FRIDAY AT 5 PM is bicycle rush hour on N Vancouver. Despite
some evening drizzle on Friday, November 13, a line of five bikes
stopped at a signal on Vancouver. The cyclists had some things in
common: They all wore helmets, they all had flashing front lights, and
they were all white.
As the city prepares to add 600 new miles of bikeways over the next
20 years, bike advocates are starting to point out some problems with
the current bike scene. Though there are no hard stats breaking down
biking habits by race, anecdotal evidence points to a biking scene that
includes few people of color. The Community Cycling Center (CCC) on NE
Alberta is working with a three-year, $70,000 grant from Metro on a
program called “Understanding Barriers to Bicycling” that aims to
figure out why people of color seemingly aren’t jumping on Portland’s
bicycle bandwagon.
“There’s a racial gap,” says CCC Community and Programs Director
Alison Graves, who laments that the overwhelming majority of her bike
shop’s customers are white despite its location in a neighborhood that
is nearly 50 percent non-white, according to the 2000 census. “Why
aren’t there young people of color on fixed gears and older people of
color commuting? There’s some diversity, but it isn’t like the whole
community is riding bikes.”
“When initiatives for cycling come through, there are questions
about who will benefit from bike lanes,” says Paige Coleman, director
of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. Coleman says conversations
about biking being a “white thing” have come up often in recent years.
“Some communities call the bike lanes the ‘white stripes of
gentrification,'” she adds.
The CCC organized over 70 meetings and five open houses over the
past year to figure out why minorities are not biking as frequently as
their white neighbors. “A lot of the conversation is about cars, fear
of cars, and being unsure of the rules and bike routes,” says Graves,
who says groups she worked with were often unaware of the city’s bike
plans or resources like bike maps.
“The information from the city is not crossing cultural gaps,” says
Graves.
Some people of color who attended Graves’ workshops were nervous
about biking because they feared the police will racially profile them
and pull them over, says Graves. In September, African American
Portlander Robert James tried to fight a drug charge on the grounds
that the arresting officer may have racially profiled him for
ostensibly rolling through a stop sign on his bike [“Biking While
Black,” News, Sept 17].
The city has recently made some small changes to try to get
immigrant communities onto bikes. When Portland Bureau of
Transportation’s Carolina Iraheta Gonzalez taught English and Spanish
alternative transportation classes to adults in North Portland over the
summer, she says many of her students had never seen a bike map
before.
Tanya Wolfersperger had a similar experience while helping host CCC
focus groups with Hacienda Community Development Corporation. “When
people see bikers, it’s the Spandex-wearing cyclist, people look at
that and they think, that’s not me,” says Wolfersperger, adding that
the Hacienda residents just weren’t getting the information about
biking in Portland.
“Sending out a bunch of paper isn’t necessarily going to do it,
public meetings don’t always do it,” says Wolfersperger, who found that
Spanish-language radio ads were a much more effective method of
publicizing events and services.
But language isn’t the only barrier to cycling. Graves says she
recently met an African American father at a Dishman Community Center
outreach event who biked frequently but said he had no interest in
“white people rides” like Providence Bridge Pedal.
Regena Williams started riding bikes for fun on weekends with her
kids after they learned the rules of the road (and how to change flat
tires) at a CCC-sponsored Vernon Elementary after-school program. “I do
not see a lot of African Americans riding bicycles and I do not see a
lot of immigrants riding bicycles,” says Williams, who is African
American.
Anecdotally, she perceives a lack of health consciousness in her
community as a barrier to biking, as well as safety out on the
road.
“When you’re a bicyclist, usually people are not too aware of
respect,” says Williams. “They’ll blow the horn, all that kind of
stuff.”
SO TRUE! I’ve noticed black people are also mysteriously underrepresented at Phish shows, Vespa dealerships, and “Be Your Dog’s Midwife” courses. It’s probably all related to their lack of health consciousness and fear of police, though.
wow. such much ignorance and racism in one article. portland mercury… you’re part of the problem. not the solution.
dear editor,
here’s some abstracts for some articles for your “paper” which based on the above article i feel you’ll find both compelling and engaging….
“Why aren’t there more black people on the slopes at Mt. Hood?”
“Lots of black people hang out at the lloyd center, how come more of them don’t use the skating rink?”
“Why was I the only black guy at the Sebadoh show?”
: |
For one, that census was nearly 10 years ago. It’s time for a new census (i could only guess what happened in the last 10 years.)
i just wanted to say that one of my friend’s is black and she rides a fixed gear. so what separates her from anyone else?
“Some communities call the bike lanes the ‘white stripes of gentrification,” i don’t think this is an effective comment that solves anything.
it is a reality that a communication/language gap exists, but maybe we shouldn’t be relying on race as a common denominator and point the finger.
we have the resources to educate ourself and we can create ways to fill the gaps if people really want to ride bikes. im a cyclist and i would be regardless of race, gender, or being an ex convict. riding a bike for transportation or for any reason is not an exclusive sport. sure it costs money, but so does riding the bus or driving a car.
Why would Ms. Coleman repeat, to the media, such an ill-informed comment that adds nothing to the discussion? (“white stripes of gentrification”) Really, why would she repeat what someone said out of frustration? Its really surprisingly ignorant for someone who is the leader of a community group; its a comment both divisive, and uninformed. Disappointing- I expect more from my community leaders.
Even it that HAD been said to her, I expect her- as a community leader- to say, hey, what makes you feel that way? Let me show you the resources available. Let me help. I want to hear how she responded to that. Did she take it upon herself to consider it a teachable moment, and show that person how and where to access resources? Or simply choose to re-mouth it as a good quote for the media? Biking is for everyone. Apparently, she did not feel obligated to be helpful, and a problem-solver, and say to that community member, you are a valued member of the biking community, whether or not you are new to biking. She does not choose to share with us how she helped; one can only assume she did not. A pity that she did not take that moment to educate and connect that community member, but not a big surprise.
Maybe the people who don’t ride bikes don’t feel like it.
I’m Black & i ride a bike (& a pretty good one, too) all the time. This article is news to me.
Since when was biking precived as a “White” thing? It’s effin’ stupid, who actually thinks that?
Huh? I see tons of “non-white” people riding bikes all the time around here. It’s probably their lack of helmets or ridiculously priced bikes that render them invisible to some.
Wow… $70,000 of our tax dollars going for this… stupid.
“It’s probably their lack of helmets or ridiculously priced bikes that render them invisible to some.”
You DO have a point here. Many [young] Black people either may not have the money, or just may not put the same priority into paying $600-$1400 for a bicycle.
Seriously? I mean, really? Someone got 70 grand to study why ‘people of color’ (your words, not mine) prefer a heated car with a stereo over the dangers of being run over on your bike, being cold, wet and tired, to go somewhere?
Really?
Give the 70 grand back. I can tell you why.
They don’t effin want to.
i could be wrong but isn’t Portland under 10% african-american?
That’s a good point, christopher. Somewhere under 7%, I think.
You shouldn’t expect to see more one black bicycle rider out of fourteen or so ‘other race’ bicycle riders.
Plenty of black people ride bikes, you just don’t see them in your rout. Mercury articles need to stop talking about race, because the authors do not know how to approach this subject tactfully, whatsoever. How is this the alternative paper?