Aline Cavalcante, São Paulo, Brazil Photo: Janice D´Avila
The provocative title of the documentary Bikes vs Cars is deliberately misleading. The documentary doesn’t choose to address the animosity felt and often amplified by the media between motorists and cyclists but focuses on the war in ideologies between cities that plan for cars versus cities that plan for people. Rather, the magic and simplicity of people riding bikes is celebrated and contrasted with miserable and bored motorists sitting frustrated and powerless in gridlocked traffic for hours every day.
Swedish Director, Fredrik Gertten takes us to two car-centric cities, Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, as well as two of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The car capitals are now in gridlock for many hours of the day and pollution is choking the cities, with the situation only growing worse. The solution in the cities with car cultures has traditionally been to build more freeways leading more people to drive cars, rather than invest in public transport or bicycle infrastructure.
Director Fredrik Gertten
Gertten squarely places the blame for car-centric cities on politicians who are supported and lobbied by oil companies and the car industry and explains that neither Copenhagen nor Amsterdam has a national car industry.
Our own Ministers in the New South Wales Parliament may well have been taught at the Toronto school of city planning. The film shows footage of now disgraced Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, who publically announces that “cyclists are a pain in the ass”. In an alarming parallel to the current plans recently announced to rip up Sydney’s successful College Street cycleway built at a cost of $5 million, Ford removed successful bike lanes at Toronto City’s expense to make way for more parking for cars. In Toronto a cyclist is hit by a car every 7 hours.
There are some sobering scenes of grief stricken vigils with families and cyclists at sites in many cities where cyclists have been killed and the installation of white “ghostbikes” a poignant reminder of a life that has been lost.
It’s heartening to see that Bikes vs Cars is being screened around the globe. It contains important messages about planning for cities of the future. We meet enthusiastic and determined individuals, planners, architects, and teachers who are striving for bike infrastructure and who offer up some hope for positive change.
We know that in Sydney, and globally, the population is set to grow. Ultimately Bikes vs Cars challenges us to find new ways to plan and build cites and to make conscious decisions about how we want to live. Do we want to settle for cities where building roads for more cars and consequently more pollution drives the political agenda or do we choose to stand up and insist on creating liveable cities with active transport?
Bikes vs Cars screened at the Sydney Film Festival, June 2015.
