The Ever Present Fear of Death Whilst Cycling
Recently I have been cycling more than usual. This is because I have effectively had a job for the best part of a month now. First rehearsing The Tragic and Disturbing Tale of Little Lupin and then working on a Drupal site for the lovely guys at thoughtden.co.uk
It is for the second of these two jobs that I have had occasion to fear for my life on a twice daily basis. The ride there and back involves mostly dual carriageway style roads, with trucks and taxis and every other form of really heavy, fast moving, metal automobile flashing past at close quaters.
I have noticed that I am very soft, very squidgy, very much a bag of cells mostly made of water, I am also not very large and therefore not very visible to other traffic.
In the whole route there is but a single stretch of safe cycle lane. A safe cycle lane is one that is separated from both other traffic and pedestrians by raised curbs. it lasts about 10 meters. Then it ends. Rest of the time I get to travel on intermittent strips of 'special red cycle lane tarmac' which provides little more than an illusory sense of safety.
Bristol is the UK's first cycling city, so what do they do? Waste a whole bunch of money installing these awful looking 'rent a bike by the hour' stalls at random points around the city. Yeah, well nice one. But if the roads are mostly so dangerous that you'd be better of not using them then what's the point? How is that going to encourage anyone?
The only important thing worth doing is setting up a continuous network of safe, separate cycle lanes. Anything less is a waste of everyones time. Make the breaks the exception not the rule. Have police enforce the highway code for cyclists too- no more running red lights at the very least.
Plus bikes really aren't expensive, if you want to encourage people to use them then don't waste hundreds of thousands of pounds on some rent-a-dufffer scheme (just because it gleams for a year and it's 'visible') that you will have to maintain, no doubt poorly, instead offer financial support so people can buy their own bikes or get their current bikes serviced.
Yeah Bristol City Council, so if you're looking for a cycling consultant you need to hire me right? Right.
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Cycling
great rant Ed, right on man!
Hope you get the job,
Phil
Hourbike not a Cycling City project
According to Chris Hutt, who knows a fair bit about what's what:
Apart from that little nit-pick: amen! There are absolutely loads of (mostly male, but not exclusively) cyclists who vehemently oppose the idea of segregated cycle lanes, because of the risk of losing the right to ride on the road; the fact is, though, as David Hembrow (British ex-pat in Holland) repeatedly says, you will never achieve Dutch levels of cycling without Dutch- (or Danish-) style infrastructure.
And it's not about the lack of hills, either ;)
Cheers,
Tim
Good points, maybe i should do some research
I stand corrected on the cycling city connection. The infrastructure is the key. Good blog articles there. I don't think there is any risk of losing the right to use the roads, and if there is a better alternative to them then it only encourages people, which means more voices in the cycling lobby. Thanks for the reply.
Cycling in Bristol
I started cycling in Bristol long before the advent of the "chocolate fireguard" that is the painted "cycle lane".
It was invented as an alternative to solving the real problems - getting (potentially) fit (often young) people out of their cars and back onto two wheels, and reining-in the remaining petrol-heads.
As one who made most of his mistakes 30 years ago on motorcycles from 50 to 750cc, and can also drive a car when absolutely neccessary, I have never made the mistake of believing that the roads belong to the car and that bicycles should crawl along in the gutter.
Nor do these people :-
http://www.lifecycleuk.org.uk/
Don't give up, get trained.
excellent organisation
I've know a few people who worked there, but i haven't done their training, I cycle that much it is definitely worth going along and checking it out.
My favourite experiences of cycling have been in the Netherlands, being part of a flock of 50 or so cyclists waiting at traffic lights and all taking off together, the feeling of safety and visibility was combined with a sense of solidarity. I feel that there is a level of participation in cycling which creates a safer environment for cyclists. Thus encouraging more people to cycle.
Of course bikes don't drive the economy in the same way as cars so there is less incentive all round for government to encourage there use in a system that only values money and not the environment or quality of life.