Presentation for 2010 Global Fusion Conference

1. Glocalizing Cycle Chic:
The Aesthetics of Bicycle Advocacy
Chris McConnell
UT Austin, RTF Department
Global Fusion, October 23. 2010

2. Glocalizing Cycle Chic
• Introducing Cycle Chic
• Copenhagen as imagined Ecotopia
• Fetishization of the feminine
• Model for US? Texas?
• Advocacy as identity

3. Copenhagen Cycle Chic
• Copenhagen-based bicycle advocacy blog that
features images of stylish women and men
commuting by bicycle.
• "Bike Advocacy in High Heels“ est. 2007
• Clearly intended for an international,
Anglophone audience.
• Contrasts Copenhagen’s cycle culture with
sport-oriented culture in US and elsewhere.
• Offers Copenhagen as a transportation model
for other cities

6. Cycle Chic
We realised that making
urban biking look
effortless - which it is in
Copenhagen - was an
inspiration to people
abroad who wished for
the same thing where
they live.
-Mikael Colville-Anderson
Colville-Andersen, M. (2008, February 5). Copenhagen Cycle Chic
FAQs. Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Blog, . Retrieved October 22, 2010,
from http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2008/02/copenhagen-
cycle-chic-faqs.html

8. Selections from Manifesto
• I choose to cycle chic and, at every opportunity, I
will choose Style over Speed.
• I am aware that my mere presence in said urban
landscape will inspire others without me being
labeled as a 'bicycle activist'.
• I will endeavor to ensure that the total value of
my clothes always exceeds that of my bicycle.
• I will refrain from wearing and owning any form
of 'cycle wear'.
• Colville-Andersen, M. (2008, April 14). The Cycle Chic Manifesto. Copenhagen Cycle Chic.
blog, . Retrieved October 22, 2010, from
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2008/04/cycle-chic-manifesto.html

9. Cycle Chic - Alternative View
• Cycling as sport
– Requiring specialized clothes and safety
equipment
– Emphasis on speed and performance over
practicality
• Cycling as dangerous activity
• Cycling as gendered masculine

10. Copenhagen as Ecotopia
• Cycling is integrated into urban transportation
mix, unlike many other cities
• CCC also leverages Copenhagen’s cultural
cachet and reputation as a city with a high
quality of life.
• Above all, CCC offers a fantasy of a city where
one can take relaxed bike rides surrounded by
attractive stylish women.

12. Glocalizing - Blog Examples
• Spin off blogs in other cities
– Official
• London
• Barcelona
• Dublin
• Helsinki
• Lisbon, etc.
– Unofficial
• San Francisco
• Curitiba
• Estonia
• Porto Alegre, etc.

14. Lisbon Cycle Chic

15. Gender and Cycling
• As a fashion blog, it’s
unsurprising that CCC
emphasizes images of
women
• Yet images of women
produced by men figure
prominently in
promotions of cycling as
lifestyle.
– Contrast with cycling as
sport/renegade pursuit
– Reifies notion of women
as vulnerable?

16. Gender and Audience
• CCC doesn’t publish
audience figures: Are
readers men or women?
• Male gaze: provides the
pleasure of looking at
women with a fairly
constrained range of body
types and ages.
• Could provide examples of
riding to women - could just
be material for male
fantasies

17. Gender and Cycling
• "I can ride till my legs are sore and it won’t
make riding any cooler, but when attractive
women are seen sitting upright going about
their city business on bikes day and night, the
crowds will surely follow.“
– David Byrne
Byrne, D. (2009, May 28). Book Review - 'Pedaling Revolution - How Cyclists Are Changing American
Cities,' by Jeff Mapes - Review - NYTimes.com. NYTimes.com. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/books/review/Byrne-t.html?_r=1

18. Gender and Cycling

19. Model for Other Cities?
• Copenhagen
– Flat
– Cool, mild climate
– Infrastructure developed since 1970s
• Austin
– Not flat
– Hot much of the year
– Infrastructure largely developed for cars
– street clothes and relaxed riding not so practical

20. Cycling as Identity
• Conventional bike advocacy emphasizes
safety, infrastructure, policy issues
• Newer advocacy emphasize issues of identity
as cyclist
• Furness (2007): Critical Mass as statement of
identity - movement for visibility
• Cycle Chic provides more tools for articulating
cyclist identity - away from sporty or outlaw
image.

21. Cycle Chic as Global Imaginary
• While Cycle Chic may not provide a solid plan of action for
improving transportation - or even increasing cycling - it
offers a view of how life could be conducted, what
Appardurai (1990) terms an imaginary.
• limited use in pragmatic or policy terms
• Yet it can provide a means to mobilize potential cyclists to
ride or lobby bike-friendly policies.

22. “Roadways are the new runways for these style-
obsessed cyclists, their bikes no mere
conveyance but a racy adjunct to their look.
More than a few are infusing what used to be
an athletic, or purely practical, pursuit with
eye-catching glamour and sex appeal. Their
style, a modish amalgam of fashion and
function, is documented on blogs and
emulated by like-minded sisters on wheels. “
Ruth La Ferla, New York Times, September 29, 2010

23. Glocalizing Cycle Chic
• Copenhagen Cycle Chic presents an idealized – and
sexualized – vision of cycle commuting.
• While it’s an attractive fantasy of a relaxed,
environmentally sensitive lifestyle, the practicalities
aren’t easily adapted to many locales
• What it does accomplish is offer viewers the
opportunity to imagine how casual cycling might be
possible in their own cities.
• Political and Policy cycling information is often boring
or nerdy; while problematic in its gender politics,
Cycle Chic adds a utopian affective dimension to bike
advocacy.

25. Austin Critical Mass