20.6.2010 von Ines.

Today morning after a long interview for the COG magazine on my trick cycling background and fixe gear bikes I went to my first class of flying trapeze. It was at the Espana Streb institute in Brooklyn.

They also had space for other aerial disciplines and people were practicing.

The flying trapeze was fun but less exciting than expected. It was not too difficult for me with my long gymnastics background and anyway the uneven bars and flying between had always been my favorite element. The class was first doing swings and then some figures and preparing for the fly. Then a catcher went on the other trapeze and actually caught me. Of course for this easy one there is no real feeling of flying because I just take my hands off my trapeze and he catches my arms. Here is the video of my fourth flying trapeze back end split with catch.

I will go again tomorrow and hopefully learn something more. Too bad that there is no school in Beijing.

Then I rode fast to get back to Manhattan to be part of the first screening of bike films. The bicycle film about me called “Riding in the Circle” was screened in this session.

My friends had come to watch this movie. After the screening we went to a nearby cafe to have some lunch together.

When I went back to the movie theater the was a gathering of girls that were about to start the “girls only” alleycat bike race. This was a picture before the handout of the manifest with the addresses of the checkpoints.

Then the girls checked the maps on where the alleycat checkpoints are.

Then the girls had to place their bikes on the opposite side wall.

Then there was a picture with all alleycat girls before the bike race started. These are the cool and fastest bike girls of NYC. Keep the rubber side down all the time.

The guys on the other hand were hanging out in the movie theater. I watched a lot of movies today of which some were quite disappointing.

Geschrieben in Performers, Cycling, USA, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

20.6.2010 von Ines.

这周末我要在798的尤伦斯画廊做一个关于城市宜居性和自行车的讲座。 大家也许知道我来自于建筑和城市规划的背景， 在过去的六个月里， 我给予了北京这个城市和其自行车文化很多思考。

众所周知，北京曾经是个自行车王国， 曾有80％的居民用自行车出行。 如今随着大家放弃自行车而选择小汽车，自行车出行率降到20％。 每周有成千辆新车涌上北京的道路， 把北京变成了一个汽车王国。

与此同时， 北京正在认真思考如何成为世界城市， 怎么创建一个更宜居的城市。 目前世界上一些最宜居的城市正在朝这个方向发展： 把市中心以汽车为主导的交通形式转变为可持续性亲民的交通方式，比如自行车。

北京正处在这个十字路口， 随着自行车文化的消失， 北京可以看着它慢慢死亡， 或者可以开始倡导自行车2.0， 帮助北京更快的转换成一个宜居的世界水平的城市。

地址： 尤伦斯画廊 798
时间： 周日 6月20号 上午11－12：30
语言： 中英文

This weekend I will be giving a lecture at the UCCA in 798 about Urban Liveability and the bicycle. As many of you may know I come from an architecture / urban design background and over the past 6 months I have been giving a lot of thought to this city and its bicycle culture.

As we all know Beijing was once the ultimate bicycle city with around 80% of its residents using the bicycle to move around. These days ridership is down to 20% as cyclists ditch the bike in favor of the car. Thousands of new cars are hitting the streets in Beijing every week and are turning Beijing into the new ‘car kingdom’.

At the same time Beijing is getting serious about becoming a World City and improving the liveability of the capital for its residents. The trend in the most liveable cities in the world is shifting away from a focus on the automobile for urban mobility in city centers and towards more sustainable and people friendly forms of transportation such as the bicycle.

Beijing is now at the cross roads with its bicycle culture in decline- it can let wither and die or it can start to promote Bicycling 2.0 in the city and assist in a more rapid transition to a World class liveable city.

Location : UCCA Auditorium, 798
Time : Sunday 20th June 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Language : English / Chinese.

Geschrieben in Green, Cycling, China, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »