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.

On Tuesday afternoon we set off from Bristol to Castle Combe circuit to participate in the Midsummer Bike Ride . A challenge was set for cyclists of all ages and interests to complete as many miles as possible in the three hours. 5,000 collective miles was the target target. £3 was charged for entry onto the circuit and monies raised went Life Cycle’s Two’s Company, ‘gives visually impaired, disabled people and people with early stage dementia opportunities to come cycling on the back of a tandem’.

I made a map of our journey to Castle Combe. We cycled there and caught the train back to Bristol from Chippenham (though it seems I did not turn off the GPS : ).

EveryTrail – Find the

We’ve been asking people in interviews how (and if!) they would define themselves as a cyclist. This has produced a variety of responses – and sometimes, it seems like it’s easier for people to define themselves in terms of what they are not than what they are. Often, cycling identities come up unprompted too. It’s fascinating how they’re connected to other social identities, to other modes of transport, to strongly held views on good and bad cycling behaviour, and to much else.

We received this response in an email by one of our interviewees later on – and thought it would be an interesting post.

What sort of cyclist am I? An interesting question that has had me
thinking over the weekend.

There are at least two ways of answering this. Firstly what am I like as a cyclist. In this case, I would say I am fairly steady, safe and assertive. So I stop at wear reflective bib and helmet, use my bell, stop at red lights (given I expect others to obey traffic lights so should I) and use lights at night – and generally cycle a couple of yards from the kerb, not in the gutter. Trying not to get myself injured.

The secondly it is about identity. I am a cyclist. Being a cyclist is part of being me. Taking the stance that the personal is political, it is about cycling as a political statement and an expression of my values, about concern for the environment. So part of that is about cycling being normal, not something odd, special or different. So it is about cycling in my normal clothes, not Lycra; claiming cycle allowances; turning up at meetings with a cycling helmet; writing bike in forms asking for a car reg no; having a one less car sticker; being a visible cyclist.

This weekend I…
- spent a day with Dr Bike, provided by Better By Bike, at St Paul’s Community and Family Centre
- participated in the Bristol World Naked Bike Ride as a steward
- followed the Easton Arts Trail and chatted with Jen and Jet who cycled from Bristol to India
- played some bike polo
- saw fixed gear riders getting filmed for BÖIKZMÖIND

The Bristol Naked Bike Ride is on this weekend – Sunday 19th June. I am a volunteer steward for the event which means I will help guide the group by blocking traffic on major thoroughfares. I will also hand out flyers to interested observers and generally look out for anyone with problems – be that technical issues or harassment.

We had a practice run tonight to review the planned route on paper and then physically trace it through the city. We made note of potential places of high human or vehicular traffic and how to deal with them in a group of a few hundred cyclists. Fingers crossed the weather is kind to us on Sunday.

Guerilla urban knitting on the cycle path….

One of my interviewees lives out in Yatton and I took the opportunity to cycle to them rather than meet in town. It was about 15miles each way (though a little longer on the way back I did an accidental tour of Nailsea). My route took me through the city, Long Ashton, Backwell, Lower Claverham and onto Yatton. It featured busy roads, quiet narrow lanes and off-road cycle paths.

The Bristol Bike Project won the Grassroots category of the 2011 Observer Ethical Awards .

Here is a video the Observer made about the project:

The Bristol Bike Project : The Observer Ethical Awards 2011 from The Bristol Bike Project on Vimeo .

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)