Bikes Vs. Cars

Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten visits Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, Copenhagen, Toronto, and Bogota to take a provocative look at the longstanding conflict between private motorists and kinder, gentler forms of transportation—including streetcars and buses, but more often, bicycles. While the number of bicycle commuters is steadily increasing in the developed world, bikes are still in the minority compared to automobiles—the latter a product of a colossal global industry with monied lobbyists and compromised politicians (the infamous late Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto is cited here) pushing their self-serving corporate agenda to the extent of changing cityscapes and affecting urban planning. A history-minded cyclist in Los Angeles here traces the remnants of the “California Cycleway,” a now-vanished superhighway for bike commuters that thrived in 1900. In Brazil, bicycling fatalities resulting from collisions with cars and buses are memorialized in city streets with stenciled “ghost” painted memorials. The internal-combustion viewpoint is represented by a Copenhagen driver who feels threatened by the hordes of cyclists freewheeling around him. Even with the gains made by two-wheeled sustainable riders, it's clearly still an uphill climb, and the monstrous potential posed by new car-buying masses in China and India could further tilt the balance towards engines. An offbeat documentary (check out the nude pro-bicycle protest during the closing credits) that nevertheless deals with a serious subject, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)