St. Louis: The City of Casual Cycling

I'm very interested in bikes from the perspective of public health, social capital, and environmental impact.  I would like to see St. Louis become more of a biking city.  I'd like to see the greenway network, the River Ring, et all expanded and improved.  Most of all, I'd like to see people biking on the streets in the city, enjoying themselves and waving to friends in passing.

Yet, there are many people on bikes in the St. Louis area, wearing Big Shark racing suits, buzzing by, running red lights, and not at all fitting my vision of peaceful friends on wheels. 

There's nothing wrong with them doing that, but there is a difference between the Tour of Missouri and getting to work on time. 

There is a very real difference between people who bike for serious speed and exercise and the guys that just want to go get some groceries and don't mind working up a light sweat.  The above image is part of an effort to reform the way Australians bike.  Add some reflective sunglasses and a camelpak, and that racing biker could easily be from the St. Louis area. 

I've never owned a bike helmet, because they always seemed kind of expensive.  I borrowed them occasionally, but never really figured I needed one.  Now I'm reluctant because it would associate me a more competitive form of cycling, when I don't really intend to bike on roads with a speed limit above 30 mph.

I wasn't really aware before that a great many people are stridently against helmet laws.  My British coworker refuses to wear one.  He claims that racing bikes orient people's heads over their handle bars and set them up for head trauma.  His sources,

The European Cyclists' Federation (of every large national cycling body in Europe, plus Australia and Japan).
http://www.ecf.com/3500_1
an all-in-one site for links to and critical reviews of every research paper on the topic.
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/
 
How do we bike?  When do you need the polystyrene hat?
I guess Americans need them if we bike like this guy,


Still, plenty of people out there don't wear helmets, and they don't have as severe of accidents.  We should try to work to understand the differences in statistics and infrastructure.  We should not photoshop American values onto the heads of Europeans,

Listen to this fellow from the Copenhagenize blog.  He's got a point.



Did you see that herd of uncomfortable non-bikers there at the end? 

The point remains, if only 1% of bikers are intending to train for races, how come almost all of them tend to ride bikes designed for that purpose?  How many mountains or off-road spaces are in St. Louis?  Where are people going to do most of their riding?  Where are the cruisers and upright bikes?

What kind of biking does our city want?

We put these on the road,

This is in the city, in a place where we expect calm traffic.  If this person were sitting upright and had to stop, he could just lean back and stand up on his bike.  This guy though, is all prepped and ready to fly over his handlebars.  Note his little helmet.

The Great Rivers Greenway District is fantastic, but look at the images they're using,

Please check out the pictures of people on bikes at amsterdamize.com.  Count the helmets and note the posture of the average bike rider in Amsterdam.  Do the same for copenhagenize.com and copenhagencyclechic.com.  

I write all this, not at all to take away from the wonderful presence of speed loving cyclists in the St. Louis area, but to make a case for greater diversity in the way we think about biking.

Let's sell St. Louis as a place where casual biking is not only possible, but encouraged.