This blog piece is written by Ginevra Cardinali, BYCS Content and Communications intern. It sheds a light on how cycling culture has been represented in pop culture and the negative impact that has carried over in society.
For years, the bicycle has held the status for childhood independence, friendship and adventure, think E.T and Stranger Things. So then why is data pointing to the other side?
Representation in mass media has a strong impact on how society prioritizes, values, understands certain practices and how individuals go on to live their daily lives. You can start to think about your own values of living and good life. Because cycling is often tied to sustainable mobility, improved physical and mental health, a stronger sense of community, there is a need for research on the way biking has been framed in mass media, and why less and less children are hopping on a bike. This paper will investigate how a cultural stigma and shame has been crafted towards biking, and what that implies on society.
To understand the representation of the bike we must first point to how car culture has been manufactured. In “Fighting Traffic” by Peter D. Norton it is documented how the love for the car was not an organic expression of the people, rather it was crafted through strenuous sponsorship and propaganda that promoted cars as the future, which meant success, which meant pride. Unfortunately, the same effort was dedicated to systematically working in the opposite direction for cycling, to the point that mass media depicted cyclists as “childish men”, as Zack Furness pointed out. By combining these two philosophies the message becomes clear: adults drive while kids or losers ride bikes. This representation of an inferior and superior other led to our car-culture dependent society.
The biggest trope movies and tv shows use to depict cycling culture and cyclists, produces a culture that will have you believe that bikes are dorky, and even dorkier for adults. The only reason a character bikes is because of certain limitations (that they must overcome) that does not allow access to a car, such as age, bankruptcy, DUI. Indeed freedom, or at least societal approval, can only be found behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, the bigger the polluter the better. This stereotype didn’t come out of nowhere. It emerged in the era of commercialisations, where excess was glamorised, and having less meant that you were less. It is in this time that two films cemented the idea of the cyclist. “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” presented Pee-Wee as a beloved but naive character who no adult would want to emulate. Kevin Bacon, in “Quicksilver”, plays a failed stockbroker who becomes a bike messenger, a job presented as the character’s rock bottom. The idea of what it meant to be a cyclist starts forming.
Now, pedal into the future and the biggest stereotype related to biking today is the grown “adolescent” who never really wanted to grow up. Think “40 Year old Virgin”, Andy (Steve Carell)’s bike isn’t just his mode of transportation, it’s a visual synonym for what is lame and uncool with him. The film repeatedly asks when he will get a car, equating a motor vehicle with adulthood and sexual maturity. His bike becomes his punchline before he even speaks. In “Arrested Development” the Bluth family is often seen riding a bike, not because of their eco-consciousness or desire to be in better health, but it’s a symptom of their arrested development. In most cases there is always a reason for the character’s reliance on the bike, implicitly suggesting that while they could be doing the same task by car, they can’t because of a certain challenge they must overcome and thus they must go by bike.
Of course we can’t ignore representations of children on bikes. Think Stranger Things, E.T, The Goonies which show bikes as a symbol of childhood adventure into the unknown. But when put into conversation with the social world, it creates another problem. If bikes are for children, then what happens when you grow up? Culture says you should buy a car. There are limited positive cultural models for cycling as normal adults, which creates this repetitive cycle where one feels as though they must abandon their bike as they transition into their adult identities, if not they become lame, at least that’s what the big screen says.
Of course, it’s unrealistic to claim that we all interpret these false depictions as such. As Stuart Hall observed, what we decode from a scene is always dependent on the viewers cultural background, values, and beliefs. Hall’s encoding/decoding model reminds us that audiences do not have to be passive consumers, one can accept, negotiate or oppose a message. For example, a committed cyclist might watch these films and roll their eyes to the stereotype, but a child who is still making sense of the world might absorb these messages without a question. Too often than not, the audience will accept the dominant message without doubting it.
The impact of the degrading representations is measurable. In the Netherlands, a country famous for its cycling culture, currently faces a big struggle. According to WHO, over a third of children aged 4 to 11 do not meet the recommended daily exercise guidelines. The data tells us that kids aren’t just losing a mode of transportation, they are losing independence, overall health, a fun way to move and build strength, coordination and balance.
That’s why initiatives like STARTbox matter. It is designed for kids aged 2-6, and embeds cycling into daily life through play, in the classroom, playground and at home. It is an attempt to rebuild a culture where cycling is simply what people do, not something to be outgrown.
Children are cycling less. That is a fact. But this paper doesn’t want to leave you with a question on how to get more kids on bikes. The deeper question is how to change the story and stigma created for decades around biking. Representation matters. How can we make cycling visible, valued, and accepted for everyone? The bike needs to be seen for what it is: a portal to freedom, health, and joy, not as the weak friend hiding in the shadow of its role model, the car.
If you would like to learn more about the impact of culture on the image of cycling, read more here.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847815000170#s0025
https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/why-the-prime-minister-rides-a-bicycle-in-the-netherlands/
https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2025/07/05/danny-tyree-kids-dont-want-to-ride-their-bicycles/
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/07/kids-biking-decline/683377/
https://spstudentenhancement.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/stuart-hall-1980.pdf