From counterpublics to counterspaces: Bicyclists' efforts to reshape cities

Résumé En

This research examines bicyclists' demand for the right to the city through an analysis of Critical Mass (CM) rides in San Francisco, California. The lack of investment allocated to alternative forms of transportation in the United States produces a form of social and spatial injustice because it eliminates freedom of choice not only for already disadvantaged populations but also for those who engage in everyday politics through their lifestyle choices. Ethnographic, historical, and iconographic analyses of CM rides demonstrate how these bicyclists perceive each other as a public built around shared values and lifestyles (that may broadly be defined as environmentally friendly and socially responsible). Bicyclists' shared lifestyle defines their counter position on urban form. CM bicyclists appropriate urban streets and carry their counterdiscourses regarding street use into the public sphere. The rides strengthen bicyclists as a counterpublic, challenge automobiles' cultural hegemony in modern urban life, subvert everyday urban experience, and allow bicyclists to create their counterspaces as they collectively ride.