York, along with several of her photographs and drawings.  Her website is www.roosart.nl and the book will launch in September of 2009.

My Dutch New York bike story  

In the Netherlands, biking is very much part of our consciousness.

I remember learning to bike as a kid and going for the first time alone or together with a friend to school. Conversations and romances took place on a bike, or next to a bike, or amongst bicycles. Later on I recall many drunken bike rides back home from parties at the crack of dawn. Biking to university or work and in the rain. For most Dutch people, bikes are everywhere and in everything. It’s as natural as breathing. Nothing fancy about it. 

Whenever I lived abroad, I’d find myself a bike to get around. So when I moved to New York in 2002, the first thing I bought was a blue second-hand Panasonic racing bike (that was probably older than me). A world opened. Biking had never been something that was especially thrilling or fun to me. It just was. But in New York – like most other things – it became something larger than life, something I wanted to master. The traffic was different: A fast flow up and down. There were cars from the right and then cars coming from the left. I’d slalom between the yellow cabs. Following a bike messenger, feeling and studying every move he made. Soon biking New York entered my dreams, my drawings, and writings. 

Here I was, 24 years old. I had finished my Master in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam and was busy studying Art Therapy at NYU (on a Fulbright scholarship). I liked my studies and loved the city. But secretly what I loved most was biking through its streets. Exploring the city on my blue Panasonic bike. I did it in every kind of weather and every state of mind or hour of the day. Riding New York became my big passion. Something I also loved to share with visiting friends from back home. Their first reaction usually was: “Biking?? In New York?? Is that not terribly dangerous?!” I’d reply that if you know how to bike and pay attention you should be fine, and that once you get used to it, it is actually great fun. I would take them on bike trips all over Manhattan, and to Brooklyn. With nice stops and sights on the way. Invariably, they loved it too.   

Now, 7 years later, I am making a book about biking in New York. It will be a Dutch girl’s guide to celebrating the city on two wheels. In addition, I am interviewing various NYC bikers, who tell their story, and give tips. The book will contain many of my own artworks and photographs. It is really an artwork in itself, expressing what it feels like to bike through New York and inspiring people to create their own adventures. 

The book will be launched in the beginning of September 2009 in New York – with a big Dutch-style bike party… 

Filed under: Who bikes NY?