Lets start for a simple question.
How can we make people to take their bikes instead of using car for short journeys? The straightforward answer is by implementing infrastructure and facilities for cycling, which is not necessarily true since various scholars have stated that transport choice depends on several factors such as type of journey and lifestyle, just to name a few.We can also think about the fact that some people cycle in urban areas with or without the proper infrastructure, thus it is now clear that other factors such perception and attitudes are influencing people to use a bike or to drive their cars.
I consider that the car culture has a strong influence on how cycling and cyclists are perceived. If we think about the amount of advertisements dedicated to cars and how these advertisements are portraying car drivers we can have a clue about advertising influence. When comparing this advertisements with the limited and sometimes nonexistent adds for cycling is not difficult to link how the media might affect people's perception about a transport mode choice.
Lets move to a second question. Who are the cyclists presented by the media? This question lead me to make a simple google search about the images of cyclists in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and Mexico City. I choose these cities because the two first are considered to have a 'cycling culture' whereas the latter ones have comparatively very low levels of cycling. I was not surprised when I found that the images of cyclists in the European Cities although diverse, they were mainly all sort of 'normal' people in all type of journeys (sport, leisure and work). The images that cause me some curiosity were the images about cycling in Mexico City, because most of them were about cyclists riding their bikes naked protesting about the lack of infrastructure and facilities.
This can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it portrays the rise of activism and advocacy for cycling; but on the other hand this can represents a poor image of cyclists and Mexico City and can lead to perceived the city as caotic.
Exploring the image of cycling in journals and tv advertising might be a good next step. Lets see what we can find.
