We finished up the Bristol fieldwork this month, although both Kat and I plan to return to the city again briefly later this Summer.

Towards the end of last week I interviewed a number of people at Yucca, a digital media company with a high proportion of cyclists. People spoke about conversations about bikes over coffee – ‘it probably sounds really boring’ (not to someone who’s researching cycling it doesn’t). At workplaces where cycling’s part of the culture, there’s often someone who’s a maintenance expert and – if you’re lucky – will fix your bike during the lunch break. (I remember my colleague Pete fiddling with my slightly broken dynamo, and being disappointed he didn’t get to use a welding torch to fix it!) It’s also more likely that people won’t look askance at you if you turn up with mud on your face after a rainy ride in.

Conversely, if cycling is looked down on by colleagues or clients, or seen as a bit eccentric, this can cause problems. One interviewee in Hull spoke about how ‘it doesn’t look right for your lawyer to turn up on a bike’, for example. Other people in different case study areas have spoken of feeling conspicuous turning up with cycling gear or cycling equipment, or even of colleagues joking about nearly running them over on the way to work.

If cycling is seen as something that fits in with your work identity (unless you loathe that identity, I guess), it can encourage you to keep cycling, even if family and friends don’t necessarily cycle. Talking to another interviewee in Bristol I learned about a building in two parts; one where the multiple bike racks were full to overflowing, and one with only a handful of bikes parked. Even within the same building or organisation there may be multiple transport cultures.

So many things to write about…..

- Women’s Night at the Bristol Bike Project
- The MOD Green Transport Day
- Conversations with Better By Bike people
- 7 more interviews
- More time hanging out at the BPP
- 3 bike portraits
- and (see below) a LOT of wet windy generally lost cycling (I was trying to trace a rabbit in the city but it seems to be more of just a tangle of disconnected lines – will try harder)

Regardless of where I am, I always photograph the walk/cycle traffic symbols. Although universal to an extent, they are uniquely shaped by the local culture.

During the Bristol Campaign Cycle (BCC) ‘Chic Cycle Ride’ on Sunday, I noticed Martin Tweddell (BCC chairman) was wearing an interesting looking trouser snap guard thing. He explained it featured images of the East German Ampelmännchen or ‘traffic light man’. Prior to reunification in 1990, east and west Germany had different road traffic symbols and the East German versions were soon replaced. This prompted public outcry and campaigns to return to the original character. As a result, the Ampelmännchen was returned to traffic communication infrastructure and also began a new life as a cultural icon, appearing on an array of objects such as cycle guard things and tourist souvenirs. It is an interesting case study of mobility communication and cultural practice.

The Bristol Bike Project is a unique organisation that ‘provide ‘free’ bicycles to members of underprivileged and marginalised groups that would not otherwise have the opportunity to own one’. They work with Bristol Refugee Rights, Bristol Drugs Project, Second Step, The Big Issue and a range of youth groups. However the bikes are not altogether free. Participants have to earn them. I spent the afternoon at a Earn-A-Bike session whereby participants work with volunteer mechanics to fix a donated bike. The sessions last 2-4 hours and up to six teams work side by side in the fully equipped workshop.

Project members emphasise the ‘practical, hands-on engagement that functions as a bonding process between owner and bicycle’. And I saw this in action. I spent the afternoon observing, talking, holding things, asking questions, standing in the way, getting out of the way, drinking tea and eating biscuits as people fixed up bikes and rode them away.

I saw how participants chose a bike from a range of specially pre-prepared bikes. Mechanics had already spent up to two days on each one working through a highly detailed checklist to ensure the frame, bottom bracket, headset, chainset, seatpost, handlebars and other key parts were ok.

Participants then worked through the second checklist with up to two mechanics. These tasks are viewed as good skills to have to keep a bike maintained or to fix something minor when it happens. They include replacing tyre, fixing puncture, replacing brake levers and cables, indexing gears, oiling the chain and replacing brake blocks.

I noted how mechanics worked as much with participants as they did with the bike. They encouraged them to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ parts of the bike, to understand what was wrong and how it might be fixed. They talked through the problem, demonstrated how to fix it, then put the tools in participants’ hands.

They then checked to see if the problem was fixed and if needed the process was repeated. One participant, who already had some bike knowledge, told me he had learnt a lot from the experience. I did too.

I hope to spend more time at the project to understand in more depth the value they add to the local community and to individuals lives. In addition to the Earn-A-Bike sessions I’ll attend the Women’s Maintenance Sessions on Mondays.

At the crack of dawn tomorrow morning I’ll be on my bike on my way to Bristol from London. It’s about 126miles by my calculations and as I’ll be carrying everything I’ll be needing for a month of fieldwork, I’ll be doing it over two days. I am trying to pack light, but digital tech (in the form of cameras, laptops, GPS devices and all their accoutrements) remains stubbornly heavy. Tomorrow night, all things going to plan, will be spent near Marlborough in accommodation generously provided by a couple of cycle tourers via the Warm Showers network.

I’m looking forward to it. I like to cycle to my fieldsites to experience first hand cycle-oriented points of departure and points of entry to cities. I find that making connections in this way between places reveals the dynamic multi-modal character of urban landscapes. It also renders visible (and physical) how cycling fits in larger mobile ecologies.

I also just like riding.

Kat and I recently co-wrote an article on group rides and how they generate particular types of public sociability. (This paper isn’t publicly available yet but I am happy to send anyone who asks a personal copy). This might be called cycling etiquette – social rules of behaviour – which may or may not conform with the Highway Code’s rules. (Did you know that the Highway Code says that drivers may talk but should not argue with their passengers?)

As with any set of behavioural norms, cycling etiquette changes over time and may be very different in differenct geographical and social contexts. It can both be widely understood and contested – not least by cyclists themselves.

While we were watching the Bristol commuters on Tuesday, I could see rules of cycling etiquette that I thought were both specific to that junction at that time, and more representative of cycling in Britain generally. I was on the East side of the junction, watching cyclists coming South down Gloucester Road under the railway bridge. There is an ASL and then the carriageway narrows, widening again a few cars lengths’ after the box junction has been crossed. This is what happens:

Cyclists coming through tend to position themselves right on the yellow box junction line, meaning that they end up riding close to the kerb. This is to allow motor vehicles to get past, which might otherwise have to wait behind the cyclist until the road widens again. Often this resulted in close passes being made – the car at the front is small and the gap between it and the first cyclist is reasonably wide, but larger cars and even bigger vehicles tended to pass close.

The assumptions being made here by both cyclists and drivers, are that motorists do not need to give cyclists as much room as they would give another motor vehicle, and that cyclists have a responsibility to keep in to the kerb and allow drivers to pass. These assumptions runs counter to advice in the Highway Code and in the Bikeability guidance, but are I suspect common among drivers and cyclists in Bristol and elsewhere (I’ve seen similar patterns of cycling behaviour at junctions in Hull last year).

From initial observations, conversations and just a brief glimpse at the range of local cycling events/activities it is clear that DIY/recycled bike culture flourishes in Bristol. Bikes have second and often third lives here. They are donated to projects, updated, given new futures and transformed into amazing new things.

Here are some pics* I took of an exhibition at The CREATE Centre about bike projects run by Spoke’n Chain, Life Cycle and The Bristol Bike Project.

*Apologies for the poor quality photos. It seems I have broken yet another camera. Cycling and cameras, for me, don’t go well together.

We’ve noticed that cars, buses and lorries tend to be largely respectful of the ASLs in Bristol (motorbikes are an exception). This is in comparison to London where it is often difficult, as a cyclist, to even squeeze into an ASL.

Today, Rachel and I set up on Gloucester Road, at the junction with Station Road, North Road and Cotham Brow. I was on the west side of the street and Rachel was on the east (- she actually set up her bike with camera attached on the traffic island and it fortunately didn’t fall over). From 07.15 to 08.15 we observed and documented hundreds of cyclists, and like yesterday we came close to freezing by the time we left. We chose the location as we have been told that Gloucester Road is a popular cyclists route into the city and this junction presented a busy thoroughfare of cars, trucks, buses and cyclists. There were a few pedestrians but it is not an easy area to traverse on foot (limited crossings/ lights). Despite the early start, there was a steady stream of traffic. Hundreds of cyclists passed by, the vast majority following the road rules. I noticed only a few rolled ahead of the lights and this was often for clear reasons; the road narrowed on the east side and cyclists had to get ahead of traffic to avoid the risk of being pushed into the gutter. There was a handful of pavement cyclists on both sides, but they mostly re-joined the road after the junction. Most wore helmets and like yesterday there was a high incidence of fluorescent clothing. Rucksacks were prevalent, although I spotted a few panniers and one trailer. Bikes were diverse; road, hybrid, fixed, step-through city bikes, foldups, mountain. There were several with childseats attached (but only one child was spotted – possibly a bit early?). I noted the use of only one car horn in the hour and this was directed at another car. There was little, as far as I could tell, interaction between drivers and cyclists.

This morning we stationed ourselves at the Lawrence Hill intersection of the Bristol to Bath Railway Path to observe the cycle commuters heading into the city. We were there from 07.30 to 08.15 and in contrast to the weekend it was a chilly overcast morning much more in keeping with traditional April weather. Despite getting a little frozen, it was a great spot to observe the rush. We saw hundreds of cyclists; generally cycling alone, many in high-vis clothing, wearing cycle-oriented clothing (lycra, tracksuit, shorts, water/wind proof jackets – assuming people change at work), with backpacks (though a few used panniers) and riding a range of bicycles (hybrids, road, fixed, foldup, touring, mountain). Ages were also diverse; from children on the back of bikes to older cyclists but the majority were 20-40s. This portion of the route saw the majority of cyclists heading into the city rather than out of it.