The Bruntlett Blueprint for Bike Life — a Vancouver Story

Today’s moving day for the Bruntletts, a foursome who have come to represent, over the past decade, Vancouver’s culture of cycling in the mainstream.

Think normal clothes, kids in cargo bikes, and families who embrace the car-free lifestyle, riding around the seawall, or along a quiet neighbourhood street— the Bruntletts have helped shape this image.

What began as writing to (and for) local media in support of transportation cycling evolved into their own media creations, through their consultancy Modacity. And by promoting and celebrating everyday, normalized cycling, and blogging, producing videos, and using social media and events to take the Vancouver cycling perspective outside our backyard, the Bruntletts also discovered the Netherlands.

So today, thanks in part to the success of their 2018 book Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, the new life they begin is in The Netherlands itself, where bike life is truly mainstream. They’ll bring their skills, networks and message to Delft, home of the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

The Bruntlett’s move is perhaps not that different from what brought them to Vancouver in the first place. They talk about this in today’s episode, as well as how their cycling advocacy unfolded, during what can most certainly be seen as Vancouver’s first major step into mainstream bike-naissance a decade ago. We hope to see them back here before too long.