When Michelle Moro rides her glittery blue bike round Los Angeles, she typically will get quizzical stares in actual life. In the meantime, on TikTok, commenters swoon over her rides, dreaming collectively of a extra bike-friendly metropolis.
Moro bikes in all places — to choose up lunch, do laundry, go to artwork galleries — and takes her 13,000 TikTok followers alongside for the experience. In a metropolis constructed for automobiles, her most popular technique of transportation seems like a radical act in some ways. For the final three years, she’s proven the great and the unhealthy of biking in L.A. beneath the TikTok username Miche1ada. In a single video, you see her roll by her favourite avenue stands in her South L.A. neighborhood, the place well-maintained bike lanes are unusual, and in one other, she’s getting minimize off by a automobile.
“I do know lots of people suppose L.A. isn’t bike-friendly, and I perceive that we want higher infrastructure, however I need to present those who it’s attainable,” says 29-year-old Moro, who’s a South L.A. native. She works remotely as an occasion supervisor and bikes at the very least two to a few instances per week. She shares a automobile along with her husband, which she additionally makes use of when she’s touring far distances or at night time.
Michelle Moro and the view from her bike.
Moro’s movies, which often are filmed on a whim, present what she’d be doing on her foldable bike even when nobody was watching. In a current video, which has greater than 70,000 views, Moro takes a roughly four-mile bike experience to go to an area brunch spot and occasional store. A tiny white, hands-free digicam steadily hangs from her neck as she cruises down Avalon Boulevard. Her bike is adorned with a child pink decal that claims “Callejera,” a Spanish phrase — and nickname from her mom — for somebody who’s at all times out and about.
Throughout her journey, Moro, who’s sporting a black helmet and platform Converse sneakers, factors out a buying cart and sofa blocking a motorcycle lane, forcing her to weave round them. In a soothing, virtually ASMR voice, she fondly talks a couple of native clothes vendor and the nursery that she and her mom frequented when she was a toddler.
For Moro, who had been making brief animated movies about South L.A.’s wealthy historical past effectively earlier than she began creating bike content material, her TikTok movies have given her a method to do three issues without delay: proudly showcase her neighborhood, spotlight lesser-known native companies and lift consciousness in regards to the lack of motorbike infrastructure the place she lives.
“Though I do know there are issues taking place to construct bike infrastructure [here], I nonetheless really feel like South Central is commonly forgotten,” says Moro, who has the phrases “South Central” inked on her forearm.
Particulars of Michelle Moro and her bike.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Instances)
Disinvestment in mobility and security infrastructure in South L.A. communities has been happening for many years. Nevertheless it’s grow to be a hot-button matter in current months because the Los Angeles Metropolis Council voted to ship a measure to the 2024 poll that — if authorized by voters — would pace up the set up of motorbike routes, bus lanes and different transportation initiatives geared toward making town safer for bicyclists, bus riders and pedestrians. Metropolis Council President Nury Martinez has stated that the council ought to prioritize investing in neighborhoods like South L.A. which have gone with out.
Because the youngest of 4 youngsters, Moro grew up driving bikes that had been handed down from her older siblings. Bicycling turned greater than only a pastime when she began attending UC Santa Barbara. Since she didn’t have a automobile or a driver’s license, she used her brother’s previous mountain bike as her major type of transportation.
After graduating with a level in movie and media research in 2014, Moro stopped biking for a number of years, however she resumed after a momentous journey to Tokyo in 2019, the place she noticed locals frequently driving foldable bikes, which she’d by no means seen.
“The infrastructure in Tokyo was so bike-friendly in comparison with L.A. or any American metropolis that I’ve visited,” she remembers. “So coming again [to L.A.], I actually missed that freedom that we had whereas driving bicycles.”
As soon as she returned residence, she bought a foldable bike, then posted a TikTok video displaying how straightforward it was to interrupt down the 34-pound bike and place it in a shoulder bag. She later bought that bike and bought one other foldable bike — the glittery blue one — which weighs 23 kilos.
The video gained greater than 220,000 views — her most-viewed to this point — and Moro was flooded with questions in regards to the bike, together with one from a person who requested her to publish a video of her driving it. She’s since posted dozens of movies of her biking, primarily in South L.A. but additionally in different components of L.A. County and in Santa Barbara.
Moro says she enjoys driving her bike in L.A. as a result of it’s allowed her to expertise her neighborhood, in addition to different communities, differently.
“If you’re in your automobile, like going to seize espresso or one thing, you’re sort of simply attending to the place after which leaving. Probably not interacting with anyone,” she says. “You’re most likely listening to music along with your home windows rolled up. You don’t have any sounds coming from exterior, so that you’re completely oblivious to what’s happening.
“However after I’m on a motorcycle,” she provides, “I’m often in a position to say, ‘Hey, good morning’ to my neighbors. I’m in a position to begin conversations randomly with people, and also you sort of get to see extra of what’s taking place round you.”
Moro dons her bike helmet for one more experience.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Instances)
On most days, Moro feels secure driving her bike in L.A., however she’s conscious of the hazards that bicyclists face each day. As of Labor Day, there have been 13 bicycle-involved collisions that resulted in fatalities and 79 extreme accidents in L.A., in response to LAPD information.
Moro has opened up on TikTok about moments when she felt unsafe whereas driving her bike. In August, whereas she was driving residence from a jazz live performance, a stranger grabbed her waist from behind. The person, who additionally was driving a motorcycle, made a snarky remark, then zoomed away earlier than Moro might react. She initially posted a video on TikTok that confirmed the person’s face — which she captured on her digicam — however she determined to take it down for security causes. Just a few of her followers informed her that they’d comparable encounters in the identical space, close to South Los Angeles Wetlands Park.
“It made me actually upset, but it surely hasn’t modified my view on driving my bike,” says Moro, who often rides throughout the day and carries pepper spray and a loud sound alarm. She’s since modified her route however says, “I don’t need to let that have take away my pleasure of driving my bicycle.”
With dangers in thoughts, Moro encourages folks to think about these security suggestions whereas biking:
- For brand spanking new bicyclists, select a route that has designated bike lanes to keep away from having to experience on the street. There are a number of cell apps, like Strava, that map out the place bike lanes are positioned.
- Put on your helmet.
- For those who don’t have a rearview mirror, just remember to’re incessantly checking for automobiles behind you.
- Don’t be afraid to experience on the sidewalk, which is authorized within the metropolis of Los Angeles so long as you’re not endangering others.
- Take into accout heavy site visitors hours.
- Carry a small bike pump in case you get a flat tire.
Having discovered her biking neighborhood via TikTok, Moro says she hopes to host a gaggle experience within the close to future — a request she’s acquired from a number of of her followers. She’s additionally engaged on a photograph challenge to showcase the range of bicyclists in South L.A., a few of whom experience out of necessity, whereas others experience for recreation.
Michelle Moro, a bicycle owner from South L.A., in her neighborhood.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Instances)
“Normally folks consider a bicycle owner as a white man with sun shades and Spandex. However in my actuality — or at the very least in a variety of Angelenos’ realities — it’s neighborhood members. It’s folks attending to work,” Moro says. “More often than not they aren’t sporting helmets. They don’t have all this gear, and in the event that they do, it’s makeshift.”
By way of the challenge and her TikTok content material, Moro says, “I simply need to proceed telling tales of people that experience their bikes who’ve been invisible for a very long time.”
