Female Astride Bike

It was a hot and humid August night and everyone wanted to be outside. The sidewalk in front of Gem Spa at Second Avenue and St Marks Place was thronged well past midnight. You could sense the sun’s heat still in the sidewalk even this late. A crowd was waiting to cross Second Avenue. Two young guys waiting on bikes were eying four young women also waiting. The girls knew they were being looked at. The light changed and they crossed.
“Shall we follow them?” one guy asked his buddy.

“That’s what we’re down here for.”

I don’t know how that episode turned out, but it made a visual impression on me that led to a whole series of paintings involving figures on bikes.

Peggy posed for the painting you see here. She was my student and was seventeen or eighteen at the time. The attitude of the painting is in keeping with the scene I just described. I went on to create a number of figures more stylized than you see here—males and females regarding each other and always a bicycle playing the part connecting the figures.

I’ve had a long love affair with bikes. My first was a tricycle with blocks on the peddles. I used to zoom down the gentle hill on my street and make a sharp right at the bottom. That usually tipped me onto two wheels and it was fun. My first bicycle was a one speed, black and red heavy job. I had training wheels for a week or so. I explored all around the neighborhood with it and one day went miles from home—to visit the train yard where the subways were kept.

In decades of riding I had only one accident. Riding near my home in Brooklyn I was looking up instead of down. I didn’t see the pot hole, the bike collapsed, and I broke my elbow. The pain was terrific but the damage to my arm turned out to be minor.

In New York I’ve had three bikes stolen. But I won’t stop riding. I’ve ridden on quiet farm roads in Maine and in the heavy traffic on Seventh Avenue. Its all been great fun and the best way to see the world.

Vincent Pinto

The debate is not as one sided as the helmet police would have you believe, as there is evidence both for and against helmets.  First of all, its not clear if helmets save lives, as a high speed colision will likely be fatal whether or not your head is encased in styrofoam.   A British study found that vehicles drive closer to cyclists wearing helmets, which increases your chance of being struck.  Finally, places with mandatory helmet laws generally experience a  decrease in cyclists and an overall negative impact on public health.

There is a risk involved for almost every activity in daily life.  You can choke on a chicken wing, slip in the shower, or get run over when walking through a crosswalk.  Far more people receive head injuries when riding in motor vehicles, yet there is not an outcry for helmet use in cars.

In one of my first posts, “Bike commuting is not a sport,” I included the following disclaimer:

*Helmets are required by law for cyclists 13 and under. I would also say they are important for cyclists new to biking and/or biking in New York. My family, friends, and co-workers definitely do not approve of me biking without a helmet, and I am not trying to encourage other people to ride without one. But this country is about personal choice, and I quite simply do not like to wear them. I am not a high-speed racing cyclist, a bmx mountain biker, or a trick cyclist. I bike at low speeds, with caution, and am comfortable with the risk involved.

That pretty much sums it up.  Feel free to wear your helmets, but don’t chastise me for riding with my hair in the wind.  There are probably more than 1 billion people in the world regularly cycling and it is only here in North America that a helmet is considered essential. The way to make cycling safer is not by putting a helmet on every head, but by putting more cyclists on the streets.  Promoting helmet use and placing the emphasis on safety is not the way to market cycling. If biking is seen as a “sport” that is dangerous and requires special gear then people won’t see what a convenient and delightful mode of transporation it can be.

Note: Let me stress that this is my own personal policy and opinion.  The DOT, most advocacy organizations, and many sane and intelligent people have a different opinion. Encouraging people to wear helmets is not a bad thing, as long as it does not decrease the number of people that actually ride.  If you can figure a way out to both increase cycling and helmet use, I’m all for it.

Last weekend I gave a 23 mile bike tour to my friend Liz and my family, all first time NYC bikers.  My 70 year old grandmother completed the whole trip and escaped with only a scratch on her ankle.  At the last minute I rounded up a couple of video cameras and was able to produce the following video….

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… 

Often people tell me that they cannot commute by bicycle because they must wear a suit or formal attire to work.  Well I’m sorry, but that excuse just doesn’t cut it.  I bike to work in a suit or business casual everyday.  A friend of mine bikes to the Opera, in a tuxedo.  Now, some of you may call this “hard core”, but I think it’s just the opposite.  To those of us that do bike NY, it’s mundane and completely rational. 

As the wonderful blog Amsterdamize.com says, “Cycle Chic means normal people riding normal bikes in their normal clothes.”  People that display true “bike fashion” or “bike culture” are not trying to make a statement.  They are just people that dress well and get around town on a bicycle.

There are a several great blogs dedicated to chic cycling, among them Boston-based Chic Cyclist, San Francisco’s Velo Vogue, and Toronto Bike Chic.  Two of my favorites are Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize, both of which offer very funny explanations of what it means to have a bike culture (worth reading, click here and here). Definitely read the linked posts, but in summary, biking has very little to do with fashion, the environment, or living an alternative lifestyle and everything to do with convenience and practicality.

Right now the “cycle chic” community is buzzing after several recent articles in the New York Times.  I have mixed feelings about these articles.  On April 2, there was an article in the Times Fashion & Style section about Ralpha, a small London brand that is “restoring taste to cycling clothes.”  The company sells $195 Sportswool biking jerseys, $205 bib shorts, $25 socks, and a $750 tweed jacket for urban commuting.  Now to me, the prices alone are disturbing, but the idea that there needs to be a separate line of clothes for people that bike is preposterous. But then again, I’m probably not the target market for this product: “My friends were on bikes that would cost $3,000 or more, but then they’d go spend $50 on a shirt that was badly made and badly styled and had no passion in it.  There was a gap in the market for this.” 

On Wednesday, the Times Fashion section struck again with a big bike spread.  The main article called “Riding the It factor” talks about the increasing appeal of Dutch bikes.  The article is accompanied by a short piece about “How City Bikers Look Sharp”, a photo slideshow, and audio commentary.  As it happens, today I sold my trusty hybrid to a friend and purchased a Dutch-style bike that I ordered last week.  The Times was right about one thing, biking the city this afternoon I found it to be one sweet ride. The wide handlebars had my hands practically at my sides and the upright seating position had me pedaling with good speed without standing up.  With a rear coaster brake, a 3-speed geared hub, fenders, rear wheel-lock, and a bike rack, the KHS Green is a great commuter bike. And unlike the bikes mentioned in the article, it didn’t cost $1,000 to $2,000. My new bike cost just $360 from my favorite bike shop, Enoch’s on W37th and 10th Ave.  Now while Club Monaco is selling the very elegant Gazelle for $995, you could buy my more modest KHS and still have the money for a nice suit from Century 21 to go with it.

This just in! You do not need to prepare for a short bike trip to work or the store as if you were gearing up for the Tour de France! Spandex, highly reflective tight-fitting biking jackets, and (gasp) helmets* are not actually required to bike the streets of New York. Nor are over the shoulder messenger bags and torn and cuffed jeans. You can actually look like a normally dressed New Yorker, and get around town on a bicycle.

You don’t have to be a 25-35 year old man, flying down the street on a fixed gear cycle screaming at pedestrians and motorists to “Get the F— out of the way.” I didn’t even know what a fixed gear was until last week, and once I found out I wondered why the heck someone would choose to ride a bike without gears, breaks, and the ability to coast. That’s cool?

I bike New York because it’s the easiest way to get around town. Period. The fact that biking in America is perceived as either “Sport” or “Fringe” is a tragedy. You know the common idiom, “It’s like riding a bike…” Well, most people learn to ride at a very young age and it is a simple skill that stays with them the rest of their lives. Its not really that complicated.

I’m not sure how or when biking became seen as a leisure activity or something for children, but it probably has something to do with sprawling cities and the rise of the automobile. As the distances to work became greater and greater and the automobile traffic became more and more oppressive, the bike changed from a transportation device to a recreation device. And it stayed in the garage a lot more often.

But folks, we don’t live in suburban Atlanta (thank God), we live in one of the greatest cities in the world. A city that has a lot more in common with the capitals of Europe and Asia than it does with America’s heartland. True, our city expanded and became more car dependent thanks to the highway building efforts of Robert Moses, but we still live in a place dependent on mass transportation and walking. A place with mom-and-pop delis, independent pizza shops, and non-chain restaurants. And a place that is flat and compact and GREAT for cycling.

Moreover, we now have a Mayor and Transportation Commissioner that are taking back the streets from the automobile and turning over space to pedestrians and cyclists. We have experienced a rapid expansion of our bike route network (working toward 200 new lane miles in just 3 years) and seen a dramatic rise in commuter cycling (one year increase of 35%!).

So its time to stop thinking, “I’ll bike when it is safer”, because it is safer when there are more people biking. We’ll know we’ve made it when a passenger actually looks before throwing open a taxi-door into a bike lane. When a pedestrian realizes that just because the cars have passed, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay to walk blindly through the intersection with an ipod in their ears. And when cyclists realize biking is not fringe, but mainstream and that the rules apply to them too.

*Helmets are required by law for cyclists 13 and under. I would also say they are important for cyclists new to biking and/or biking in New York. My family, friends, and co-workers definitely do not approve of me biking without a helmet, and I am not trying to encourage other people to ride without one. But this country is about personal choice, and I quite simply do not like to wear them. I am not a high-speed racing cyclist, a bmx mountain biker, or a trick cyclist. I bike at low speeds, with caution, and am comfortable with the risk involved.