RUAB
This project is very dear to my heart. I am a biker and I couldn't leave this subject alone. I didn't notice it before my move, but it might be the case of me working in different parts of the city. When i moved back to Warsaw, during my everyday rides especially from work I noticed situation that constantly repeated. From my perspective an "enormous" issue obviously. Pedestrians and car drivers do not acknowledge the fact that they use bike paths regularly. Pedestrians come in to the bike line and walk on it as it is a pavement, cars on the other hand quite often parked in the middle of it. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if it happened once or twice a day, but in Warsaw City Center sometimes you have to push past people or ask them to move 15 times within a 5 minutes ride! It can drive everyone mad it became my nightmare.
I decided to create this project to deal with this little frustration of mine 😃. I printed out little cards with question ‘Are you a bike?’ and a QR code. This way i didn’t have to say anything I could just let it go, with every card i handed out.
It became my habit I felt that i accomplished something every time i checked my analytics on my website 😉 The website had some simple information what happened, why they got a card and how they can get cured. As they all obviously are a bit displaced, I called this “the RUAB (Are You A Bike) Syndrome”. The just need a simple medicine and here comes the website. The website was a guide how to get cured 😬. The messaging was curated in a way to not offend anyone but to make them lough (i didn’t want anyone to hunt me down after it). On the website I offered a poster or cards to order. I shared it with friends and we posted some posters around the city. The hype lasted for some time.
I had my fun with this project, but at the end i gave up and jumped on to the streets, even if i had bike lanes available 🏴☠️🤟. So the whole thing did not get a standing ovations, it didn’t make a big mental shift in polish society and there was no Happy Ever After…but it was fun as it lasted.
