Photo: Panoptico via Flickr
As a healthy, affordable, and non-polluting way of getting around, the two-wheeled wonder that is bicycling can’t be beat, which is probably why it’s enjoying such an enthusiastic resurgence in popularity right now. However, U.S. streets, drivers, and even pedestrians may not be quite ready to welcome an influx of well-spoked folk. The pervasive attitude that roads were made for cars, not bikes, has pushed cyclists toward guerrilla street art to get their point across (and toward some cult-ish tendencies too).
In homage to those positive and creative forces pushing non-gas pedals across the nation, we invite you to strap on a helmet and steer yourself into the “I’m loving bikes” lane with these artistic examples of bike activism taken quite literally to the streets.
Photo: Biblioteca Salaborsa via Flickr
Ah, the rowdy, monthly bike rallies of Critical Mass — always ready to swarm bike-munching cars and always handy with a can of spray paint.
When you’re looking for that extra boost during your morning commute, forgo coffee and try this Mario Kart-style route in Portland, Ore., instead. Once you’re in this bike lane, you’ll soon be feeling invincible … as long as you can avoid the banana peels. 1-UP!
Hat tip to Grist reader Caleb, who regularly bikes this route — around the bananas.
Photos: Jen Morgan Moriarty via Flickr
Cycling’s benefits aren’t limited to those doing the two-wheeling. Streets with painted bike lanes are 40 percent less dangerous to those of us going about on two feet, according to New York City’s Department of Transportation. That’s good news for cyclists who may be reincarnated as pedestrians.
Photo: kong niffe via Flickr
Perhaps you’re starting to catch on that cyclists are not often — to put it delicately — “transportation neutral.”
Photo: Matt Katzenberger via Flickr
This is where those odd, cultish tendencies reveal themselves.
Photo: svennevenn via Flickr
H8ers gonna h8, but it’s no sweat off our bike-commuting backs.
Photo: Times-Up NYC Art: Janet Bike Girl via Flickr
Well, unless you’re in Black Hawk, Colo., that is.
Photo: rebecapaz via Flickr
If car = oil-fueled war, then bike must = love.
Photo: Heather Haupt Enos, taken on North Campus at Cornell University
Can you imagine what the streets would be like if they started letting Velociraptors use the bike lanes? There’s no talon what they would do!
