Heaven Is A Place —Where Everyone Bikes

March 4, 2010 • 4:47 pm • POSTED BY kdorsey

I am a cyclist and a fervent music fan. So you can imagine how excited I was a couple weeks ago when David Byrne stopped by Philly to talk about how bicycling has helped transform the urban experience. Unfortunately, no  music jams or giant-suit wearing were involved. But, all that bike talk was just as stimulating for the noggin.For those of you who aren’t aware, Mr. Byrne has been a cyclist for the past 20 years (he started back when biking wasn’t a cool or even socially-accepted mode of transportation). His recent book, Bicycle Diaries, chronicles the observations and insights he collected from his experiences biking in cities around the globe. (It’s one of his favorite things to do during his downtime on tour.) I received the book at our agency’s secret santa gift exchange, and have been thinking a lot about how cycling has changed the way I interact with our fair city, and how the city (powers that be/motorists/pedestrians) has responded to the growing popularity of urban biking.

The whole idea of bike-person-city interaction is also really relevant to my own experience in Philadelphia. As a car-worshiping Midwest transplant, I felt isolated and intimidated by the city during my first months here–until I bought my SE Lager, I finally made the switch after test-riding a friend’s bike, and getting my first taste of freedom. It made me realize how much more quickly I could get around–and get a feel for–my new city.

Now I’m hooked. My favorite time to ride is after a late night at the office when my brain can take a breather, I feel the wind on my face, and I become human once again. Second to that feeling of midnight euphoria, I also love my morning commute to work, where I pass through several different neighborhoods, each with its own distinct personality. Part of Philly’s charm is that neighborhoods can change so drastically from block to block. It’s great to see all of the funny interactions that neighbors and strangers alike have when they bump into one another on the sidewalks, sharing greetings and laughs. I also love the random snippets of conversation that I sometimes pick up out of context (it feels like I’m experiencing in real-time one long take in a Wes Anderson movie).

I’m not alone out there either. At the forum I learned that almost 10,000 Philadelphians bike to work, a higher percentage than in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or D.C. This makes sense, I guess, since about half of our creative department gets here on two wheels.

It will be interesting to see how the city changes as more people start riding bikes in the next couple of years. From the way the David Byrne discussion went, it seems like Philly has a promising future to become the most bike friendly city in America. We’ll see, but with the recent win of the $17.2 million Tiger grant, we might be well on our way.

Photography was prohibited at the event, but I was able to snap some quick shots of the beautiful film montage that played on a loop beforehand as we waited in the crowd. It was composed of bicycle scenes from the movies that portrayed how much fun it is to bike. I thought it was a nice way to start the night and complimented  the speakers’ talks which focused heavily on how cities have been planned, how we get around them, and how these factors ultimately affect the city dweller’s everyday life. Scroll down to see if you can name that movie or television show.

Odds and Ends from the Forum:

Extremely Interesting Books Mentioned:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

For The Ultra Curious:

The event was officially titled Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around: A Special Urban Sustainability Forum and was hosted by the Center for Environmental Policy at The Academy of Natural Sciences. Fellow panelists included Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, a landscape architect and urban designer from Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT),  Alex Doty, Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia’s Director of Sustainability and implementer of the mayor’s Greenworks initiative.