“Cities also need to think about how they form connections and relationships between private-sector businesses. That’s another way of supporting their local economy and businesses that’s not dependent on the government.”

When publications did acknowledge Ocasio-Cortez's name, they often did so in a way that implied they had not previously given her much thought; CNN, among others, went with the headline: “Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?” And The New York Times, in its coverage, added a bizarre (and false) line implying that her campaign had little reach beyond women’s spheres: “Before Tuesday’s victory catapulted her to the front of the political conversation, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez seemed to find readier audiences with outlets such as Elite Daily, Mic or Refinery29– websites most often associated with millennial and female audiences–than with traditional publications.”

In order for cycling to become a truly competitive mode of urban transit, we also need to address its issue of gender inequity. Fewer than one in four trips on a bike are currently made by women. In recent years, data from ever-more-popular bike share programs has backed this up: Motivate, the company that oversees bike-share programs in New York, Boston, Chicago, and the Bay Area has found that just 34% of annual bike-share members are women, and together, they take only 24% of trips made on the systems.