Bicycles have been linked to independence since their invention in the early 19th century. European women were largely expected to stay home before that, traveling only under supervision. Through the self-sovereignty and freedom of mobility that cycling brought, they were afforded greater involvement in community, politics, and commerce.
As the National Women’s History Museum’s website states, “Bicycles came to symbolize the quintessential ‘New Woman’ of the late 19th century,” who was “almost always depicted on a bike.”
Highlighting the importance of bicycles in the women’s suffrage movement, World Bicycle Relief points out that “[w]omen became more aware of the public climate and could meet each other freely to socialize as well as to organize.”
Bicycles continue to promote self-reliance even today. For example, according to the UK-based charity Wheels for Wellbeing, cycling helps give autonomy to people with impairments by decreasing strain on joints, reducing breathing difficulties, and improving balance. A 2018 report by the nonprofit further contends that 75 percent of disabled cyclists find bicycle riding easier than walking.
Community bike workshops, also known as bike co-ops or bike kitchens, epitomize the relationship between bicycles and self-sufficiency. “The idea of bike kitchens is that participants work on their own bike but also help each other, building a culture of collective learning,” states a 2018 article in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
These co-ops first appeared in Europe in the 1980s and in California in the early 2000s, and can be found worldwide now. The online community Solarpunk Travel has charted more than 100 bicycle cooperatives in the United States. Most of these collectives embrace a “DIY/DIT” (Do It Yourself/Do It Together) approach: Rather than fixing bicycles for customers, the mechanics teach patrons how to do the repairs themselves. More rarely, volunteers provide free or inexpensive maintenance for people in need.
Empowerment Through Education
Santa Cruz, California’s Bike Church exemplifies the community bicycle workshop ethos. It runs on donations of $10–$15 per hour for access to its space, tools, and instructions on how to fix a bike with the “guidance of knowledgeable mechanics.” No visitors are turned away for lack of funds.
The Bike Church was founded in 1998 by members of People Power, a nonprofit group that organized community bike rides to protest the Gulf War. “They used biking, independence, and [moving] away from the oil industry by not driving as a powerful political statement,” explains Kelly Archer, one of the Bike Church’s 12 mechanics.
Archer says she and her colleagues “prioritize education and empowerment of bike riders of all types.” They teach customers to do their own repairs “so when [the malfunction] happens again or if your friend has the same issue, you’re able to support yourself or others.”
Ninety percent of the parts, accessories, and bicycles at the Bike Church are donated. This enables the collective to offer its goods at highly affordable costs.
“[Patrons] save money, and the parts aren’t ending up in a landfill,” Archer states. “So in a way, we also provide a service for folks who have old bikes that they don’t want to drive to the landfill or don’t know where else to take.”
Besides generating less waste, keeping bikes in circulation helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 2021 study “The Climate Change Mitigation Effects of Daily Active Travel in Cities” found that by making one trip per day by bicycle instead of by car, residents of seven European cities reduced their carbon emissions by 67 percent. Meanwhile, Our World in Data states that “[u]sing a bike instead of a car for short trips would reduce travel emissions by around 75 percent.”
Bicycle Rescue
As the 2023 study “Bicycling for Mutual Aid” observes, the emergence of COVID-19 gave impetus to an upsurge in mutual aid projects worldwide. Bikes play an important role in these efforts by providing access to hard-to-reach areas. For instance, in 2020, the bicycle activist group Ashland Bike Brigade brought food, water, and first aid supplies to wildfire-stricken towns in Oregon. A similar group offers volunteer food delivery services to food-insecure households in Toronto, Canada.
Los Angeles’s Bicycle Kitchen notes that “mutual aid to one another, empowerment, and down-to-earth activism are at the heart of what bike collectives are about.”
Community bike workshops such as Cleveland’s Ohio City Bicycle Co-op and Montana’s Free Cycles Missoula donate bicycles to people and households in need. In 2023, Melbourne, Australia’s WeCycle distributed more than 250 free bikes to refugees and asylum seekers, among others.
The Bike Church donates free bicycles, helmets, locks, and bike lights to economically challenged and unsheltered individuals. It routinely distributes bikes to children and allows adults who are struggling financially to select free bikes that need repair. “If it’s beyond the amount of work we want to put into it, they can take it on, and we can support them in [making the bike] rideable,” Archer says.
She adds that the Bike Church “is a front-line service provider [for] the houseless in Santa Cruz. That is a large portion of our clientele, and folks who live outdoors may not have other transportation options. They’re reliant on their bicycles and keeping their bikes functioning. I think having a place where folks who might have mental health issues or have very little to no money can feel welcome and seek support is valuable.”
Leaving aside expenses like maintenance, insurance, parking, and fuel, the price of a new car exceeded many annual household incomes in 2022. The study “Bicycling for Mutual Aid” states, “For many poor racialized communities who cannot afford motor vehicles, the bicycle is an object of necessity, as opposed to one of leisure or physical activity. Indeed, bicycling (alongside public transit) is an affordable mode of mobility to better access employment opportunities, recreation, and other services, compared to using automobiles.”
Bicycling Toward Racial Equity
Despite their affordability as a mode of transport, bicycles are not popular among people of color and are seen as a symbol of “white oppression,” with bicycle lanes paving the way for gentrification. This is, however, changing slowly with greater emphasis on ensuring bicycling equity. As a 2020 article by the World Economic Forum points out, grassroots movements and bicycle co-ops need to play an integral role in turning the tide. “Bottom-up movements like Critical Mass and alternative rallies such as Bikestormz, a movement started in disenfranchised neighborhoods in Baltimore and Philadelphia and adopted by Londoners, can… change behavior.”
There are some encouraging signs that bicycles are being used more widely by people of color. According to a 2013 report “The New Majority,” “the fastest growth in bicycling is among the Hispanic, African American and Asian American populations. Between 2001 and 2009, those three groups grew from 16 to 23 percent of all bike trips in the U.S.” However, data from almost a decade later showed a dip in bicycle trips between 2009 and 2017 for African Americans, while these trips increased for Asian and Hispanic people. The 2021 report “Reconnecting to the New Majority” points to the “lack of safe, high-quality infrastructure [which] is part of systemic under-investment in Black and brown neighborhoods” as the reason for this.
Bike co-ops can help in making bicycles more accessible to underserved populations. Government agencies also need to do more to ensure better investment in bike infrastructure in low-income communities. San Jose in Santa Clara County provides a good example of how people can help ensure better bike-related investments in these communities. “Santa Clara County residents voted to approve a tax-funded competitive grant program that included prioritization criteria points for projects in which at least 50 percent of the project limits were located within ‘Communities of Concern’ or traditionally disadvantaged communities,” states a 2020 article by the Environmental Law Institute. The article also highlights the important role of bike co-ops in increasing “ridership” in underserved communities.
Holding Space
Some bicycle co-ops go above and beyond by serving as spaces for clinics, events, and other classes. For example, the Bike Church teaches skills like bicycle maintenance and mechanics, wheel building, and sewing bike frame bags. Like other community bicycle workshops, such as San Francisco’s Bike Kitchen and Utah’s Bicycle Collective, Bike Church also holds weekly workshops by and for women, transgender, and the femme demographic.
Referring to the Bike Church’s weekly WTF (women, trans, femme) days, Archer explains, “The bike community, and bike mechanic community, in particular, is male-dominated. We wanted to create a more inclusive space for folks of [the women, transgender, and femme] demographic to be together and get support from folks like them.”
More than two centuries after the advent of the bike, riders are challenging patriarchy once again, continuing the cycle.
AUTHOR BIO: Damon Orion is a writer, journalist, musician, artist, and teacher in Santa Cruz, California. His work has appeared in Revolver, Guitar World, Spirituality + Health, Classic Rock, High Times, and other publications. Read more of his work at DamonOrion.com.
This article was produced by Local Peace Economy.
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