I dream of living in a city where citizens on bicycles are granted equal rights as those driving in cars. Until the day comes when a separate cycle-specific infrastructure is developed for metropolitan areas, bikes and cars must share existing roads and highways. But as is too often the case, cyclists are relegated to the role of second-class commuter on our car-dominated streets.

In my work "Civil Rides: Brooklyn" I imagine a massive cyclist uprising with throngs of bikers staging a peaceful takeover of a once-car-dominated thoroughfare. The incorporated names of major Brooklyn motorways offer a suggestion of which local arteries might at some point transition over to bike-only traffic.

Perhaps, in the future, this work will not suggest an invasion of bikes upon space intended for motorized vehicles, but will rather simply appear as a snapshot of typical Brooklynites going about their everyday business in the most efficient, healthy and environmentally friendly means possible: by bicycle.

- Michael A. Rippens