In Los Angeles, the fight for diversity extends to the choice a person makes regarding transportation. It’s not merely the idea that what you drive is a reflection of your social status or dating potential. There’s an unspoken, competitive edge in the smoggy city where commuting and traveling across town to several destinations every day have become standard expectations for the “reliable” employee. Paradoxically, the yearly increase of cars and traffic in Los Angeles, which perpetually threaten to slow the city to a halt, may give cycling a new, more acceptable, and even enticing image as a transportation alternative.

BikeSummer’s Los Angeles citywide cycling festival has let some air out of the myth that to live in Los Angeles, residents need cars. The festival ran through June into the first days of July and hosted hundreds of events, showcasing the advantages of traveling by bicycle in a city with ideal cycling weather, raising cyclist awareness through visibility, and strengthening the cycling community one city at a time. An annual bike extravaganza, BikeSummer was established in 1999 and is held by various hosting cities, which have included San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Portland, New York, and Seattle.

Newly awakened Los Angeles cycling advocates can join several local Critical Mass rides, support the efforts of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition in making Los Angeles streets safer for bicyclists, and look up bicycle routes across the city on the bicycle-centered alternative to MapQuest, BikeMetro. Ken Kifer’s cyclist Web pages provide a wealth of cyclist-related articles, one of which questions the viability of “fearmongering,” an attitude which, through an emphasis on the inspiration of fear,

…discourages vehicular cycling and by doing so increases the number of deaths; bicycling is at worst no more dangerous than driving an automobile and has compensatory health benefits that greatly overshadow the risks.”