The movement

For months the movement for the protection of cyclists has
landed in Italy thanks to the initiative of 38 bloggers, who drew up
and circulated online their own manifesto, inspired by
the one launched on 2 February 2012 by the English daily the Times,
"Cities fit for cycling".
#salvaiciclisti originates from
ordinary people; it is not a hierarchical movement. It takes
shape and develops on the hugely powerful medium of social networks in order to
achieve concrete results in real political and social life:
a bill on cycling mobility is in
the process of being passed by the Senate, and numerous mayors have already
responded favourably to the call to meet ten points
aimed at promoting cyclability and cyclist safety
in cities, among them the introduction of 30km/h zones. From
the web to the street is a short step: on 28 April a cycling demonstration took place in Rome
simultaneously with London, bringing
50,000 people to the Imperial Forums.

The bicycle is politics

#salvaiciclisti is not a
political movement in the sense that it does not originate within a particular colour or
alignment, but in the etymological sense it is political. If
politics also means making decisions about how to live in one's
own city, then – as the subtitle of
the book puts it – using the bicycle is politics; it is a strong signal
of how citizens want to live in the spaces where they
move and dwell. To choose means to exclude the
options we do not want, because they are
dangerous for us, for our "polis" and for our environment.
People have decided that they want to enjoy their own spaces (and
their own lives) in a different, better way.

The bicycle is culture

After an opening section that explains the stages of the movement and its
political value, the book contains an interesting
historical-literary section with extracts from Edmondo De Amicis, Curzio
Malaparte, Dino Buzzati, Andrea Camilleri and a piece by Bruno
Gambarotta that offer a glimpse of how Italian culture has
experienced the bicycle. In short, whether you are a cyclist or not, it does not
matter: this book is above all the story of the power of ideas that
transform themselves into reality, and of the influence that a means of transport and a passion have had, and continue to have, on ideas, fashions,
customs and movements.