Spoken Words

The last time I arrived at City Hall on a bicycle, there was a man waiting with tulips. I took it as an exquisite picture of how Madiba had woo'ed the nation and how Freedom was his bride.

I was quietly expectant today as I rode to the steps of City Hall once again. Surely a second poignant moment of reflection on the legacy of Madiba and the bicycle was too much to ask for. Yet there he was.

Siyabulela (isiXhosa: Thank You) and his bicycle.

We spoke briefly while he taped images to the walls and door of the City Hall facade. To the authorites it would be viewed as a palpable act of defiance, but to Siya it is an invitation. He is a film maker and was busy pasting a stage background onto the walls of this architectural grand dame. The crude pop silhouettes unraveled from his backpack beckoning actors and artists to visit his self-made urban stage.

The unofficial Freedom Ride contingent arrived in his informal theater as he arranged the last of his props and occupied this most contested space. Neither of us had permission to be there, to ride, to display, to invite disarray. Yet there we were - in the shadow of the balcony where Madiba stood 20 years ago to give his first speech as a free man.

Today's unofficial Freedom Ride saw a growing number of riders join us as we moved from the leafy suburbs of Cape Town into and across a range of urban landscapes that we feel reflect the city we live in. The agility of the bicycle makes it possible to connect across physical infrastructural divides that hem in these enclaves of poverty and difference. We literally rode over and through these divisions that were too expansive to walk and are too expensive to reconsider.
The bicycle is becoming for me a vehicle of ecological as well as social sustainability.

My longing is to somehow overcome the devastation of apartheid spatial planning. Working on the Freedom Ride as an event to take thousands of wheels on this journey gives me such hope. To change a perspective is to change a landscape.

When my curious anarchist heart is weary, I have to ask: given that I am just one person, one designer on a bicycle, is this even possible. Is it worth trying?
Siyabulela was a gift to me today. When I asked him what his mission is, he replied: "I ride until my legs get tired to make a stage for others. The people will fill this place with what it needs."

Thank you Madiba that I could hear that in the shadow of your legacy.

Make a Stage: Tape and Plastic

Twitter comments @contestedspaces
Follow @FreedomRideCT

Why the Bicycle

For someone who tries to steer away from operating in an aura of linguistic aloofness to justify and present my design methods, I have to confess. I have found a profoundly complex description, which I will be using regularly.

Doxastic Commitment. That is a class of beliefs that go beyond talk and to which we are committed enough to take personal risks.

It is this commitment that converts objection into protest and opinions into advocacy. Its usage appears to be rare as its application in practice.  A comment made to me recently, “It is great to have an activist here..” is a reflection that policy is being guided by bureaucratic dogma rather than an understanding of life on the street. People who care because they risk what it is to know are in the minority.

I was offered this as a secondhand encouragement after a recent heated forum discussion on cycling and non-motorised transport infrastructure.

Translation: “Wow, you actually ride your bicycle on the road?”

Yes. I do.

It is precisely this methodology of Doxastic Commitment that has endeared me to the life and words of Nelson Mandela. The legacy he has left the design community (of which I am a part) is one that calls forth authenticity and commitment in action. The personal risk of saying no to high paying clients and environmental destruction. The personal risk of saying yes to pro-bono work and defending an unpopular opinion. And critically, the personal risk of being proven to be wrong either by allowing personal conviction or ones peers to do so. 

Adding cycling advocacy to my job description has proven in some ways to be a doxastic commitment (I used it again!). It’s a heated debate regarding one of the most contested of spaces. Mobility. The intensity of this debate is fueled by the realization that we have very limited choices of movement routes and so to share those routes, it is wrongly assumed, then that our decisions will then be further constrained. Gloves on.

The first major cycling advocacy project I am working on is confronting every obstacle and preconceived idea I’m likely to address in my burgeoning career in disruption and advocacy. All conveniently wrapped in one initiative. The 27km Cape Town Freedom Ride.

This social ride is a celebration of the legacy of Nelson Mandela. His choice to pursue freedom and reconciliation speak powerfully to the forward thinking strategic mobility decisions required to overcome our apartheid spatial legacy. One kilometer of cycling freedom for every year of Madiba’s incarceration is poetic as we plan to move (albeit it somewhat conceptually) from places of captivity to City Hall where Madiba spoke his first words as a free man. 

The route traverses neighborhoods in the city that are divided by infrastructure but have cycling lanes either established or planned, working perpendicular to that divisive heritage. It’s powerful moving both perception and bicycle. The trigger button for advocacy.

Ironically, the Freedom Ride experience has also given me the reason why my doxastic commitment will be worth it. Tireless discussions with authorities, revised management plans, revised dates, debating helmet laws, and the gathering of every conceivable hitch and snag have made clear in urban design terms why cycling matters. The Freedom Ride encapsulates the desire of people to move despite of, not because of what is before them.

And, as with the pursuit of freedom, the bicycle has proven itself to be antifragile.

My Curious Anarchy

Designers and planners really try an orchestrate the world around them more than they ought to.
When we shout criticism at others we are often whispering it to ourselves.
We cannot control time, chance meetings or intersection of events. They are the canvas on which we draw. They simply are.

This week is incredibly significant for me. 6 months ago almost to the day, I rode a bicycle on Cape Town's streets for the first time. A 6 month personal challenge to change the way I think. The way I design. Today I am presenting the fruit of this adventure at TedXCapeTown. A pitch to talk at the August event. Tonight's 2 minutes are equally important to me as August's potential 18 minutes.

Its all about timing, apparently. 

Here is my pitch.
[Pepper this written word with the bubbly enthusiasm and the full intensity of the intoxicating freedom to be found when you do what it is you are hardwired for..]

I'm Kirsten. I am an urban designer. I always have been.
At my first public participation meeting (gesture:many years ago) I presented a slick, glossy design to a community hall of 300 people on the government housing waiting list.
A 175 unit low income housing pilot project filled to the brim with innovative solutions and supportive jargon. Portfolio grade presentation. 
At the end of the meeting, an elderly lady slowly made her way toward me from the back of the hall. In a softly spoken voice she said to me that she hadnt understood what I had said or the pictures I had drawn. She wanted to know if they meant she would no longer be sleeping in a bathtub at night. Turns out she had been renting out the cramped bathroom of a nearby house. She was looking for hope.

I don't design like that anymore.

The question I asked myself was how can the majority of the inhabitants of this city participate in a system where the language of change is spoken by so few? This unapproachable democracy of city making.
This was the beginning of Open Source Urban Design.

Open Source method briefly is the breaking open of closed systems to reveal the design code. An invitation to collaborate and collectively improve it. Binary Marxism perhaps?
What if we applied this at the scale of the City? Really invited people in? Spoke a shared language?

Briefly, Open Source Urban Design is 3 things:
-Participants become collaborators in this shared language
-Designers move from 'creators' to translators of experience and empathy
-Local authorities move from the strangle hold of red tape and policy making to receivers of words, sentences and paragraphs of this spatial language.

In real terms it looks like this. 6 months ago I got on a bicycle for the first time. I simply could not design spaces for cyclists without understanding their world. I immersed myself in what it meant to commute, to race, to deliver. My incessant 'newbie' questions translated into advocacy..which in turn translated into a collaborative task team after I pitched the idea to City officials that perhaps mobility is not a line but a series of interconnected public spaces which cyclists pass through.
This is my happy space.
This is Open Source Urban Design

Tell me your story and let me help you to decode the city.

twitter@contestedspaces

Writing The City

The events of this weekend have proven to be an outworking of South Africa’s hard earned freedom, at a national level with the inauguration of the President and much more personally on a bicycle with an unsanctioned Freedom Ride through the streets of Cape Town. 

Freedom is an incredibly complex organism to me. It holds the fragility of history with the embellishment of hope, all the while being tied together in such a way that underscores the importance of stability and structure. An ‘anything goes’ approach usually paves the way for everything to go. Freedom to me is a coherent understanding of context and a firm foundation for dreaming.

The planned Cape Town Freedom Ride is a 27km bicycle ride that looks to understanding and overcoming the structure of our cities as frameworks which constrain social cohesion. It’s a social ride, moving a diverse grouping of cyclists through a diverse set of neighborhoods with each kilometer representative of Madiba’s years of incarceration.

Historically, the apartheid government in South Africa used infrastructure to intentionally separate, insulate and intimidate various race groups. Roads, rail and bulk service services carve the city into communities that can and should be reconciled. After 20 years of democracy, rhetoric and good intentions haven’t changed much on the ground. The bicycle however has proven to be the most noblest of inventions.

After the rejection of the Freedom Ride event application by the City of Cape Town (with the suggestion to postpone to a later date), our motley crew of organizers and cyclists rode the route today anyway. Discovering the joys, surprises and elevations to be enjoyed by thousands on the new date 16^th June. We set off as scheduled - a handful of cyclists attempting to bridge the divides. Within minutes, our bicycles soared over and under those structures meant to separate. Our compassion moved beyond where it was permitted before. We saw, we spoke, we were left speechless and we acknowledged all we took in.

We arrived at our destination, full of renewed enthusiasm to share this route with others. We stopped finally at City Hall, where Madiba had given his first speech after his release from prison in 1990. It is a fitting end to a ride that honors his legacy of knitting together difference with a time to reflect on what we will say of our ride once we have allowed ourselves to see our city with more compassion. I arrived just ahead of the other riders to quite an unexpected sight. A young man standing below Madiba’s balcony holding a bunch of orange tulips, his eyes darting around nervously, expectantly. A first date!

How fitting on a weekend that holds such promise for our country, to end this moving journey with the image of a young man hoping to find a future. Waiting. Looking. Knowing that when he has a chance he must be his best. 

Thank you Madiba for waiting, taking the chance you were given and giving us a future by giving us your best. We will honor you with thousands or riders on June 16th. I will bring tulips.

For more information on this unfolding story follow @contestedspaces and @FreedomRideCT 

Future Bridge

 

Origami City

Sprocket has changed me.

I set out with the desire to gather the empirical, and rather I empirically grew in my desire to ride the city. Sprocket is the Dahon folding bike that I have had the pleasure of utilizing while her owners were abroad.  20 inch wheels, 9 speed,  city style handle bars and a 12 second fold and pack into the boot of my hatchback. It has been nothing short of delight.

My initial intentions were to further understand the barriers to entry for commuters wishing to leave their aluminum cages and transition to non motorized transport. The term ‘last mile’ is often used to describe the greatest of these hindrances. This is the transition between the endpoints and the predominant form of transport utilized in a journey. Thus, the walk from home to the station, or the necessary taxi trip from station to office. Multiple leg journeys are tiresome and expensive, playing to the seduction of the motor vehicle. How can bicycle commuting address these ‘last mile challenges’?

Sprocket is only the second bike I have ever ridden. The first was a grand dame; a 30 year old fixed gear vintage bicycle. The Mars Rover. The first vehicle to take me outside of my universe of vehicle dependency. She weighs in at a hefty 18kg and sings a delightful whirring squeak song when we travel in sync. I was unsure how I would adapt to the Dahon, whose caffeine-overloaded composure was beckoning me to weave in-between the traffic of Adderley Street.

What was an experiment in the ‘last mile’ became the conduit to experience every mile. How simple it was to put Sprocket in the car and quickly take a spin around the promenade or zip through Company Gardens for a lunch break. I explored Woodstock, Rondebosch and Diepriver in a single morning. The same way a weathered Capetonian keeps a beach towel in the car, just in case the opportunity to make memories present themselves,  I had Sprocket. Just in case.

Lest the riders of other magnificent machines turn there nose up at the BMX proportions and compact components, let me emphasize that a folding bike can be workhorse when required. The difference is that this rider hydrates with cappuccinos! Two memorable trips of 20km+ took Sprocket and I to the edges of the city. My first long commute unfolded (!) up the west coast as I explored that most odd occurrence in our city: the heroic MyCiti bus network and its side kick cycle route winding up to the urban edge at Eden on the Bay. It was leisurely, exquisite and suited me perfectly to pop my bike in the back of a friend’s car after a surf.  

The second long commute was a joyous exploration of the cities lesser know cycle paths. I'm still looking for adjectives that can describe a trip where the destination is not fixed. Quite the antithesis of the last mile, for which this agile wanderer was well suited.

The question is not what can a folding bike do. Rather, what will I do without one when I return Sprocket to her owner?

1-800-U-STORE

Months ago when I vowed to uncover the barriers to entry for car lovers to move to cycling, I didn't think the answer would be as simple as one word.

Stuff.

I took on the mammoth task of cleaning our car this weekend. What a joy it is to drive around in my own personal mobile storage unit. Truly. I have a beach towel, cozzie, fleece jacket and beanie at hand for every Cape Town weather condition. Breath mints, a hairbrush, a pair of flats (girls applaud), extra lipgloss and a range of music to mentally prepare myself for using any of the listed items. That's all to be found upfront. Behind the drivers seat you can find warm jackets for kids, extra shoes (unisex so no child has an excuse) water, reading material and at least 2 hats. Crushed nik-naks are optional extras.

I am grateful that storage costs will be going down by 15c/litre on Wednesday.

When I ride my bicycle I have as little as possible. I even reluctantly removed my beloved R2D2 keyring so as to lighten the load. My diary, my phone and some pens. I couldn't be happier.

But..but..but.. you say, what happens if I need all that STUFF and its not there? Then I don't have it. I'll borrow, I'll go without, and I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have just swum in my undergarments when required!

After the big car clean up was complete, I put very little back in.
I have vowed to only take only what I need. This may be the very sustainability message the bike will convey most effectively.

Come ride with me and let go of stuff.

A refreshing blend with great legs

There are few ways that cycling activism finds more scenic expression than on a Bikes n Wines tour.
The equation is perfect. Scenic winelands in the middle distance, bikes, helmets and refreshments all laid out. Just add cycling enthusiasts. Every opportunity to introduce people to cycling should be embraced.

Today's wine taster is tomorrows urban commuter.

The 21km mountain bike trail advertised as the 'Adventure Route' notes that the course is indeed challenging. By mountain bike standards, there was little in the way of technical difficulty although an above average fitness was an asset on the hill climbs. Our motley crew of adventurers set off promptly at 8:30am from the centre of Cape Town. Not by bike, but initially by train.

The hour long MetroRail train ride to the Stellenbosch winelands was the perfect way to begin our carbon neutral bicycle tour. For many of the participants, both local and international, it was their first experience of South African public transport and the discussions in the carriage bore evidinces of a lack of understanding of what Cape Town was really about. The train was clean, our guides were very helpful, yet the realities of life for the the majority of citizens in the western cape clickity clacked past our window and could not be ignored.

Upon our arrival at Vlottenburg station we walked a short way to the bike shed, our tour was already well underway and I was glad for established banter and casual jeering as we were allocated bikes and helmets. I'm grateful to the guides who summed up my riding ability and matched me with a smaller more nimble bike. We received a short briefing on gearing and safety and, once assembled, we set off as 11 intrepid adventurers ready to be refreshed with water and wine.

On a side note, the combination of alcohol and bike riding was a concern to me initially. Would I be okay to ride after visiting 3 wine farms? The answer is yes of course. The staff who received us so warmly at each stop gave hospitality generously while showing a calculated and subtle restraint while pouring. We were just tasting after all!

As we set off from the first stop, my companion noticed that her bike had been moved from her original spot. She then noticed that her front tyre had been replaced on account of a slow leak discovered by the guide. Thorns.
While we were tasting, the guides were ensuring the bikes were ready for the next leg of the journey! In addition to assisting us in navigating both urban and natural landscapes, they had an even more challenging task. It appears that I was the only participant who interpreted the term 'challenging ride' to mean 'bring cycling shorts' in addition to eating a hearlty carb-meal the night before (..sorry Tim). At least 3 of our participants couldn't remember when last they had cycled. The guides were so gratious and encouraging, even as bikes were pushed and expletives voiced. Last nights wine drinker is todays cyclist.

Our final stop was a surprise.
The hills had ended, lunch was concluded and as we headed back to the shed to say our goodbyes, we came upon a distillery. I don't care much for brandy, but to have been beckoned into a building with such history and elegance was appeal enough. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to new friends and sneak in a Charlotte Rhys tainted comfort break before stepping back onto Metrorail.

The train ride back to Cape Town saw naps taken and numbers shared. I had a chance to speak more with our guides about their personal journey into cycling. When a group such as Bikes n Wines cares about carbon neutrality, you're sure to find they are not neutral when it comes to other issues of community importance. When not busy with bike tours, our guides are involved with raising up youngsters in and through cycling. It was encouraging and heartning to know that the same love of cycling that had helped more privileged folks up a winelands hill is helping to raise the youth over more formidable obstacles.

Today's cyclist is tomorrows urban leader.

*Thanks to Quintin and the team at Bikes n Wines for allowing me the opportunity to enjoy the winelands from a saddle.