Black women take their place in D.C.’s bike lanes

[7rider]

Interesting article in the Post about a group of riders folks seem to forget is there.

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By Vanessa Williams, Published: July 10

Veronica Davis bikes almost everywhere, except to church on Sundays.

She’s a member and frequent user of Capital Bikeshare and has testified before the D.C. Council in favor of more bike lanes in Southeast Washington, where she lives and owns a small business.

Yet some people pause and look again when they see her gliding along on two wheels. “Mommy, look at the black lady on the bike!” a little girl squealed one day as Davis rode past the Potomac Gardens housing project.

It’s that kind of reaction, Davis says, that makes Black Women Bike DC the perfect name for the group that she and two other women launched after chatting on Twitter about their participation in Bike to Work Day last spring.

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek comment: ‘No, see, we do bike,’ ” Davis said.

[shootingstar]

That's great that she's part of that group.

It's probably for socializing with folks and doing stuff with folks after church that she would find it complicated to bike (if other members of the congregation don't cycle to church).

[Trek420]

And in Oakland:

http://oaklandlocal.com/article/new-...-color-oakland

[NABE]

These are great articles. I am the only Black female (that we know of) in my city that cycles and I hear it A LOT (as well as my hubby) !

[Giulianna23]

Good Article...I've read this same one a couple of weeks ago.
I am mixed Latina/Black..Grew up in a latin diverse country where u see all kind of people riding a bike.. I would love to see more latinos and people from other cultures and races participating in cycling...

[Trek420]

I'd like to see that too. Especially here in the good ol' USA I feel cycling is seen as a white sport. OK, can we talk? A rich white sport like golf. In fact some say cycling is the new golf But what we need is like G23 said a culture where you see all kinds of people riding all kinds of bikes all kinds of ways to all kinds of places. That is my hope.

All bikes are good, all people who ride are great.

[OakLeaf]

When I was racing bikes and practicing law, people would ask me why I didn't golf. I'd tell them, "I already have one sport that's ludicrously expensive, predominantly male and overwhelmingly white. Why do I need another?"

But then as now, there's a heavy strain of elitism that fuels the racial divide. If you look at cycling as "sport," there are few non-white participants (even though most cities now have a Major Taylor club); if you look at cycling as transportation, if anything, people of color are overrepresented because of wealth disparities. It's just that people in shabby jeans tooling around slowly on poorly maintained big-box-store bikes, stereotypically ignoring rules of the road, are invisible to a lot of "sport" and "lifestyle" cyclists, and that's a shame.

[7rider]

That's actually one nice thing about riding in the D.C. metro area.
Pretty much everyone here is from somewhere else - whether it's another part of the USA or another part of the world. So riders reflect the diversity in creed and color (and I'm referring to the "golf" cyclists - the club riders - not the invisible cyclists).