SoCal's Blooming Summer Bike Culture

Everywhere I go in Southern California I see evidence of the blooming bike culture here as never before. Yesterday I was at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and snapped the above image of a lady's breukelen Bowery Lane bicycle at Anthropologie. Later I snapped the image below of a new store coming in called "C Wonder" using a bike as one of its alluring lifestyle images. It feels as if Fashion Island is looking to differentiate from the nearby South Coast Plaza with a fresh, youthful, active living appeal and I have to say that I really like the effect.

The more I dig deep and delve into my art and fashion background, the more I study how the most appealing lifestyle brands thoughtfully layout their look and feel to entice us, the more convinced I am that those of us in any sort of biking and walking advocacy need to take several pages from their "how to" books.

Whether we like it or not we have become a consumer culture that is used to being seduced with clever words and gorgeous imagery. If we are smart we will use these tools to help make a radical shift in our country's behavior - from sedentary to active, not by demonizing the car, but by continually showcasing in the most engaging ways the beauty, ease and benefits of including biking and walking into our everyday lives.