These New York biker groups are on a mission to get the vote out
With just days to for the US election, hundreds of New Yorkers, dressed in grey, biked nearly 23 kilometres from Bronx to Lower East Side as part of an initiative arranged by Brooklyn-based collective Street Riders NYC.
The mission of the so-called Justice Rides: encourage people get out and vote. Bronx has reported historically low levels of turnout. As they rode through the borough, many residents watched them pass and even participated in the chanting.
“The first step in the push for change is to get [President Donald] Trump out of office,” says Peter Kerre, co-founder of Street Riders NYC. The group has been arranging Justice Rides weekly, with next weekend being the last before Election Day on November 3.
Boosted by the effects of Covid-19, the US cycling industry has seen “unprecedented growth” with sales increasing by 31% to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of the year, according to NPD Group, a market research company. While some use the twowheelers for leisure and other as a way to commute, bikes have also increasingly become a feature of activism across New York. Their presence was felt over the summer as protests against police brutality erupted after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man killed during his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kerre, who is of Kenyan heritage and comes from the same town where Floyd was killed, had bought a scooter to commute to work, but found that it came in handy when protests began in New York. “There would 20-30 protests a day,” Kerre says “The scooter made it easy to get from one protest to another.”
It was at these protests that he repeatedly ran into the six cyclists who later became co-founders of Street Riders NYC. The organisers of Riders4Rights, another New Yorkbased group, also met at protests. “Riders4Rights essentially grew out of McCarren Park,” says Rutuja Ganoo, one of the organisers, referring to the park in Brooklyn which became a popular location for sit-ins, vigils and demonstrations.
“The riders who stood in the periphery provided protection to the protesters in the park since there was always heavy cop presence around it.” What started as a small group has now grown to include between 60 to 70 organisers.
As the elections approach, Riders4Rights has been involved in education and awareness campaigns.