Move Over Lance - There's a New Super(Urban)Cyclist in Town!

do you recognize this man?

yes? good we can move on.

no?

if you answered no, you are either really young, super uncool, or in need of some music education. maybe even some education on recent bicycle advocacy news.

this is a photo of david byrne. bicycle advocacy's first superstar supporter posing with one of his bike rack designs.

in a very short period of time he has become bicycle advocacy's highest profile booster and the timing could not be better. cities all over the world are starting to take the first steps towards creating more safe places to cycle and he is exactly the kind of person we need to push the "bicycles for transportation" agenda forward.

here he is chatting with a journalist while riding in NY. here he is chatting with george strombo, and whats cool, is they talk about bikes before anything else. here is the youtube page with a bunch more videos of him and bikes. the point i am trying to make is that in what seems to be a very short period of time, he has placed himself squarely in the bikelane and is happy to be spreading the good word about transportation cycling and why more cycle infrastructure is good for cities.

i recently picked up a copy of his latest book and have been very slowly working my way through it. the book is not so much about bicycles, but more about exploring places by bike and how the bike can transform the way people see the world around them. he has been using bikes while touring the world for decades - here is a short passage -

"this point of view - faster than a walk, slower than a train, often slightly higher than a person - became my panoramic window on much of the world over the last thirty years - and it still is. its a big window and it looks out on a mainly urban landscape. ...through this window i catch glimpses of the mind of my fellow man, as expressed in the cities he lives in. cities, it occurred to me, are physical manifestations of our deepest beliefs and our often unconscious thoughts, not so much as individuals, but as the social animals we are."

interesting perspective and the more i think about it, the more those statements make real sense. have a look around the city you live in and think about those statements he made.

anyway, i am hopeful that transportation cycling issues can be moved forward by the superstar power a guy like david byrne generates.

keep it up david!