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Yasin Southall makes a statement everyday in the way he gets to school: He rides his bicycle. A second-year student at the University of Cincinnati, Southall is on Clifton streets crowded with single-passenger cars, fighting traffic like everyone else, but he’s also contending with drivers who aren’t accustomed to small vehicles.
“Anytime I leave my house, I try to use my bike,” he says.
Rolling hills, busy intersections, unpredictable weather and impatient drivers don’t intimidate him.
“Whether darting through Northside for work or climbing up Ravine Street, bicycling is always fun,” he says.
Southall says he usually rides on his own, but the last Friday of every month he rides with the local chapter of Critical Mass, a movement to promote alternative forms of transportation.
“We are encouraging riding your bicycle as an alternative mode of transportation that is ecologically and environmentally friendly,” says Ryan Donohue.
He and Southall are careful to point out that Critical Mass isn’t an organization but a movement. There have been Critical Mass rides in Cincinnati for several years, but last summer a few passionate bicyclists started organizing rides the last Friday of each month at Burnet Woods Lake. Anywhere from 10 to 35 riders show up.
“It takes one ride with Critical Mass to get you hooked,” Donohue says.
“Just riding your bike in Cincinnati is success,” Southall says. “It’s changing the attitudes of people who think that they need to drive just a few miles up the road instead of walking or riding a bike.”
But it’s not easy riding a bicycle in a city filled with cars, often only carrying a driver, many of whom don’t appreciate cyclists for easing traffic and parking hassles.
“I’ve had drivers screaming at me,” Donohue says. “Most drivers don’t recognize that you have a right to be on the road — and try to run you off the road.”
But policies, even more than attitudes, discourage commuting by bike. Instead of building a mass transit system, the region is considering expansion of Interstate 75. Bicycle lanes are nowhere in sight.
Practical limitations also get in the way.
“There needs to be more bike racks in Clifton and downtown,” Southall says.
Scooter on the highway
On a chilly Wednesday night, Ryan France went from Dayton to The Comet in Northside to meet up with his scooter club, the Ten Year Lates.
“If you ride a scooter from Dayton, it takes about two hours to make it down here since you use the back roads,” he says.
For an enthusiast like France, two hours on a scooter is a fun ride.
The Ten Year Lates is a club that enjoys the scooter culture: riding in groups of up to 150, buying vintage scooters, talking about the best models and makes. But scooters are a successful mode of transportation and contribute to easing inner-city traffic and pollution problems. They take up less space on the road and get 60 to 80 miles per gallon. Legally, scooters are allowed on highways.
“Some scooters can top out at about 70 mph,” France says. “Grover is the only one who takes his scooter on the highway though.”
France points to someone he describes as a “tall, chubby skinhead” — Grover, the grandfather of the scooter club in Cincinnati, who uses only his first name. He says he’s put about 10,000 miles on his 2002 Bijaj.
Scooters have the same rights and laws as motorcycles. They’re registered like motorcycles, but the scooter culture is much different, according to Grover.
“Scooters get better gas mileage, are more maneuverable at slow speeds, although they are less stable at high speeds,” he says. “They’re great for cities. You can change directions faster and get around traffic.”
France, who owns a 1963 Sears Allstate, which he rebuilt, says he would never want a motorcycle.
“Why would I ever want something so heavy and so gut-wrenchingly normal?” he says.
Maintaining scooters is part of the allure.
“It wouldn’t be as fun if it ran perfectly,” France says.
Parking on sidewalks
Scooters aren’t the only small vehicles making a presence on Cincinnati streets. The Moped Army has 17 members. Kelly Shesko, a member of the group, rides her moped a couple times a week, either from Clifton to Newport for work or to UC for classes.
“I choose the moped over a car because it’s more fun,” she says.
While a vintage scooter can cost anywhere from several hundred to a thousand dollars, vintage mopeds usually cost about $300, giving about 60 miles per gallon, although they usually don’t go faster than 30 or 35 mph.
“Mopeds are pretty convenient for short trips,” says Chris Rice, who owns both a scooter and moped. “Around UC, it’s perfect.”
But safety is an issue for all small vehicles.
“I usually don’t have problems with cars, but if there’s someone who thinks I’m an inconvenience and shouldn’t be on the road, it makes me feel unsafe,” Shesko says.
“I’ve screamed at people on the road,” France says. “When you ride a small vehicle, you’ve gotta have balls. You gotta stick up for yourself.”
Although there are several methods to lock a scooter and they’re often hard to start, the vehicles are “very stealable,” France says. He’s had several stolen.
Cincinnati isn’t very accommodating to cheaper, environmentally safer modes of transportation. There aren’t enough racks for bicycles, scooters or mopeds.
“I just park on sidewalks, and nobody has complained,” France says.
Shesko says she fastens her moped to parking meters or signposts if there are no bike racks available.
“But there’s always a chance someone will mess with your bike,” she says.
Whether car drivers like it or not, scooters, mopeds and bicycles could be the best way to ease traffic and pollution in the area. Visibility might be the first step.
“We’re changing a lot of negative attitudes by being out there,” Southall says. ©
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2004.