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Bicycology:
The bicycle as medium and message.
Patrick Nicholson
Bicycology is a cycle activism and education collective that formed
after the 2005 G8 Bike Ride.
Bicycology is run non-hierarchically through regular
meetings rotating around the
country.
Roadshows
In 2006, Bicycology organised a
cycle roadshow from London to
Lancaster, then went on to the
Camp for Climate Action near
Selby.
This year Bicycology did a
tour of south-west England.
Around 20 of us cycled from
Aylesbury to Exeter over two
weeks, stopping in towns to promote cycling and raise awareness
of wider environmental and
social issues.
Travelling solely by bike, we
carried all our equipment with
us using panniers, trailers, and
load-carrying bicycles. Setting
up in public spaces, we offered a
range of free activities including
cycle maintenance, a renewable
energy trailer, bike jewellery,
street theatre, a carbon footprint
quiz, and film screenings.
Zero lycra zone
Bicycology's focus on cycling
engages people who might otherwise be unwilling or unable to
think about the more challenging issues that we highlight.
As cyclists, arriving with all
our tat by bike, we are seen as
non-threatening, human, open
and approachable. We steer clear
of the lyrca-clad stereotypes,
dressing informally and comfortably in Bicycology pink and
green.
We want to present cycling as
practical, normal and enjoyable.
We offer to check and help peoples' bikes, and this simple act is
often enough to get people
thinking and interested in staying and chatting, exploring
what else we have to offer.
Often they find it odd that we
should fix their bikes for free, or
that we should voluntarily cycle
large distances together around
the country. The idea begins to
grow that there are other ways of
doing things.
Two-wheeled utopia...
Bicycology is about providing
people with glimpses of alterna-
tive futures  futures where cars
are the minority users of the
roads, where people do things
because they want to, where
there are genuine communities,
responsible, consensual and
striving for a better world,
where concern for the environment and others on the Earth is
a natural, implicit assumption
underlying everything else.
Bicycology uses the bicycle as
the vehicle to transport us, both
literally and metaphorically, to
these alternate visions of what's
possible. Bicycology itself strives
to realise these futures here and
now, in microcosm, through its
organisation and its actions.
For example, on the roads as it
moves from town to town Bicycology consciously reclaims the
space from the cars, asserting
our right to a substantial safe
corridor on the road.
It means that we travel more
safely, people see how things
could be when cyclists have sufficient numbers to control the
road space around them, and the
car drivers get a momentary
dent in their perception that
they rule the roads.
We often travel with music
playing, creating a rolling carnival on wheels. Pedestrians generally love it.
Predictably, the occasional
motorist gets enraged.
...And how we get there
At our events we make a point
of having lots of information
about who were are, from how
we organise to where we sleep at
night, from what we eat to how
we fund it all.
We want to present it all
holistically and honestly because
we're not just about cycling,
we're about a whole interconnected set of ideas for different,
better ways of living, working,
organising, and travelling.
Patrick Nicholson is a member of
the Bicycology collective.
www.bicycology.org.uk
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