Bicycles for Mutual Aid: A Participatory Action Research Project with the Toronto Bike Brigade

The term “bicycles for development” (BFD) has emerged to consider bicycling for achieving similar goals to sport for development (SFD) – or the use of sport as a vehicle for social development (Kidd, 2008). This project builds on previous BFD work by forging novel directions for research on BFD, including: 1) how bicycle-related activities contribute to COVID-19 recovery, specifically in promoting a more environmentally sustainable and equitable world for vulnerable populations; and 2) the ways that cycling can be taken up by QT and BIPOC to challenge existing systems of inequality. Guided by a participatory action research project in partnership with The Bike Brigade, the data collection methods used in this project included arts-based methods and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggested that QT and BIPOC cyclists were taking up bicycling through mutual aid frameworks to support their communities and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated inequality. Further research is needed in the fields of BFD and SFD that: 1) prioritize and center diverse perspectives on bicycling; and 2) engage with creative methodologies such as arts-based approaches.