Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

Is there a bicycle culture war happening on the streets right now? It sure does seem like it, as conversations turn from differences in policy to inflammatory and, yes, hate-fuelled rhetoric. Do bicyclists represent more than just a person wanted to pedal a two-wheeled thing of beauty to work? And, since when do people who choose cars represent everything wrong with the world?

It’s hard to ride a bicycle to work on a regular basis, and not turn into a bike advocate. People want to be safe, and riding a bicycle for transportation currently comes with significant risks.

— Ron Johnson / “Why is Riding a Bicycle in the City Turning Into a Culture War” / Momentum 

… The idea of
nation is a record full of __. Anzaldua wrote, the U.S.-Mexican
border es una herida abierta. Scrawled in black marker on a wall in
Bulgaria, EVERY BORDER IS A WOUND.

— Patrycja Humienik / “Borderwound”

Someone asked me this week what my artistic process is. “I don’t really have a process,” I said, thinking. “I just make what I feel like I have to make.” It’s less like a well-honed practice and more like a compulsion, an itch I have to pay attention to. These days, it’s easy for me to spin out and feel powerless. I try to not get into a mental swamp where fear and anger make it impossible for me to create what I want to in the world. I try to see it as a victory against all the oppressive forces in our country when I live my life freely and create art that’s not making any billionaires any money.

— S. Mirk / “No Star Knows the Shape of Its Constellation” 

… there is still so much violence. And hunger.

— David Williams / When the English Fall

“Let’s be brave and take cycling out of the culture wars,” wrote Trudy Harrison, a Conservative MP in the United Kingdom, in a recent opinion piece. “I encourage every candidate standing at the next election to include walking or cycling on their leaflets; it might just attract people who don’t currently feel spoken to. People want to cycle more. We just need to help them do it.”

— Ron Johnson / “Why is Riding a Bicycle in the City Turning Into a Culture War” / Momentum

Sit here by me. It all worked out for the best, because look, here you are and we’re happy and safe now!

That didn’t last, though. The happiness.

The safeness. The now.

— Margaret Atwood / The Heart Goes Last

Philip Crosby once said “slowness to change usually means fear of the new.” And that could very much be the case when it comes to urban cycling. But by understanding these complex dynamics, we can better appreciate why riding a bicycle is becoming more than just a mode of transportation—it is turning into a symbolic battleground in some strange culture war. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

— Ron Johnson / “Why is Riding a Bicycle in the City Turning Into a Culture War” / Momentum

What I’m Listening To:

Every night
Oh, man
What you pray?
Look out the window
It’s Hell out there

— Darkside / “Hell suite, Pt. II”