Comments on: Kooks, freaks and weirdos on the bike

By: pammy

pammy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:02:33 +0000

The media is pathetic and are the real kooks freaks and weirdo’s.The media is not your friend but try real hard to make it look like they are.Basically they are like prostitutes that have herpes trying to french kiss you.

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:37:33 +0000

Today’s eccentrics are tomorrow’s “normal” people, and with less than 1% (IIRC) of the US population commuting by bicycle, I’d say we still qualify as eccentrics. I’d be happy to get the coverage. The more exposure, the better. Maybe 99% of the people who see the piece will never change, but that last 1% just had a seed planted.

Illustrative Anecdote: I remember the first two people I ever met who talked about home schooling their children. They were a little weird. They had odd fashion sense. They had strange ideas. They didn’t really fit in, and people had a tough time including them in social activities. Naturally I thought their “home schooling” idea was pretty strange, too. A few years later home schooling was mainstream, and I even admired people who could swing it as bastions of free market idealism. Home schooling is no more “new” than bicycling is, but it’s time had returned.

By: JiMCi

JiMCi — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:18:14 +0000

In Montreal, we get 7 feet of snow in a typical winter. Every time there’s a snowstorm, you can bet your last dollar that the next morning, at least one the local newspaper is going to have a picture of a cyclist riding trough the storm on their front page. Eccentric characters or wise commuters?

By: kit

kit — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:55:08 +0000

Don’t forget Brad Pitt in “Burn After Reading.”

By: David Hembrow

David Hembrow — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:50:15 +0000

Well, that's American cinema. It's similar in the UK. Cinema reflects real life, or at least the majority view of what real life is. However, look at the cinema from countries which have a lot of cycling and you'll see normal people riding bikes without it being a comment on anything. Cycling is always presented in a positive way here. Take a look at the promotional film here and here.

By: phillip

phillip — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:13:51 +0000

Think of all of the positive characters that ride a bike: Pipi Longstocking, 40 year old virgin, PeeWeeHerman, r.v. Robin Williams, Kevin Kline in In and Out. Why do these characters have to be so quirky? Is that the impression of cyclists? How about a person who is fit and enjoys riding? I think that is the “normal” person.

By: David Hembrow

David Hembrow — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:42:52 +0000

A 40 mile round trip commute by bike isn’t terribly unusual here in the Netherlands. I do it, and several other people near-by do the same. In fact, it’s hard to think of anything that is all that unusual if it involves a bike.

Press coverage of cycling here is never sensationalist, and never makes cyclists out to be freaks. It’s a normal part of everyone’s life, and it is portrayed as such even though the car companies spend more on ads than the bike companies do.

By: Karl McCracken (twitter: @KarlOnSea)

Karl McCracken (twitter: @KarlOnSea) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:53:33 +0000

@Coal and Ice –
Leaving comments in an obscure poetic form?
I thought that was only me.
And then only on Twitter.
Or is it just for cadence and punctuation?

By: Mauricio Babilonia

Mauricio Babilonia — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:46:44 +0000

Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.

-Robert A. Heinlein

By: Rob E.

Rob E. — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:26:41 +0000

Personally I think the “kooks” do us a service. The media looks for the extreme situations to report on. Person A takes frequent, but short bike trips to work when the weather is nice. Person B gave up their car, rides a cargo bike, uses it to ferry their children to school, get themselves to work, and do the grocery shopping, and does it all when there’s three feet of snow on the ground. Which is going to get someone’s attention? Person B, the extremist, will. Sure, Person A represent a lifestyle more easily accessible to your average car-dependent commuter, but it’s the extremist who gets attention, and, therefore, gets the conversation started. Even the so-called kooks are generally rational people, just living a lifestyle that’s outside of what most people think is possible. Showing the reading/viewing public that even the extremes are possible, should at least clue them in to the fact that there are possibilities. “If Person B can completely give up their car, I bet I can at least leave it parked for a day every now and then.”
I guess if I saw it as a choice between a more representational sampling of bike commuters vs the fringe element, I’d like to see something more representational, but the reality is that those people are not really news, so the real choice is between the eccentrics and no one. I choose the eccentrics.