Is bicycle riding cool? Should we be trying to make it cool?
I don’t feel particularly cool. It’s hard to feel cool, or indeed be cool, riding about Springfield on a town bicycle — one with “more sh*t on it than a bulls ass,” as a recent commenter wrote.
It seems to me that trying to be cool is always a losing proposition because the judgment of cool or uncool is never ours to make. It is always, and properly, an external judgment.
Selling cool has long been a money-maker because it’s difficult to resist the allure of cool as predetermined by others (i.e. image makers) — yours for only three easy payments of $19.95!
Cyclelicious today examines a talk by Mikael Colville-Anderson, of Copenhagenize, who was in San Francisco last week promoting his five ways Americans should promote bicycling (I’ll have more on this when I am able to get more information from Colville-Anderson). “Among his other proposals, Mikael suggests that we don’t focus so much on the subculture of cyclists,” Yokota Fritz writes.
As in (among other things):
Bicycling as transgressive.
Bicycling as special.
Bicycling as cool.
Man, it’s just transportation. What’s cool about it, if it is cool, is that you can just hop on and go where you want to go — free and easy. It’s fun. It’s normal.
Comments 9
Bicycling is normal, efficient and responsible. ‘Cool’ brings in a lifestyle element to it which starts to project towards consumerism.
Posted 02 Nov 2009 at 3:06 pm ¶I was REALLY cool today riding my bike to work. I was much LESS cool riding home. And yes, I’ve been buying cool lately – actually, I’ve been buying stuff to NOT stay cool. If you’d been buying stuff to NOT stay cool, you’d not be blogging about all this “free and easy” stuff.
Posted 02 Nov 2009 at 7:48 pm ¶I think cool may be a bad aim. Nevertheless, I think there has to be something more than “transportation” to get people to adopt it and accept it.
Let’s face it, cars aren’t sold as “hey it’s transportation man”
There seems to be an element of cool… but maybe less than cool, is a tie up with American identity, power, etc…
Posted 02 Nov 2009 at 8:13 pm ¶Quality of life. It’s real.
Glad you’re feeling better, Andy.
Posted 02 Nov 2009 at 9:21 pm ¶Steve… Man, stick to the intended definitions!
Shek… Yep.
Alex… So that’s why I like Keri’s comment re: Quality of life. It’s real.
Wow, that could be a slogan
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 8:15 am ¶the real question is… can you put a gun rack on your bike?
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 11:47 am ¶Alex… No problem
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 2:42 pm ¶Cool to me is the ability to go places and enjoy the trip there. Instead of being stuck in an enclosed car, which is stuck in traffic.
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 3:47 pm ¶This morning, it was more than cool, it was almost chilly! Oops. Forgot Andy’s admonition.
Getting back to the approved comment thread, personally, I think there’s a certain cool factor to having a bike with “more sh*t on it than a bulls ass,”
Myself, I’d rather get where I’m going a little quicker and Andy can keep the cool…
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 8:38 pm ¶