My NYC Biking Story: Lucette Gilbert
Friday is National Bike to Work Day, and if you're looking for a little motivation to get on your bicycle, meet Lucette Gilbert. Lucette says she is in her "very late 70s" and biking since she was 7 years old. So, by my calculations, she has been riding a bike for some 70 years! She became a bike commuter in New York City during the 1980 transit strike and currently rides everywhere, including her daily trip to work from the Upper East Side to Union Square. Lucette's take on the state of bicycling in NYC: "People are not used to bicycles, but it's so heartwarming to see how many people are biking now."
Streetfilms would like to thank Recycle-A-Bicycle for sponsoring this chapter in our My NYC Biking Story.
[music]
Lucette Gilbert: [00.15] I’m in my very high 70’s. People say, oh are you still biking? Which I find offensive. And I say, yes, when I can’t bike anymore my body will tell me, but my body keeps telling me go for it, it’s good for you, it’s good for you. So I’m biking.
[music]
Lucette Gilbert: [00:33] I’m French and where I come from, when I was a child, we didn’t have phones when I was very young and my friend didn’t have a phone, so if you wanted to speak to your friend, you had to bike over to their house. And I was, I think, I was seven years old when I started, I mean a real two-wheeler.
[music]
Lucette Gilbert:
[00:51] I think biking is the most wonderful thing. It’s good
for you, it’s good for the environment and it’s a wonderful, wonderful
feeling. You’re free, you don’t have to wait for anything,
you don’t have to wait for a bus, you go where you want. I don’t
think it should be confrontational which it has been unfortunately and
they should understand that biking is not a crime, so I hope, I hope
that we get more bike lanes and I hope that everybody respects that
because that’s another story. People are not used to bicycles
but it’s so heart-warming to see how many people are biking now.
[music]
Transcription Sponsored by: Transcript Divas Transcription Services
