Bikes vs. Cars

I like documentaries. Even if I don't agree with the filmmaker's point-of-view or message I learn something about the subject or situation.

A recent docu from Fredick Gertten, a Swede, who has been making films for many years, caught my eye - entitled 'Bikes vs. Cars'.  The film is an expose' on the war between bikes and autos, which seems futile and very one-sided until you dig a little deeper.

Major cities across the globe are designed for cars and are more or less hostile to bike travel. Gertten knows this, so his film centers on the notion that, "Car dependency is a disease for society. If you're dependent on having a car everyday, you have lost your freedom.  Most people are unhappy in traffic. Yet, the people who bike, become city-lovers.  When you're in a car, you don't see the city, you are only watching the road.  On a bike, you can see the sky, you can see the trees."  That's all well and good Fredick, but people need cars to get to and from work, play, food, recreation, vacations, visits, etc.  So there has to be more to it than a love for cities.

However, Gertten does have a point. People, in many countries, have come to believe that auto traffic is a normal, natural thing - it isn't. And eventually we all will have to change our ways of 'getting around'.  Although the film is very much on the pro-side of biking, in the end you feel more sorrow for auto-commuters.  So miserable, so tired, so fed-up, in a futile and wasteful part of their lives.  In San Paulo, commuters spend, on average, three hours per day in traffic.  In LA, the roads at rush hour are so clogged that one fender-binder puts traffic at a full-stop (this a can personally attest to).

Docu-maker Fredrik Gertten

As the statistics on the number of cars in the major cities around the globe go ballistic, a picture starts to develop - where perhaps perpetual growth meets the limitations of space.  One always thinks that population growth, water shortages, etc. would be the big catalysts for pushing sustainability but transport may rise first.  The absurdity of trying to cram more and more cars into already clogged roads makes the case for sustainability without even trying to argue it.  Gertten is right when he states, "I don't even think it's about growth or not growth.  Growth needs to be sustainable to be counted as growth, this is just destroying things".

'Bikes vs. Cars' opened in early May to a limited release.  If you get a chance to view it do so - you may not agree with the message but the final outcome seems pretty certain.

Best
Jim