Life as a cyclist can be frustrating. As recent research by the Copenhagenize cycling blog made starkly clear, cyclists are given a tiny amount of road space, yet they actually ease congestion, as they’re vastly smaller than even the most compact of cars.
So when cyclists in Riga, the Latvian capital, staged a stunt for International Car Free day in September, this was the point they decided to emphasise. They strapped brightly-painted, car-sized structures to their bikes for their commute to work, to show how much road space they’d take up if they decided to drive instead. Then, they rode them precariously through rush-hour traffic.
The campaigners were part of the worldwide Let’s Bike It campaign, which in Latvia is pushing for more bike lanes and provision for cyclists. Hopefully the stunt, which apparently made commuter traffic considerably worse, will help do the trick.
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Images: VK/Let’s Bike It campaign.
