Andy Singer

Andy Singer was born in New York and moved in Berkeley (California) and Saint Paul (Minnesota). He has not car even in living in the USA and thinking highways are too wide, buildings are too separated and there is too much space for motorways and car parking. This is something that town planners call “sprawl”. As a result, it is a waste of time, space and gas. He also reckons that people who drive cars on a regular basis see the world through their windscreen and do not stop to talk to citizens, neither appreciate their surroundings. He goes a step further and as a ecologist he affirms cars pollute waterway when it rains on highways, as well as negative impacts of gas leaks and petrol industry. Moreover, in his opinion electric cars will not solve these problems since the environmental impacts in the raw material extraction, transformation and end of life will continue. In contrast, a bike uses much less resources than a car and has a longer life expectancy. He finally concludes that as a cyclist and does not pay for gas, tolls, insurances and other expenses for having a car.

Riding in Saint Paul is pleasant thanks to the efforts in building bike lines, is an almost flat location and has large parks close to the Mississippi river. But the worst is pedaling in winter when the temperature diminishes to -30 degrees Celsius. In this case he uses fat bikes (bikes with fat wheels) and a tricycle to go shopping.

Moreover, he makes cartoons about bikes (among others) and does it because he communicates with the world through them and are based on his experiences and interests. He drew for The New Yorker and The New York Times, but most of his clients are independent media.

The European Cyclists’ Federation

The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) is an international organization that acts as an umbrella over the European countries bicycle organizations. There are at least one bicycle organization by country. It interacts with the European Commission, the European Parliament or the Council of Europe as well as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe or the World Health Organization.

The ECF puts into practice its influence to support laws which promote biking, avoid those which harm it and maintain cyclist in the politics agenda. Moreover, the ECF coordinates the Eurovelo and organizes the Velo-City every year.

According to its president, three factors have contributed to the boom of biking in the last years: Climate change, COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. This last point contributed to increase the price of raw materials. Furthermore, he indicates that most moves within a city are as long as 5 kilometers, a perfect distance to pedal, and the main contribution to climate change and pollution at city level is produced by combustion engine vehicles. Thus, bicycles are perfect to face it.

A brief Amsterdam story

Back in the 70’s, the number of purchased cars increased in Amsterdam and car parking were created, although citizens were detrimental due to the lack of pedestrian areas. Even channels were dried to gain extra space for cars. Such cars increment provoked a chaos and an augmentation in crashes, thus deaths. At that time the Agenda Autoluw was created. It is the politics of reducing private cars and make it difficult the entrance of it to cities in essence.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the same city experienced a boom as it comes to new inhabitants (an increase of 16%) and bikes (a higher percentage). As a result and partly because of tourists, streets were clogged with bicycles in sidewalks. This time pedestrians were affected. In 2012, public authorities started facing such a problem. New bike parks were built, campaigns for consciousness-raising were launched and bad parked bikes were banned. Additionally, car parks were transformed into bike parks. Moreover, impressive bike parks for thousands of bicycles have been opening in the last years with special interest when close of train stations and high demanded buildings.