Paper short abstract:

Mexico City cycloactivists demand mobility and environmental justice by cycling on city streets and inviting others to join them. The increased number of bodies-on-bicycles thus conveys political messages in their daily commutes and in the creative interventions they perform in public spaces.

Paper long abstract:

Cycling in Mexico City is a dangerous affair. But it is less so now than it used to be. Over the last two decades, a relatively small number of cycloactivists has managed to convince local government authorities to build infrastructures and pass new regulations for cyclists. The strategy these activists have followed includes alliances with international non-governmental organizations and with other activists from around the world, as well as collaboration with foreign development aid agencies and financial institutions, especially regarding policies towards sustainable mobility. While these relations have provided activists with technical knowledge, policymaking knowhow, and an awareness of similar situations elsewhere in the planet, the local activist scene has managed to combine these competencies with a shared sense of urgency among a growing number of urban dwellers. They have done this by combining various ways of inviting more people to cycle on a regular basis. Weekly night rides, weekend leisure rides, support schemes to help initiate in cyclo-commutes, and other measures, have ensured that more people experience cycling and take it up as part of their routine. This is a phenomenological strategy. Cycloactivists show by doing, and seek to help others experience the city anew on two wheels. They also carry out creative interventions in the public sphere that include rule-breaking, in order to draw attention to ongoing mobility and environmental injustices in the city. They use their own bodies-on-bicycles as symbols of vulnerability to show that existing rules tend to be unjust, and need changing.