Bike riding in Los Angeles with David Byrne

There aren't a lot of role models for how to grow up gracefully in rock. Bob Dylan, Patti Smith -- they've aged like blues musicians, deepening their connection to the music the further they move from youthful notoriety. Steve Jones -- of all people -- reinvented himself as a DJ and was, until Indie 103 shut down in January, the last real avatar of punk spirit in its purest form.

And then, there's David Byrne, another new wave icon, who continues to reinvent himself in fascinating ways. His latest project is a book, "Bicycle Diaries" (Viking, 304 pages, $25.95), which records his thoughts, ideas and reflections on the art and politics of bike riding in cities around the world. Byrne has been a dedicated cyclist since the 1980s, riding in New York (where he lives) and bringing along a folding bike when he goes on tour. "This point of view," he writes, "-- faster than a walk, slower than a train, often slightly higher than a person -- became my panoramic window on much of the world over the last thirty years."

Friday night, Byrne cycled into Los Angeles for a symposium called "Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around" at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo. Sponsored by the Central Library's Aloud series, the event also featured Bicycle Kitchen founder Jimmy Lizama; Michelle Mowery, senior bicycle coordinator of L.A.'s Department of Transportation; and Donald Shoup, professor of urban planning at UCLA. Everyone spoke for 10 or 15 minutes, and then the conversation was turned over to the audience for questions from the floor.

Byrne seemed nervous to be speaking without the structure of a band or a set of songs. Even so, he was engaged, funny, showing slides of termite cities and futuristic projections of what urban environments might come to look like in a reimagined world. He admitted that he wanted to hate the Grove, but that it "kind of works" as an urban environment, as an approximation of public space. He's right about that, although it's public space (actually, more of a public-private hybrid) in a way we don't commonly consider it: a blurring of the authentic and the artificial, of the city and the mall.

What all the speakers kept coming back to was a certain notion of engaged citizenship, that on bikes, or on foot, we had to interact with the city directly, rather than from the air-conditioned distance of our cars. It's a compelling notion, and it was borne out by the dynamic of the evening itself. Here, after all, at an event that offered free valet bicycle parking, was the intersection of three disparate communities -- books, music and bicycles -- in a city commonly regarded not to have any real sense of community at all. If it could happen here, it could happen anywhere.

Or as Byrne put it as he closed his remarks: "Bikes ... well, yeah."

-- David L. Ulin

File photo: David Byrne. Credit: Jim Dyson / Getty Images

Comments

[Errin]

Steve Jones is the "last real avatar of the punk spirit in it's truest form"? Wow, how out of touch with LA. How about local legend Mike Watt? He evens rides a bike just like Mr. Byrne.

[Ron]

Very exciting to see Los Angeles move towards becoming a more bicycle friendly city.

[danceralamode]

I haven't read the book yet, but I have a long flight coming up soon, so maybe I'll pick it up. I'm a bicycle commuter, and I don't own a car. I love that I see more and more people on their cycles and on the roads, whether they are traveling to work or just for recreation. But LA needs to do a lot of infrastructure to be considered a bicycle friendly city. What's more, our police need to take things like bicycle theft seriously. My bicycle, this one I've had for a year, was stolen yesterday from in front of a prominent city venue in broad daylight. The second time it's happened. It happened this time last year too. Bike theft is getting worse, and the LAPD need to assist cyclists by cracking down on thefts. And the City needs to provide better "parking" facilities. Not ten years from now, but right now.

[gman]

Well, as a former bicycle Czar for a small city, LA needs to congregate into smaller livable neighborhoods before bicycling becomes an optimal mode of transportation.

Separate bike paths encourage new riders, but mostly for recreation. Riding on roads with fast moving cars is too scary for the general population.

Walkable, rideable cities (neighborhoods) will have to be carved out of the expansive LA milieu.

Cheers

[Richard Abrams]

Interesting article. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 60-70s when one could still ride a bike over a canyon, pick one, Coldwater, Laurel, Topanga. I went to Poly HS, there were 3 or 4 of us who rode road bikes. I commuted by bike until I moved to Alaska in '78 then Santa Barbara in '80. There was a group of 'roadies' who met at CSUN (before it was CSUN) and rode the Santa Susanna Pass before there was an adjacent highway. We would ride/race over Sepulveda Pass to Sunset than the beach and back. I rode into the mountains the Angeles Crest Highway, past La Canada, Flintridge, Tijunga. Those were the days. Now there are bike lanes squeezed into commuter traffic. It was a great place to ride, though crowded even then. But now, I'm not sure if its safe, and I have a warrior spirit when commuting. I have missed the long broad avenues. I've rode a bike since grade school, and raced for the past 30+ years. I guess I should have written a book.
Your humble servent = Rick Abrams