Happy 3 year Blog Anniversary!
I can’t believe this blog is 3 years old!
Wow!
A big thank you to all the regular and new readers of this blog.
It has been such a learning and working adventure – and sharing it with other like minded-people has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you all!!
Origins
I started this blog when I was considering applying for my PhD. I am now 2.5 years into my PhD and loving it. My PhD explores NGOs that donate bicycles to rural African girls for greater access to secondary school. So the blog is a wonderful adjunct outlet to actively stay involved in the cycling community and share some of the interesting people, events and research I discover along the way.
I began the blog because I knew I would have to research, read and write a lot and initially I was a little apprehensive about this. Bicycles Create Change was a way to face these demons by writing regularly and making it public. It was also a way to track what I uncovered and to ensure I didn’t ‘read myself away from my friends’ or go so far down the academic writing rabbit hole that I became entrained in only that style of writing.
I also wanted to stay true to the passion and issues of cycling communities near and far – and to keep my feet on the ground by supporting and celebrating the more personal and communal aspects of biking.
BCC focus
There are many great websites on cycling and biking culture on the net. The difference between this blog and most others is that this is very grassroots. It doesn’t focus on road riding, is a mixture of research and practice, and is not in anyway monetized with any ads, merchandise or sponsorship.
Over the years this blog has explored cycling and biking from a number of different perspectives, such as:
- dogs and bikes
- bike tattoos
- returned veterans
- environmental sustainability
- elders
- refugees
- rider health and disability
- bicycle modification
- kids and family
- transport, mobility and access
- gender and social justice
- books, libraries and literacy
- education
- biketivism
- art/creativity/crafts
- rural access
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- glocal rides and events
- disadvantaged groups
- equality/equity
- street art and performance
- local commemorative rides
- fun biking festivals and events
BBC has also proudly hosted a range of guest bloggers, both locally and internationally, who have shared their unique insights on an array of issues including – thank you to all the contributors.
Over the years, BCC has collaborated and worked with some amazing young people, like Bella Turner, Nao Nakamura, Claire Tracey, Sarah Cole, Uncle Richard and the BCC interns; Sachie, Maurice, Gabriel and Juliet.
So where is BCC at now?
This blog has gone from strength to strength.
Below are the most recent stats for BCC. Here are the daily and month totals for the last year. Hits are how many clicks visitors make on the site and visits are how many people visit the site.
Total visits to date 142, 818 with a daily average for this month of 514!
Here is a breakdown of the gender and age of BCC readers.
And the distribution of BCC readers around the world.
Below is the time of day users access the blog. Darker blue indicates more visitors. As BCC has so many overseas readers in different time zones, it makes sense that the site is active from 12 am – 6 am.
Epic!
I am very excited about what the next year may hold and am keen to see what ideas, projects and connections unfold.
So as Bicycles Create Change moves into its 4th year – a massive thank you to all the readers and friends for your time, contributions, ideas and support.
Thank you!
Ride on!