Immigrant communities and cycling

[shootingstar]

I really have no way of knowing anything about whether that can be correlated to class or immigration status.

Neither can I. I just notice the colour of Vancouver ...no point in me pretending that I don't...especially when I visit Seattle or Portland (several times). It's strikingly obvious to me.

It may well be also, some people are more keen to go jogging. Lots around our area...people of all sorts of backgrounds jogging around since we live near several major bike and pedestrian paths.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I think of immigrant and Latino utilitarian cyclists as being on the leading edge of big and beneficial changes for America. They are reminding us that bicycles are a viable mode of transportation in our everyday lives. In our luxurious cycling recreation/sport mindset, many of us have forgotten just how practical, cheap, healthy, and good for the planet riding a plain old bike to the store or to work can be as opposed to automatically jumping in our car.

Speaking for myself, whenever I see a Latino riding their bike somewhere, I think to myself "Now why aren't I on my bike right now doing this errand, instead of in my car using up gas?". Granted, there are times when I really need to use the car, but these 'bicyclists of the People' really put me to shame sometimes and inspire me to grab my bike instead of my car keys to go to the bank, etc.

In the current trend of higher gas prices, the recession, and rising health problems due to lack of exercise, what all this will eventually mean is that we will need to make changes and invest in some safety features for REGULAR bicyclists in normal traffic routes, not just keep traveling along the current mindset of investing in and creating more recreational bike paths and rail-to-trails with the goal of getting bikes out of traffic.
How about starting with street signs with pictures illustrating how bikes should be traveling with traffic instead of against it? There are so many things that could be done to make riding in traffic safer and to encourage more people to use their bikes for everyday transportation. Look to Europe for lots of inspiration and ideas.