Happy World Bicycle Day 2021!

Happy World Bicycle Day from the bloggers at Fit is a Feminist Issue!

Here’s a gallery of images from the blog–fit feminists (sometimes freezing in Newfoundland, sometimes very warm without helmet in Bora Bora, in more or less scenic surroundings, all smiling) on our bikes!

What’s WBD all about anyway?

Here’s an explanation from the UN website:

“Background

Acknowledging the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries, and that it is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation, fostering environmental stewardship and health, the General Assembly decided to declare 3 June World Bicycle Day.

It encouraged stakeholders to emphasize and advance the use of the bicycle as a means of fostering sustainable development, strengthening education, including physical education, for children and young people, promoting health, preventing disease, promoting tolerance, mutual understanding and respect and facilitating social inclusion and a culture of peace.

The Assembly welcomed initiatives to organize bicycle rides at the national and local levels as a means of strengthening physical and mental health and well-being and developing a culture of cycling in society.

Secretary-General’s Message for 2021

Bikes are freedom; bikes are fun. They are good for one’s health — physical and mental — and good for our one and only planet. Bikes are popular and practical, providing exercise and transporting us not only to school, stores and work but to a more sustainable future.

World Bicycle Day celebrates this great power and highlights the importance of non-motorized transport in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and combating climate change.

Today there are an estimated 1 billion bicycles in the world – about as many as passenger cars. Their use spans the generations, from toddlers to older persons; once you learn, you never forget.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, cycling was a critical mode of transport, and bike-sharing programmes were increasingly common, providing free or affordable access to bicycles for short trips.

The crisis has changed transport needs and behaviour, and prompted many cities to rethink their transport systems, with bicycles playing a vital role in offering an economical and non-polluting alternative.

This further embrace of cycling must be accompanied by heightened efforts to improve road safety and integrate the bicycle into sustainable transport planning and design. Investments in city infrastructure, including protected lanes and other measure to promote safety and counter the long-standing hegemony of the automobile. As we look ahead to the United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference in October in Beijing, let us pledge to support cycling and make better biking a reality.

To all the world’s cyclists on World Bicycle Day, whether out for sport, exercise or an errand, keep those wheels turning!”