Bicyclist Influence

Since bicycling is such a common mode of transportation in big cities, it was only natural for street artists to eventually create artwork that interacts with this large group of people. In Helsinki, Finland, a guerilla art project was established where a large quantity of washable paint was poured over a section of a road that did not contain a bike lane. This paint was then spread by cyclists with their bike tires as the painting tools, and the road as their canvas.

During the summer of 2009, a main bike lane on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg was removed as a result of constant complaints from the Hasidic Jew community. The Jews claimed that the bicyclists "posed a safety and religious hazard," since "many of the young, female cyclists who rode through the neighborhood were "'hotties,' who 'ride in shorts and skirts,' both of which are against their dress code." To fight against the unjust removal, driven bicyclists reclaimed their lanes by repainting them with rollers and white outdoor paint. For the bicycle figure symbols, they used hand cut stencils and white spray paint. This form of guerilla street art really got the point across. Go ahead, watch the documentation:



Another example of interactive bicycle street art had taken notice in Portland, Oregon just this past summer. The work dealt with the already existing bike lanes on one street, and parodied the early Nintendo video game "Mario Kart." The symbols in the game were recreated by stencil and spray painted onto the lanes. Many people interacted with the art, as the painted banana symbol which causes "spinouts" in the game, was avoided by the cyclists. Watch the news report for a better understanding.