There’s a good piece in the Wall Street Journal today about biking in New York. In The City and Bikes: Rubber Meets Road, Jason Gay brings a lot of calm rationality to the media “debate”, arguing that the city’s Bike Wars are a bit of a smokescreen and that the increase in ridership is here to stay. One of my favorite bits:
There have been cheesy distortions of cycling as a trendy, elite activity—to link bike paths to ongoing gentrification, and claim the city is catering to a hipster fringe.
You want to see what a fraud that argument is? Get on a bike and ride. For every Spandexed obsessive tucked on a $3,000 carbon fiber frame you’ll see 100 people of every imaginable background just trying to get to work, do their job, have fun with their kids, safely spin from A to B.
This is such an obvious (and true) point that you almost never see made in the media when they cover this issue. This simplicity and diversity of New York cyclists is what I’m trying to show with my bike portraits. But if it takes a Wall Street Journal piece to get people to start seeing that, I can live with that.
Related: Here’s some of the “hipster fringe” I’ve come across so far:
.jpg "New York bike portrait Isaac on Prospect Park West")
.jpg "John fdny paramedic bike portrait")
.jpg "new york bike portrait gloria")
Commuter BIkes - Kudos for the photos – definitely discouraging to see no helmets.
jana - I am one of the people in Dmitry’s #bikenyc series and always wear my helmet, as I’m sure do all the other riders he photographs. These are portraits, though. As in, not photos of us actually riding our bikes. I chose not to wear mine for this reason.
Richard Masoner - I absolutely love this! “Hipster fringe” indeed.
You should consider submitting one or two of your photos to James Schwartz’s “Rate My Velo” website http://www.ratemyvelo.com/
Dmitry - Commuter Bikes – Thanks! Some people take their helmet off, some keep it on, and some don’t wear one. My goal is to take nice dignified portraits of cyclist in New York as they are, and as you know, a great many of them don’t wear a helmet.
Hi Jana!
Richard – Thanks! I haven’t seen that site, I’ll check it out!