“We will ride different, but we will ride.”
This is our motto for 2021 and these pictures are lessons from history. The bicycle boom we are currently experiencing worldwide is not a new thing and there is no guarantee, that it will last long (even if we hope so).
1970s. This bike boom came not through pandemic, but through environmental protests and lasted for the best part of four years in USA. Sales were so strong that bike shops regularly ran out of stock and would-be customers had to put their names on long waiting lists.
The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 paved the way for the bicycle boom. For many event organizers, the automobile was public enemy number one. An event guide published by Friends of the Earth included a chapter titled “Warning: The Automobile Is Dangerous to Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Mind, and Body.”
And if the automobile was the problem, the bicycle was the solution. The Earth Day coordination team suggested forty ideas for Earth Day events; one of them was “Encourage people to walk or ride bicycles instead of driving cars on April 22.”
Twenty million Americans took part in a variety of events on the day itself and the months beforehand, many of them held at colleges, schools, and universities, galvanizing the young and melding together the first “green” generation.
The 2020 bike boom could have a more lasting impact on cities around the world than the 1970s bike boom had on America. But only if planners and politicians—and people—clamor for this change.
PS. This traditionoal New Year’s post is the first one without snow, do you know why? There is almost no snow on this planet. Think about it, Mr. Motorist.
This text was based on a beautiful article in Forbes by Carlton Reid “ Bicycling Booms During Lockdown—But There's A Warning From History ”, pictures are also taken there.
