last Euros/World cup kickball final I went out on a ride which was fab as the roads were completely deserted, Id add minor royal weddings to that list as well.Stevek76 wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 1:35pmNot sure how either of those work?
Particularly the second, I've found Euros/World cup kickball England games to be excellent times to have a cycle ride!
At any rate, the reality is, beyond some angry internet keyboard warriors, there largely aren't any votes in it which is why taking up anti cycling positions very rarely bear any fruit for the candidates.
as for the votes thing, I dont know that it can be judged that easily whether it works or not, people vote for certain politicians for lots of different reasons, sometimes even contradictory reasons. We do know local issues predominantly impact those choices even in national elections, which is why theyre never as easy to predict as the media like to claim, and transport issues if you want to stick it under an category which can range from buses to car parking charges to bypasses to cycling, absolutely there are votes there if you can unpick what the most popular thread the majority of people identify with.
fwiw I dont think any of the major parties get cycling, theyre all as bad at it as each other, and at the local level it gets ever more complicated, Ive seen plenty of those on the left deride cycling and promote the exact kind of "culture war" on cycling as their opponents on the right are claimed to be doing, and yet theyre the ones actually trying to spend the money to promote cycling.
the people who worked for Boris for a bit kind of did get it, and managed to change the conversation in political terms at least for a while but it didnt become embedded in goverment circles enough to convert it for good, and weve largely reverted to type again, which actually isnt a war at all thats just media confected stuff, its simply not a priority in government to spend much time,money or focus on cycling, if certain media outlets promote that stance as being pro-motorist instead so be it, but its largely just essentially being neither and booting certain things on to the backlog if you like for others to deal with later. Ultimately it always comes back to the economy in the end in politics.