horizon wrote:While I don't discount people's safety concerns about traffic I don't think that surveys have ever really got to the real reason for people's reluctance to cycle. It is so obvious that the car is a more comfortable, faster, less strenuous and indeed more adaptable (read children, luggage, dogs etc) form of transport that people's concerns about safety are always going to be buried beneath this pile of perceived advantages.
I've already mentioned that "faster" isn't regarded as true. I suspect some of the others aren't either but I don't have data. There's plenty of other things that people used to claim to be obvious which have turned out not to be true: the sun being yellow, the earth being flat, creationism, ...
In gods we trust - all others must bring data.
horizon wrote:My point about EAPCs is that they combine the advantages of cycling with the ease of motoring. That has little to do with safety.
Yeah, that's something I'd agree with. Things will get really interesting when we have Ecotap e-bike rechargers in cycle parks, instead of only those space-wasting e-car chargers in car parks.
horizon wrote:Footnote: I think it is also true to say that if those who choose to go by car due to safety fears (despite their wish to cycle) were actually honest, they would vote for, campaign for and demand safer roads. They don't. Indeed they sit on juries and councils and make the situation worse. And then fly to their holiday destination, drive too fast and generally ignore the safety of cyclists. I simply don't believe that traffic is what puts people off cycling. Convenience is everything.
People need help organising structures to campaign/demand - otherwise they drift along in the status quo, unable to see a cycleway to the future. The old cycling clubs like CTC/CUK aren't really organising people any more, which is why I think we're seeing another new wave of campaigners and campaigns more inclined to direct-action and community-organising, learning from how the 80s/90s ex-FoE/Greenpeacey ones didn't all work. In this view, I'm probably seen an old fart but if the newcomers get things done, I don't care