Biking: The Overnight Sensation

Posted by Carol Coletta on August 15, 2009

Although the exact date of its invention is debated, the bicycle is almost 200 years old.  So why all the excitement now?

Boston has become the latest city to venture into street bike rentals.  Streetsblog reports that the city has awarded a contract to the same company that launched Montreal's Bixi bike-share system.  Boston plans to offer 2,500 bikes at 290 stations in downtown Boston.  At that size and density Boston's bike system would rival those in Barcelona and Paris, where public bikes have become a critical component of the transportation network.

There's a mayor's race this Fall in Boston, and current Mayor Tom Menino is running again.  It is a very good sign indeed for bike enthusiasts that an incumbent mayor would attempt to move this issue during his re-election campaign.

The sudden commitment to cycling would make a fascinating case study of how something old becomes new again and insinuates itself so strongly and so suddenly into the culture.  Interest in local food and farmers markets are other examples of such a trend.  What were the essential elements that turned these things from fringe to fashion?