Social Justice, Feminism and Sustainable Transportation

This week a friend told me about a guest speaker that came to her community studies class and spoke to the class about a group that she'd started in LA called Ovarian Psycos. It's a cycling group for women of color that provides a safe space for these women to form a community and to be open about their race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. The only requirement to being a part of the group is being a woman of color. Apparently the group organizes group rides that allow these women to harness their love for their bodies, their power as strong women, their power as cyclists, etc.  My friend and I spoke about the exclusions that a group like this has on women of color who might not be able to afford a bicycle, might not have time to go on a "Luna Ride" in their busy day-to-day lives, and might not have the resources to "rise" to power within their larger community through a simple bike ride with other women of color.
As a white, somewhat tomboyish young woman, I find myself in a very good position to find a niche in Santa Cruz's cycling community. I wear practical clothing, don't feel silly wearing a helmet, actually feel cool wearing biking gloves, and generally see myself as a natural figure on a bicycle. However, I am also privileged in that I was given a bicycle by my grandfather, could afford to buy a helmet, and can perform basic bike maintenance and afford the tools necessary to do so. In this way, I am a privileged member of Santa Cruz's bicycle community. I would imagine that many lower-income women do not have the time to bike to work, might not want to drop another expense on the purchasing of a helmet, don't have the space to accommodate groceries on their bicycles while running errands, and certainly cannot pick their children up from school while riding a bicycle. The public reception of bicycle riders, as Elly Blue points out in her blog post, can be negative and even hostile, with harassment toward bikers of all backgrounds: male or female, low income or high income, etc. Women of color, as Blue says, are in something like a triple bind, where harassment can become staggering. I also found notable that areas that Blue points out to adopt bicycle friendly infrastructures are the privileged, often gentrified areas that don't link with cyclists of low income communities.