Week 28: Saving a Life is #BetterByBicycle

I have been feeling under the weather this past few weeks, coupled with the heavy rains, it makes me sad to say that I haven't been cycling since then. I think the erratic weather has something to do with my sickness too, I did get wet by the rain a few times while cycling. I also have a lot of students who wrote in sick. While I still have plenty of cycling content materials from the past, I thought of experimenting on using a 2nd hand, even fictional, material (from a film) and this is what I came up with. 

First, let me just share a little background, my thesis is about transport cycling, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by Icek Ajzen (1991) as a model, to understand the factors that would encourage commuters to choose the bicycle as a mode of transportation. TPB proposes that an individual’s decision to engage in a specific behavior can be shaped by their intention to engage in that behavior, which is driven by the person’s attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. In the context of transport cycling, it always boils down to safety and convenience, there's more than enough literature to support that  people need to see cycling as safe and convenient for them to even consider trying it. But my interest in the TPB model was piqued by the subjective norm variable. It refers to the people’s perception of social influences and expectations towards a specific behavior (in this context, cycling behavior). Because despite humans being a rational species, over time had behaved in so many irrational ways, driven by the complex nature of our society. My theory is that we can persuade more people to bike, using the peripheral route of persuasion (much more than the central route). That is to say that even without the necessary infrastructure, if cycling is visible in other forms of our reality,  people may be inclined to try it. Now I'm NOT saying it's not necessary to invest in cycling infrastructure to promote it, I'm saying there are other forms of promotion that we have yet to try. 

I'm talking about pop culture and its profound influence in shaping our beliefs, attitude, values and behavior. I mean if I would trace the mind conditioning process to develop a motonormative society, I'm sure films, ads, comic books, novels, music and sports would definitely play a big role. Take Batman for example, he's one of the most famous superhero out there, and I know he's got plenty of tools for saving the world, but it's kinda hard to separate him from his bat mobile. The same with James Bond and his Aston Martin. I don't remember Ethan Hunt ever using a bicycle in any of his impossible missions. When I think about the T.V. shows and movies I grew up watching, the car is always present in the lives of characters who are living a good life. For example, this popular Pinoy teen-oriented show in the 90's, T.G.I.S, which was about friendship and adolescent struggles, the characters were seen as cool and beautiful, and despite being just in their high school, they were already driving cars. Probinsyano's Cardo Dalisay, is seen as a hero of mass, he drives a Honda motorbike. Of course in anime and Japanese films, it's pretty common for characters to be cycling on their way to school, work or anywhere, because it's already part of their culture, I imagine it would be the same in other bike-friendly countries like Netherlands. I strongly feel pop culture will be effective in dismantling the car-centric mind of Filipinos.

Take this 1998 movie, City of Angels. It's a love story, not a bicycle story. Its plot can be summarized by the first line of its OST "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls - 'And I'd give up forever to touch you..' naks! Hahaha! Now that I think about it, kinda cheesy. The story of an angel of death, Seth, who fell in love with a mortal, Maggie. And even though he managed to connect with her, she made it clear that she preferred a human partner. So he made that difficult decision to become mortal to be with her. *Spoiler alert* But after just one night of being with her as a human, Maggie died from a -gasp- bicycle accident. Despite the pain of losing her immediately, Seth made it known that he'd still choose to become human even if he knew what's gonna happen because it was better to have a moment  of being with her than an eternity without her. As cheesy as it sounded, I've actually used this film many times in the past to console my heartbroken friends, trying to make sense of the pain of losing a romantic partner, to illustrate just how much the high was worth the pain. But that's not what I wanted to highlight in this post.

You see, Maggie was a heart surgeon. Not just any surgeon too, she was a cyclist! She commutes to the hospital by bicycle. If this film was set in Berlin or Amsterdam, it wouldn't a big deal, nothing out of the ordinary. But the story was actually set in the very car-centric Los Angeles California! So it's an interesting transport choice. I think the screenwriter was going for character alignment, because every cardiologist would agree that cycling is good for the heart. It also made sense that someone in the life-saving profession would choose to commute by a mode least affected by traffic, I know for a fact that L.A. is notorious for traffic (maybe not as bad as Manila traffic though).

Such a bad ass this doctor is, weaving through L.A. traffic

She's not even wearing a helmet!

I used to have a crush on Meg Ryan 😍

Off to O.R. in a while

There were only three scenes where they showed Maggie on bike, but I noticed that those scenes were depicting positive states of her mind. Like the first scene was when she was on her way to the hospital, she appeared confident and motivated, excited for her scheduled operation of a patient. The next one was another commute to the hospital, but it was just the morning after a good sleep (because Seth was beside her, although she didn't know). Here she appeared refreshed and rejuvenated, ready for another medical challenge. The last one was the morning after spending the night with Seth as a human,  here she appeared fulfilled, carefree and drowning of happiness, to the point of losing touch with the real dangers of the world, which eventually led to her demise (she didn't notice a huge truck crossing her path). I'll get back to this later. In contrast, the only time I saw her driving a car was when she was attending a birthday party of her patient, and here, she appeared confused and upset (well this scene was preceded by her confrontation with Seth about the nature of his existence). 

The scene just before the truck hit her

Going back to Maggie's accident, I know that her death was an important part plot twist, but if this was real life, there's no way that a cyclist would behave this way on the road. Now given the premise that she was being careless, I still refuse to blame her for her death. I think her death was the result of a system that prioritizes motorized vehicles and refuses to invest on infrastructures that effectively enhances road safety for all users. I blame the car centric transport system. 

So I know that this is just a fictional account of a doctor who commute by bicycle, but there are real healthcare professionals who use the bike for transportation.  Let's not forget that during the critical time of pandemic, when public transport was prohibited to implement social distancing, essential workers, including health workers, who do not own car or motorcycle, used the bike to go to work. Let me just say, I am eternally grateful to all the front liners who made enormous sacrifice to fight the corona virus.

Medical front liners during COVID-19 pandemic, photo courtesy of Pasig Transport

P.S. 

Speaking of pandemic, I think it would be unfair not to recognize the role cars play in saving lives. The ambulance, a type of car, is an essential tool of emergency medicine. During the 2nd wave of the pandemic in 2021, when my family got COVID, my car served as a lifeline for my parents. When their symptoms went severe, and their oxygen were running low, and I couldn't get an available ambulance to take them to the E.R. (I called 4, all of them were servicing a COVID patient at the time), I drove them to the E.R. myself with my car. This is the exact reason why I felt compelled to buy a car. As a cyclist, I was never anti-car. I understand the limitations of bicycles in transportation. I recognize that we do need cars in the world today. But we shouldn't be overdependent on it, it's taking a toll on our environment, health, economy, energy security, etc. Some travels are better by walking, cycling, and public transport. We don't need more roads or express ways, we need less cars.

Pandemic memories: I loaded two oxygen tanks in my car when I rushed my parents to E.R.