Beauty and the Bike
Now this is a great project and a very uplifting short film, Beauty and the Bike.
If they can get teenage girls to start to cycle again in Darlington, why not elsewhere here in the UK. They are right teenagers all over Europe use the bicycle to get around. When I grew up there was no chance in hell of getting a lift from my folks, on your bike son, was the answer. Best part of it was the independence I had from my parents, I could go where I wanted to go and when I wanted to do so.
This is an 8 minute version of our 55 minute documentary Beauty and the Bike. The film follows two groups of young women from Darlington and Bremen. Between them, they discover what makes – and stops – teenage girls from cycling
.
I love the idea of getting more young teenagers onto their bicycles again, it made me smile.
There was a few problems with this film, they showed one cycling on the pavement, not good. And she clearly didn’t know anything about her gears, since she was standing up when starting her journey, forgot about the little thing called “setting your pedals” before you start. They also kept going on about cycling lanes and a bit of paint, that is not the answer.
We need to give them some cycle training, not just the teenagers in the short film but also the adults who talked about paint and other road users. And generally some better awareness about cycling, though Darlington is way ahead of other cities and towns in the UK.
The full DVD is available from http://www.bikebeauty.org/ and there is other short movies there too.
They have even set up a little cycle club come bike rental called velodarlo for where you can hire Dutch bikes.
So come on, get on your bicycle – its cool, fun and freedom (from your folks :) )