Amsterdam's Radical Anarchist White Bikes & Community Hobbyists (Cafe Society Dinner Discussion #12)
Social Anarchists are the Homebrew Computer Club of Community Innovation
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team.
Hey everyone!
Before today’s post about anarchist socialist community hobbyists, the second sneak peak of the space we’re designing below :)
Now, onto this week’s article . . .
Last week I interviewed the Founder and Chairman of Lime, Brad Bao, for the podcast I run with my first company Mozio, How I Got Here (Library Spotify Apple).
We got into the history of bike sharing, and I mentioned how in college 12 years ago when I studied abroad in Paris they were launching what I thought was the first bikeshare program, Velib bikes, and he corrected me and mentioned a stunning fact - the first bikeshare program was actually back in 1965, in Amsterdam.
Take an old bicycle. Paint it white. Leave it anywhere in the city. Tell people to use it. This was the first urban bike-sharing concept in history. Launched in Amsterdam in the 1960s, it was called the Witte Fietsenplan (the “white bicycle plan”). And it was not a great success.
In fact, the plan was just another wild initiative by which Provo, an infamous group of Dutch anarchist activists, wanted to provoke the establishment and change society.
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Have a great rest of the week!
David (@dlitwak) & The Maxwell Team
