More Conversation About Not-So-Invisible Bicyclists

The other day, we wrote a post
in hopes of starting a conversation about the way certain groups of
people who ride bicycles -- notably, immigrants who ride to work and
for work -- tend to get overlooked by bicycle advocacy groups and
planners. The post (which grew out of an item by Streetsblog Network member Honking in Traffic)
got a lot of responses, including a few from people who thought we were
stating the obvious or being patronizing. (On Twitter, @feedmeshow put it this way: "Wealthy white person notices that some ride of necessity, as opp. lifestyle choice." Ouch.)

What
seems clear is that there needs to be more discussion on the topic, not
less. Many people sent along some great resources that could help to
further a productive conversation, and it seemed worthwhile to collect
some of that feedback in a separate post.

Ciudad de Luces reaches out to day laborers who use bicycles for transportation. (Photo: Ciudad de Luces)

We learned about an outreach program in Los Angeles called Ciudad de Luces,
a project of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition whose mission is
"to increase working-class Latino immigrant bicyclists’ safety and
empower them to educate and spread bicycle safety information and
advocacy to their communities." They're due to publish a
Spanish-language cycling guide in March and are working with grassroots
groups like CARACEN (the Central American Resource Center). A few readers also referenced an article in Bicycling magazine on the topic.

One
of the most the intriguing responses came from Michael Smart, a
doctoral student at UCLA's Institute for Transportation Studies, who
just published a paper entitled "US Immigrants and Bicycling:
Two-Wheeled in Autopia" (download the PDF
here). Smart's paper looks at many variables that influence immigrants'
use of bicycles -- income, neighborhood density, inability to obtain a
driver's license because of immigration status, and past habits. It
includes some very interesting statistics -- for instance, "even among
non-drivers, native-born Americans make only 1 percent of trips by
bicycle, while immigrants make 3 percent of trips by bicycle."

In
his conclusion, Smart notes that despite the high rate of biking among
immigrant groups, very little effort is made to include those people in
the planning process:

Let's keep talking. It can't hurt.